The Game Changers podcast celebrates those true pioneers in education who are building schools for tomorrow. In episode 195 (Part 3) of Game Changers, Phil Cummins joins in conversation with Homa Sabet Tavangar
Born in Iran, raised in the U.S., and having lived in South America and Africa, Homa Sabet Tavangar’s life and work have led her on a journey exploring the roots of purpose, innovation and belonging.
Homa connects timely topics with the timeless desire to work with intention and make a difference — whatever one’s circumstances. As co-founder of BigQuestions.Institute and OnenessLab.com, she partners with thought leaders dedicated to re-imagining learning and work while centering equity, inquiry and innovation.
Homa’s innovative approach has led schools and companies from crisis to global citizenship and competence in ways that create belonging across perspectives. Her approach fosters empathy, collaboration, diversity, inclusion, leadership, futures thinking, and creative problem-solving in complex, multicultural settings, — and re-imagines academic institutions and workplaces for the 21st Century.
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).
Her work has been hailed by international education and business leaders and media — from Dr. Jane Goodall to the BBC, NPR, NBC, ABC, Washington Post.com, Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, Boston Globe, PBS, Scholastic, Parents Magazine, Rodale, and many more. Growing Up Global has been a best-seller in Parenting, Education, and Globalization categories, and introduced the possibilities of raising and educating global citizens to a wide audience. Her article on Empathy was Edutopia’s most shared piece for four continuous years. Global Kids is the winner of the 2021 Tilliwig Best Children’s Products award.
Homa translates culture, diversity, innovation and globalization trends and breakthroughs into academic and social-emotional learning in ways that empower CEOs, teachers, parents and learners from Kindergarten to graduate students thrive in a global context — and have fun along the way. She advises entertainment pioneers Disney Channel and Empatico.org on cultural bias, and NBC’s Sprout TV on script development and cultural elements in the ambitious, young children’s animated series “Nina’s World,” based in part on Growing Up Global, and starring Rita Moreno and Mandy Patinkin.
The Game Changers podcast is produced by Evan Phillips supported by a School for tomorrow (aschoolfortomorrow.com), and powered by CIRCLE. The podcast is hosted on SoundCloud and distributed through Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts. Please subscribe and tell your friends you like what you are hearing. You can contact us at [email protected], on Twitter and Instagram via @GameChangersPC, and you can also connect with Phil and Adriano via LinkedIn and Twitter. Let’s go!