Many international schools are working hard on confronting issues of inequality, justice and global politics. Involving the wider school community can be challenging without a guide or a framework to follow. Our guest in this episode, Homa Tavanger, poses some thoughtful questions to start the conversation.

In this wide-ranging discussion, we talk about student activism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, thinking about the future in a liminal age, and confronting colonial heritage.

Homa Tavangar is the co-founder of the Big Questions Institute and the Oneness Lab.

She brings 30+ years’ experience helping diverse organizations and individuals to build cultural, racial and global competence, strategic governance, and visionary, generative leadership in diverse schools and organizations. She coaches leaders on accountability for equity, leading through crisis, and advises on strategic design and planning across five continents. She has co-authored seven books for educators, and is the author of best-selling Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World (published by Random House) and Global Kids (Barefoot Books). Her most recent publication is 12 Big Questions Schools Must Answer to Create Irresistible Futures with Will Richardson (forthcoming, 2025).

A graduate of UCLA and Princeton, Homa was born in Iran, has lived on four continents, speaks four languages, and has heritage in four world religions. She serves on several Boards, including ISS (International Schools Services) and is a judge for the Templeton Prize, considered the “world’s most interesting prize” with a purse calibrated to exceed the Nobel Prize. She is married and the mother of three adult daughters, and resides in Villanova, Pennsylvania.

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Find out more about MSB and download our paper, Futures-Focused Leadership for International Schools, at www.makingstuffbetter.com

Contact the team about our Futures-Focused Pledge at https://zcal.co/t/makingstuffbetter/talktotheteam

You can find us on Linked in at

Matt Hall: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-hall-msb/

Naomi Ward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-ward-098a1535/

How are the opportunities and challenges that come with the future of technology being felt in schools? This episode, we’re joined by three educators, Rachael Thrash, Yasmine Aslam-Hashmi and Rory Douglas, to discuss futures focussed technology in education.

Rachael Thrash is the CEO and Co-Founder of Belong Hub, student leadership kits and services that guide adults and students to collaboratively create a belonging-centered school culture. Rachael is a school leader and master teacher with 20+ years experience in the field of education. With a Masters from Brown University, she has taught and led initiatives in independent US schools, public community colleges, and international IB schools, most recently the International School of Helsinki in Finland.

Yasmine Aslam-Hashmi is an international school educator with over 18 years of experience. She has taught in Canada, South Korea, Vietnam and Switzerland where she currently resides. Having taken on multiple roles within schools as a teacher, department head, curriculum developer, instructional coach, and an academic and action researcher – Yasmine is an inclusive and equitable schools' specialist, with additional specialist in learning support and teaching English to multilingual learners. She has taught middle school Mathematics, Science, Learning Support, English as an Additional Language, and Grade 11 and 12 Theory of Knowledge. She is currently a co-facilitator for the ECIS DEIJ Leadership Development Cohort, and is teaching at an international school in Zurich, Switzerland.

Rory Douglas currently serves as the Innovation and Learning Coach at Kennedy School in Hong Kong. He has been working with the ESF schools group in Hong Kong for the past 6 years, 3 at Beacon Hill School and 3 at Kennedy, as a Year 5 & 6 teacher. Before that he worked as Head of Early Years in East London, before making the move to Hong Kong. He is an ESF Centre for Research Fellow and also spends time supporting classes across the school in STEM subjects.

Our guests shared the following resources -

"We are in the midst of a historical transformation. Current times are not just part of normal history." Sohail Inayatullah, ed., The Views of Futurists. Vol 4, The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies. Brisbane, Foresight International, 2001.

Jonathan Haidt: The Anxious Generation

The Right Question Institute https://rightquestion.org/

10 to 25: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation—And Making Your Own Life Easier by David Yeager

Technology & Ethos - Vol. 2 Book of Life by Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)

The TIM - Technology Integration Matrix - https://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson

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Find out more about MSB and download our paper, Futures-Focused Leadership for International Schools, at www.makingstuffbetter.com

You can find us on Linked in at

Matt Hall: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-hall-msb/

Naomi Ward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-ward-098a1535/

For many, contemplation of the technological domain, the massive swift growth of generative AI, for example, comes with fear and trepidation. So we’re delighted to be joined today by Tricia Friedman, who brings calm, inspiration and fun to the challenge of imagining future technologies.

In this conversation we talk about not just generative AI, but also cross species communication, mobile phone bans in schools, and how to involve everyone in the conversation about technological change.

Tricia Friedman (she/her) is a long-time educator who has worked in the US, China, Thailand, Morocco, Ukraine, Indonesia, Switzerland, Singapore and now currently lives in Canada. She’s founder of Allyed.org and Director of Learning and Strategy with Shifting Schools. Tricia is an avid podcaster, you can catch her on Be a Better Ally, Unhinged Collaboration, Shifting Schools, and if you listen closely you might occasionally hear her dog weigh in too.

Connect with her on LinkedIn where you’ll catch her talking about the intersection of #AILiteracy #InformationLiteracy #MediaLiteracy and how #DEIJ is integral to those literacies and leadership.https://www.linkedin.com/in/tricia-friedman-allyed

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Find out more about MSB and download our paper, Futures-Focused Leadership for International Schools, at www.makingstuffbetter.com

You can find us on Linked in at

Matt Hall: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-hall-msb/

Naomi Ward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-ward-098a1535/