Deeper Than Knowledge
A digital documentary produced in partnership with New Pedagogies for Deep Learning
Our world is undergoing massive change and education systems haven’t kept up. Students need more than book knowledge to thrive today, and schools everywhere are struggling to adapt. Meanwhile, public dialogue is dominated by news media that present efforts to improve education in a context of crisis or conflict, without clear solutions. The result is weariness and pessimism among the public, eroding support for positive change.
The challenge
News media do a good job of reporting on what’s broken with our education systems; however, journalists don’t traditionally cover promising solutions with the same vigor. A recent study found that the majority of education journalism focused on student achievement gaps on standardized tests and funding shortfalls — oversimplifications of the problem. Challenges were framed as conflict between parties (the teacher’s union versus the government, for example) or in partisan terms. Stories focused on single schools or political figures rather than on system-level innovation. Students, who were quoted in only three per cent of coverage, were not described as players in changing their own education. For example, no one was asking, “What would education that is irresistible to students look like?” Without media coverage that engages the public in constructive dialogue about solutions, perceived barriers to change can seem insurmountable. Communities need forward-looking, serious journalism about responses to problems facing education.
What we did
The partnership
In response to this challenge, we partnered with New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL), a multi-stakeholder partnership that aims to transform education. We embedded a journalist-in-residence in NPDL’s living laboratory: a network of hundreds of schools in seven countries.
The platform
The product of over a year of research, Deeper Than Knowledge is a digital storytelling platform that empowers its audience with information to help them catalyze change in their own communities. The platform includes stand-alone stories, videos, infographics and animations that take a deeper look at how school is changing in Australia, Canada, Finland, the United States and Uruguay from students’ perspectives. 
“Our collaboration with Discourse Media wasn’t only about spreading the important insights stemming from our schools’ work. Deeper Than Knowledge also helped us and educators within the NPDL partnership by revealing the connections between their work on the ground and the global deep learning movement.” – Joanne McEachen, President of The Learner First and Global New Measures, Director of New Pedagogies for Deep Learning
Journalistic integrity
By committing to a framework that gave the journalists autonomy, NPDL enabled the journalism team to critically and independently identify trends and promising solutions. This approach helped NPDL track its progress on the ground, identify barriers and communicate its impact to its partners. The authenticity of the journalism was also key in engaging the public and establishing media partnerships. The project was funded by Collaborative Impact, which managed contributions from corporate sponsors including Intel, Microsoft and Promethean and acted as a buffer to protect the journalism’s integrity by preventing funders from influencing content.
