Profound change arises not from isolated breakthroughs but from intentional, connected action

At the recent 2025 Yidan Prize Conference, rich discussions reminded us that lasting transformation requires rethinking not only what we teach but how we build the systems that support learning and who we build them with.

Professor Micki Chi, 2023 Yidan Prize for Education Research Laureate and professor at Mary Lou Fulton College, exemplifies this with her ICAP framework: a groundbreaking model of cognitive engagement. Her work has advanced our theoretical understanding of learning and influenced how educators design more effective, inclusive learning environments worldwide.

This spirit of collaborative change drives initiatives like the Learning Futures Collaboratives (LFCs) at Arizona State University, a priority initiative of the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation.

LFCs demonstrate how collective intelligence, inquiry, and design can see and sustain transformation.

They convene diverse teams — spanning roles (educators, researchers, policymakers, designers), geographies (local to global), lived experiences, and identities — to tackle complex questions and urgent challenges facing education. By weaving together research, practice, and community knowledge, they serve as a model for the future of producing and applying knowledge together: radically collaborative, locally grounded, globally connected, and relentlessly committed to advancing inclusive excellence in learning.

In an era when academic freedom is increasingly challenged, we must connect scholarship to public good

Recently in Issues in Science and Technology, National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt and ASU President Michael Crow highlighted the current US research context. It’s marked by debates over the role of science in society, underscoring the need for education systems and research contributions that are both responsive and resilient. The future of education must be informed by research, anchored in community, and designed with both realism and hope.

On the final morning of the Yidan Prize Conference, participants gathered in four Futures Galleries, grappling with bold questions about what it means to design learning systems prepared for complexity and poised for transformation. Then, LFC members Dr Sherman Dorn, Dr Raj Pandya, Dr Erin Rotheram-Fuller, and Dr Janel White-Taylor connected insights from their scholarship to ideas generated within the gallery discussions. Here, we share what emerged from our shared inquiry.

Five musts for the future of education research

1. We must design for complexity, change, and the unknown

Education systems need to embed futures thinking, systems innovation, and anticipatory leadership — giving educators and learners tools to imagine, navigate, and shape emerging realities. Strategic foresight, design-based inquiry, and ethical reasoning must be foundational capacities across all disciplines and sectors.

2. We must recenter education on justice, sustainability, and human flourishing

Education is the driving force behind solving our most pressing global challenges — from climate change to social inequality. Curriculum and leadership should prioritize global citizenship, harmony with nature, and cultivating just and inclusive societies. To do that, we must dismantle harmful legacies in education research and commit to the rightful presence of historically marginalized communities in studies on teaching and learning.

3. We must reimagine leadership and learning ecosystems

Hierarchical and siloed systems of learning and teaching were always ill-suited for learners, and certainly for today’s demands. Instead, we must foster dynamic, networked learning ecosystems that adapt to changing contexts and elevate distributed leadership. Embracing and promoting the value and expertise of every member allows for the flexibility to create more robust and productive learning communities. Communities which support learners, early, mid, and late career scholars, new and veteran practitioners, and seasoned and budding community leaders through intergenerational and transdisciplinary learning networks.

4.  We must transform knowledge systems: from extraction to co-creation

Education research must shift from top-down methods to ones rooted in reciprocity and mutual expertise. Communities should be engaged not as subjects of study but as co-researchers and co-creators. This includes reshaping funding and merit structures to reward inclusive, impact-driven scholarship. We need to support practitioner participation, reward learner and practitioner contributions, level imbalances, and remove other barriers to participation in knowledge production.

5. We must harness technology thoughtfully and humanely

Technology can amplify learning, but only if guided by human ethics and thoughtful pedagogy. The goal must always be to catalyze learning, not to commodify or automate it. We must design digital tools and environments that deepen human connection, expand opportunity, and respect learners’ agency and dignity. Scaling innovations must never mean sacrificing context, depth, or community ownership.

Education futures work is not theoretical — it is urgent, shared, and already underway

Across political systems and cultural contexts, fulfilling the promise of a better future for learning will need courageous leadership, long-term collaboration, and unwavering commitments to equity, justice, and imagination. The 2025 Yidan Prize Conference embodied this commitment — bringing together some of the most visionary and grounded leaders in education from around the world to share ideas, forge new alliances, and confront the deep challenges facing our societies. That convergence — across disciplines, sectors, and borders — was not just a meeting of minds, but a movement toward action.

Among ASU’s Learning Futures Collaboratives, the Education for Planetary Futures LFC advances this vision by embedding ecological literacy, systems thinking, and regenerative leadership across learning environments to prepare learners for a climate-resilient future. Project OASIS exemplifies collaboration across education policymakers, educators, families, and learners. Together, they design context-responsive models of educational access and support for students with disabilities, making inclusive, high-quality learning a reality — not a privilege — across diverse school systems. And the Artificial Intelligence in Education LFC is galvanizing efforts to make sure that K-12 and higher education can implement AI technologies with a human-centered and humanist approach. They emphasize ethical considerations and being responsive to the assets, needs, backgrounds, and experiences of all learners. LFCs are not isolated education research projects; they are models of how knowledge, innovation, and public purpose converge to shape a more just and sustainable world.

When leaders who generate knowledge and transform society come together to grapple with the future of education, they can do more than exchange ideas — they can shape the path forward toward a future we imagine together.

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Dr Kathleen King Thorius, Dr Rajul Pandya, Dr Erin Rotheram-Fuller, Dr Janel White-Taylor, Dr Sherman Dorn
Learning Futures Collaboratives, Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation, Arizona State University