How do we change the world?

By Kalle Vihtari, doctor of education and lecturer, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Finland

The original text was published on September 7, 2026 at Miten maailma muutetaan? – Nuorten Agenda2030 -ryhmä

This spring, more than 60,000 young people completed their comprehensive school education in Finland. In Finnish public discourse, school curricula are sometimes criticised, both fairly and unfairly. However, I would argue that many of those taking part in these discussions have not genuinely familiarised themselves with the content of the documents that guide educational institutions.

Tensions are evident in the everyday life of schools. Teachers hope for a calm learning environment that allows them to focus on teaching, while society expects education to respond continuously to a rapidly changing environment and the needs of the future.

The Sustainable Development Goals have been part of our discussions and on our desks for decades. For young people, however, these themes are about much more than updating documents or understanding policy content. At its best, the education system provides opportunities to explore how sustainable development goals are understood, how people engage with them and how they can be translated into action. An action-oriented approach is therefore one of the most important ways of addressing these issues.

In educational and career guidance, we often speak about agency. Exploring agency from both an individual and a societal perspective, particularly in the context of sustainable careers, is becoming increasingly important. We are living in a time of exceptionally high youth unemployment. At the same time, global crises and growing social inequality are ever-present in young people’s lives through the screens they interact with every day. In circumstances such as these, we need hope, and perhaps even radical hope.

As professionals working in education and lifelong guidance, we can also pause to consider what we can learn from young people. For many of them, eco-social education and awareness have been a natural part of their upbringing and worldview. Holistic thinking, in which personal dreams are considered alongside collective aspirations and collaborative action, is more firmly embedded today than it was when the Agenda 2030 goals were originally drafted.

Young people’s participation as problem-solvers in addressing global and societal challenges can be explored through the lens of how youth is defined and how people of different ages can participate in decision-making. When discussing young people, we often find ourselves referring to very different life circumstances: on the one hand, a 13-year-old searching for their voice in society and, on the other, a 28-year-old who may already have a family and significant responsibilities.

It is important to ask how all voices can be heard in discussions about the future. The challenges of sustainable development require broad societal dialogue in which everyone has the opportunity to contribute to developing solutions.

For a long time, we have examined individual and societal actions through the concept of the carbon footprint. It continues to play an important role. More recently, however, greater attention has been given to the concept of the carbon handprint. This concept highlights the potential of individuals and societies to make a positive contribution to shaping the global operating environment and to promote actions that sustain and restore the conditions necessary for life.

Eco-social education adds another dimension to this way of thinking. It views human beings as part of a wider ecological whole and as responsible actors in maintaining it. In connection with the carbon handprint, we can also speak of radical hope: a mindset that actively seeks to build a better future despite uncertainty.

Respect is central to discussions about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In public debate, we encounter situations in which not everyone is willing to engage with these themes. In such cases, it is important to consider how we can foster a culture of dialogue in which different perspectives are heard and respected.

Although schools and educational institutions play a significant role, responsibility does not rest with them alone. It is equally important to consider how families and parents can be included in this constructive dialogue.

A sense of time and perspective is essential in educational and career guidance when considering an individual’s life path. In the same way, we should increasingly develop intergenerational plans, both globally and within our societies. Agenda 2030 has been an important step forward, generating valuable discussions and practical action. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to ask how future agendas might extend their vision more boldly into the next century. Our vision must be sufficiently ambitious for even our smallest steps to eventually bring us closer to it.