8:30 am EDT - 6:00 pm EDT
Past Event
8:30 am - 6:00 pm EDT
1775 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, D.C.
20036
When research is shared, power is distributed, and learning is collective, more relevant and lasting change is possible both in and through education.
For more than two decades, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings (CUE) has worked with partners across the globe to advance education policy and practice. This event is a part of the Global Symposium Series 2026 and builds on the collaborative work of the Knowing Doing Network (KDN). It is co-hosted and co-designed by An Giang University, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, EducAid Sierra Leone, Educación para Compartir, Mizizi Elimu Afrika, Society for Access to Quality Education (SAQE), and Vozes da Educação.
CUE’s collaborative research and action approach engages actors across community, national, regional, and global education ecosystems—researchers, practitioners, policymakers, educators, and young people themselves—to promote locally driven knowledge creation, research-to-action pathways, and systemic transformation. On April 20, join CUE for its annual symposium on education systems transformation, which will feature panels, interactive workshops, critical dialogues, tools for action, and ample time for strengthening relationships and building new connections. Over the day, education actors will:
This event will be open to attend in person and the opening plenary will be available to watch online. Online viewers can submit questions via e-mail to [email protected] or via X @BrookingsGlobal or BlueSky using #KnowingDoing.
8:30 am - 9:00 am
9:00 am - 10:30 am
Welcome
Youth perspectives on thriving in today's world
Stories of transformation: how collaborative research and action is strengthening ecosystems and shaping systems with and for young people
A living framework for collaborative research and action for education systems transformation
10:30 am - 11:00 am
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
In-person participants are invited to select preferred workshops during registration. Workshops will be preassigned as space allows.
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
This interactive workshop is focused on lessons learned from Research Policy Collaboratives in Egypt and Mexico. We will discuss lessons, challenges, and factors that make locally led collaborative research successful in different contexts amid shifting power dynamics, political climates, and funding constraints.
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Explore how teams in Sierra Leone, Brazil, and Colombia working with young people to explore critical issues in schools, including the root causes of student absenteeism, ways to improve youth well-being, and strategies to structure inclusive family engagement.
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
This workshop explores how education systems in Africa and Latin America provide opportunities for learners to develop contextually relevant skills. Using an adaptation of the Learning Metrics Task Force’s learning domains and data from Chile, Mexico, Kenya, and Ghana, it examines how the curriculum is framed globally, intended at policy level, and implemented in classrooms, surfacing gaps and opportunities.
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Participants will apply the Learning and Action Alliance for Girls’ Agency systems-transformation framework, which centers girls as co‑creators, co‑develops solutions with communities, strengthens supportive ecosystems, and challenges inequitable power. Through examples and reflection, they will consider how to apply the framework in their own work.
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
In this workshop, participants will learn about the pedagogy of Active Playful Learning (APL) by engaging in hands-on activities. The APL coaching model and six teaching practices will be featured. Participants will also see how this pedagogical model is reflected in policy.
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
1:30 pm - 2:10 pm
Participants may move among a series of interactive dialogue exploring key questions in collaborative research and action for systems transformation, including scaling education innovations, playful learning landscapes, reshaping power in collaborative research and action, key questions in research-policy collaboratives, and engaging men and boys in advancing gender equality. Participants may also explore practical tools designed and applied to support collaborative research and action in diverse contexts globally.
2:10 pm - 3:00 pm
Participants may move among a series of interactive dialogue exploring key questions in collaborative research and action for systems transformation, including cost evidence for early childhood development and education, the role of artificial intelligence in education systems, building and sustaining global networks, applying the Water of Systems Change framework, and rethinking education in emergencies. Participants may also explore practical tools designed and applied to support collaborative research and action in diverse contexts globally.
3:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Weaving the thread: Collective reflections on transforming education systems
3:15 pm - 5:00 pm
This session centers human connection, relationships, and well-being, inviting participants to reflect on key themes from the day, share their own voices and visions for the future of education, and collaboratively identifies what is required to transform education systems across contexts.
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
