The Educational Vision and Mission Framework (EVMF) was originally called The Yin-Yang Vision. However, this did not 'travel' well across different cultural contexts and also mixed up purpose, vision, mission and intended outcomes.
The Educational Vision and Mission Framework (EVMF)
This framework was developed to support strategic thinking about the design of education systems. It is intended as a tool that has global relevance, supporting both top down and bottom up development of shared understandings and ownership of the key elements underpinning your education system. Critically the EVMF is designed to encourage localisation in different educational jurisdictions.
The framework recognises four different levels related to thinking strategically about education systems:
- Purpose - why the system exists, its raison d'être.
- Vision - an aspirational statement about where the education system is heading. This is informed by the purpose.
- Mission - this is a statement that guides your actions in a way that helps you move towards achieving the vision. The mission statement should include:
- Values and beliefs, including the theoretical stance in relation to learning
- Critical elements necessary in order to move towards the vision
- Intended outcomes - the expected results, which might be framed as goals that learners are intended to achieve
| The EVMF defines the purpose of education as being to prepare people for life now and in the future. This is deliberately broad. It also fails to recognise that there are other purposes for (parts of) the education system, such as schools providing custodial care for young people so that their parents/carers can engage in paid employment.
The EVMF's vision for education is encapsulated in the the phrase: Individual Fulfilment and Universal wellbeing, as illustrated in Figure 1.
The EVMF's mission is underpinned by a sociocultural view of learning - see the Innovative Pedagogy Framework for definitions of the key features of this theoretical stance. Figure 2 provides an overview of the key elements of the educational mission statement.
Figure 2 The key elements of the mission within the EVMF (6-Nov-2017)
Reactions to the EVMF
The first version of the EVMF, which was called the Yin-Yang vision, was shared with educators representing eight countries (Cambodia, Morocco, Thailand, USA, England, Ireland, Finland, Bulgaria) who were all part of a working group (looking at the issue of alignment in education) at EDUsummIT 2017. They all agreed that it would work well in their country. It was then shared with all of the members of EDUsummIT 2017, who represented over 29 countries, and again was well received.
The EVMF addresses Goal 4 of UNESCO's sustainable development goals, which specifically calls for equality of access to education and the promotion of life-long learning. It also encapsulates all of the other sustainable development goals.
The key implementation challenge is getting agreement about how to decide if you are moving towards the achievement of the EVMF - what metrics should you use? This of course relates to the intended outcomes, which will vary depending upon decisions made about the interpretation of the mission element of the EVMF.