Future Learning Design Podcast

For new parents and early years educators, there’s a wealth of guidance and support for how to understand what’s happening for our babies and toddlers, but when it comes to the stories we tell about adolescence, an equally important period of significant change, sometimes it’s more just get your head down and get through it! As millions of young people make the big transition to Middle School, I was very curious to learn from one of the real experts, not only of the patterns of change and development at this time, but also of how to create educational environments that really take these young people seriously!  Chris Balme is an education leader, writer, and school founder, passionate about helping young people discover more of their human potential. He is the author of Finding the Magic in Middle School: Tapping Into the Power and Potential of the Middle School Years, which was published in 2022.  Chris currently serves as Founding Principal at Hakuba International School. He is also the Founder & Director of Argonaut, an online advisory program for middle schoolers around the world. Prior to this, Chris co-founded and served as Head of School at Millennium School, a highly successful lab school in San Francisco. Chris has received the Ashoka Fellowship as a leading changemaker in education, and regularly speaks, trains, and writes for parents and teachers around the world. For more, see Chris’s newsletter, Growing Wiser. Social Links LinkedIn: @chris-balme - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbalme/ Instagram: @chrisbalme - https://www.instagram.com/chrisbalme/ 

Carol Sanford (⁠⁠https://carolsanford.com/⁠⁠) is one of the most important thinkers of the last few decades. Like no-one else, her work calls out the deeply damaging effects of Behaviourism on all aspects of our lives, especially learning and education, and advocates for a living systems approach to business, education and community. Carol’s latest book, ‘No More Gold Stars: Regenerating Capacity to Think for Ourselves’ is in some ways a synthesis of many of her most powerful ideas that she has developed through a lifetime of practice and learning from various indigenous and wisdom traditions. But it also calls out the damaging Behaviourist ideas that have ‘become ubiquitous in all our lives and institutions’ and undermined our trust in our abilities to know ourselves and think for ourselves - in all of our various and richly diverse ways. As Tyson Yunkaporta calls it in his amazing foreword to the book, “the sharp and pointy gift that keeps on giving”. As someone living with ALS, Carol’s voice can be a little hard to understand at times, so if you would like it you will find a transcript link here: ⁠⁠https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wkr31QCA2MO5y9AynAq0L7Qb1bStlk0muFralyIfBeM/edit?usp=sharing⁠⁠ (as well as the automatic transcription on Spotify and some other podcast platforms). As Carol says in Part One: “I use the 7 First Principles of Living Systems to be rigorous in examination, precise in focus and in order to rise up and venerate life. Otherwise, we fool ourself for the sake of our ego.” (https://carolsanford.medium.com/the-regenerative-education-system-and-practice-part-1-23ffcc86326e) Part Two:  Principle 1 - Engage with wholes Principle 2 - Evoke essence Part Three:  Principle 3 - Realise individual potential Principle 4 - Development of mind and beings Principle 5 - Work within nestedness Part Four:  Principle 6 - Laser focus to nodal Principle 7 - Regenerate energy fields (Due to Medium paywall, I am also sharing all of the articles, Parts 1-4, here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12HWRFUbzmWpv4_k7JxLFgn7F99r8UG4o/view?usp=drive_link) Carol refers to Alice Waters, chef and restauranteur who started the Edible Schoolyard movement at Berkeley. ⁠⁠https://search.worldcat.org/title/Edible-Schoolyard-:-a-universal-idea/oclc/1280875278⁠⁠ About Carol: For four decades, Carol has worked with great leaders of successful businesses such as Google, DuPont, Intel, P&G, and Seventh Generation, educating them to develop their people and ensure a continuous stream of innovation that continually deliver extraordinary results. Carol is a founder and designer of ⁠⁠The Regenerative Business Development Community⁠⁠ with lifetime members of almost 500 members, meeting in locations around the world and now online with leaders from multiple companies learning together in bi-quarterly events as well as an Annual ⁠⁠Regenerative Business Summit,⁠⁠ Carol is also a founder and designer of The Regenerative ⁠⁠Change Agent Development community⁠⁠, with members from three regions- Americas, EMEA, Deep Pacific with over 30 events a year in person and online with regenerative change agents learning about and creating change together. Carol is the best-selling author of No More Gold Stars: Regenerating Capacity to Think for Ourselves, ⁠⁠The Regenerative Business⁠⁠: Redesign Work, Cultivate Human Potential, Achieve Extraordinary Outcomes; ⁠⁠The Responsible Entrepreneur⁠⁠: Four Game-Changing Archetypes for Founders, Leaders, and Impact Investors, ⁠⁠The Responsible Business⁠⁠: Reimagining Sustainability and Success;  and ⁠⁠No More Feedback⁠⁠: Cultivate Consciousness at Work.  Her books have won over 15 awards so far and are required reading at leading business and management schools including Harvard, Stanford, Haas Berkeley and MIT. Social Links LinkedIn - @carolsanfordkeynote - https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolsanfordkeynote/ Instagram - @carolsanfordauthor - https://www.instagram.com/carolsanfordauthor/

As you will have heard on previous episodes with Sandra Milligan, Yong Zhao, folks from Mastery Transcript Consortium and Rethinking Assessment, standardised tests and assessments are often one of the biggest barriers to change in education as these credentials and school-leaving certificates often hold the key that opens up the next door or higher education for many young people. This week I’m so excited to share an amazing success story of someone who decided that this compromise was just unacceptable for their young people.  Viv White AM is CEO and co-founder (with John Hogan) of Big Picture Learning Australia (BPLA) - https://www.bigpicture.org.au/ - a non-profit company established in Australia in 2006. Building on the work started by Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor in the US in 1995 (https://www.bigpicture.org/), Big Picture Learning Australia’s design for personalised, student-driven learning is being implemented in over 50 schools around Australia. Viv has also pioneered a new non-ATAR credential known as the International Big Picture Learning Credential (IBPLC) that is warranted by the University of Melbourne, and accepted by 17 universities around Australia. In 2018 Viv was appointed to the Order of Australia for her services to education and to the reengagement of young people in learning for life. Prior to leading BPLA, Viv was CEO of the Victorian Schools Innovation Commission and CEO of the Australian National Schools Network. She has a thirty-year history of international work in educational reform, research, policy and practice. Viv taught primary and secondary education for 13 years, worked in tertiary research for five years as a research fellow at Macquarie University and Victoria University, and served as an adjunct professor at the University of Western Sydney. Viv is a Fellow of the Australian Council of Education and was admitted, in 2014, to the Australian Businesswomen's Network Hall of Fame. Viv was also named one of The Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence in 2019. Find out more: LinkedIn: @viv-white - https://www.linkedin.com/in/viv-white-am-297642142/ Instagram: @bigpicture.edu.au - https://www.instagram.com/bigpicture.edu.au/  @bigpiclearning - https://www.instagram.com/bigpiclearning/ (US) Website: https://www.bigpicture.org.au/

Welcome back to the first episode in the new series of the Future Learning Design podcast. The podcast now has a lovely new home at Good Impact Labs (goodimpactlabs.com).  The first guest in this new series is the social philosopher and internationally best-selling author, Roman Krznaric In his book, The Good Ancestor, Roman challenged us all to consider the rights of future species and future citizens in the face of our current catastrophic obsession with short-term thinking. Now, Roman is leading us into the past to ask what can we learn from history in his fantastic new book History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity. His internationally bestselling books including The Good Ancestor, Empathy, The Wonderbox and Carpe Diem Regained, have been published in more than 25 languages. He is Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing and founder of the world’s first Empathy Museum.  After growing up in Sydney and Hong Kong, Roman studied at the universities of Oxford, London and Essex, where he gained his PhD in political science. Particularly known for his work on empathy and long-term thinking, his writings have been widely influential amongst political and ecological campaigners, education reformers, social entrepreneurs and designers. An acclaimed public speaker, his talks and workshops have taken him from a London prison to the TED global stage. Over half a million people have watched his RSA Animate video The Power of Outrospection Roman is a member of the Club of Rome and a Research Fellow of the Long Now Foundation. He previously worked as an academic, a gardener, a conversation activist and on human rights issues in Guatemala – the subject of his book What the Rich Don’t Tell the Poor. He is also a fanatical player of the medieval sport of real tennis, whose history he explores in The First Beautiful Game. Social Links X: @romankrznaric - https://x.com/romankrznaric  Website: https://www.romankrznaric.com/ 

What does it really mean to have 'agency' and how might we create more opportunities for young people to step into their agency in meaningful ways? Indra Adnan has been exploring this concept in communities around the world as well as in grassroots political organising. For over twenty years, Indra Adnan has been writing, consulting, network-building and event-organising on the themes of future politics, conflict transformation, the role of the arts and integral thinking. She is Founder and Co-initiator, together with Pat Kane, of The Alternative UK political platform, which answers the question: if politics is broken, what’s the alternative? Indra has been writing consistently about soft power, public diplomacy and the power of attraction and relationship in international relations for over a decade, in major UK and US publications. Indra is also a psycho-social therapist, founder of the Soft Power Network, and a writer and events producer. She has consulted to the World Economic Forum, Indian, Finnish and Danish governments, NATO, the Scottish Executive and the Institute of Contemporary Arts amongst others. Indra is currently Co-Lead in Bounce Beyond, a social enterprise network doing transformative work to cohere and connect the next global economies. Her book The Politics of Waking Up: Power & Possibility In The Fractal Age is published by Perspectiva Press. Social Links LinkedIn: @indra-adnan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/indra-adnan-6b4aa32/ Instagram: @politics.of.waking.up - https://www.instagram.com/politics.of.waking.up/

Wakanyi Hoffman is a storyteller, author, keynote speaker specialized in ubuntu philosophy, a scholar of indigenous knowledge, and narrative weaver of wisdom in AI. She was born and raised in Kenya before embarking on an adventure around the world and has so far lived in 8 countries on 4 continents.  In response to the limited presence of African stories by African storytellers in children’s literature, Wakanyi founded the African Folktales Project, an ongoing open-sourced resource of indigenous wisdom and knowledge for school children. Her diverse intercultural experiences have enriched her perspective on the human condition, while her commitment to cross-cultural knowledge sharing brings added value to her current academic fellowship appointment at The New Institute in Hamburg, Germany.  She is the author of many stories including Sala: Mountain Warrior (2024) and The Twelve Days of Christmas Safari. Wakanyi sits on many boards, such as the Kenya Education Fund, an organization dedicated to offering high school education to marginalized, gifted children. Additionally, her advisory role at The Contentment  Foundation underscores her dedication to global well-being. She is also a valued board member at Seeds of Wisdom, championing indigenous elders’ wisdom and knowledge exchange and is also a co-founder of HumanityLink.Org, a global digital communication solutions system for marginalized populations. Wakanyi is a curation partner on the Compassion Bot, a new AI revolution in conversations with compassion.   Wakanyi is a graduate of University College London (UCL), where her thesis proposed integrating indigenous knowledge into global education systems. She also teaches a summer course at Brooklyn College, and her storytelling Curriculum is used at Presidio Graduate School for teachers training as climate advocates.  Wakanyi is also a mother to four global nomad kids and together with her husband, they currently reside in The Netherlands.  Social Links Website: https://www.wakanyihoffman.com/ LinkedIn: @wakanyi-hoffman - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wakanyi-hoffman-77a9671a4/ Instagram: @waksnl - https://www.instagram.com/waksnl/

Simply trying to avoid or remove uncertainty and complexity from the lives of our young people (and our own) just isn't a viable strategy anymore! So what do we do instead? How might we intentionally build our adaptive capacity to thrive in the face of these dynamics? Dr. Glenda Eoyang works with public and private organizations to help them thrive in the face of overwhelming complexity and uncertainty. She is a pioneer in the field of human systems dynamics (HSD), which she founded. Through Human Systems Dynamic Institute, Glenda uses her Models and Methods to help others see patterns in the chaos that surrounds them, understand the patterns in simple and powerful ways, and take practical steps to shift chaos into order. Her clients include Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oxfam International, Canada School of Public Service, Cargill, Fraser Health Authority (BC), and Roche/Genentech. Glenda’s latest book, with co-author Royce Holladay, is Adaptive Action: Leveraging Uncertainty in Your Organization (Stanford University Press, April 2013). https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=21971 You can find out more about the Human Systems Dynamics Institute here: https://www.hsdinstitute.org/index.html Social Links LinkedIn: @glenda-eoyang - https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenda-eoyang-795786/

Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner are internationally renowned social learning theorists and consultants. Their pioneering writing and consulting is influential in diverse fields including learning theory, business, government, international development, healthcare, and education.  They founded the Social Learning Lab to host events on theory, practice, and leadership. Their more recent writing updated the theory in Learning in landscapes of practice and in the first volume in their new book series: Learning to make a difference: value creation in social learning spaces.  I can also highly recommend their Communities of practice guidebook as a really useful resource. Bev and Etienne's website - https://www.wenger-trayner.com/ Communities of practice within and across organizations: A guidebook (2nd edition) - https://www.wenger-trayner.com/cop-guidebook/ Learning to make a difference: value creation in social learning spaces - https://www.wenger-trayner.com/learning-to-make-a-difference-book/

What does it mean for those in culturally Eurocentric school systems around the world to learn from and with indigenous peoples about the role of education in community and connected with place? Should we even, after the horrors inflicted upon indigenous communities by settlers? These are delicate but important questions and it was a huge privilege to be able to sit down with Dr Marie Battiste to discuss them. Dr Marie Battiste is a citizen of the Mi’kmaq Nation of Potlotek First Nations and of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs in Maine. She is professor emerita in the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan. She is a widely published author and editor, an officer in the Order of Canada, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Among her multiple honours are a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, a University of Saskatchewan Distinguished Researcher Award, a Distinguished Academic Award from the Canadian Association of University Teachers, and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for Service to Canada. Dr Battiste's new book is out in November 2024: 'Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Canadian Obligation', co-written with James Sa'ke'j Youngblood Henderson. https://www.ubcpress.ca/protecting-indigenous-knowledge-and-heritage-new-edition

What are the 'future skills' our young people need, and will the university of the future be unrecognisable from the universities of today? Laura Eigbrecht and Professor Ulf-Daniel Ehlers have gathered some of the top thinkers around the world who are creating the university of the future. They join Tim this week to share some of these powerful ideas. 'Creating the University of the Future: A Global View on Future Skills and Future Higher Education' - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-42948-5 Laura Eigbrecht is a senior researcher at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University at the Chair of Educational Management and Lifelong Learning. As a doctoral candidate, she conducts research in the field of transformative and participatory future skills in higher education. After her binational bachelor's degree and her master's degree in children's and youth media, she worked at the children's channel of ARD and ZDF as well as in teaching and consulting in the field of migration, language and education. Professor Ulf-Daniel Ehlers is the founder of mindful-leaders.net and a serial social entrepreneur. He is a full Professor of Educational Management at Baden-Wurttemberg Cooperative State University. In 2011, he launched Germany’s first Cooperative University, now serving 35,000 students. In 2017, Ulf founded NextEducation (https://next-education.org/), focusing on the future of education and Future Skills. He served as Scientific Director at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology until 2023. Ulf has collaborated with over 30 universities globally and held leadership roles in EURASHE and EDEN. He has delivered keynotes in 45 countries and authored over 20 books and 300 scholarly articles. A trained systemic coach, Ulf integrates Future Skills into education for sustainable development. Social Links LinkedIn: @laura-eigbrecht - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-eigbrecht-60a586171/ @ulfehlers - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulfehlers/ X: @uehlers - https://twitter.com/uehlers

Information and connection were once scarce resources. But no longer! So what does this mean for the way education happens? This week, Dave Cormier, author of the fantastic new book 'Learning in a Time of Abundance: The Community is the Curriculum' joins Tim. https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12862/learning-time-abundance With 25 years of experience as teacher, researcher and author, Dave is interested in how technologies change what it means to learn and to have learned. He is currently a learning specialist for digital strategy and special projects at the Office of Open Learning at the University of Windsor in Ontario Canada. Social Links Website: https://davecormier.com/edblog/ LinkedIn: @davecormier - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davecormier/ Instagram: @cormierdave - https://www.instagram.com/cormierdave/

What would it mean for ALL of our young people to feel safe and that they belong in our schools? This week, it's fantastic to have Dr Emily Meadows with us on the podcast to talk about creating spaces of belonging for everyone, but in particular for LGBTQ+ young people. Dr. Emily Meadows (she/her) is an LGBTQ+ consultant and published author specializing in international schools. Emily creates an environment that is non-judgmental and engaging for her clients, while taking an intersectional approach that addresses both the why and the how of inclusion so that educators become confident and competent supporting LGBTQ+ students.  In addition to her doctoral degree, Emily holds master’s degrees in both Sexual Health and Counseling, and has worked as an international school counselor for over a decade. She researches, publishes, and trains school communities on equitable policy and practice, while also teaching for the LGBT Health Policy & Practice graduate program at George Washington University.  Emily has developed inclusion standards, referenda, and trainings for professional organizations such as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), The Fulbright Commission, the Association for International Educators and Leaders of Color (AIELOC), the Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE) and the American Psychological Association (APA). Having spent more than half of her life in international schools, Emily specializes in culturally-relevant solutions to promote equity and inclusion worldwide. Additional resources Supporting LGBTQ students: https://www.cois.org/about-cis/perspectives-blog/blog-post/~board/perspectives-blog/post/preparing-lgbtq-students-for-an-overnight-camp  "Transgender Student Support Toolkit for International School Counselors": https://iscainfo.com/Transgender-Student-Support Wheel of Safety and Belonging: https://www.cois.org/about-cis/perspectives-blog/blog-post/~board/perspectives-blog/post/can-diversity-equity-and-belonging-initiatives-create-division-in-schools-and-a-framework-to-help  LGBTQ+ Identity Affirmation in International Schools: An Ethical Framework for Educators: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/01614681231194416

There are many myths that hold teaching back. But more than any 'trad' or 'prog' debates about pedagogy, perhaps the most powerful one is the mind-body split. This week we welcome Professor Guy Claxton to talk about his forthcoming book on the importance of 're-membering' our learning bodies and reconnecting our ideas about education! Guy Claxton is Emeritus Professor at Winchester University and Visiting Professor of Education at King's College London. He has previously taught and researched at Oxford University, Bristol University, and the University of London Institute of Education, and is an internationally renowned cognitive scientist. Guy's books include The Future of Teaching and the Myths that Hold it Back (2021), Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind (1998); Wise Up (1999): The Challenge of Lifelong Learning; The Wayward Mind (2005); and Intelligence in the Flesh (2015). Recent books on education include Expansive Education (2013); What's the Point of School? (2008); Building Learning Power (2002); and, with Bill Lucas and others, New Kinds of Smart; The Learning Powered School (2011); and Educating Ruby (2015). Guy's Building Learning Power approach to teaching is widely used in all kinds of schools across the world. You can find more about Guy on his website at: https://www.guyclaxton.net/ The Active Inference paper by Laura Desirée di Paolo et al (2024), referenced by Guy in the conversation, can be found here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377634490_Active_Inference_Goes_to_School_The_Importance_of_Active_Learning_in_the_Age_of_Large_Language_Models Social Links X: @GuyClaxton - https://twitter.com/GuyClaxton

With the recent release of her book 'Every Child Can: Riverside School's Design-Led Approach to Empower Children', the wonderful Kiran Bir Sethi is joining us again on the podcast this week. Kiran Bir Sethi⁠ is a designer who became a teacher, a principal who grew into an education reformer and subsequently morphed into a social entrepreneur. A trained graphic designer from the National Institute of Design, she comfortably uses the language of design – iteration, prototype, design specs – to develop not only curriculum innovation, but also community-based social programmes. Kiran founded the award winning ⁠Riverside School⁠ in Ahmedabad, India, in 2001. Riverside, is viewed as a laboratory to prototype design processes that uses a systems approach to build a culture of empowerment, graduating young citizen leaders with an ‘I CAN Mindset’ – using their agency for the greater good. Riverside won the T4 Education 'World's Best School Prize' for innovation in 2023: https://t4.education/worlds-best-school-prizes/the-five-prizes/innovation/. In 2009, Kiran launched ⁠Design for Change⁠ which uses a simple 4 step design framework – FIDS (Feel, Imagine, Do, Share) to cultivate the I CAN mind-set in all children. Today, DFC is the world's largest movement of change - of and by children, and is in 60+ countries—impacting over 2.2 million children and 65,000 Teachers. Kiran is a judge for the prestigious YIDAN Prize and a Visiting Global Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 2019, she was awarded the Earth Prize in Luino, Italy, the Lexus Design Award for 2019, in Pune, India, and DFC has been recognised man times as one of the 100 most innovative educational programmes in the world by HundrED.org. Social Links Instagram: @kiranbirsethi - https://www.instagram.com/kiranbirsethi/ Twitter: ⁠@kiranbirsethi⁠ - https://twitter.com/kiranbirsethi LinkedIn: ⁠@kiranbirsethi - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiranbirsethi/

This episode will hopefully give you a sense of where the most promising organisations in the world who are innovating around assessment are at, and what the prospects are looking forward for significant assessment change. You can also check out Episode #72 with Sandra Milligan. I am joined by Prof. Sandra Milligan from Melbourne Metrics, Bill Lucas from Rethinking Assessment and Mike Flanagan and Patricia Russell from Mastery Transcript Consortium. Melbourne Metrics Website: https://education.unimelb.edu.au/melbourne-assessment New Metrics Partner Schools: https://education.unimelb.edu.au/melbourne-assessment/our-research/new-metrics#aboutThe International Big Picture Learning Credential: https://www.bigpicture.org.au/what-international-big-picture-learning-credential Sandra's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-milligan-223b384a?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAAp9jjsB5xVeP0Ygvbn2XC33I-bcL0ACsCY&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_all%3BOaCWQPVdS%2BKv0N3bE64NYw%3D%3D Melbourne Metrics on X: https://twitter.com/MelbMetrics  Rethinking Assessment Website: https://rethinkingassessment.com/ Rethinking Assessment in Education - The Case for Change: https://rethinkingassessment.com/assessment-around-the-world/ Blueprint for Change: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NoyUc3P-wFi_LCJS0SlzzUrQxkLC2WsG/view?usp=sharing Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) Website: https://mastery.org/ ETS and Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) Join Forces to Scale Skills Transcript: https://www.ets.org/news/press-releases/ets-mastery-transcript-consortium-mtc-join-forces-scale-skills-transcript.html MTC on X: https://twitter.com/MastTranscript MTC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masterytranscript/

Kevin Simpson is one of those rare special people who thrive on connecting others And bringing people together around shared causes and visions of a different kind of education system free from injustice and discrimination. Kevin is founder of the Association of International Educators and Leaders of Color (⁠https://aieloc.org/), and through AIELOC, one initiating partners of the International School Anti-Discrimination Taskforce (https://isadtf.org/). Alongside ECIS, Ecolint and IB, their collective aim is to "make schools truly diverse, inclusive, safe, equitable and welcoming for all students, staff and families". Kevin owns and operates KDSL Global (http://kdslglobal.com/), an international education consulting company which launched in 2016 in the US and the UAE. He and his team have served thousands of schools, educators, and leaders worldwide in over 60 countries. He is also the Co-Founder of the UAE Learning Network, leads the ASCD Connected Community for the GCC region, and is Co-Founder of Resourceya.  Kevin Simpson is a native of Flint, Michigan and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education and a Master of Education degree in Curriculum and Teaching from Michigan State University (USA). As we discuss in the podcast, Shwetangna Chakrabarty wrote a great piece about the 'Leadership for Radical Dreaming' at the AIELOC conference: https://www.tieonline.com/article/3674/radical-dreaming-aieloc-conference  Social Links LinkedIn: @kevin-simpson-kdslglobal - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simpson-kdslglobal/ Instagram: @kdslglobal - https://www.instagram.com/kdslglobal/ X: @GlobalKdsl - https://twitter.com/GlobalKdsl

All the talk about systems change in education is great, and a topic we cover lots on the podcast. But the current reality for many educators might feel very removed from such visions. And yet, when you get into the details of what really deep and energised inquiry looks like with curious and questioning young people in classrooms, the two worlds feel a lot closer. And there are few people that know the specifics of what great inquiry-based learning looks like in theory and practice better than Trevor Mackenzie, so it was fantastic to be able to sit down with him this week to chat about it. We talk about teacher dispositions, question routines, provocations, levels of structure, and also the way that an inquiry stance can show up in all cultures in different ways as humility and curiosity. Trevor MacKenzie (https://www.trevormackenzie.com/who-i-am) is an experienced teacher, author, keynote speaker and inquiry consultant who has worked in schools throughout Australia, Asia, North America, South Africa and Europe. Trevor’s passion is  supporting schools in implementing inquiry-based learning practices. He is a highly regarded speaker known for his heartfelt storytelling, kind demeanour, and student-first philosophy.   Trevor’s graduate research focused on identifying and removing the barriers to implementing inquiry-based learning in the K-12  setting. He has three publications: Dive into Inquiry, Inquiry Mindset Elementary Edition, and Inquiry Mindset Assessment Edition all published by Elevate Books Edu. He has vast experience supporting schools across several years in implementation strategies in public schools, international schools, and International Baccalaureate programmes (PYP/MYP/DP). As a classroom teacher in Victoria, BC, Canada, Trevor brings a unique lens to authorship, consultancy, keynoting, and research. He is in his own classroom working with scholars in inquiry and he visits schools around the world supporting them in their inquiry implementation. This provides rich context and experience, a holistic approach to the work, and authentic and refined resources to be shared. Trevor is the best selling author of three publications: author of Inquiry Mindset Assessment Edition (2021), co-author of Inquiry Mindset Elementary Edition (2018), and the author of Dive into Inquiry (2016) all published by Elevate Books Edu. Trevor's new book Inquiry Mindset Questions Edition will be published later this year: https://www.trevormackenzie.com/posts/2024/4/14/announcing-inquiry-mindset-questions-edition Social Links LinkedIn: @trevor-mackenzie - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-mackenzie-37103b261/ Instagram: @trev_mackenzie - https://www.instagram.com/trev_mackenzie/ X: @trev_mackenzie - https://twitter.com/trev_mackenzie

Over the last decade, there has been a surge of interest in the evidence and research-backing that support choices that educators and leaders are making in schools. In an effort to prove “what works” they reach for the Cognitive and so-called learning sciences. Personally, I’ve always felt a bit uncomfortable about how narrow these discussions are, focusing only on memory, cognitive load, retrieval and other terms that will be familiar to you if you’ve been involved in these discussions. As you’ll hear in this conversation with Dr Laura Desirèe Di Paolo, our brains are not simply memory machines! In fact, our mind-brain-bodies are incredible production machines performing active inference constantly in order to make sense of and act in the world Dr Laura Desirèe Di Paolo is a researcher, Philosopher of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, UK and in the Moritz-Stern-Institut at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Her research is focused on the   material world in education, development, and evolution and she is currently working in Andy Clark’s team on XScape. Material Minds: Exploring the Interactions between Predictive Brains, Cultural Artifacts, and Embodied Visual Search - https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/media-arts-humanities-institute/research/project/science/xscape  Doctor of Philosophy, Philosophy of Life and Cognitive Sciences, “Sapienza” - University of Rome (April, 14th 2014), cum Laude: “Culture Under Construction. The Role of Learning in Reading Others’ Mind and  Building a Cultural Niche”, supervisors: Prof. Elena Gagliasso, Prof. Roberto Cordeschi, Prof. Enrico Alleva; Commettee: Prof. Ines Crispini, Prof. Massimo Dell’Utri, Prof. Francesco Ferretti. (https://sussex.academia.edu/LauraDesir%C3%A9eDiPaolo/CurriculumVitae) She has an academic background in social learning, the evolution of culture in humans and animals and comparative psychology. She is the co-editor of the book, Evolution of Primate Social Cognition. Most recently, and the thing that brought Laura’s brilliant work to my attention was her paper published in January, ‘Active Inference Goes to School: The Importance of Active Learning in the Age of Large Language Models’. January 2024 by Laura Desirèe Di Paolo, Avel Guénin--Carlut, Axel Constant and Andy Clark - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377634490_Active_Inference_Goes_to_School_The_Importance_of_Active_Learning_in_the_Age_of_Large_Language_Models  Other useful resources on Active Inference: Andy Clark's book 'The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality' - https://www.amazon.fr/Experience-Machine-Minds-Predict-Reality/dp/B0BFGK2KX4 Anil Seth's 2017 TED Talk 'Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality' - https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality?language=en And if you're ready for something stronger, check out Karl Friston's co-authored book 'Active Inference: The Free Energy Principle in Mind, Brain, and Behavior' - https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262045353/active-inference/ Subscribe to the Active Inference Institute channel on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ActiveInference/featured Social Links Instagram: @lauraddp - https://www.instagram.com/lauraddp/  LinkedIn: @lauradesireedipaolo - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauradesireedipaolo/ X: @LauraDesiree_DP - https://twitter.com/LauraDesiree_DP 

Eric Dozier (https://www.ericdozier.com/) is not only an incredible musician and, as he calls himself, itinerant blues preacher, but also a cultural activist and anti-racism educator.  We talk about the power of music as a social force that brings people together to learn, builds community and holds space for transformation, in particular in Eric’s critical work challenging white supremacy culture and racial injustice. Eric is former musical director for the World Famous Harlem Gospel Choir and the award winning Children’s Theatre Company of NYC, co-founder and former National Director of Arts and Education for One Human Family Music Workshops, Inc., an organization devoted to eradicating discrimination by ‘Uniting the World.. One Song at a Time"; and one-half of the duo Moanin' Sons, which develops a creative context, through music, to address racial inequality. Through his insightful lyrical stylings, soulful melodies, and interactive workshops, he continues to dedicate his musical, spiritual, and intellectual talents to welding the hearts and minds of a divided humanity into one loving fellowship. Eric is also the co-founder of the Oneness Lab with Homa Tavangar a previous guest on the podcast (https://www.onenesslab.com/). And the co-composer of ‘Henry Box Brown - A Musical' a music about the true story of Henry Box Brown, an 1850’s enslaved Virginia man who shipped himself to freedom in a box with the help of African American and white abolitionists. Hopefully soon to be opening on Broadway!: https://www.henryboxbrownthemusical.com/ In this episode you can hear Eric perform his stunning song 'Cotton and the Cross' that he wrote, with Ketch Secor from Old Crow Medicine Show. Social Links Instagram: @ericdozier - https://www.instagram.com/ericdozier/ LinkedIn: @ericdozier - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericdozier/

What does it mean to help our young people understand all of the forces that have brought us to where we are, and also to take real responsibility for all of the benefits and harms that that has caused, in particular to indigenous communities around the world? What kinds of education might 'enable healthier possibilities of (co)existence that are viable, but are unthinkable/unimaginable within our dominant cognitive and affective frames of reference.' (GTDF Collective, Global Citizenship Otherwise, p3) An education of the gut and the heart, not just the head! This week, it was an honour to chat to the amazing Dr. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti. Vanessa is the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. She is a former Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change and a former David Lam Chair in Critical Multicultural Education. Vanessa has worked extensively across sectors internationally in areas of education related to global justice, global citizenship, critical literacies, Indigenous knowledge systems and the climate and nature emergency. Vanessa is the author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism⁠: https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/hospicing-modernity/ You can find links to her Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Arts/Research Collective⁠: https://decolonialfutures.net/ Global Citizenship Otherwise Study Program, created by Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures: https://decolonialfutures.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/decolonial-futures-gce-otherwise-1.pdf Vanessa is also one of the designers of the course 'Facing Human Wrongs: Climate Complexity and Relational Accountability'⁠: https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/teaching-learning-and-development/courses/facing-human-wrongs-2-0-climate-complexity-and-relational-accountability/ Social Links LinkedIn: @vanessa-andreotti GTDF Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DecolonialFuturesCollective