5: Rethinking the Goals of Education

With this chapter we begin to consider what we want from society and how education can be best directed towards these aims. We begin by exploring how societal success is currently measured, since this has a substantial impact on how we measure educational success. We then consider alternative societal outcomes that might be possible and what these might mean for a post-pandemic education system if adopted. The remainder of this and the next two chapters then consider potential – and from our perspective, desirable – features of a post-pandemic education system most likely to take us towards these new societal goals.