A personal note from Margaret Sinclair, co-founder/convener
Since the launch of NISSEM at CIES on 25 March 2018, we have engaged in networking, research, publications, and events, to promote what is currently called transformative education, addressing societal and planetary challenges as well as social and emotional learning (SEL) relating to personal skills for life and work.
The NISSEM group of academic and practitioner experts in textbooks and related areas have influenced policy individually as well as contributing to our group endeavours. Last year, after years of research in the MECCE project, a founding member of NISSEM was instrumental in including the ‘greening’ of the school curriculum in the UNSDG target 4.7.1 indicator for education for sustainable development (ESD) and global citizenship education (GCED). Our textbook development specialists have recently contributed to school materials development in the Gambia, Tonga, Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Lebanon, and to appraisals of GCED policies in several countries. Contributions have been made to the work of education faculties in China.
As NISSEM, we have undertaken research in collaboration with UNESCO on curriculum content and hybrid education. We have gathered global insights in collaboration with distinguished partners. With the Viet Nam National Institute of Education Sciences (VNIES), we have compiled authoritative accounts of transversal education competencies in Asia, in a volume to be published by Springer in April. With the Academic Network on Global Education and Learning (ANGEL) and the Global Education Network Europe (GENE), we have critically examined international norms as engines (or not) of transformative learning in the fifth edition of NISSEM Global Briefs. Launched in January 2026, the new volume in this widely respected series builds on the UNESCO 2023 Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development and related regional norms, including the Declaration on Global Education in Europe to 2050 (the Dublin Declaration).
In my own work, I have published three recent papers drawing on the NISSEM experience. One was launched in April 2025 but arrived by mail in a hard copy of the Journal of Education for Sustainable Development in February this year, a rare treat. The paper, a commentary on ESD, was written on the invitation of Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) as an input to their contributions to the 2024 UN General Assembly’s Summit of the Future.[1] It focuses on the gap between those developing frameworks for transformative education and those providing funding for school systems. Such gaps can happen at national level, when curriculum agencies may be at the back of the queue for national education budgets and for proposals to outside funders. The paper recommends that closer collaboration between UN, regional, and other advocates of curriculum reform and multinational and bilateral donors supporting education sector development.
A second paper was published in January 2026.[2] Education ministries can face a plethora of ‘priority’ contemporary issues, which may overlap in the design of actual lesson materials. The paper proposes that inspirational titles and sub-titles can be developed at national level, in line with culture and context, to reflect the transformative goals and the social and emotional learning needed to support student agency. Global frameworks for ESD, GCED, mental health/wellbeing, life skills, 21st century skills and such can provide rough checklists for formative discussions at national level, but need to be integrated rather than treated separately.
Curricula and syllabi can include contextualized and prioritized transformative and holistic elements by investing modest resources across the triangle of materials, teacher preparation, and assessment/examinations. The paper notes that standalone messaging is good if and when it is taken seriously in extra-curricular activities and school clubs. However, integration in examinable core subjects is vital if messaging and social-emotional skills and values development are to reach all students, as schools may be under pressure to focus on examination topics. The paper notes that the arrival of generative AI may help writers and teachers and examiners to identify inspirational examples relating to ESD and GCED in the national/regional context and cites a model framework for climate literacy. Generative AI may also help busy teachers on WhatsApp and similar groups to write up their discussions and prepare new materials together.
The third paper, also published in January 2026, was prepared jointly with colleagues Jennifer Batton and Mary Kangethe. It addresses the challenge in the 2023 Recommendation to build students’ competencies in conflict resolution, negotiation. and mediation. Reviewing experiences over recent decades, it gives examples from Colombia, Kenya, Serbia, the Philippines and the USA, noting that programs that are successful at a small scale may not be effective at system level. Prioritizing particular localities and/or upstream teacher training institutions are among the policy options, as well as strengthening this element within programming categorized as SEL.
In 2026 NISSEM will consult with education innovators regarding the challenges of transformative and holistic education in the new era of reduced and strained education budgets and the arrival of AI. We would like to engage with key stakeholders in the development of regionalized and/or national initiatives that adapt societal and social-emotional education goals to take account of their diverse contexts and cultures, enabling champions of transformative curricula to convince donors, finance and education ministries, and civil society actors. I personally would like to see greater emphasis on education for conflict resolution and mediation within the SEL, as a contribution to more peaceful relationships at personal, national, and international levels. I also hope that the current interest in AI will help educators to collaborate and bring into existence contextualized curricula, syllabi, education materials, and teacher training supportive of education for peace, human rights, and sustainable development.
In case the reader would like to share their ongoing innovative work in this regard, please contact NISSEM or the author: ma.sinclair@gmail.com
[1] Sinclair, M. (2025). Transformative Learning to Address Twenty-first Century Challenges: Plotting a Pathway from Endorsing International Frameworks to Creating a New Classroom Reality. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 19(2), 216–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/09734082251355107
[2] Sinclair, M. (2026). Learning to Be Human: Forming and Implementing National Blends of Transformative and Holistic Education to Address 21st Century Challenges and Complement AI. Education Sciences, 16(1), 107. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16010107
[3] Batton, J., Kangethe, M. & Sinclair, M. (2026) Policy frameworks and classroom practice in education for conflict resolution. In: Benavot, A., Bourn, D., Sinclair, M. & Smart, A. (Eds.) Global Education for a better and more resilient world: How international policies, curricula, materials, and practices can help transform learning. NISSEM Global Briefs, volume 5, pp. 165–184. https://nissem.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/NGB-Volume5.pdf
