The Future is Collective Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 2025

Capability Activities Building movementsCreating a shared narrative: Shikshagraha is creating a shared narrative that collective action and micro-improvements at the school and classroom level can create a resurgence of education equity in India. Expanding the stakeholder base: Shikshagraha ensures that collectives are composed of multiple stakeholders, including civil society, government, business and communities, to improve school environments and outcomes. Organizing field-level convenings: Shikshagraha hosts dialogues around education equity across the country (Shiksha Samvaad for education enablers; Shiksha Chaupal for grassroots education leaders). These dialogues culminate in the annual convening, InvokED, which brings together education leaders across the country. Celebrating key milestones: Shikshagraha emphasizes an ethos of “small wins” that unpacks school improvements into “micro improvements” and encourages schools to celebrate when these small milestones are achieved. Shaping cultural capital: Shikshagraha has a movement “anthem” in which children sing and dance to music videos. Hosting learning communities and building capacityCodifying a methodology: Shikshagraha has codified its “micro-improvements” approach so that each district can implement the methodology through the collectives. Capturing and disseminating learnings: Shikshagraha captures the learnings of collectives in case studies, playbooks, impact reports, short stories, blog posts and videos. Hosting communities of practice: Shikshagraha builds peer learning communities for each collective in order to cross-pollinate learnings across schools and classrooms. Consulting, coaching and training: Districts and schools are supported by network partners, including anchor partners (providing training and support to state-level leaders) and momentum partners (providing grassroots support to schools and communities). Strengthening data systemsCreating shared definitions: Shikshagraha and the collective partners use common terms and definitions to describe principles, roles, approaches and activities. This unique terminology helps create alignment across districts and partners. Developing shared metrics: Shikshagraha has a shared set of metrics to measure collectives’ impact. These metrics are shared at the network, systems, school and student levels. Collecting, analysing and sharing data: Shikshagraha is in the process of developing a public dashboard which will collect and share a common set of metrics for collectives. Influencing institutionsDeveloping policy recommendations: Shikshagraha works closely at the national government level to influence policies related to education leadership and decentralization. At the state and district levels, Shikshagraha aligns policy and state priorities with movement principles and enables budget and resource allocations for school leadership programmes. Support to public institutions: Shikshagraha works within the existing public school system, with anchor partners and grassroots partners providing different levels of support to national, state, district and schools. Investing in systemic solutionsSub-granting to collectives: As co-builders, Mantra4Change and ShikshaLokam are creating a collective pool of funding for Shikshagraha to enable programmes, research, advocacy and convening, with a focus on long-term, multi-year funding to enable strong partnerships.Collective action activities The Future is Collective: Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 44