Reaching SDG 4: Our shared responsibility and renewed commitment to action

In 2015, all United Nations Member States committed to achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. SDG 4 seeks to ensure access to equitable and quality education through all stages of life, as well as to increase the number of young people and adults who have the relevant skills for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (UN, 2015).

SDG 4 emphasizes that inclusion and equity lay the foundations for quality education. It also stresses the need to address all forms of exclusion, marginalization, disparities, and inequalities in access, participation, and learning processes and outcomes.

However, progress toward meeting the SDG 4 education targets (including universal literacy and numeracy) by 2030 is slipping further out of reach. Based on the latest data and estimates, a sobering picture emerges: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is in grave jeopardy due to multiple cascading and intersecting crises, including Covid-19, climate change, and conflict (UN, 2022a).

These challenges have deepened a massive crisis in education, with severe disruptions in education systems worldwide. The magnitude of the crisis was highlighted in a joint World Bank, UNESCO, & UNICEF report (2021): Learning losses are substantial, with the most marginalized children and youth often disproportionately affected. Entrenched inequities in education have only worsened during the pandemic. Prolonged school closures have heightened the risk that children will not return to school.

As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and deliver global sustainability, we need an urgent rescue effort for the SDGs (UN, 2022a). In this context, reaching SDG 4 has become an even greater global priority. It has thrown new light on the immediate need to develop education systems that are designed to include all of our children and young people. Moreover, it has highlighted the urgent need to completely “transform” education systems and reimagine them for the world of today and tomorrow (UN, 2022b).

This special issue of Prospects brings together leading scholars to discuss ways in which we can urgently and decisively advance the SDG 4 and deliver on our commitments to support the world’s most vulnerable people, communities, and nations.

Monica Mincu argues that if education change is to be systemic and transformative, it cannot occur uniquely at the individual teachers’ level. School organization is fundamental to circulating and consolidating new innovative actions, cognitive schemes, and behaviors in coherent collective practices, and school leaders should play a key role in quality and equitable schooling. Mincu formulates several assumptions that clarify the importance of leadership in any organized change. The way teachers act and represent their reality is strongly influenced by the architecture of their organization, while their ability to act with agency is directly linked to the existence of flat or prominent hierarchies, both potentially problematic for deep and systemic change.

Sugata Mitra states that education that does not include an understanding of the Internet and how to live with it is deficient. He describes how the Internet can be learned in schools, what the curriculum for such learning should be at various stages of schooling, what pedagogical methods should be used to achieve learning objectives, and what methods should be used to assess learning outcomes. He bases his proposal on decades of experiments and observations carried out by himself and others.

Ali Ibrahim asks what hurts or helps teacher collaboration. Despite the positive impact of collaborative school cultures on teachers’ professional growth and student achievement, it is difficult to create such a culture. His article explores the types of school cultures in one school district in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to identify factors that could foster or inhibit true teacher collaboration. Results show that the most common types of school cultures were contrived collegiality and comfortable collaboration, and that true collaboration was the least common. There is also evidence that when teachers’ work is governed by mandated learning outcomes, students’ assessment requirements, and external accountability demands, teachers lack the time, autonomy, or willingness to create a truly collaborative work culture. His article concludes that teacher autonomy and internal accountability are key elements for creating truly collaborative cultures in UAE schools.

Oscar Espinoza, Luis Eduardo González, and Noel McGinn look at whether teachers in the national system of Second Opportunity Centers of Chile have characteristics similar to those of effective teachers in similar schools in other countries. A nationally representative sample of teachers in 40 centers completed a self-administered questionnaire describing their background, training, teaching, and assessment strategies. Answers were compared with reports of effective schools for dropouts in other countries. Second Opportunity teachers in Chile appear to have characteristics and use practices much like those reported for teachers in effective schools elsewhere. More definitive statements await direct observation of teaching practices and information about students. The success of alternative schooling for dropouts varies directly with its differentiation to match the student population it serves. To improve effectiveness, future research must generate close-up, fine-grained data describing individual characteristics, teaching practices, and specific student reactions and outcomes.

Michael H. Romanowski and Xiangyun Du argue that transferring educational reform models for the systematic improvement of education is nowhere else more evident than in the Gulf Cooperation Council states, which have implemented primarily Western decentralized reform models to overhaul their educational systems. Their article reports nonempirical research, written as a conceptual analysis that examines the current situation of the educational reform in Qatar. The theory of education transferring serves as a conceptual framework to scrutinize Qatar’s recent educational change to Project-Based Learning. This illustrates the shift from the initial decentralized reform to its current centralized state. Contextual factors that influence decentralization are discussed.

Carina Omoeva and Rachel Hatch investigate the relationship of early marriage to school participation and whether other factors, including individual or family characteristics and childbirth, moderate the relationship. They use national household survey data for Eastern Africa, pooled at the regional level, to show that marriage and schooling appear largely incompatible across the Eastern Africa region at present. The results of the main analysis indicate that married girls are roughly 31 percentage points less likely to be attending school than their unmarried peers. The effect of marriage on school participation trumps other observed factors, including childbirth. Based on an extended analysis using the timing of marriage and two consecutive years of education data in Malawi and Kenya, their article concludes that marriage is a predictor of subsequent school exit.

Simon McGrath argues that skills systems often remain marginalized within educational debates and plans, with vocational learning often dismissed as low quality and low status. The UNESCO International Commission on the Futures of Education imagines a positive future in which skills development can be harnessed for the benefits of people and planet, in line with the loftiest vision of the Sustainable Development Goals. Reflecting on the work done for the commission on future skills, McGrath considers the nature of the challenges of the present in building better skills futures for Africa. He argues that we must be clear-sighted regarding the failings of past theory and practice if, together, we are to construct better futures for learning, working, and living. Only then can we develop institutions, programs, and curricula that can meet the challenges and realize the opportunities of the future.

Margo O’Sullivan argues that teacher absenteeism is a key reason behind the fact that significant investments in supporting teachers to improve learning have not enabled improved learning outcomes. She highlights poor teacher motivation as an explanation for teacher absenteeism, with poor remuneration emerging as teachers’ main reason for not attending school and/or class. O’Sullivan explores the use of financial incentives, which have been sidelined within the education aid architecture, to improve teacher motivation, address teacher absenteeism, and improve learning. Her article distills the successes and lessons learned from the research literature to devise a framework to guide financial-incentive-focused strategies. The framework is currently informing a research-based intervention in schools in Uganda, using cost-effective mobile-phone-based and teacher-motivation-focused strategies and tools to improve learning.

Miriam Ham looks at the ongoing reform of the Nepali education system, which is guided by the commitment of Nepal’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology to improve educational outcomes by aligning with international educational policy. The reform goals require Nepali teachers to change their classroom practices to become child-friendly, flexible, and responsive to students’ needs. Evaluation reports describe Nepali teachers’ response as limited but do not explain the reasons why, do not contain the voices of Nepali teachers, and do not indicate whether Nepali teachers’ beliefs align with the reform goals. Ham reports the findings of a mixed-methods research project conducted with Nepali teachers. Her article shows the close alignment between Nepali teachers’ beliefs and the reform goals and then examines the factors that Nepali teachers report have limited their response to change. These factors center around endemic issues of instability and inequity within the Nepali context. Her article also outlines teachers’ recommendations for stability and equitable strategies.

Christina-Aimilia Vogiatzi, Garyfalia Charitaki, Elias Kourkoutas, and Chris Forlin argue that while the literature contains cases of validation of the Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices (TEIP) scale in many countries, it finds none in Greece. Consequently, there is a clear need to ensure that teacher self-efficacy in Greece is explored with a reliable and valid measure. Their article provides a detailed review and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the TEIP and its use in supporting teachers to promote and adapt inclusive practices in Greek classrooms. They also evaluate the scale’s use in identifying teachers’ perceived efficacy at implementing inclusive practices. Their research finds that the Greek TEIP demonstrates sufficient evidence of validity and reliability for assessing teachers’ attitudes toward their efficacy for implementing inclusive practices. Results indicate poor perceived efficacy to implement inclusive practices, in terms of using inclusive instruction, collaborating effectively, and managing behavioral problems.

Michael H. Romanowski argues that South Africa shows a deficit in social capital in under-resourced and underperforming schools, which limits students’ educational opportunities and achievement. Partners for Possibility (PfP) responds to the lack of social capital in South African schools by partnering school principals and business leaders to develop support structures such as collaboration, networking, and professional learning communities. Findings from a site visit, conversational interviews, and examining participants’ portfolios indicate that PfP provides opportunities for developing three types of social capital: structural, cognitive, and relational. These produce options that would otherwise be unavailable to these students. The discussion raises issues about social capital as a resource for development and offers suggestions for further research.

Hanaa Ouda Khadri argues that there is an urgent need to identify new roles for STEM education that will prepare students for this post-normal world and the sustainability mindset it requires. STEM education supports sustainable development by building the capacities of future generations. The integration of Future Studies (FS) into STEM education practices is therefore critical to support efforts at sustainability and to ensure that students are competent 21^st-century problem-solvers. Building STEM students’ competencies in this area depends on their teachers having the appropriate knowledge and skills to integrate FS within their subjects. Based on a sample of 52 Egyptian university academics, the article reveals the basic knowledge and skills that should be included in a Future-Proof STEM teachers’ capacity-building program.

Matthew A. Witenstein and Joanna Abdallah argue that affiliated colleges in India, with their positioning in the bureaucratic landscape, historically have had a limited role in curriculum and exam policies and development, yet they are embedded in local communities where they can often find meaningful knowledge to best support them. Moreover, affiliated college members, purported street-level bureaucrats who work at the intersections of policy and discretion, have a notably limited role. This policy study explores high-impact and emerging high-impact practices of affiliated college faculty members in India with regard to curriculum and exam policies. To guide the analysis, it proposes a new framework, the Four Tenets of Street-Level Bureaucracy Framework for Education Policy Discernment, based on Michael Lipsky’s street-level bureaucracy framework. Four high-impact practices and two emerging high-impact practices offer meaningful insight for policy adaptation consideration to Indian higher education policymakers, faculty members at universities and colleges, and higher education institutions. The four high-impact practices are flexibility, change, and adaptation; successful coping and adapting; connecting theory and industry/practice; and belief in one's training and capacity leading to de facto policymaking at the micro level. The two emerging practices are establishing feedback channels from the bottom up and re-envisioning broader faculty involvement in bureaucratic structures.

Miku Ogawa examines the emerging unfair inequality in Kenyan secondary schools through comparative case studies of three secondary schools in western Kenya. Qualitative data were collected through fieldwork over a four-year period, with participant observation and semi- or non-structured interviews, to understand how interactions among schools, households, and communities impact the improvement of educational quality. Ogawa demonstrates that educational inequality stems from economic background and academic performance. While establishing new schools allowed students to choose better schools in their vicinity, increasing school competition resulted in a school hierarchy, restricting uniform access due to factors of affordability and academic achievement. This suggests that unplanned establishment of new schools constrains vulnerable students from continuing their education. Expanding educational opportunities and improving quality are important facets of education; however, it is necessary to pay attention to the beneficiaries of this process, as economic inequality may translate into educational inequality.

Anwynne Kern notes that in South Africa, the process toward inclusion commenced in October 1996 and was realized in 2001 with the Education White Paper 6. However, the implementation of inclusion in South Africa has been marred by challenges. These challenges have largely been examined through an ecosystemic theoretical lens offering insight into the contextual challenges facing inclusion, but have not adequately explored the role that the person involved in the implementation and their specific dispositions play in the enactment of inclusion. This article argues that, to better understand the challenges individuals face with implementing inclusion, a broader lens integrating bioecological theory and the capability approach is needed. This integration highlights the need to look at a complexity of issues to understand what is valued, as competing values, and the choices between them, will influence the implementation of inclusion.

Gordana Nikolić, Marija Cvijetić, Vesna Minić, and Borka Vukajlović examine teachers’ opinions on the quality of textbooks and didactic materials used in teaching students with developmental disabilities and learning difficulties (hereinafter referred to as special educational needs). The results of their empirical research show that teachers in special schools rely relatively little (29.1%) on general textbooks intended for use in regular schools and instead often prepare their own materials for teaching students with special educational needs (69.6%). A significantly higher percentage of special educators, compared to regular teachers, personally prepare materials for students. These results have verified the need for adapted textbooks and have further found that special educators significantly prefer the paper form of adapted textbooks, while regular teachers give preference to electronic textbooks.

Alexander N. Kosarikov and Natalia G. Davydova analyze the experience gained during the development and implementation of a high-school extracurricular program in Russia that combined project-based learning with a national contest of research projects which students completed as one of their electives. By employing the principles of social-emotional learning, the combination of the extracurricular program and the contest played a key role in the development of the creative and divergent capabilities of high-school students.

Mona M. Al-Kuwari, Xiangyun Du, and Muammer Koç present an in-depth analysis of the Qatar education system (K–12 level), focusing on the current assessment approaches and remaining challenges that hinder the development and implementation of proper performance-assessment methods aligned with SDGs. Based on a proposed theoretical framework influenced by the constructive alignment theory, they examine the current performance assessment practices in Qatar and recommend potential improvement avenues with respect to SDGs and education goals (EGs). Using this framework as an analytical tool, their results reveal a lack of alignment between the assessment practices, educational goals, and the SDGs. This work shows that tailored, contextually proper, and progressive assessment strategies need to be developed to accurately evaluate and guide the 21st-century skills of the students toward the achievement of SDGs. Their article further presents and discusses locally relevant and consistent recommendations for performance assessment methodologies that must be redesigned to be compatible with, align with, and support the SDGs and EGs.

Rhonda Di Biase, Stefano Malatesta, and Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg explore the critical role of education in promoting sustainable development in the Maldives context. Their article presents the outcomes of a small-scale project, Playing with Solar, implemented in a small island school in collaboration with the island community. Because of the environmental and educational principles embedded in this project, it is presented as one that prioritizes sustainable development, actively engages with the community, and aligns with the key competencies underpinning the Maldives National Curriculum Framework. The Playing with Solar project is an example of transformative pedagogy aligned with sustainable development. By promoting problem-based learning, the project shows how key competencies and pedagogical principles can be operationalized in line with National Curriculum Framework syllabi that promote interdisciplinary learning, in contrast to textbook-based, transmission models of teaching.

Karen Parish presents findings from a study that investigated how the global logic of human rights, as incorporated by the International Baccalaureate schools into their policies and practices, is experienced and adhered to by students who are following the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in different contexts. In her study, the cases for comparison were a private school in Norway and a state-funded school in Poland. Although selected for their differences, they offered functional equivalence in the standardized diploma program. The article used a multiple-methods approach, including both quantitative and qualitative data. Findings reveal significant differences between students’ levels of adherence to human rights logic. Reasons for this difference point both to logic hybridity within the school organization and a diverse school learning community.

In the Profiles of Educators section, Piotr Toczyski, Joachim Broecher, and Janet Painter use historical and autobiographical approaches combined with interviews to analyze the case of the Europa-Kontakt in pre-1989 Poland and West Germany within the framework of Europeanization. The international education encounters exemplify the tendencies to Europeanize, which emerged in both countries despite the Iron Curtain. The painful relationship between Poland and Germany is contrasted with the personal trust and cooperation between Polish and German exchange pioneers since the 1970s. Their pioneering work focused on multinational inclusion, participation, intercultural learning, gifted education, creativity, and building leadership skills. It merged German adaptation of the United States’ HighScope model with philosophy of encounters typical of scouting tradition, Janusz Korczak’s pedagogy, and Carl Rogers’s humanistic psychology, preparing ground for the 1989–2004 European Union enlargement process.