PORTEFEUILLE

EDUCREATORS -SHAPERS OF THE FUTURE
There is an unprecedented demand in reimagining the education landscape to best prepare our youth for an uncertain future. This shift is accelerated by the digital transformation of our society and the current pandemic. These societal changes are fundamental in nature and bring unprecedented challenges and opportunities. According to Brookings Institution (Learning to Leapfrog-Innovative Pedagogies to Transform Education, September 2019), pedagogical innovation is at the heart of leapfrogging our education system. Primary and secondary school teachers have a significant role to play in skilling tomorrow’s citizens so that they can actively shape the future and fulfil their potential.
Brookings Institution points out that in order to accelerate positive, deep change in education, it is critical for teachers to learn from the experiences of existing transformative approaches in the classroom, namely what other teachers have achieved and how they did it, also to clarify how powerful forms of 21st century learning can be spread and sustained, especially under challenging circumstances.

For the past years, Educreators Foundation has been actively engaging with innovative kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers across Switzerland and identified emerging good practice of pedagogical innovations. 20 of these projects have been supported financially through grants and promoted via media and strategic partnerships to a large public of educators. To further ensure adoption of these innovations at scale and new projects ideation, Educreators Foundation is launching a community engagement program focusing on knowledge transfer workshops with Swiss primary and secondary school teachers throughout 2021 and 2022.
In this context, Educreators Shapers of the Future 2021 aims to:
- bring together communities of innovative kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers across all regions of Switzerland
- facilitate the knowledge transfer and adoption of emerging good practices in (digital) transformation in the classroom
- encourage ideation of new pedagogical projects

The pandemic-related measures throughout 2021 made the execution of physical events highly challenging. Although we were forced to reschedule several times our planned regional events in 2021, we took a proactive positive approach and found creative ways to continue working towards our planned goals.

Throughout 2021, we focused on:
- Creating the project website, including a new video teaser aiming to attract new strategic partners and younger teachers to our community, as well as outreach support.
- Organizing and running 5 online workshops (100+ participants) and 1 community hybrid event in Zürich (30 physical participants, 89 online).
- Creating the methodology and high quality, scalable content for knowledge transfer workshops and future community outreach
- Attracting 4 new strategic partners to increase our outreach: PHZH Alumni, HEP Future Classroom Lab, Impact Hub Ticino and Roteco.

Outlook 2022
The in-person knowledge transfer workshops in Romandie with HEP Future Classroom Lab and Ticino with SUPSI DFA have been scheduled for March 30 and April 7.
The project website has been translated and will be updated also in French and Italian.