There can be no doubt that schools are nowadays required to play a significant role in relation to global challenges such as health, sustainability and democracy. On the one hand one can argue that as a public institution the school ought to engage with more than a narrow curriculum that is just focused on the qualification of children and young people for future employment. In this regard it is difficult to argue that schools should not engage with global issue. On the other hand, however, global issue go way beyond the confines of the school, which raises the question how much schools can do and how much can legitimately be expected from them. This is not only a question for the school as institution or organisation, but also crucially a question that teachers face in their everyday practices where they balance demands from ‘above’ – such as formulated in policies, curricula and programmes – with the complexities of the concrete situations in which they act.

 The symposium is organised around three cases studies, a theoretical introduction and prepared comments for discussion – the latter being primarily focused on engaging the audience in a wider conversation about the role and position of the teacher in educationally practices that engage with global challenges. In the theoretical introduction Gert Biesta will introduce ideas to think in a more structured way about the different functions and purposes of education (Biesta 2010), so as to have a tool to engage more clearly with the question what can be ‘asked’ from schools in relation to global challenges, how such challenges can be engaged with educationally, and what this might mean for the teacher. He will demonstrate the significance of these ideas with reference to questions about (global) citizenship education (Biest,a De Bie & Wildemeersch, 2013). In addition he will present some insights from his ongoing collaborative research on teacher agency, particularly highlighting dimensions that help and dimensions that hinder teachers in agentic enactment of curriculum and policy (Priestley, Biesta & Robinson, 2015). NextLone Lindegsard and Venka Simovska, Alan Reid, ark Rickinson and Matt Hall, and Katrine Dahl Masden and Venka Simovska, will each present a paper in which they discuss educational approaches to global challenges (focusing on health and sustainability), with particular attention to the position of the teacher. Gert Biesta will, in response to the papers, raise a few points for starting the discussion.

Biesta, G.J.J. (2010). Good education in an age of measurement: Ethics, politics, democracy. Boulder, Co: Paradigm Publishers. Biesta, G.J.J., De Bie, M. & Wildemeersch, D. (Eds)(2013). Civic learning, democratic citizenship and the public sphere. Dordrecht/Boston: Springer Science+Business Media. Priestley, M., Biesta, G.J.J. & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: An ecological approach. London: Bloomsbury.