Pasi Sahlberg is a Finnish educator, scholar, thought-leader and author. He has worked as a mathematics and science teacher, teacher-educator, researcher, and policy-maker in Finland, and studied education systems and advised education system reforms around the world. His international career includes senior specialist at the World Bank in Washington DC (2002-2007), lead education specialist at the European Training Foundation in Torino, Italy (2007-2009), and visiting professor at Harvard University (2014-2016). He also has extensive experience as an education policy expert to the OECD, European Commission, and the Finnish Government's Foreign Ministry.
Pasi has served as a commissioner at the Swedish School Commission, advisor to the Scottish Prime Minister and advisor to the Mayor of Reykjavik in Iceland, and as a member of the leadership council to the Minister of Education in Finland. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the ASCD (USA), chaired the Open Society Foundations' General Education Board, as a member of the Governing Board of the University of Oulu (Finland) and is a member of the board of directors of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) and a member of the Advisory Board to the Center for International Education benchmarking (USA).
Pasi has written widely about pedagogy, teacher and teaching, and education system change. He has published over 170 academic and professional articles and 22 books. He is a member of several editorial boards, and has supervised or examined 15 doctoral dissertations in Finland, England, Italy and the U.S. His most recent books include Finnish Lessons 2.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland (2015), Hard Questions on Global Educational Change (with Jonathan Hasak and Vanessa Rodriguez, 2016), Empowered Educators in Finland (with Karen Hammerness and Raisa Ahtiainen, 2017), FinnishED Leadership: Four big, inexpensive ideas to transform education (2018), and Let the Children Play! How more play will save our schools and help children thrive (with William Doyle, 2019).
He is the deputy director and research director of the Gonski Institute for Education.