NORRAG

In this week's blog post, Susan Isiko Štrba reflects on how Africa can harness AI while addressing the digital inequalities that often accompany technological change.

Key insights:

🔹 AI can expand educational opportunities, particularly for underserved communities.

🔹 Dependence on foreign AI systems risks reinforcing existing inequalities and limiting local control.

🔹 Investing in African datasets, languages, talent, and infrastructure can help ensure AI reflects local realities.

🔹 Regional cooperation and public investment are essential for building AI that serves African educational priorities.

🔹 The challenge is not only adopting AI, but ensuring that its development and benefits remain inclusive and locally grounded.

Read more: https://www.norrageducation.org/cooperating-to-advance-africa-centric-education-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence-and-intellectual-property-lessons-from-the-african-continental-artificial-intelligence-strategy-2024/

The new GPE KIX initiative, Institutional Support for Promoting the Use of Research Evidence in Policy and Planning in GPE Partner Countries, is off to a strong start!

Interest in our first two global learning cycles exceeded expectations, leading us to expand participation to accommodate demand.

📚 Learning Cycle 1: Advancing Gender Equity in School Leader Selection and Appointment

📊 Learning Cycle 2: The Use of Data to Improve Quality and Equity in Education

🔗https://mcusercontent.com/186a12ed516d163d41d4a317b/files/0dcae208-9152-f503-0b4c-16bffdc8cbc9/KIX_Institutional_Support_Project_Flyer.pdf

Can AI democratize higher education, or create new inequalities?

In this week's blog post, Saqib Raza argues that AI is becoming a form of digital capital in Pakistan's higher education system.

Key reflections:

🔹 Access to AI is not the same as benefiting from AI.

🔹 Family background, English proficiency, digital skills, and educational opportunities shape who can turn AI into academic advantage.

🔹 Without targeted support, AI may deepen existing inequalities rather than reduce them.

🔹 The challenge is not simply introducing AI into education, but ensuring it does not become a new form of privilege.

Read more: https://www.norrageducation.org/ai-as-digital-capital-new-inequalities-in-pakistans-higher-education/

On this , we open a call for contributions for our blog series.

We welcome contributions from the Global South, whose perspectives may be underrepresented. Contributions may respond to one of our Thematic Priorities and share:

⚫️ Insights from research, innovations and projects developed and implemented by Southern experts and tackling issues in the South.

⚫️ Global knowledge inequities, in and across education research, policy and/or practice.

⚫️ Southern research and expertise in education policy and practice.

⚫️ Transforming Development in Education, and education beyond colonial legacies

https://www.norrageducation.org/norrag-blog-series-thesouthalsoknows/

Как язык влияет на то, кто создает знания и чьи голоса слышны в образовании?

В Международный день русского языка ознакомьтесь с региональными
изданиями специального выпуска NORRAG, переведенными на русский язык, а
также со многими другими ресурсами из библиотеки ресурсов NSI.

Язык — это не просто инструмент коммуникации, он формирует доступ к
знаниям, участие в политических дебатах и то, чьи взгляды признаются в
системах образования. Продвижение многоязычных и основанных на местных
особенностях знаний имеет важное значение для построения более

инклюзивного и справедливого будущего.

Региональная русская версия специального выпуска № 10 NORRAG теперь
доступна онлайн на нашем сайте!

🔗 Изучите библиотеку ресурсов специальных выпусков NORRAG (NSI):
https://resources.norrageducation.org/?search&categories=3&date_from_value=1986-11-01&date_to_value=2026-01-01&search_term=&page=0

🌍 On World Environment Day, we highlight NORRAG Special Issue 07 “Education in Times of Climate Change.”

NSI 07 explores how education can equip learners to engage in climate action and support the transformation towards more sustainable and just futures. It reflects the growing urgency for education systems to respond meaningfully to climate change.

Key themes include:

📚 transformative pedagogy and co-learning
🌱 climate action and sustainability education
📖 curriculum and policy innovation
🤝 youth voices, activism, and diverse knowledge systems

Interested in contributing to NORRAG’s engagement? We are open for new blog submissions on Provocations for Education from Youth Climate Activism and Social Emotional Learning, and Pro-Environmental Behaviour. 🌿

Read more: https://www.norrageducation.org/event-highlights-launch-of-nsi07-on-education-in-times-of-climate-change/

On the Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, we highlight the vital role of local actors such as Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) in addressing the impact of armed conflict on children and vulnerable communities.

In the NORRAG blog on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus, Aishwarya Shetty and Faiza Hassan spotlight the ERRs—recipients of the 2025 Chatham House Prize—who exemplify how local actors are already “doing the nexus” by mitigating the worst effects of war.

The challenge ahead is whether global systems can catch up and genuinely support local leadership, solutions, and actors.

Read more: https://www.norrageducation.org/whose-nexus-when-the-system-lags-behind-frontline-actors-the-case-of-the-emergency-response-rooms-err-in-sudan/

🌍 In this blog post, Noor Muhammad Ansari explores how gaps in education data systems contribute to the invisibility and exclusion of the world’s most marginalised children, and why stronger learner-level data is essential to ensure every child is visible, reachable, and supported.

Key insights:

📊 Data gaps are a structural driver of exclusion, not just a technical issue

👧 The most marginalised children are often those missing from datasets entirely

🏠 Community-based tracking can identify and enrol out-of-school children at scale

📱 Digital monitoring tools are enabling early identification and re-enrolment in multiple countries

🔗 Read more: https://www.norrageducation.org/why-education-data-systems-matter-for-the-worlds-most-excluded-children/

On the , we recognise the vital role that parents and caregivers play in shaping children’s , , and .

Long before children enter a classroom, begins at home—through encouragement, curiosity, care, and the everyday support that helps young people develop confidence and a love of learning.

As we work towards inclusive, equitable, and quality education for all, let us also acknowledge and support the families whose commitment helps make learning possible.

In this week’s blog post, Rosa Tiziana Bruno explores how the Intertextual Narrative Protocol (PNI) can rebuild social cohesion in schools in the aftermath of digital fragmentation and emotional isolation.

Three key insights:

• Emotional distress in classrooms can be transformed into motivational learning through storytelling, intertextuality, and embodied experiences.
• “Stop and go” narrative devices help students regulate impulsive reactions, fostering empathy and reducing relational aggression.
• The PNI offers a scalable, evidence-based framework aligned with UNESCO initiatives and the UN 2030 Agenda for peace-centred education.

From body mapping to symbolic diplomacy, the article highlights how narrative practices can strengthen resilience, empathy, and community in education systems worldwide.

Read more here: https://www.norrageducation.org/beyond-the-digital-turn-the-pni-protocol-as-a-symbolic-infrastructure-for-social-cohesion/