Andy Hargreaves is Director of Chenine (Change, Engagement and Innovation in Education) at the University of Ottawa in Canada, and Emeritus Professor at Boston College, USA. He has published more than 30 books and has eight Outstanding Writing Awards. His most recent book, Five Paths of Student Engagement (with Dennis Shirley), focuses on engagement strategies that promote students' well-being, learning, and success. Highlights from his conversation with Rod and Jal include: how Andy is managing life and professionalism in retirement; why authoring his latest book felt like a quest; the difference between changing urban and rural school systems; how technology may actually discourage deeper learning; and how successful systems can serve as models for reducing educational inequities more broadly.

Shane Safir is described as an innovator at heart, with a rare combination of leadership and instructional expertise. Her voice resonates with educators who want to reinvent their schools and organizations into places of equitable learning. Jamila Dugan began her career as a teacher in Washington D.C. and currently serves as an equity-centered leadership development coach across all sectors. Shane and Jamila started collaborating seven years ago and have co-authored the book "Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation." Highlights from their conversation with Rod and Jal include: a glimpse into the origins of their book; a look at the current system and how it is setting up teachers and students to fail; discussing the idea of how certain data sets may be inhibiting educational progress; why the most powerful data isn't always easy to measure; why an emphasis on human interactions, mental health, and well-being should be the focus of our classrooms post-COVID; and how we need to adjust our teaching and promote innovation to better reach students.

Michael Fullan is the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto. He is co-leader of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning global initiative (npdl.global). Recognized as a worldwide authority on educational reform, he advises policymakers and local leaders in helping to achieve the moral purpose of all children learning. Highlights from his conversation with Rod and Jal include: definitions of coherence and enactment; an emphasis on leading from the middle instead of traditional ideas of top-down or bottom up; how districts waste too much money on policies that don't impact equity; the importance of student involvement in policy making conversations; and how to make students feel a greater connection to the success of humanity.

Neema Avashia teaches ethnic studies in the Boston Public School system, and Jen Poeger is the Assistant Principal of La Follette High School in Madison Wisconsin. Both have accomplished incredible things and learned valuable lessons over the past year. Highlights from their conversation with Rod and Jal include: what classrooms should be focusing on as students return to in-person learning; what it means to re-socialize an entire school community; how we should leverage the pandemic disruption to re-think what "normal" schooling looks like; why saying all the right things isn't enough - educators need to start "walking the walk;" and emphasizing that there needs to be more dialogue between students and policy makers.

Ron Berger is Chief Academic Officer for EL Education, an organization that partners with districts and charter boards to found public schools in low-income communities. EL Education’s core work is building teacher capacity in schools and districts through professional coaching, resources and open-source curriculum. Ron teaches a course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he is an Annenberg Foundation Teacher Scholar, received the Autodesk Foundation National Teacher of the Year award, and is the author of six books.

Highlights from the conversation include: a physical therapy metaphor for teaching post-COVID; the importance of quality as students head out in to the real world; how certain standards pose a threat to creativity and deeper learning; the idea that genius is spread out equally among the kids of this world, but opportunity is not; and Ron tells us what it's like to live in a town where most of his neighbors are former students.

Sarah Fine is co-author of "In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School." She teaches a deeper learning course at Harvard, and is the director of the San Diego Teacher Residency, which was formerly the High Tech High Graduate School of Education Teaching Apprenticeship program. Sarah and Jal share how they decided to pursue the project, what it was like to conduct research in schools and classrooms, who has guided and influenced their thinking and writing, how their views have changed since the books publishing, and why they have such a strong partnership even if they do drive each other nuts on occasion!

http://www.deeperlearningdozen.org

Tyler Thigpen is the head of the Forest School and Institute for Self Directed Learning. He also teaches at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School. Tyler has led several schools and is one of the foremost champions of agentic learning in the U.S., a model that puts students at the center of learning design. Highlights from the conversation include: how Tyler's background as a minister helped shape his ideas when it came to building a school; the importance of teaching "learning science" and allowing students to make their own rules; extending that same "learning science" to the education of teachers, staff, and parents; lessons from developmental theory that can be applied to schools; and the return of the lightning round, but this time, questions get flipped back on the hosts!

Dr. Suzanne Dillon is the governmental representative for Ireland in the OECD Future of Education 2030 project, which she has been involved in since 2016. She has also been Chair of the project's Advisory Group since Spring 2018. Suzanne trained as a second-level teacher and worked in schools for 15 years before joining the Department of Education and Skills in Ireland as a school inspector. Her research interests include teacher enablement and recognition and evaluation studies.

During the conversation, Suzanne talks about: the OECD project and the "learning compass" that is at the core of the work; how important it is for today's youth to develop global competencies; the challenges of moving a school, district, or even the world of education forward; how evolution may be the key to an education revolution; and finally, she shares her "five big lessons" from the OECD project.

David is a Senior Associate at Innovation Unit. As a co-founder and previous Board Director, David has helped shape the organization and its strategy since its foundation in 2006. For over two decades, David has consulted and advised on forming and implementing strategies and policies for transformation and innovation in education, early learning, healthcare and other public services. Interview highlights include: comparing learning challenges during the pandemic across multiple jurisdictions; the importance of context when analyzing  complex systems; the power of stepping back from children and giving them their own space to learn; how recent "forced changes"  in education delivery may result in powerful reflection and longer-term impacts; and David shares who and what has shaped and inspired his thinking. 

Houdda Balouch and Shannon Guglielmo are teachers at Landmark High School in New York City, part of the New York State Performance Standards Consortium that values student voice and ownership of learning tasks over standardized exams. They are both part of the Equity in Curriculum team that conducts action research on how a white supremacist system impacts our school in the day to day, as well as investigating strategies to mitigate these effects. The conversation touches on some of the hard and soft data that came out of their research; and in-depth look at equity across gender, race, and socio-economic background; how equity needs to be so much more than just a checkbox for teachers; the pros and cons of teaching with Zoom; ideas and changes from COVID that might carry forward in schools; and a brief look at "Free Range Parenting."