Announcing Big Changes at Big Questions Institute
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BIG Questions Institute UpdateJanuary 31, 2025, No. 178 (Read online) New Year, Many Changes: Transitions and Growth at the Big Questions Institute You might have noticed that our newsletter hasn’t been coming in your inbox this academic year (or maybe you didn’t notice!). We’d like to take this opportunity to offer a quick update behind the scenes and share some exciting changes happening with the Big Questions Institute. We are growing! We welcome new strategic planning clients like Grosse Pointe Academy in Michigan and Colegio Jorge Washington in Cartagena, Colombia, as well as many returning clients, and various exciting projects around the world - developing leadership teams, strengthening governance processes for Boards, conducting retreats and workshops, coaching leaders, and thought partnership across very challenging times, with educators and a few companies. If you’d like to schedule an exploratory call, please reach out! We published a new book! More info to come, but you can go ahead and download (free) our new book, 12 Big Questions Schools Must Answer to Imagine Irresistible Futures. We are excited about this new iteration of the 9 Big Questions book and look forward to hearing how you might use the book at your school or with colleagues. We were honored to have our work highlighted in the latest Marshall Memo and as the feature article in the new Independent School Magazine. We’re changing! As with much of the world, BQI is in a “liminal” moment. Will is shifting his focus away from working with individual schools (see his note below). Meanwhile, the team at BQI is growing with some amazing new voices and core members of our team, like international school leader Kathleen Naglee, who has been working with Homa shoulder-to-shoulder in supporting leadership teams, strategic planning, Board governance, and generally supporting schools to navigate challenges and work toward their desired futures. From Will:
First, let me say I have loved my time working closely with Homa on school projects all over the world these last five years. It’s been an incredible learning journey, and I feel deeply grateful for all of the experiences we’ve had. And yet, while I’m not totally “leaving” BQI, I am transitioning away from our day to day work together into a couple of other projects that center on my passion for answering the “big question” of how we, along with our kids, navigate the very complex times we’re living in and the futures on our doorstep. If you haven’t yet read my recent “manifesto,” I hope you’ll download it and, if you feel it worthy, share it with friends and colleagues. And I want to invite you to subscribe to my new Substack newsletter where I’ll be writing regularly and sharing curated resources to help us make this journey forward. Finally, I hope you’ll consider joining an upcoming “Confronting Education” workshop cohort as we attempt to grow conversations about “future serious schools” around the world.
Homa is assembling an amazing group of thinkers and doers that I’m sure will take the “new” BQI to even greater impact in the world, and I’m truly excited to see what lies ahead for both of us. Thanks so much for your continued support of our work in whatever form it takes.
We are "birthing" something new and bringing on great new talent! As so much feels like it's collapsing in the world, BQI is committed to supporting the “birthing” of new systems, capacities, and offerings. Now more than ever, the Big Questions Institute values staying in relationship with educators, leaders, students, and schools around the world. With Will moving on from BQI’s day-to-day operations and regular newsletter writing, we considered how we will stay true to this vision. This gave BQI a chance to cast a wider net and welcome friends and colleagues we’ve admired to join us in sharing important ideas. In our first meeting with some of the amazing cohort you’ll be hearing more from, we landed on an idea of newsletter as “conversation generator” to provoke fearless inquiry, creative stances, and critical, embodied, disciplined hope. You can watch our initial Zoom call with some of this team here! (Passcode: OYB.320U)
Depending on where you’ve been spending attention, it’s likely you’ll recognize one or more of these whole-hearted, thought-full, and professionally generous individuals. Without further ado, here’s our amazing crew of “conversation generators” and BQI thought leaders/partners: Dr. Kaleb “Kofi” Rashad: Rooted in creativity, joyful resistance, and collective liberation, Dr. Kaleb “Kofi” Rashad is the former CEO at High Tech High and the Founding Creative Director at the Center for Love & Justice. Dr. Jane Shore is a research-driven idea visualizer with a passion for measuring hard to measure things, and translating educational research into meaningful, people-centered practice. Her ideas and art are found at the School of Thought. Ulcca Joshi Hansen, PhD, JD is a futurist, the author of the award-winning book, The Future of Smart, and a Paul & Daisy Soros Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project. Her research and writing focus on bridging cultural and ideological divides during periods of rapid social change. Rosalind Wiseman has never felt like she had a job. Instead, she has been on a quest; to help people put words to experiences they struggle to articulate and bring dignity back into our families, schools, work and communities. (She also is a best-selling author, including of Queen Bees and Wannabes, the inspiration behind Mean Girls.) Sam Chaltain (@samchaltain) is a writer, filmmaker and designer dedicated to advancing people’s understanding of the future of learning — and what it can tell us about the future of humanity. His column, Letters from the Future (of Learning), appears regularly on Substack. Dr. Derrick Gay is a globally recognized belonging and intercultural strategist, dedicated to fostering cultures of dignity and respect. Are there certain topics you have big questions about? What do you want to hear more about? Let us know! Finally Happy (Lunar) New Year! Wishing each of you the wisdom, charm, resilience, and healing that is associated with this Year of the Snake. 🐍 Onward! Homa (for now) Media On Our RadarA few links to fuel your inquiry (and a teaser for the brilliance of our new contributors): For Schools: What's New? What's Not? What's Next? by Sam Chaltain Last October, Sam got to deliver the keynote address at the Montessori Foundation’s 28th Annual Conference in Atlanta. At that time, the U.S. presidential election was less than a week away. And newspapers had just reported the tragic death of a young person whose chatbot had unwittingly urged him to commit suicide.
In response, Sam tried to provide some shared context for the moment in which we all find ourselves, and what it’s requiring of us -- a task he approached by trying to answer three questions: What’s new? What’s not? And what’s next?
Sam also challenged the group to begin co-creating a “Syllabus for Humanity,” an evolving document which can serve as a guiding light for education as a tool for fundamental transformation of our world, and in recognition that "the child is the spiritual builder of mankind."
“But Money Makes It Real!”: Problematizing Capitalist Logic in Project-Based Learning by Sarah Fine While an expanding number of schools happily embrace Project-Based Learning, scholar Sarah Fine explores how PBL, despite its potential as a lever for equity, persists as a mechanism by which “real world” learning can perpetuate all-too-real systems of oppression.
Fine goes on to explain: "The only response to PBL’s neutrality is a 2021 blog post by scholar-educator Dr. Kaleb Rashad, in which he articulates “six equity stances of liberatory PBL” developed by himself and colleagues at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education. There is little evidence that this framework has been taken up or even noticed by many PBL scholars or practitioners, but later in the article I will argue that it most certainly should be.
We are excited to showcase Dr. Rashad's work and ideas in upcoming issues of this newsletter!
Are We So Connected That We Aren't Connecting? by Jane Shore Jane's essays can take your breath away: An elegant blend of art, smart, and heart. Here are a few images from a recent visual essay that's about human connection, while getting some data and research in there.
Learn With BQIWill We Be in Your Neighborhood?Homa is back on the road and would love to connect at any of the upcoming events. Note that additional travel to individual schools not listed here is being planned, so reach out even if you don't see your vicinity! Feb 3-5, 2025 - Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE) annual conference, Washington, DC Mid-Feb - client visits in Colombia Feb 26-28 - National Association of Independent Schools Heads Summit and Annual Conference, Nashville, TN March 3-6 - Zurich International School, Switzerland March 7-8 - Swiss Group of International Schools Conference, Leysin April 3-5 - ECIS 60th Anniversary Leadership Conference, Stuttgart, Germany May 9-10 - EDULead Taipei American School, Taiwan June 5-6 - Mount Vernon Ventures conference, Atlanta, Georgia July 8-12 - Association for International School Heads (AISH) Summer Seminar, St. Gilgen, Austria WORK WITH US!Let BQI help you unlock the opportunities that are rapidly unfolding in education and the wider contexts. Everyone is talking about the challenges and the difficulties that are breaking systems and people. Leadership navigates change with fearless inquiry, futures thinking, imagination, and diverse relationships. That takes new skills, lenses, and dispositions and we are here for it. We help school communities:
Why not think about having us work with your staff, leadership team, or board on some BIG Questions worth pursuing? We're working to design healthier, more just, more relevant, and more sustainable futures for school communities. Get all the details here. Onward with hope, The BQI Team |
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