In this final episode of 2025, you'll hear about some of the most exciting things happening around the world for pathways through the upper end of high school from the voices of the young people involved in them.

The final years of high school is often the 'business-end' of formal schooling, where we often demand that young people just knuckle down and suffer the "rigours" of high stakes standardised exams and college entrance tests. But these conversations really show you that alternatives to this are not only possible, but happening! 

Too often, we can talk a great game of hyperbole and hubris about our apparently "paradigm-shifting" designs, but the young people actually experiencing them are telling a different story. What better way to get at the truth than by hearing from the young people themselves! So in this mini-series (5 episodes), you'll hear from 19 young people about their experiences of the kinds of competencies they feel they are learning and need to learn, what they find energising and enabling, and how they feel about the adults who are very often giving so much heart and hard work into this work, to support and guide them.

You'll hear about five empowering high school pathways and curriculum innovations:

• the International Big Picture Learning Credential in Australia;
• the Greenstones at Green School Bali in Indonesia;
• the African Leadership Academy programme in South Africa;
• the IB Systems Transformation Pathway pilot programme at UWC South East Asia in Singapore and UWC Atlantic College in Wales;
• and the Global Impact Diploma, being run at a number of schools around the world including American International Schools in Lima, Peru, Budapest, Hungary and Bucharest, Romania.

If you know of other innovations that you'd like to see featured on future mini-series, then please do share them with us at goodimpactlabs.com/contact.

In this first episode in this Innovative Student Pathways mini-series, I had the huge pleasure of chatting with Monty, Eliza and Lydia, three amazing graduates of the International Big Picture Learning Credential. There are few, if any, other new pathways and credentials that have been as successful in obtaining university recognition for such radical alternatives to the standardised exam factory system and credential capital monopolies! The phenomenon that is Viv White, the founder of Big Picture Learning Australia has joined me previously on the podcast so you can find out more about what they're up to across Australia in that episode. 

Previous episode with Viv White AM - https://www.goodimpactlabs.com/podcast/big-picture-learning-australia-a-conversation-with-viv-white

LinkedIn: @viv-white - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/viv-white-am-297642142/⁠

Instagram: @bigpicture.edu.au - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/bigpicture.edu.au/⁠

@bigpiclearning - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/bigpiclearning/⁠ (US)

Website: https://www.bigpicture.org.au/

In Episode 2 of this Innovative Student Pathways mini-series, I chatted with Olivia, Farrah and Chrissa, current students at Green School Bali about their learning through their Greenstone projects. Greenstone are a capstone project that is a key part of the ‘living’ curriculum at Green School Bali that is educates young people for sustainability through community-integrated, entrepreneurial learning, The And the projects reflect young people's passion for important causes and desire to make a difference in the world. 

Greenstone enables students to have authentic, real-world learning experiences, taking ownership of their own learning journeys, and lights in them a fire for being continuous, life-long learners. 

You can also find a link to the Regen26 Youth conference that Olivia mentions in the shownotes here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScl5iKb64QBmcgS-igtzYHYuj4DJWImL58KCq9HIY3tsJiOpw/viewform

https://bali.greenschool.org/regeneration26/

Greenstone presentations from 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWuC3ttPpsc

Website: https://bali.greenschool.org/high-school/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/greenschoolbali_what-is-greenstone-activity-6876068533479055360-tQ61?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACJvZTMBEdMREU-F2oP3G7TXlcHKmR1Kvnk

Contact: Benjamin Freud - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminfreud/

In Episode 3 of this Innovative Student Pathways mini-series, you'll find a fantastic overview of all of the amazing work happening at African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa to build the next generation of young African leaders, innovators, laureates and artists. I had the pleasure of meeting with Ayira, Katleho, Mohamed, Fatima and Maimouna Régina to hear all about the core programme and the broader approach to nurturing passionate Africanist auto-didacts!

Website: https://www.africanleadershipacademy.org/ 

Previous episode with ALA's CEO, Hatim Eltayeb - https://www.goodimpactlabs.com/podcast/hatim-eltayeb

In this fourth episode on exciting global innovations in student pathways, I chatted to Sara, Anisa and Entong from UWC South East Asia and Gabi and Satya, alumni of UWC Atlantic College about their experiences on the new IB Systems Transformation Pathway (STP). This is a really exciting pilot of the IB's 16+ review, pioneered with United World Colleges to enable transformative change, systems leadership and making the world a fairer place for the future. Young people undertake project-based interdisciplinary engagements and systems interventions and are assessed through innovative and collaborative approaches.

IB STP website: https://www.ibo.org/programmes/collaborative-review-of-the-dp-and-cp/alternative-assessment-pathway/

UWC Atlantic College STP site: https://www.uwcatlantic.org/learning/academic/systems-transformation-pathway

UWCSEA STP site: https://www.uwcsea.edu.sg/ib-systems-transformation

Contacts: IB - Jenny Gillett (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-gillett-87a19b22/); UWCAC - Marija Uzunova Dang (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marijauzunovadang/); Eivind Lodemel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eivindlodemel/)

In the last of these 5 mini-series episodes on innovative and emerging student pathways, I chatted with Malna, Nikk and Belen from American International School of Budapest, American International School of Bucharest and American School of Lima respectively. These are 3 of the more than 100 international schools who were represented in the cohort of passionate educators and leaders who co-create the Global Impact Diploma, which is a two-year sequence of courses designed to prepare students to change the world.

GID Overview: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vKbk0F8zLPhNdT7Dx7zY2dOyTA7MUjZY63NEJkepQbg/edit?slide=id.g3009304bdc5_0_5#slide=id.g3009304bdc5_0_5

Pathways Summit: https://youtu.be/-75VaXq5rBo?si=mU9ryiqdhATssjrY 
Contact: Corey Topf - https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-topf-0a062464/

On 7th November, the OECD published a very significant statement of intent on Education for Human Flourishing (available here: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/education-for-human-flourishing_73d7cb96-en.html). It is a conceptual framework that they say is helping to shape the international conversation about the future of education, national education policymaking, as well as the development of OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and is the product of a significant collaboration among countries in the High Performing Systems for Tomorrow initiative (https://www.oecd.org/en/about/projects/pisa-high-performing-systems-for-tomorrow-hpst.html) I was very keen to explore this in more detail with the lead author and convenor of this work, Michael Stevenson. So I’m really happy to be able to bring you this episode where Michael and I talk though the development and structure of the framework itself, and explore some of its possibilities and pushbacks. 

Prior to founding and leading this important OECD initiative, Michael has led education at large global organisations such as the BBC and Cisco Systems, as well as directing major research projects, for example on learning ecosystems in Latin America, Africa and India, with Learning Planet Institute in Paris. He is also leading the creation of a Talent and Innovation Ecosystem in his hometown Doncaster, in the UK.

https://www.leadershipforflourishing.com/michael-stevenson 

https://www.leadershipforflourishing.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-stevenson-044499181/

As we think about systems change, it's all too easy to get caught up the technical design of new institutions and 'system architecture'. But if we are being asked to consider a qualitatively different way governing, convening, educating, distributing resources - all of the fundamentals of society -then perhaps we can start by asking:

What has LOVE got to do with any of it?

As I share at the start of this episode, it's been clear to me that it's difficult to bring the concept of love into such discussions. So I really wanted to explore this a few courageous and amazing individuals, who I knew would be up for it!

In this episode you'll hear from four amazing people working in quite different sectors - from existential risk, climate resilience to cognitive science to leadership and communications to teacher training and education. But all united by the willingness to talk about love as central to their work. 

Dr. Laura Penn is an expert in leadership communication and the speaking arts. As the Founder of The Leadership Speaking School (https://www.theleadershipspeakingschool.com/), she transforms leaders and teams from the world’s most well-known companies, business schools and organizations into authentic communicators of the digital age. Her clients include the World Economic Forum, International Olympic Committee, United Nations, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), IMD Business School, Ebay, Roche, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH), Nespresso, Salesforce, Logitech, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), EHL Hospitality Business School and many more.

With her first career as a conservation biologist, Laura is also a distinguished voice in the sustainability sector, empowering her audiences to communicate sustainability with gravitas.

https://www.laurapennspeaker.com/

linkedin.com/in/laurapennphd

Jamie Bristow is a writer linking inner and outer transformation, and a policy advisor on the application of inner development and contemplative practices in public life. His work includes influential reports such as Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out and The System Within: Addressing the inner dimension of sustainability and systems transformation. Jamie is currently developing his work in a new direction, supported by a two-year fellowship, and is initiating a yet-to-be-announced project with Professor Rebecca Henderson at Harvard University (https://rebeccahenderson.com/). He is a co-founder of the Life Itself Sensemaking Studio; honorary associate of Bangor University; special advisor to the Inner Development Goals; from 2015 to 2023, Jamie played an instrumental role in the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiebristow/ https://www.jamiebristow.com/

Khadija Shahper Bakhtiar is CEO and Founder of Teach For Pakistan - MPP, University of California, Berkeley; BSc Hons., LUMS; Rozan, Islamabad; UN Women, NYC; Fulbright Alum.

https://iteachforpakistan.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/khadija-shahper-bakhtiar-045b60122/

And Andrea Hiott, who you have heard on the podcast previously in episode 209 (https://www.goodimpactlabs.com/podcast/andrea-hiott) is Andrea is a philosopher, cognitive scientist and writer and host of the Love and Philosophy community and channel: https://lovephilosophy.substack.com/

The idea of rewilding is now a common topic of conversation in response to the depletion of biodiversity and natural habitats for local wildlife and widespread industrialisation and globalisation of food production. What about if we asked the same question in relation to the industrialised and standardised education system? What would it take to rewild education, as my guest this week asks?

Professor Hilary Cremin has a vision for rewilded healthy education communities and societies that nurture both human and ecological thriving. She is concerned with big questions about the future of education and peace building, and is author of the recently published 'Rewilding Education: Rethinking the Place of Schools Now and in the Future' (Routledge, 2025) - https://www.routledge.com/Rewilding-Education-Rethinking-the-Place-of-Schools-Now-and-in-the-Future/Cremin/p/book/9781041043157.Hilary is the Head of the Faculty of Education at Cambridge University and researches, writes and teaches about peace education and conflict transformation in schools and communities.

Hilary is also the co-founder of and senior advisor to the Cambridge Peace Education Research Group. CPERG (https://www.cperg.org/) offers seminars in Cambridge and online, as well as providing resources on their website for those interested in peace education research and practice.

Hilary was former Director of the Social Inclusion and Education for Citizenship Academic Research Group at the School of Education, University of Leicester, UK.

She has an interest in arts-based methodologies in educational research including photo-voice, poetry and autoethnography.

Hilary continues to be involved in the promotion and delivery of conflict transformation and peace-building work in schools and communities, and has a particular interest in Restorative Approaches.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilary-cremin-77513724/

As many regular listeners to the podcast know, on this channel we have been exploring the new kinds of educational institutions that are emerging in response to the challenges that our legacy institutions are facing. For the last 250 years we've gotten used to compulsory standardised schooling being provided at scale by either the state, as public government schools, or by the market, as private fee-paying schools. I'm fascinated by the question of what alternatives there might be to this binary choice. Home-schooling networks, religious and intentional communities are certainly examples, but often still very much at the margins. My guest this week, David Bollier, is a global expert in the the way that communities work together to steward shared resources often known as the Commons, rather than relying on the market or the state. So I was very keen to ask him about the implications of reframing education itself as a commons, what would this do to the ways that we provide, fund, and govern education.

David is an author, activist, blogger and independent scholar with a primary focus on the commons as a new paradigm of economics, politics and culture. He is the Reinventing the Commons Program Director at the The Schumacher Center for a New Economics https://centerforneweconomics.org/, and co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group, an advocacy/consulting project that assists the international commons movement. David’s work on the commons especially focuses on Internet culture; law and policy; ecological governance; and inter-commoning. 

David has written and edited many books on the commons, including the revised second edition of Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons that was published this year. His other books include: Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons and The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking; Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons (2014); Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights and the Commons (2013), co-authored with Burns Weston; and Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own (2010). With Silke Helfrich, he co-edited two anthologies of original essays, Patterns of Commoning (2015) and The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State (2012).

David spent many years in various policy advocacy jobs in Washington, D.C. in the 1970s and 1980s – with a Member of Congress, the auto safety regulatory agency, and public-interest organizations.  From 1985 to 2010, David collaborated with television producer, writer and activist Norman Lear on a wide variety of non-television public affairs and political projects.  In 2001, David co-founded Public Knowledge, a Washington advocacy organization for the public’s stake in the Internet, telecom and copyright policy. 

David's website and blog: https://www.bollier.org/

David's podcast, 'Frontiers of Commoning', with The Schumacher Center for a New Economics: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontiers-of-commoning-with-david-bollier/id1501085005
David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bollier-254129/