This article aims to connect and ground the innovative pedagogies described in this issue by looking at the meaning of 'pedagogy' in a holistic way. Drawing on a strong European tradition which originated in the German Enlightenment, it outlines deep principles such as independent thinking, criticality, freedom and social engagement. In particular, it draws on work by Wolfgang Klafki to update and adapt these principles to the urgent needs of a world in crisis. Klafki, for example, shows how education can be simultaneously challenging and learner-friendly, and how curriculum can be shaped to focus on the major issues of our time. The final part of the article challenges the reductionism of the set of ideas which underpin government policy, and the intellectual limitations of government-sponsored ideologues in their facile use of the concept of a 'knowledge-based curriculum.'