With the effects of climate change all around us, discussion of the future must involve ecological considerations, but our guest in this episode invites us to think beyond environmental concerns, and to treat education itself as ecology.

In this discussion with Noan Fesnoux, we touch on reframing our expectations of consumption and our relationship with our environment, schools as metacognitive hubs, and the role international schools can play in leading change.

Noan Fesnoux is currently Creative Adviser to the Museum of the Future in Dubai. A person who first and foremost loves people and nature, he works with schools globally to embed place-based and project-based learning into their school culture. Starting as the Green Studies teacher at Green School Bali, he evolved and grew the program to become an integrated and school-wide experience. As Project Coordinator at the same school, he created an immersive middle and high school experience, LEAP Academy.

He went on to seed the vision and start Real School Budapest, a school built around project-based learning. A life long learner who strives to design and build learning environments which amplify the already mighty intrinsic human potential, Noan is also an entrepreneur who is unafraid to take on new challenges as long as the actions are driven by a desire to be more sustainable.

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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/

How can we work with our students to understand their political and cultural identities in a world of constant change? In this episode, we’re joined by three educators to discuss the domain of political economy, identity, privilege and culture with a futures focus.

Loretta Smith is an educator with more than 20 years of experience in international schools. She grew up between cultures, moving several times during her childhood. She is also the mother of two multi-racial, Cross Culture Kids. Her experiences of straddling several cultures as a child, adult, parent and educator have made her aware of how people negotiate belonging in different spaces. This tension drives her curiosity, inquiry and research into belonging. Her study on young children’s perceptions of belonging in culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse settings is a part of the recently published Handbook of Research on Critical Issues and Global Trends in International Education. Loretta has the privilege of serving the Frankfurt International School Wiesbaden Campus as their associate principal and curriculum coordinator.

The Acting Head of Primary at Renaissance College, Hong Kong, Jason Doucette is originally from Prince Edward Island, Canada. He has worked in Hong Kong since 2002, in various kindergartens and primary schools, as a teacher, Head Teacher, PYP Coordinator and Vice Principal. Jason is a member of the IB Educator Network (workshop leader), an IB School Visiting Team Member, and a qualified Performance Coach. When not spending time with his wife and three young children, he enjoys reading, exercising, and travelling.

A grown up third culture child, British by birth, but raised in Hong Kong, dual British/Canadian citizen, Neil Scott has taught in South Korea, Qatar, Ontario Canada, and now in Hong Kong. He has 16 years experience in education and is currently finishing up an M.Ed. He is the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion lead at Kennedy School, Hong Kong.

Our guests shared the following resources -

Sylvia Duckworth’s Wheel of Power and Privilege - https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Wheel-of-Power-Privilege-and-Marginalization-by-Sylvia-Duckworth-Used-by-permission_fig1_364109273

Emily Meadow’s Wheel for International Schools - 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

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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/

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/