Every Child Matters. But Do We Really Mean It?

This question captures something essential from the ARC Summit in New Brunswick, where inclusion, innovation for improvement and Indigenous teachings came together to challenge how we think about education. Not as separate agendas, but as connected questions about whose voices matter, what we choose to change and what we must preserve.

At a time when complex educational challenges are often met with simple political answers, and new technologies promise rapid transformation, we need spaces to question our assumptions, challenge established practices and reflect on the future we are creating.

Seven generations behind us. Seven generations ahead.

Dr Imelda Persley invited us to consider education through the perspective of seven generations. Our lives are shaped by those who came before us, while our decisions today will influence generations yet to be born.

This perspective reaches far beyond Indigenous education. Political priorities are often shaped by four-year election cycles, school improvement plans look a few years ahead, and results are measured annually. What might change if we extended our horizon to seven generations? What kinds of schools and communities would we create?

Education is not simply about preparing children for the future. It is about taking responsibility for the future we are creating together.

From belonging to mattering

The Summit also challenged our understanding of inclusion. Belonging is essential, but is it enough? Children need more than acceptance. They need to experience that who they are, what they bring and what they contribute makes a difference.

A child may belong to a school community while feeling their voice has little influence. Indigenous perspectives reminded us that identity, language, culture and history are not separate from learning. They are part of its foundation.

Tom D'Amico connected inclusion and Indigenous teachings with innovation and AI. Technology will not improve education on its own. Its value depends on the choices we make, whose voices shape those choices, and whether they genuinely improve learning and wellbeing.

The question reaches beyond technology: Are children expected to fit into existing structures, or are those structures shaped by the diversity of the children within them?

Inclusion should never require children to leave parts of themselves behind in order to fit in.

Leadership requires courage and purpose

Michael Fullan challenged us to consider the responsibility of educational leaders and the importance of connected autonomy. Autonomy does not mean working alone, just as collaboration does not require surrendering professional judgement. It means exercising responsibility while remaining connected to a shared purpose.

Andy Hargreaves placed leadership within the powerful winds of change. With AI, political uncertainty and other forces reshaping education, leaders can ignore what is happening, drift with the strongest currents, or help their communities navigate change with purpose.

That requires courage, perseverance and commitment. Courage to question established practices, perseverance when change becomes difficult, and commitment to co-create environments where educators and students thrive.

Leadership is not just about making things happen. It is about making sure that what happens truly matters.

What we take back to IMTEC

For us at IMTEC, these perspectives offer a practical challenge. Working alongside leaders, schools, kindergartens and municipalities, we must help create conditions where people question not only whether initiatives are implemented, but whose voices shape them, what values they express and what difference they make.

This means creating space for dialogue across levels and perspectives, including children and young people. It means supporting professional communities to challenge assumptions, learn together and connect immediate improvement efforts with long-term responsibility.

Above all, it means recognising that meaningful improvement is developed with people, not simply delivered to them.

A time to pause. A time to stand up.

Education does not necessarily need more urgency. It needs more thoughtful urgency.

We are constantly encouraged to move faster, innovate, implement and measure. Yet speed alone cannot tell us whether we are moving in the right direction.

The ARC Summit reminded us of the value of international collaboration and constructive challenge. No education system has all the answers. But encountering different perspectives helps us see our own assumptions more clearly.

Conversation alone, however, is not enough. The value of our time in New Brunswick depends on what happens when we return home. Will we challenge practices that conflict with our values? Will we create learning communities where every child experiences that they matter?

Seven generations from now, no one will remember our improvement plans, performance indicators or political debates. But they will live with the consequences of the decisions we make today.

Every child matters. The question is whether we have the courage to act as if we truly believe it.

Marlen Faannessen and Renate Macpherson
IMTEC Foundation | Atlantic Rim Collaboratory