March 2026
ChangeLabs in the FEDORAS Academy
ChangeLabs are a central component of the FEDORAS Academy and take place both at the local level within each Open Schooling Network (OSN) and at the international level. They provide structured environments where teachers, researchers, and community stakeholders meet to explore challenges in their schools, imagine new ways of teaching and learning, co-design and try innovative practices, and reflect together on their experiences. In this way, Change Labs function as collaborative spaces for reflection, imagination, and co-creation, where emerging insights can gradually turn into concrete actions that support professional learning and school transformation. Between January and early March, Local Change Labs were organised across the five FEDORAS OSNs, marking an important milestone in the development of the Academy.
Finnish Change Lab
The Helsinki Change Laboratory of the Finnish Open Schooling Network took place on January 27 at the University of Helsinki. The Change Laboratory gathered thirteen in-service science teachers and three researchers to explore socially impactful science education. The meeting focused on combining FEDORA future-oriented science education with the European Commission’s GreenComp sustainability framework. Through shared future visioning, discussions and co-development, participants explored how science education can engage with societal challenges and promote agentic hope for the future. A key insight that emerged during the day was the inspiration to include future visioning in teaching in order to open new perspectives to content-specific study units. At the same time, teachers also expressed a desire to develop their personal ability to play with futures without being constrained by a lack of hope.
Learn more about the Finish Change Lab: https://www.fedoras-academy.eu/imagining-socially-impactful-science-education-together-reflection-from-helsinki-change-laboratory/
Greek Change Lab
The Greek Change Lab took place on January 25th, 2026, at the “XENIA” Student Cultural Center in Rethymno. The meeting brought together sixteen STEM teachers, pre-service teachers, members of the University of Crete research team, educational policymakers, and representatives from partner institutions, including a research centre, the UNESCO Chair on Futures Studies, and the Center for Environmental Education and Sustainability in Athens. The Change Lab served as an opening moment for the Greek network, expanding from an initial group of four teachers who have been participating since October and welcoming new STEM teachers into the network. These four teachers presented the teaching materials they had developed and implemented in their classrooms, offering a starting point for reflection and discussion. At the same time, the meeting created a shared space to reflect on futures-oriented science education in the context of climate change, while connecting teachers, researchers, and stakeholders around common questions about teaching in times of uncertainty and change. Through presentations of teaching materials, classroom experiences, and collective discussions, participants reflected on how futures thinking can be integrated into science education and how climate change can serve as a context for exploring alternative futures. A key insight emerging from the meeting was that discussions about alternative futures often reveal pessimistic views among students, highlighting the importance of pedagogical approaches that acknowledge these concerns while fostering agency toward desirable futures.
Learn more about the Greek Change Lab: https://www.fedoras-academy.eu/the-greek-local-change-lab/
Italian Change Lab
The Italian National Change Lab of the FEDORAS Academy took place on February 19th, 2026, bringing together teachers and researchers from Italian schools involved in Open Schooling initiatives. The meeting created a space of encounter between two Open Schooling Networks developed through long-term collaborations between universities and schools in Italy: the network coordinated by the University of Milan and the network coordinated by the University of Bologna. The Change Lab centred on the trajectories through which educational initiatives have developed within the participating schools. The experiences shared during the meeting illustrated how interdisciplinary projects progressively took shape through collaboration among teachers from different subjects and became integrated into the organisation of teaching and, in some cases, institutionalized at the school and national level. The dialogue between the two networks allowed participants to observe how these trajectories had unfolded within different school contexts and to situate their own ongoing initiatives within a longer developmental horizon. By bringing these trajectories into dialogue, the meeting fostered a process of mutual enrichment and enabled participants to recognise possible future developments of their own work within the broader evolution of interdisciplinary projects in schools.
Learn more about the Italian Change Lab: https://www.fedoras-academy.eu/the-italian-change-lab-bringing-two-open-schooling-networks-into-dialogue/
Norwegian Change Lab
The Norwegian Change Lab was held at the University of Oslo on March 4th with participants from three different schools: Blindern vgs, Skedsmo vgs, and Hersleb vgs. There were thirteen participants in total. All schools have diverse experiences in collaborating with actors outside of school, with Blindern actively engaging with UIO in various ways and building on that experience. Most teachers across the schools belong to the STEM track, along with the art teacher from Hersleb vgs. Some themes discussed in this meeting were: Creativity, knowledge, and use of AI, What can be assessed?
Learn more about the Norwegian Change Lab: https://www.fedoras-academy.eu/art-and-aesthetics-for-sustainability-a-snapshot-from-the-norwegian-open-schooling-network/
Spanish Change Lab
The Spanish Open Schooling Network held its first official Local Change Lab on 24 February 2026 at Institut de Celrà (Girona). Teachers from two public secondary schools, together with researchers from the University of Girona (including a PhD student) and a pre-service teacher, gathered to reflect on sustainability, interdisciplinarity, and assessment within competence-based education. The meeting focused on sharing school practices and exploring tensions related to the assessment of transversal competences, particularly in contexts shaped by time constraints, disciplinary structures, and external evaluation pressures. A key insight that emerged was the recognition that assessment is not only a matter of tools and rubrics, but also of collectively clarifying what is valued in educational processes and how it can be made visible in practice.
Learn more about the Spanish Change Lab: https://www.fedoras-academy.eu/reframing-assessment-together-reflections-from-the-girona-local-change-lab/
Looking forward: Towards the International Change Lab
The Local Change Labs represent an important step in building the FEDORAS Academy as a collaborative European network. Insights emerging from these local meetings will inform the upcoming International Change Lab on April 28, where participants from all Open Schooling Networks will come together to reflect on shared challenges, exchange practices, and shape the next milestone of the project: the FEDORAS Summer School in Bologna in June 2026.
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The Italian National Change Lab was conceived as a moment of encounter between two Open Schooling Networks, each grounded in a distinct research culture and...
On 24 February 2026, the Spanish Open Schooling Network gathered at Institut de Celrà (Girona) for its first official Local Change Lab within the FEDORAS...
The Greek Local Change Lab, held on Sunday, January 25th, 2026, at the “XENIA” Student Cultural Center in Rethymno, brought together a diverse community of...
On January 27, the Finnish Open Schooling Network gathered for its first onsite Change Laboratory at the University of Helsinki. The Change Laboratory was a...
