23 Years of Practice, One Emerging Framework
For more than two decades, the International ICT Seagulls Projects have demonstrated that meaningful learning grows through collaboration, diversity and shared responsibility.
The IMECE Declaration is an attempt to articulate the theoretical foundations of this long-standing educational experience for the age of Artificial Intelligence.
IMECE DECLARATION
Executive Summary
For Human-Centred Collaborative Intelligence in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Version 1.0 | July 2026
Humanity has never possessed more powerful tools for generating knowledge than it does today. Yet at the same time, we face some of the most complex global challenges in history: climate change, social inequality, democratic participation, ethical governance, sustainability, peacebuilding, and the profound transformation of education through Artificial Intelligence.
These challenges cannot be solved by individual intelligence alone.
They require collaborative intelligence—the capacity of diverse people to think, learn, create, and solve problems together around a shared purpose.
The IMECE Declaration proposes a human-centred framework inspired by the Turkish tradition of IMECE, a centuries-old culture of cooperation based on solidarity, trust, shared responsibility, and mutual contribution.
Within this perspective, IMECE is far more than collaborative work.
It represents:
- a culture of shared purpose,
- a model of collective learning,
- a framework for collaborative problem-solving,
- an ethical approach to leadership,
- a process of co-creation,
- and a social innovation that enables communities to achieve together what no individual can accomplish alone.
This Declaration argues that Artificial Intelligence should not be viewed primarily as a replacement for human expertise, nor merely as a tool for enhancing individual performance.
Instead, AI should become a thinking partner that strengthens human collaboration, expands collective creativity, and supports collaborative decision-making while preserving human dignity, diversity, and ethical responsibility.
The future of education therefore requires a fundamental shift.
The central question is no longer:
“How can Artificial Intelligence improve individual learning?”
Rather, we should ask:
“How can Artificial Intelligence strengthen collaborative intelligence for the common good?”
The IMECE Framework proposes that the purpose of education in the AI era is not simply to develop more knowledgeable individuals, but to cultivate communities capable of learning together, thinking together, creating together, and solving complex problems together.
Drawing upon more than two decades of educational innovation through the International ICT Seagulls Projects (www.bilisimcimartilar.com/English), this Declaration reinterprets IMECE as:
- an educational philosophy,
- a collaborative learning model,
- a human-centred leadership approach,
- a framework for responsible AI,
- and a foundation for sustainable educational transformation.
Artificial Intelligence reaches its highest value when it strengthens human collaboration rather than replacing it. The future belongs not to Artificial Intelligence alone, but to Human-Centred Collaborative Intelligence.
This document is presented as a foundational concept paper intended to stimulate scholarly dialogue and to support future theoretical, empirical, and international research on collaborative intelligence in AI-shaped education.
Suggested Citation:
Köksal, H. (2026). IMECE Declaration: For Human-Centred Collaborative Intelligence in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Version 1.0). Foundational Concept Paper. Istanbul Kent University & YİMEDER &WCTQEE Türkiye.
