International Conference and Consultation on Education

In 2022, the Trump Foundation convened an international conference on education with guest keynote speakers, John Hattie, Lee Shulman, and Jim Knight, attended by 900 Israeli participants. The conference was held at the Tel Aviv Port, in collaboration with seven additional philanthropic foundations, each showcasing examples of education programs from its portfolio. The conference ended with the recording of a video clip of hundreds of teachers singing together. The clip was aired on TV Channel 12 as part of the Teachers’ Day celebrations.

The conference was followed by a day of closed sessions in which the foundation team consulted with the international guests. Dozens of the foundation’s partners joined the discussions that informed the preparation of an updated roadmap strategy for the foundation. The primary themes raised by the participants highlighted the untapped potential of female students in secondary school, leading to gender gaps in high-tech, and the importance of mental skills and character traits that reinforce cognitive processes, particularly for students in excellence tracks.

This modus operandi of an open conference adjacent to a closed consultation, was tested as an alternative model to the foundation’s traditional biannual gathering of its international advisory council. Following the success of this method in 2022, we recommend convening a conference and consultations in November 2024 as well. The proposed program will include inviting renowned education experts, such as Andy Hargreaves and Carol Dweck from the USA, Michael Gove from the UK and Amnon Shashua from Israel, as guest speakers in an open conference, and conferring with them regarding the foundation’s plans in a closed consultation day.

The conference and consultations will be influenced by the war in our region. Hopefully, the war will be over by then and the education system will already be engaged in healing and reconstruction. Therefore, the conference will highlight the importance of education after the war to ensure a better future for Israel. PISA 2022, which exposed a global effect of the pandemic and increasing gaps, alongside relative progress for Israel’s top performing students, will be thoroughly analyzed. The emerging technological revolution of AI will also be a major theme, taking a deep dive into the implications for education.

We intend to invite several colleague foundations who joined our learning group with JFN to join us in the open conference, hosting 1,000 guests.

* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 554