Three Stanford education professors (Brigid Barron, Anne Colby and William Damon) helped shape a new global education initiative that Pope Francis introduced this week. The task brought them to Vatican City earlier this year for a research symposium that included an audience with the pope himself.

The gathering, held in Vatican City at the headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, was convened to help organizers draft the Global Compact on Education, a document defining guiding principles for education from preschool through higher ed. Similar in spirit to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, the pact puts forth a vision and a set of values meant to transcend geographic, economic, sociopolitical and religious differences.

Damon presented with Colby, an adjunct professor at the GSE, about their research into the development of purpose in young people. Barron, a GSE professor and co-lead of the TELOS Initiative at Stanford, shared her work on how technology can provide more equitable access to learning opportunities, both in and out of school. “It was an honor to participate in a workshop that centered educational equity as core to the future of humanity,” Barron said.

Pope Francis announced the Global Compact on Education live on Oct. 15 via the Vatican News YouTube channel. See the website of the Global Compact for more details.

Read The Entire News Story by Carrie Spector HERE

Photo Courtesy: Vatican Media