Renewing the social contract for education: Governing education as a common good

Abstract

In its report published in 2021, the UNESCO International Commission on the Futures of Education invited the international community to forge a “new social contract for education” in order to repair past injustices and build a more equitable and sustainable planet. This new social contract should involve all education stakeholders and be governed by the principle of education as a common good. However, neither the concept of the new social contract nor the principle of education as a common good appear to be clearly defined in the 2021 UNESCO report, and this results in a lack of political discussion regarding the relationship among the institutions that should govern the new social contract for education. This article discusses the extent to which the notion of education as a common good provides the political framing for such a new social contract. It recalls the theoretical background of this concept and identifies some key areas that may be relevant to the discussion on the governance arrangements required to forge a new social contract for education with a view to revisiting existing hierarchies of power and strengthening democratic processes.