Dr. Pasi Sahlberg

Dr. Pasi Sahlberg is a Finnish educator and scholar.  He currently serves as Visiting Professor of Education at Harvard University in the United States.  He has worked as a schoolteacher, teacher educator and policy advisor in Finland and has been a central figure in planning innovation and implementing education reforms in Finland since the 1990s. He has served the World Bank in Washington, DC, the European Commission in Italy and acted as an external expert to the OECD advising governments in more than 50 countries.
His research interests include international education policies, educational change, and classroom teaching and learning.  He is a board member of several educational organizations, including the ASCD, the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education, and the Centre on International Education Benchmarking and an editorial board member of several scientific journals.
He speaks around the world about educational improvement, enhancing equity and excellence in schools, and the future of schooling. He has spoken at the national parliaments in England, Scotland, New Zealand, Sweden, and addressed the European Parliament in Brussels. His award-winning book, Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? (Teachers College Press, 2011), is a bestseller and has been translated into over 20 languages. 
In his recent job as Director General of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation at the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki, Finland, he led the internationalization of the Finnish education system. He is Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki and at the University of Oulu, Finland and recipient of the 2012 Education Award in Finland and the 2013 Grawemeyer Award.