The ICSEI 2026 Congress was rich, challenging, and deeply energizing.
As President of ICSEI and CEO of Marzano Research, I spend much of my time moving between research, practice, and policy conversations. This responsibility feels especially weighty in a global organization like ICSEI, where contexts vary widely. This annual gathering creates an opportunity to step back, listen closely, and look for patterns across those differences.
I am grateful to everyone who made the congress possible and to all who contributed their thinking, their challenges, and their hopes. As the week came to a close, my overarching reflection was that it truly feels like we are in a new moment.
For years, we have talked about the increasing pace and complexity of change. Yet the way I understood that idea in 2010, 2015, or even as recently as 2019 now feels almost quaint. What we are experiencing today is an acceleration of change on a different scale entirely.
Across our keynote presentations, breakout sessions, and countless conversations, two features of this new era came into focus.
The first is the exponential speed of change across nearly every facet of global society, from technological innovation to shifts in population growth, cultural norms, ways of governing, and economic systems.
The second is the destabilization that follows, such as catastrophic weather events, political unrest, shifting geopolitical alliances, and deepening economic divides. Uncertainty and conflict are shaping daily life and, by extension, shaping education systems everywhere.
And yet, this moment also brings extraordinary opportunity if we are willing to engage.
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Periods of profound change, especially when we find ourselves facing a future that remains unclear, can feel chaotic and unsettling. This same instability can also heighten creativity and innovation. When the ground shifts beneath us, complacency becomes harder to maintain. We ask different questions. We listen more carefully. We prioritize what truly matters.
Thinking about this potential has given me a renewed sense of purpose and optimism for our field, and for that I am deeply thankful. In this moment, we have the chance to critically reexamine, and perhaps even redefine, the purposes and values that guide how we educate future generations.
I leave this congress with my head full of questions, sparked by our speakers and deepened through dialogue with colleagues from around the world:
- What skills and dispositions will future generations need as education moves beyond a primarily knowledge-based model?
- What is the unique role that only humans can fulfill as AI increasingly generates and synthesizes information faster than we can, and how do we create learning environments that remain fundamentally human-centered?
- What memories, values, and ways of knowing do we choose to carry forward, and what are we willing to let go?
- How do we bring both head and heart into how we conduct research and offer guidance for improving schools and systems?
- How do we meet the very real demands of educating students today while creating space to reimagine education for a future that is profoundly unclear and rapidly approaching?
These questions inevitably lead to reflection on the role ICSEI itself might play in this moment.
I do not pretend to have a single answer. What I do know is that this community has much to contribute. Our strength lies in our global reach and the depth of perspectives we bring as researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. ICSEI as an organization must continue to evolve, with a shared commitment to remain in dialogue, sit with complexity, and co-construct the questions and possibilities that will shape education’s future.
