Thriving Together | ChangeEd Global Learner Agency Lab
ChangeEd · Collaboration for Educational Change
A ChangeEd global collaboration

Thriving Together

The Global Learner Agency Lab brings students from different parts of the world together around one shared mission: to use their agency to create and test one meaningful action that helps a group of people thrive in their context.

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One shared mission.
Many cultural perspectives. Student-led action around the world.
Thriving is the themeA positive, human focus broad enough for every context.
Agency is the outcomeStudents make real choices, act, adapt and take responsibility.
Context mattersDifferent cultures may understand agency and thriving differently.
Evidence makes it visiblePortfolios, stories, feedback and authentic contribution replace narrow tests.
The project in one view

Students do not merely discuss agency. They exercise it.

Each team chooses a group of people, explores what might help them thrive, designs and tests a student-led action, learns with international partners, and documents what happened. The project is deliberately positive: it is not an audit of what is wrong with a school.

Choose a meaningful focus

Students identify a group they hope to support and an opportunity connected with belonging, learning, connection, contribution, digital life, health, purpose or community.

Take real action

Teams create, connect, serve, teach, research, advocate, celebrate or prototype. The action can be small, but it must be genuinely student-led.

Learn across cultures

International partners influence one another’s decisions. Each team shows at least one way that a global partner improved or changed its local action.

Use your agency to create and test one meaningful action that helps a group of people thrive in your context.

Shared global challenge for all participating student teams
Background for participants

Six ideas that shape the Lab

These principles help participants understand the educational thinking behind the experience without turning the project into a theoretical course.

Agency is more than choice

Choice means selecting from adult-created options. Agency involves forming a purpose, making consequential decisions, acting, adapting and taking responsibility.

Agency is relational

Students act with peers, adults, families and communities. Adults do not disappear; they create conditions, open doors and help students act responsibly.

Thriving is multidimensional

Thriving can involve health, connection, contribution, safety, learning, competence, agency and resilience. It is broader than happiness or mental health.

Culture changes meaning

Some contexts emphasize individual initiative; others emphasize collective responsibility, family or community harmony. The Lab treats these differences as learning.

Voice should lead to influence

Students need a safe space, support to express ideas, an audience that listens, and a credible pathway through which their contribution can matter.

Evidence should be authentic

Agency is demonstrated through plans, decisions, revisions, artifacts, feedback, adaptation and reflection—not through a multiple-choice test.

The common student process

Discover → Connect → Imagine → Act → Adapt → Share

Every team follows the same six-stage cycle. Local freedom remains high, while a common structure allows meaningful international comparison.

1

Discover

Explore what thriving means locally through stories, conversations, images, traditions and observation.

2

Connect

Choose a group to support and exchange perspectives with students in other countries.

3

Imagine

Design a feasible action, gather feedback and improve the idea before implementation.

4

Act

Implement or test the action locally and document what students themselves decide and do.

5

Adapt

Use evidence, obstacles and feedback to revise the approach. Changing direction is part of agency.

6

Share

Create an Agency Story and contribute to a global map of student-led action.

Global Agency Circles

Collaboration that changes decisions

Schools are organized into small, age-aligned circles of approximately four teams from contrasting contexts. The same partners remain together throughout the experience so that relationships and trust can grow.

Exchange 1: What does thriving mean here?
Exchange 2: What action are we imagining?
Exchange 3: What happened, and what did we learn?
Required evidence: One decision influenced by an international partner.
🌍

The Global Atlas of Student Agency

Each team contributes a map entry with its location, cultural understanding of thriving, group supported, action, international partner, evidence of contribution and student reflection.

🎙

The Agency Story

A short multimedia account of the choices students made, the action they took, how they adapted and what they learned about agency, culture and contribution.

Authentic assessment

What students will demonstrate

Success is not defined only by the size of the visible outcome. A modest action can show powerful agency when students exercise judgment, respond to context and learn from evidence.

Initiative

Identifying and pursuing a meaningful opportunity.

Listening

Understanding people, context and different perspectives.

Decision-making

Making genuine choices and explaining the reasoning behind them.

Collaboration

Sharing responsibility locally and learning with global partners.

Adaptability

Responding constructively to obstacles, feedback and new evidence.

Contribution

Creating something of genuine value for other people.

🌐

Cross-cultural learning

Recognizing differences without ranking or stereotyping contexts.

Reflection

Explaining what changed in the students’ thinking, skills and sense of agency.

Participant learning library

Recommended background resources

These are useful for facilitators and older students. Teams do not need to read everything; the Lab can provide short adapted learning cards based on the core ideas.

Agency

OECD — Student Agency for 2030

A clear foundation for agency, co-agency, responsibility, purpose and cultural variation.

Open resource ↗
Thriving

WHO / PMNCH — Adolescent Well-being

A five-domain framework covering health, connection, safety, learning, agency and resilience.

Open resource ↗
Participation

Lundy Model of Participation

A practical model built around space, voice, audience and influence.

Open resource ↗
Youth engagement

UNICEF — Engaged and Heard!

Guidance for meaningful, equitable adolescent participation and civic engagement.

Open resource ↗
Implementation

UNESCO — Meaningful Youth Engagement

Practical guidance for moving beyond tokenism and creating genuine roles for young people.

Open resource ↗
Evidence

Review of the Literature on Student Agency

Useful for designing the portfolio, learning indicators and authentic assessment approach.

Open resource ↗
Intercultural learning

Council of Europe — Intercultural Competence for All

Guidance for inclusive communication, cultural learning and sustained school partnerships.

Open resource ↗
Safeguarding

UNICEF Youth-Led Action Resources

A resource collection covering consent, participation, safeguarding and online engagement.

Open resource ↗
AI

UNESCO — Generative AI in Education

A human-centred framework for privacy, ethical use, age appropriateness and meaningful application.

Open resource ↗

Resources the Lab should provide directly

1. What Does It Mean to Have Agency?
A concise student guide distinguishing choice, voice, agency, responsibility and impact, supported by short examples.
2. What Does Thriving Mean Here?
Visual cards covering health and vitality, connection and contribution, safety and support, learning and competence, and agency and resilience.
3. Our Context, Your Context
An intercultural dialogue guide that helps students compare contexts without stereotyping, ranking or assuming their own norms are universal.
4. The Agency Action Canvas
A planning tool for the group supported, what students learned through listening, decisions they control, partners and permissions, proposed action, risks, evidence and adaptations.
5. The Evidence of Agency Portfolio
A structured portfolio showing purpose, decisions, collaboration, action, adaptation, contribution and reflection.
6. Ethical Storytelling and AI Guide
A one-page protocol on consent, privacy, respectful representation, translation, photographs, responsible AI use and disclosure of AI assistance.
What we can learn from existing initiatives

Ideas worth borrowing—without copying any one model

No exact equivalent combines the Lab’s full design. The following initiatives are especially useful for specific components such as student-led action, mapping, global collaboration, mentoring and evidence.

GL

Good Life Schools

Positive framing around a good life, community, well-being and planetary considerations.

Visit project ↗
DFC

Design for Change

A memorable Feel → Imagine → Do → Share process and a global archive of student stories.

Visit project ↗
R&S

Roots & Shoots

Asset-based community mapping, small local action and celebration of contribution.

Visit project ↗
iE

iEARN Learning Circles

Stable international classroom groups that collaborate over time rather than exchanging finished products only.

Visit project ↗
GP

The Goals Project

A manageable six-week global structure with age grouping, weekly guidance, facilitators and reflection.

Visit project ↗
TAG

Take Action Global

A synchronized global experience combining local inquiry, international connection, action and celebration.

Visit project ↗
UP

UNICEF UPSHIFT

Human-centred design, mentorship, prototype testing and—where possible—small implementation funding.

Visit project ↗
GSL

Global Social Leaders

Strong attention to evidence, feedback, check-ins and recognition for courage, resilience, adaptation and learning.

Visit project ↗
YSA

Global Youth Service Day

A broad action menu including service, advocacy, research, kindness, leadership and education.

Visit project ↗
WLL

The World’s Largest Lesson

Age-banded, adaptable materials using film, art, poetry, storytelling, mapping and community action.

Visit project ↗
Possible first pilot

A six-week global experience

The core should remain light enough for diverse schools to participate: approximately one shared activity per week, local action time, three international exchanges and optional extensions.

Week 1

Discover thriving

Explore local meanings, stories, strengths and examples of thriving.

Week 2

Choose and map

Select a group to support and create an asset-based Thriving Map.

Week 3

Meet the Global Agency Circle

Compare contexts, assumptions and possible areas of action.

Week 4

Imagine and refine

Design the local action, receive global feedback and improve the plan.

Week 5

Act and adapt

Implement, document evidence and revise in response to what happens.

Week 6

Share agency

Exchange results, create Agency Stories and publish entries to the global atlas.

Design commitments

Positive framing
Students look for opportunities to contribute rather than auditing school failures.
Real student decisions
Adults create boundaries and support without taking ownership of the action.
Cultural humility
Teams compare meanings and practices without ranking contexts.
Consequential collaboration
International partners must influence one another’s thinking or decisions.
Authentic evidence
Portfolios include decisions, process, adaptations, contribution and reflection.
Safe participation
Consent, safeguarding, privacy and ethical publication are built in from the beginning.
Responsible AI
Students decide; AI assists; students verify; use is disclosed.
Non-competitive recognition
Courage, listening, adaptation and learning are valued alongside visible impact.
The central proposition

One shared mission. Many local truths.

The most distinctive feature of the Lab is that students do not merely observe projects from other countries. They influence one another’s decisions while acting in ways that fit their own culture and community.

Thriving gives the project heart.
Agency gives it purpose.
Global collaboration gives it perspective.
Authentic evidence makes learning visible.