The Jacobs Foundation is one of the world's leading foundations dedicated to the learning and development of children and young people. The Foundation supports initiatives that advance knowledge and understanding of learning and development, help schools deliver quality education and share good practice, and transform education systems worldwide. The ultimate goal of the Jacobs Foundation is to provide children with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, tools and equitable opportunities that will enable them to reach their full learning potential and thrive together.
The Foundation works through three main portfolios: Learning Minds, Learning Schools and Learning Societies. It has committed to investing half a billion Swiss francs over the next ten years to achieve its 2030 strategy.
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Congratulations on your recent conference, organized this year by MIT Solve, which used a human-centered design process to find solutions to four global education challenges. Can you share with us some of the highlights of this event?
Irina Hotz (IH): We've been organizing the annual conference for years. While it has traditionally been a closed, in-person conference, allowing researchers and fellows to interact, this year's conference was online and global. Working with MIT Solve to bring together practitioners and researchers to find solutions to real-world problems was a great learning experience. Everyone at the Foundation was pleased with the outcome, as it enabled us to further explore the interaction between research and practice that we believe is essential to transforming education systems.
The Jacobs Foundation's new strategy places a strong emphasis on creating learning ecosystems that address educational challenges. Why does the Jacobs Foundation think it's important to cultivate ecosystems?
Ross Hall (HR): For the Jacobs Foundation, a learning ecosystem is a diverse group of actors, from different points in the system, who work, learn and adapt together, based on evidence, to provide a wide range of learning experiences and environments within which every child can learn to thrive together.
A young person will never develop all the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they need to thrive solely in a classroom, behind a desk, using textbooks. While this pedagogical approach may be appropriate for the development of some things, the reality is that children need a wider range of experiences and learning environments, both inside and outside school. A learning ecosystem therefore includes schools, but also families and the wider community.
For us, the idea of the learning ecosystem is a different way of looking at an educational system. Unlike a traditional education system (a rather inert, “one size fits all” model), a learning ecosystem is very much alive, constantly adapting to the specific learning needs and preferences of those within it (it adapts to the variability of learning).
While traditional education systems are often fragmented and lack trust, a learning ecosystem is highly connected and collaborative, with key players sharing a clear purpose, with measures that support the achievement of that purpose, and with adaptability, diversity and trust intentionally fostered throughout the process.
A learning ecosystem should be seen as a verb rather than a noun. It's more like an organism than a machine, which is often the case with traditional educational systems. To create a thriving learning ecosystem, you need to catalyze a living process by which it comes to life.
Speaking of adaptability and collaboration - at least two of the key positions within the Jacobs Foundation are shared - was this a conscious decision by the Foundation, and if so, how does it work?
IH: The co-directorship model was introduced in April last year at the Foundation. The decision was born of the realization that, as a Foundation, our main asset is to be a knowledge broker, a learning institution and a relationship builder. It was a conscious decision to promote diversity and shared decision-making within the Foundation, while also serving as a risk management strategy. We challenge each other in our working and teaching methods. This interaction demands a great deal of maturity, openness and trust.
RH: It's a model that brings richness to everything we do, especially as our work is complex because we try to find and fund deeply systemic interventions (which can be very difficult to do alone). To make this work, we've spent a lot of time sharing our values and building relationships of trust between all the co-managers within the Foundation.
The model also helps co-leaders support each other in developing their core competencies, which we define as follows:
Proof generator and translator : Fund research excellence to promote the production and practical use of evidence on human learning and development that has an impact on policy and practice.
Innovative partnershipsCreating multi-stakeholder coalitions between governments, industry, schools and social-profit organizations to optimize resources and increase capacity to jointly implement effective educational policies and practices.
Political entrepreneurSupport policy innovation by facilitating access to knowledge, data and tools, in order to promote learning and improved practices, initiate change processes and inspire leadership approaches to strengthen the whole system.
Catalytic investorUse innovative financial instruments to create a large-scale positive impact and enable third-party investments that would not otherwise be possible.
It seems that trust is an important part of the Jacobs Foundation's internal modus operandi. What is the Foundation's position on the importance of trust and adaptive programming for its beneficiaries?
IH: We clearly see ourselves as a partner to the organizations and researchers we work with, but we've also always been traditionally focused on quantitative results. We will continue to be results-driven, but we also want to take a more attentive and trusting approach.
RH: It's important to analyze the notion of trust. When the Jacobs Foundation gives money to service providers, we have always been able to trust them enough to give them money. There's already a high degree of trust. The question we're asking ourselves now is to what extent the Jacobs Foundation wants to be involved in decision-making about programming. We see ourselves as a grant-making organization, but we also have a large international network of experts that can be tapped into, we have solid ideas and evidence of what works, and we have strategies for system change that we believe can help maximize impact. In other words, we want to share something more than money, and we're still learning exactly what that should be.
What is your vision for the Jacobs Foundation's work in 2021 and beyond?
RH: I feel that the Jacobs Foundation is in a position to model a way of working for philanthropic organizations in transforming education systems. With our Societies portfolio, we focus on supporting the creation of learning ecosystems in which everyone learns to thrive, and investing in infrastructure and systemic capabilities so that these ecosystems are sustainable and constantly evolve for the better. We seek to invest intelligently: we invest money, strategic thinking, knowledge and expertise in what we think is important. We want to change mechanisms and mindsets through close collaboration, building partnerships in target countries as well as with international organizations. And we want to partner with donors (to leverage and pool funds for maximum impact).
IH: This is the first time we've had a ten-year strategy. The ambition is to be able to support learning ecosystems and create lasting positive change for and with the children within our reach. It's essential to understand, as a foundation, that we are only as strong as our partners. We have the potential to enter where others can't, to encourage innovation, to leverage funds from others and to promote partnerships between players who don't currently work together - which we see as the essence of a thriving learning ecosystem.
Photo: Jacobs Foundation
