Welcome back to the podcast! Today we continue our powerful conversation with Louka Parry, education futurist, learning strategist, and CEO of The Learning Future.

In Part 1, Louka shared how music education connects to education transformation and helps students build essential human capabilities. If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, be sure to go back—it sets the stage beautifully.

In this Part 2, we go even deeper. We explore how music education strengthens social-emotional learning (SEL), why future-ready skills matter more than ever, and how innovative learning environments can empower both teachers and students. Louka also shares global perspectives on cultural understanding, practical strategies for music educators, and inspiring advice on how to advocate for the importance of the arts in education reform.

If you’re an educator looking for ways to innovate, or someone curious about how music and education transformation intersect, this episode will challenge your thinking and spark new ideas.

Let’s dive into Part 2 with Louka Parry.

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

 Books & Authors

• “Lifelong Kindergarten” – Mitchel Resnick (MIT Media Lab)
• “Everything I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” – Robert Fulghum
• “The Disengaged Teen” – Jenny Anderson & Rebecca Winthrop
• “Emotional Intelligence” – Daniel Goleman (1995)
• John Dewey – quote: “We don’t learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.”
• Abraham Maslow – Hierarchy of Needs; late-life addition of self-transcendence

Organisations, Programs & Initiatives

• The Learning Future – Louka Parry’s organisation
• Karanga: The Global Alliance for Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills – co-led by Louka
• CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) – Chicago-based SEL organisation
• Harvard EASEL Lab – Ecological Approaches to SEL
• Yale’s RULER Program – emotional regulation framework, Prof. Marc Brackett
• OECD – reference to “non-cognitive skills”
• UNICEF – reference to “transversal skills”

Where to find me: 

Crescendo Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crescendocommunity
Official Crescendo Page: https://www.facebook.com/CrescendoMusicEd/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CrescendoMusicEd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/crescendomusic
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-o-shea-62a3741b/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CrescendoDeb

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