School, Chess & Society - Reflections from ICSEI 2025

What a week it has been!

ICSEI 2025 in Melbourne brought together passionate minds from around the world to discuss the future of education. I had the privilege of attending and engaging in many thought-provoking conversations, leaving me with new perspectives, reflections – and most importantly, inspiration.

Education as a Three-Dimensional Chess Game

One of the highlights was a keynote by Gert Biesta, an internationally recognized professor of education. He compared education to a three-dimensional chess game—every move on one board affects the other two. He spoke about the three key dimensions of education:

• Qualification – Equipping students with knowledge, skills, and understanding.
• Socialization – Helping them navigate societal values, traditions, and practices.
• Subjectification – Encouraging them to be subjects in their own lives, not objects of external forces.

But Biesta challenged us further: It is not enough to talk about the purpose of education—we must also discuss its point. What does education make possible that cannot happen without it?

This reflection leads us to the role of the teacher. As Biesta put it, we must move away from the idea of the teacher as “a sage on the stage” and instead see them as “a guide on the side”—a facilitator of learning.

Teaching is about directing students’ attention to the world and to themselves—not by telling them what to think, but by guiding them to explore with intellectual humility.

Populism as a Threat to Education

During the Morning Dialogue with Andy Hargreaves, I joined a discussion on the threats facing education. Populism emerged as a central theme. We explored how populism manifests in the U.S., in European politics—and even in Norwegian kindergartens, where children mimic Trump’s slogans in play.

At first glance, this might seem like harmless child’s play. But the language we surround ourselves with shapes the way we think. If populist rhetoric dominates the education debate, we risk losing sight of the true purpose of education—moving away from qualification, socialization, and subjectification toward restriction of diversity and the banning of anything perceived as a threat.

We must counter hate with love, invite dialogue, and ensure that education remains about empowering young people to live meaningful lives—both now and in the future.

IMTEC – Driving Positive Change

IMTEC is not just an observer in this evolving landscape—we are actively driving change in the education sector, both in Norway and internationally. We work to create learning environments where students can grow into whole, reflective individuals.

We take inspiration from John Dewey, who put it so powerfully:

"What the best and wisest parent wants for his or her child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other goal is narrow and unlovely."

Let’s work together to create an education system that truly matters—for everyone.

 

Written by: Marlen Faannessen, Deputy Director IMTEC Foundation
Last modified: March 3, 2025