2026 Better Future Forum Sessions

What if the tension between academic rigor and social-emotional learning is a false choice? This session summary from the Better Future Forum 2026 explores how educators and leaders around the world are successfully integrating both, and what we can learn from them. Facilitated by Dr. Michelle Johansson and featuring four visionary practitioners from India, the US, Nigeria, and Malaysia, this resource surfaces four key insights for challenging the dichotomy and making the case for holistic education in your own context. What's inside: Real-world case studies, emerging research on the impact of wellbeing on academic learning, and practical insights for shifting perspectives in your system.

If we want students to develop holistically, what does that mean for how we develop teachers? This session summary draws on an ongoing global collaborative inquiry involving 60+ teacher development organizations, researchers, and practitioners. Featuring perspectives from Teach For India, TNTP, and the Global Institute, it surfaces five principles for rethinking teacher development; from anchoring in purpose to bringing joy back into the profession. What's inside: The core "mirror and model" insight, five actionable principles for teacher development, and open questions for continued inquiry.

270 million children are still out of school. 7 in 10 children in low- and middle-income countries leave primary school unable to read a simple sentence. So what is missing from our current efforts to transform the systems around children? This session summary from the Better Future Forum 2026 brings together perspectives from across the globe — from Indonesia to Peru to Kenya — to surface seven key insights about what it really takes to shift systems, including the often-overlooked power of parents and the essential role of politics. What's inside: Seven key insights, notable quotes from global leaders, and a powerful reminder that the systems we are building today around our children are the systems those children will replicate as they grow.

AI is reshaping education faster than any one of us can make sense of alone. This session summary from the Better Future Forum 2026 explores the possibilities and risks of AI at three levels: for students, for teachers, and for systems. Facilitated by Fernando Reimers of Harvard Graduate School of Education, the discussion surfaces both the transformative potential of AI and the very real risks — from cognitive offloading to a two-tiered education system where human interaction becomes the premium product. What's inside: Student-facing, teacher-supporting, and system-level perspectives on AI in education, including examples from Nigeria, Uganda, Armenia, and India.

Building shared purpose across education systems is perhaps the most powerful driver of sustainable change — but how do we actually do it? This session summary brings together insights from 100 leaders at the Better Future Forum 2026, exploring what it takes to align diverse stakeholders around a common vision for education. From Kazakhstan to Argentina to India, the case studies and key insights offer practical lessons for anyone working to bring people together across difference. What's inside: Six key insights, real-world examples of shared purpose in action, and notable quotes from leaders across the global education landscape.

How do we know whether students are growing holistically — and how can measurement better support that growth? This session summary from the Better Future Forum 2026 draws on the work of a Global Working Group on Holistic Student Outcomes Measurement to explore new approaches that go beyond grades and surveys. Featuring case studies from Kenya, Oxford MeasureED, Dream a Dream, and Teach For Poland, it offers both practical tools and a provocation: what would it look like to truly measure what matters? What's inside: Four key insights for holistic measurement, three case studies, and open questions for how these innovations could scale across systems.

This practical working document, created in response to participant interest following the 2026 Better Future Forum, offers organizations and individuals concrete starting points for deepening authentic youth-adult partnership across five areas: learning from young people, amplifying their voices, co-creating with them, sharing power, and building structures that make partnership sustainable over time.