Moving past COVID-19 and the 2020 lock-down, a next question is how our ideas of “future learning”might merge with the the idea of sustainable development. Silicon Valley is a reference point for some. The promise of the internet and the idea of boundless interaction. The world is not like that. Our world is a world of division. Some of us might not see it, but what we see and what we hear is more up to us than at any time in human history. In 1987 the Brundtland Commission put forth the idea of “sustainable development”. It paved the way for an understanding of how environmental concerns are inseparable from concerns with poverty. We often assume that the world is connected in our talks on “digital transformation” .But the world is not. And much of our debate is premised on the tacit models of education and learning that emanate from the Enlightenment, from Western notions of “development” and “modernity”. Yet, the world is more.

At WLS 2021, that “more” will be the centerpiece. You will find the Global South in Djakarta, but also in Austin, Texas. You will find the Global North in Cape Town and Abu Dabi.

You will largely find an issue that unites us all in rethinking how education is a pathway to work, if it is. And how higher education links with everyday life, it if does.