Pasi Sahlberg

Pasi Sahlberg is a Finnish educator and author who has worked as schoolteacher, teacher educator, researcher, and policy advisor in Finland and has studied education systems, analysed education policies, and advised education reforms around the world. He has written and spoken widely about teaching and learning in school, teachers work and education, educational change, international education issues, and the future of schools.

His book “Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland” won the 2013 Grawemeyer Award for an idea that has potential to change the world. He is also a recipient of the 2012 Education Award in Finland, the 2014 Robert Owen Award in Scotland, the 2016 Lego Prize, and Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Resident Fellowship in 2017.

He is a former senior education specialist at the World Bank (in Washington, DC), a lead education expert at the European Training Foundation (in Torino, Italy), a director general of CIMO at the Finland’s Ministry of Education (in Helsinki, Finland), and a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University. He has served a member of several international organisations, editorial boards of academic journals, and advised number of governments on education issues. 

His most recent book (co-authored with William Doyle) is "Let the Children Play: How more play will save our schools and help children thrive" (Oxford University Press, 2019). He is a professor of education policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.