Exploring Boys' Education

Season eight of the Exploring Boys’ Education Podcast opens with a conversation on boys, focus, and the body. Laura Ambrogi (St. Christopher's School, United States) and Mugsy Quinn (St. Stithians Boys' Preparatory School, South Africa), winners of the 2026 IBSC Action Research Award, discuss the classroom tools they built to help boys regulate their emotions and refocus.

Both researchers noticed the same pattern: boys labeled as behavior problems were often struggling to regulate emotion, not misbehaving. Ambrogi’s proprioceptive exercises and Quinn’s breathwork card game both work the body first, calming an activated nervous system so the “thinking brain” can re-engage. In both projects, the real turning point came when boys were given ownership of the techniques, choosing, leading, and teaching them to each other.

IBSC members can access Ambrogi's report, Quinn's report, and the entire collection of 2025-26 Action Research reports now.

Applications for the 2027-28 IBSC Action Research Program, on the theme “Building Community: Boys as Readers, Thinkers, Innovators, and Contributors,” are open now and close November 1, 2026.

New episodes of the IBSC Exploring Boys' Education podcast are available exclusively to IBSC members on the IBSC website for the first two weeks. Afterward anyone may access them from all popular podcast platforms. We encourage you to share this resource across and beyond your school community!

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IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education music composed by Tom DiGiovanni. Laura Ambrogi's IBSC Action Research Report · Mugsy Quinn's IBSC Action Research Report · Apply to join the 2027-28 IBSC Action Research Cohort · Access all 2026-27 IBSC Action Resarch Reports · IBSC

In this episode of the IBSC Exploring Boys' Education Podcast, educators, researchers, and school leaders from around the world reflect on what boys actually need from the institutions that shape them. Across season 7, three themes emerge from the conversations: the environments schools create, the inner lives boys conceal, and the adults who choose to pay attention.

IBSC Exploring Boys' Education music composed and performed by Tom DiGiovanni. IBSC

In this episode of the IBSC Exploring Boys' Education Podcast, Bruce Collins revisits a year of IBSC online programming, pulling together the ideas that ran through session after session. Three themes emerge from the year: connection as the foundation of boys' development, the digital world boys now navigate, and the case for boys' schools as the institutions best built to respond to both.

Tune in for a tour through the year’s most useful ideas on boys, connection, and the schools built to deliver both.

IBSC Exploring Boys' Education music composed and performed by Tom DiGiovanni. IBSC

In this episode of the IBSC Exploring Boys' Education Podcast, Anna-Louise Simpson, head of Wadhurst at Melbourne Grammar School (Australia), and Kerry Oldman, middle school executive director and acting deputy principal at Melbourne Girls' Grammar School, discuss what genuine, sustained coed collaboration between neighboring single-gender schools can look like. Just 700 meters apart, the two schools have built a deliberate partnership that goes well beyond the occasional joint performance or school dance.

Discover how the Melbourne Experience, a weeklong, student-led documentary project set across the city, creates the conditions for boys and girls to build real trust, take responsibility, and see past stereotype. Simpson and Oldman also walk through their Healthy Relationships Programme, which brings together year 8 students for structured—sometimes challenging—conversations about consent, online behavior, and gender equality.

Tune in to learn what it takes for a boys' school to approach a neighboring girls' school with the humility and preparation that make collaboration genuinely worthwhile.

IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education music composed and performed by Tom DiGiovanni. IBSC

In this episode of the IBSC Exploring Boys' Education Podcast, writer and Towson University lecturer Andrew Reiner discusses the "1.0 script" of masculinity and what genuine resilience looks like for boys today. Drawing on his extensive research and interviews with students globally, Reiner explores the hidden emotional landscape boys navigate and the chasm between their public personas and private struggles.

Discover why reframing behaviors—such as excessive gaming, pornography, and online betting—not as moral failures but as self-medication for crisis-level stress is essential for modern educators. Reiner shares insights from a "mask exercise" conducted in schools, revealing the pervasive feelings of loneliness and confusion that often sit beneath a confident exterior.

Tune in to learn the "four C's" framework—compassion, curiosity, commiseration, and context—a practical road map for any teacher or school leader looking to build the emotional safety nets boys need to flourish. Explore how schools can move beyond traditional notions of independence to foster genuine connection and belonging.

IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education music composed and performed by Tom DiGiovanni. Andrew Reiner · IBSC

In this episode of the IBSC Exploring Boys' Education Podcast, Chris Ekron challenges the win-at-all-costs culture that still dominates many boys' school sports programs. The Playbook Ed cofounder and former head of sports performance at Bishops Diocesan College (South Africa) draws on his PhD research and Paul Wylleman's four-pillar model of student-athlete development to make the case for redefining high performance around the whole boy—not just the Saturday scoreboard.

Discover why the real metrics of a successful sports program are process wins during the week, character growth, and whether boys still love the game long after they leave school. Ekron shares practical strategies for relational coaching, from 30-second corridor conversations to breaking down the silos between coaches, teachers, and pastoral staff, and explains how a simple schedule-mapping exercise can reveal just how little time boys have "just to be a boy."

Tune in to learn how schools can build sports environments where well-being forms the foundation for performance, stakeholder expectations are managed with clarity, and every student—not just the A-team athlete—is developed to reach his personal best.

IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education music composed and performed by Tom DiGiovanni. PLAYBOOK ED · IBSC

In this episode of the IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education Podcast, Pathos Consulting Group President Evan Harris details the complex and rapidly evolving world of deepfakes. An expert on emerging AI risks in schools, Harris moves beyond the headlines of digital abuse to reveal how the realm of synthetic media is fundamentally altering the way boys interact with reality, consent, and each other.

Discover a practical "order of operations" for school leaders to follow to advance from feeling overwhelmed by technology to building institutional resilience. Harris discusses the critical need for digital discernment and explains why the primary creators of this content—and increasingly its victims—need a new "sales pitch" for healthy masculinity.

Tune in to learn how schools can move past scare tactics to empower boys with the ethical framework and trusted adult support necessary to navigate the disappearing line between real and fake.

IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education music composed and performed by Tom DiGiovanni. The Pathos Group · The Pathos Group’s free Student Safety Course · IBSC

In this episode of the IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education Podcast, join Headmaster Chris Post and the leadership team from the Boys' Latin School of Maryland (United States) as they discuss their approach to creating a boy-friendly school. Sparked by the insights of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the school implemented a bold door-to-door cell phone ban and re-imagined daily schedules to prioritize human connection over digital convenience.

Discover how these philosophical shifts translate into on-the-ground practice, from creative playgrounds in the lower school to autonomous choice blocks in the middle school, and peer-led clubs in the upper years. The conversation highlights how high-impact, low-cost structural adjustments can foster genuine friendship and leadership among students. Tune in for a practical roadmap to giving boyhood back to boys.

IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education music composed and performed by Tom DiGiovanni. IBSC

In this episode of IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education Podcast, explore the landmark IBSC Global Research Report, Building Agency Among Classroom and Co-Curricular Teachers to Support Boys’ Well-Being. Hear directly from University of New South Wales Professor Andrew Martin who illuminates findings from the research he conducted with more than 17,500 boys.

Professor Martin reaches beyond theory to pinpoint the specific educator practices that foster academic resilience and social-emotional engagement. He reveals why positive belief in students emerged as the single most critical factor impacting well-being.

Discover practical, evidence-based strategies, including the "I do, we do, you do" framework for building true student agency and learn the surprising reason why boys value high-quality instruction so greatly in co-curricular settings. Tune in for an essential blueprint of actionable, high-impact practices to support boys' success.

IBSC members can access the full report and supporting resources free of charge in the IBSC Member Center.

New episodes of the IBSC Exploring Boys' Education podcast are available exclusively to IBSC members on the IBSC website for the first two weeks. Afterward anyone may access them from all popular podcast platforms. We encourage you to share this resource across and beyond your school community!

IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education music composed and performed by Tom DiGiovanni. Download Report (Members Only) · IBSC

In this episode of the IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education Podcast, hear from the 2025 IBSC Action Research Award winner Melinda Bargwanna about her inspiring project at Trinity Grammar School (Australia). For her winning project, she guided junior school boys as they designed and built a biodiversity pond, creating a powerful sense of community and belonging in the process.

Discover how this hands-on work in their "green patch" enhanced the boys' well-being, fostered mentorship between age groups, and turned climate concerns into hopeful action. The episode also previews the theme of 2026-27 IBSC Action Research, Future Frontiers: Fostering Boys' Learning in the Forward-Thinking Classroom. Tune in for a fascinating look at the impact of connecting boys with the natural world.

New episodes of the IBSC Exploring Boys' Education podcast are available exclusively to IBSC members on the IBSC website for the first two weeks. Afterward anyone may access them from all popular podcast platforms. We encourage you to share this resource across and beyond your school community!

IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education music composed and performed by Tom DiGiovanni. Become an Action Researcher · IBSC