In the past 25 years a focus of governments and international organisations working in projects on developing education has been on bringing children to school. In consequence, the number of children enrolled in schools have been increasing exponentially. However, in recent years it has become clear that even going to school, children are often not learning. In 2013, UNESCO pushed to the public arena the concept of ‘global learning crisis’ which aims to describe precisely the complex situation where children go to school but are not acquiring the expected knowledge and skills. The learning crisis is a global phenomenon, however, it is more accentuated in the countries of the ‘Global South’. This crisis reflects wider problems related with the quality and efficiency of education systems, inclusion and equity.

In our paper we are interested on the impact of global policy regarding development cooperation in education, and more specifically addressing the “global learning crisis”. As a case, we analyse the Finnish education development policy, instruments and the role and influence of Finnish education experts working in international organizations, such as the World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF. We ask more precisely what is the role and influence of Finnish education sector expertise in international organisations addressing the global learning crisis?

Theoretically we utilise the onto-epistemological lenses of complexity thinking (e.g. Cilliers, 1998; Morrison, 2006;  Bates, 2016), and sustainable development (Brundtland Report, UN, 1987). By assuming the social world as being a complex system constituted by smaller  complex systems, interacting with each other. Complexity thinking, can be described as a theory of change (Capano, 2009).  Complex systems thus, adapt and self-organise in ways that respond to events of their environments, and grants the system’s survival and continuous development, often in an unpredictable way (Szekely & Manson, 2018, p. 6). International interventions in education development involve a complex network of actors located at various levels of the social world (global, national and local), often competing for resources and to fulfil diversified interests. Therefore, complexity thinking by focusing on non-linear interactions among actors ‘is more effective than a linear theory of causality to analyse development and education efforts’ (Nordtveit, 2010). Using complexity thinking, thus, allows a multifaceted analysis that explores the characteristics, challenges and nuances of interventions of international organisations in countries of the ‘Global South’,  through the analysis of the dynamics of Finnish experts working in international organisations in activities related with education development.

Related with complexity thinking, this study also has in consideration the need that education development interventions in low- and middle-income countries are aimed at being sustainable, as presented already more than 30 years ago by the Brundtland Report (UN, 1987). The report emphasized the concept of sustainable development, which it defines as the kind of development that insures that ‘the needs of the present [are met] without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (p. 16). The report argues that this kind of development implies ‘meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to fulfil their aspirations for a better life’ (p. 16).  Sustainable development thus, implies an evolution characterised by self-organisation, adaptation, and interactions among elements within a system, and across systems, which leads to interdependencies that can have unpredictable impacts at any level of this complexity of systems. Analysing systems from the point of view of complexity thinking and sustainable development therefore, focuses the analysis on aspects related with the nature, temporality and dynamics of the Finnish education experts within the organisations where they work, in relation to education development policies and practices.

Our study builds on wide empirical materials: a) relevant reports by international organisations on the quality of education and on the global learning crisis more specifically, b) the main documents related to Finnish development policies addressing education, c) surveys on the role of Finnish education experts (N=33) working on interventions that aim at improving the quality of education in countries of the Global South and focused on solving the learning crisis, d) thematic interviews with Finnish international experts working in multilateral organizations (n=31). Empirically the study develops following a snowball strategy. The analysis starts by identifying the main international organisations involved in education development and the Finnish education experts working within them, exploring arguments in which they highlight problems and advocate for specific solutions. Then, Finnish policy documents regarding education development are analysed and at this level again the highlighted problems and solutions offered in these documents are identified. Through the surveys a network of actors, projects and actions will be identified and through the thematic interviews, the interviewees’ own perspectives on the Finnish education development policies, collaborations and interventions will be explored with a focus on the importance of sustainability in education development and more specific in addressing the global learning crisis. All data will be analysed through Qualitative content analysis (Schreier, 2014) and major themes regarding these key actors’ own perspectives on their interventions, their careers, their assessment on the impacts of their work within international organisations and forums, as well as in the local contexts of intervention and their understanding of concepts such as quality education, global learning crisis, sustainable development and so on are explored.

The study leads to the formation of a map identifying Finnish education experts working in international organisations and the understanding of the Finnish role within these organisations, as well as the factors, challenges and affordances, of the Finnish expertise and while doing so, predict future successful courses of action to increase the impact and contribution of the Finnish education expertise in decisions addressing the global learning crisis and that, ideally, can lead to development paths that can be sustained locally for a long period of time and evolve into other innovative, also sustainable, practices.

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