Reports and papers

Research, reports, and selected publications from Education Futures.

Education Futures publishes research reports, policy analyses, conceptual frameworks, and scholarly contributions that examine how education systems respond to technological change, social transformation, and emerging human development needs. These works connect research, foresight, and practice to help educators, policymakers, and institutions think more clearly about the futures they are building.

This collection includes commissioned studies, field-based reports, public frameworks, and selected academic publications. Together, they document practical experiences, frame key questions, and offer analysis for those working to rethink learning, innovation, and institutional change.

Frameworks and major initiatives

These works define major strands of the Education Futures research and publishing agenda.

Manifesto 25 (2025)

Manifesto 25 is a public intervention and framework for reclaiming education in a time of institutional stagnation, democratic strain, and accelerating change. It brings together a set of propositions that challenge inherited assumptions about schooling and call for new education futures grounded in agency, creativity, responsibility, and social imagination.

This work serves as both a statement of principles and a point of departure for broader research, writing, and action.

GEFRI: Global Education Futures Readiness Index (2025–present)

GEFRI is a research initiative that examines how countries are positioned to respond to emerging educational, technological, and human development challenges. The index brings together comparative indicators and public analysis to explore readiness for building new education futures.

Visit the GEFRI project site or explore related articles and commentary.

Global trends in disruptive technological change: Social and policy implications for education (2023)

This publication examines how disruptive technological change is reshaping social life, labor, and educational policy. It considers the implications of accelerating change for schools, learning systems, and public decision-making, and argues that education must move beyond reactive adaptation toward futures-oriented transformation.

Published in On the Horizon. Also available in Spanish.

Research reports

These field-based reports document educational conditions, stakeholder perspectives, and system-level challenges in specific contexts.

¿Qué sabemos sobre ciudadanía digital en México? (2018)

This Spanish-language research report examines the state of digital citizenship in Mexico and considers how educational systems, policies, and social conditions shape citizens’ capacities to participate critically and responsibly in digital environments. The report synthesizes evidence and identifies challenges and opportunities for educators, institutions, and policymakers.

Research report in Spanish.

La innovación educativa en Puebla: Las voces de los actores (2018)

This report documents perspectives on educational innovation in Puebla through the voices of stakeholders working across the education system. It highlights how actors understand change, what barriers they face, and what conditions may enable more meaningful and sustainable innovation in practice.

Research report in Spanish.

¿Y ahora qué? Las TIC en la educación primaria: ¿Podemos construir una capacidad colectiva? (2009)

This report explores the integration of information and communication technologies in primary education and asks whether schools and systems can move beyond isolated implementation toward collective capacity building. The work examines how technological adoption relates to institutional learning, professional practice, and shared educational purpose.

Research report in Spanish.

Scholarly publications

These journal articles, chapters, and edited issues extend Education Futures work into academic and research contexts.

Transforming education systems in the knowmad paradigm (2025)

This chapter examines how education systems can be rethought through the knowmad paradigm, which foregrounds creativity, adaptability, self-direction, and networked value creation. It considers how systemic transformation becomes possible when institutions move beyond industrial-age assumptions about learning, work, and human development.

Chapter in Futuristic Insights on Education Components, UNESCO / Regional Center for Educational Planning.

International education in the era of COVID-19: Making learning visible (2020)

This article reflects on international education during the COVID-19 disruption and connects crisis response to broader questions about visibility, participation, and learning design.

Published in Sociální pedagogika | Social Education.

Plan Ceibal 2020: Future scenarios for technology and education (2018)

This article examines future scenarios for technology and education in Uruguay through the case of Plan Ceibal. It uses scenario-based thinking to consider how educational systems can prepare for uncertainty, respond to changing technological conditions, and make more deliberate choices about long-term development.

Published in the European Journal of Futures Research.

Higher Education 3.0: Knowmads create their own value (2015)

This book chapter argues that higher education must respond to the emergence of knowmads and explores how institutions can support learners in developing the capacities needed to contribute in fluid and uncertain environments.

Chapter in Transformative Perspectives and Processes in Higher Education.

Knowmad society: Borderless work and education (2013)

This edited special issue examines the relationship between changing forms of work and the futures of education, focusing on mobility, networks, and collaboration.

Edited special issue of On the Horizon.

Knowmad Society: The “new” work and education (2013)

This article develops the argument that the rise of knowmads is reshaping both work and education and requires new approaches to learning and value creation.

Published in On the Horizon.

Multidimensional facets of time in online learning (2011)

This article examines how time is experienced in online learning environments and offers a more nuanced account of temporal experience in digital education.

Published in the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.

Systemic approaches to knowledge development and application (2011)

This article explores systemic approaches to how knowledge is created, developed, and applied within dynamic learning environments.

Published in On the Horizon.

A new paradigm of knowledge production in higher education (2008)

This article argues that higher education is moving toward a networked and distributed model of knowledge production.

Published in On the Horizon.

Technological applications of Leapfrog (2008)

This article examines how leapfrogging can function as a strategy for educational and social transformation.

Published in Futures Research Quarterly.

Selected briefs and commentary

These public-facing analyses connect ongoing research to current debates about educational futures, innovation, and policy.

GEFRI articles and commentary (2025–present)

This collection gathers public-facing analysis connected to the Global Education Futures Readiness Index.

Explore the full GEFRI topic archive.

About these publications

The works collected here span research reports, journal articles, edited issues, conceptual frameworks, and public analysis. Together, they reflect Education Futures’ long-standing interest in educational transformation, technological change, foresight, and the social purposes of learning.

This page will continue to grow as additional reports, papers, and research publications are added.