Stockholm goes north: ICE students in Jyväskylä SDG4 Seminar 2025 - Leadership in education

Equipped with motivation, curiosity and huge bags of groceries, nine ICE students arrived on Sunday night at the Airbnb in Jyväskylä. Quickly after arrival, bags and beds were sorted, and a wrap-roll session – learning from each other how to assemble overloaded wraps – was initiated to ensure our strength for the upcoming event. To fully secure our readiness, some of us jumped in the sauna to prepare for two exciting days full of inspiring input and thought-provoking exchange with other students and scholars at the leadership conference.

On Monday morning, crisp air and bright sun woke us up and the bus brought the nine of us to Jyväskylä University. On colourful pillows we took place among a diverse group of approximately 200 participants to listen to the welcoming talks of the SDG4 Seminar 2025 – Leadership in Education. Another 200 people joined us online, creating the sense of a big community with a shared purpose. The panel discussion Development Needs for ECE Leadership – Global and Local Perspectives, brought us to South Africa and leadership in early childhood, continuing to Finland's approach to leadership in education.

The afternoon included workshops ready to inform us about leadership styles and dimensions, where we listened and worked together, practicing leadership skills like empathy and collaboration. Another round of panel discussion brought us all over the world, discussing postcolonial education, responsibilities of countries, as they posed questions that made us rethink educational leadership. To conclude the first day, a bellybolly performance celebrated SDG4 and eventually everyone joined the dance. With tasty cakes, tarts, and drinks, we were able to talk and connect with fellow scholars. Back at the Airbnb, we collaboratively cooked dinner and made final preparations for the workshop the next day. The sauna helped us to warm up our bodies and unwind from the day.

Day 2: ICE Workshop Campus Crucible

Tuesday morning started early, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee diffused through the house. A bit tired but very motivated, we made our way to the university. After the keynote presentations Leadership in Education: Lead for Learning and Nature – Based Education: Building a New Past about the GEM report and environmental responsibilities of educational leaders, we had little time to prepare the workshop room. It was the big day for us to present our workshop Campus Crucible: Leadership Under Fire.

Collaborative Leadership in Action

The aims of our workshop sought to create an understanding for collaborative leadership through immersive role-playing-based simulations of real-world school crises: Natural Disaster, Virus Outbreak and Bullying Exposé.

According to the GEM report 2025 collaboration is one of the essential leadership dimensions and therefore an important part of successful leadership in education. Likewise, clear, frequent, honest and consistent communication is key components for keeping all parties informed about the actions being taken in order to manage the crisis with shared knowledge and skills.

Roughly 18 students and scholars distributed in the room, creating three groups to practice and experience leadership in crisis in role games. The room was filled with engaging talks and laughter, and, after a few minutes, the teams got into the game and collaborated to tackle the crisis.

Reflections and Takeaways

Time passed quickly, and afterwards, we came together for a big group discussion to evaluate the experiences. The participants reflected on their own roles in the game, gaining empathy for other perspectives, and collaborated to navigate through crises. Happy faces among workshop participants and ICE students showed us the success of our workshop. After another eye-opening panel talk, Sustainability and Leadership in Education, we made our way back to Stockholm, our bags filled with experiences and aspirations, and new contacts from other master’s programmes in education.

Note from Professor Meeri Hellsten, founder of partnership:

The partnership between Stockholm University and Jyväskylä University has been continuing since 2014. Our staff, lecturers, students and postgraduates have travelled to the SDG Seminar since 2016 to share and engage in dialogue on sustainable education. We take pride in our ICE master-students’ and doctoral candidates’ contributions to this extraordinary annual event, and invite our partners at JYU to visit our International Seminar at SU again in February 2026.