Future Learning Design Podcast Tim Logan

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

With so much talk about 'systems thinking' in education, sometimes it can become framework overload! Which one should I pick? What's the difference between them anyway?! This week, it is a huge privilege to chat to someone who has been doing this longer than most! Professor Ray Ison has been teaching systems practice for the Open University for the last 4 decades. He shares his wisdom to cut through the jargon!

Ray is a cybernetician, systems scientist, and Professor of Systems at the Open University in the UK. He is currently President of the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR). He was also Professor Systems for Sustainability at Monash University, and fellow at the Centre for Policy Development, and President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences in the year 2014-15. He is known for his work on systems praxeology within rural development,[1] sustainable management,[2] systemic governance and the design and enactment of learning systems.

An incredibly useful and practical overview of many ofthe topics discussed in this episode can be found in Ray's book, Systems Practice: How to Act. In situations of uncertainty and complexity in a climate-change world. (2017): https://oro.open.ac.uk/51143/ 

For a full overview of Ray's life and work you can read his Wikipedia page here: ⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Ison⁠ 

Social Links

LinkedIn: @ray-ison

This week I’m chatting with Jamilah Pitts, whose incredible work challenges us to root our educational practices in activism, healing and love. This is so that we tell the truth about the deep biases and harms that continue to persist within our societies and many of our educational settings. Jamilah’s work follows in the incredible tradition of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin and many others.

Jamilah is an educator, writer, social entrepreneur and yoga teacher whose work centers the liberation, healing and holistic development of communities of the global majority. She has served in various roles and spaces to promote racial justice and healing as a teacher, coach, assistant principal and as a dean. 

As the Founder and CEO of Jamilah Pitts Consulting, Jamilah partners with schools, communities and organizations to advance the work of social and intersectional justice through an emphasis on wellness and educator training. Jamilah is also the Founder of  She, Imprints, an organization designed to support the unique wellness needs of women and girls of color through advocacy, coaching programs, curriculum design, training and wellness retreats.  

Jamilah’s written work has appeared in the Huffington Post, Learning for Justice, and Edweek. 

Jamilah’s amazing book, Toward Liberation: Educational Practices Rooted in Activism, Healing and Love, was published in November.

She can be found at ⁠jamilahpitts.com⁠. 

In this week’s conversation, with Professor Rex Li and Dr Clara Cheng, we take a wide-ranging look at how we can take inspiration and ideas from past educational projects, such as those of John Dewey and Howard Gardner, as we develop education into the future. But also learning from their experience at GT College in Hong Kong, how can we use research and inquiry themselves as practices to enable students and educators to deepen their own learning and growth as individuals, but also as part of a broader learning community.

Professor Rex Li (https://www.profrexli.com/ ) is a psychologist and a prominent educator of the gifted in Hong Kong. He is the Founder and Curriculum Director of GT (Ellen Yeung) College, Hong Kong and founder of the Gifted Education Council. He is the author of ‘Rediscovering John Dewey: How His Psychology Transforms Our Education’ (2020): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rediscovering-John-Dewey-Psychology-Transforms/dp/9811579407  and many other books on gifted education and multiple intelligences: https://www.gtcollege.edu.hk/books-publications/ 

Dr Clara M. L. Cheng is the Head of Research and Training, English Language Panel Head (Senior Form) and Vice Head of International Exchange Group at GT (Ellen Yeung) College: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clara-cheng-632aa7a1/ 

Social Links
GT (Ellen Yeung) College - ⁠https://www.gtcollege.edu.hk/⁠
Contact Prof. Li at https://www.profrexli.com/

Homa Tavangar (https://homatavangar.com/ ) is an incredible educator and leader. She is the co-founder of the Oneness Lab with Eric Dozier  (https://www.onenesslab.com/ ) where she helps schools and companies go ‘deeper than diversity,’ as well as the Big Questions Institute, (https://bigquestions.institute/)  where, with her co-founder Will Richardson, she leads professional learning opportunities to build capacity and design the future with fearless inquiry for individuals, schools, and many other education-related organisations.

   

Homa is the author of widely-acclaimed books, including Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World (Random House, 2009), Global Kids: 50+ Games, Crafts, Recipes & More from Around the World (Barefoot Books, 2019), The Global Education Toolkit for Elementary Learners (Sage/Corwin, 2014), co-author of a 3-book series with Professor Yong Zhao on educating creative, entrepreneurial World Class Learners (Corwin, 2016), and contributor to Mastering Global Literacy, by Heidi Hayes-Jacobs, ed. (Solution Tree, 2013). Most recently she co-authored 9 BIG Questions Schools Must Answer to Avoid Going “Back to Normal” (*Because “Normal” Wasn’t That Great to Begin With).



Social Links



LinkedIn: @homatavangar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/homatavangar/ 

Instagram: @homatavangar - https://www.instagram.com/homatavangar/ 

X: @homatav - https://twitter.com/homatav?lang=en 

How are the knowledge and skills that we choose to teach or not teach implicated in the power structures and political histories of the places in which we live?

Professor Jonathan Jansen (⁠https://www.jonathanjansen.org/⁠ ) is Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He is currently President of the South African Academy of Science and the Knight-Hennessey Fellow at Stanford University (2020).

In his work, Professor Jansen explores how we keep radical ideas alive in bureaucratic structures. Is there a destination we arrive at called a decolonised curriculum or is it an ongoing process of meeting power structures and institutionalised biases? What's the role of language in the decolonising process if we can't even communicate with each other? What is the role of education in constructing national identities in ways that are inclusive of the diversity of people in most communities?

A selection of his most recent books:

Decolonisation in Universities: The Politics of Knowledge (2019) - https://www.google.fr/books/edition/Decolonisation_in_Universities/efWADwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 

The Decolonization of Knowledge: Radical Ideas and the Shaping of Institutions in South Africa and Beyond [with Cyrill A. Walters] (2022) - https://www.google.fr/books/edition/The_Decolonization_of_Knowledge/KNduEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 

Corrupted: A study of chronic dysfunction in South African universities (2023) - https://www.google.fr/books/edition/Corrupted/saeUEAAAQBAJ



Social Links

X: @JJ_Stellies - https://twitter.com/JJ_Stellies⁠

LinkedIn: @jonathan-jansen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-jansen-543123b1/