Here's my latest Substack post, titled "The Polycrisis: How to Face Teaching in 2026." open.substack.com/pub/susandbl... #education #pedagogy #polycrisis

The old leadership playbook no longer works. What replaces it rests on a simple but demanding principle: energy follows attention & intention. Form follows consciousness. Which implies that you cannot change a system unless you transform the mindsets of the people who are enacting it. Otto Scharmer

"The more a student talked in class, the better they performed in a reading literacy test." www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

“My best advice for other leaders going into 2026 is to learn how to live with uncertainty.” Michael Hendrix — Managing Director, Invisible Notes. “Don’t get stuck romanticizing what was. Fall in love with what can be.” Sara Kalick— Founder, The Possible.

Young boy reading book in a ruined bookshop in London devastated by an air raid - 1940

Endorsements for Cultivating Cultures of Thinking in Australian Schools Tina Blythe: “theoretically grounded, practical, and full of hope.” Kath Murdoch: “A timely, powerful collection—I hope it’s in every staff room.” Melbourne launch 13 Feb, Wesley College: events.humanitix.com/cultivating-...

"Educational leaders are expected to foster transformation while maintaining accountability; encourage risk-taking within standardised systems; and integrate digital technologies amid infrastructural deficits." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Summer holiday reading pile

*Dirtbag Billionaire* by David Gelles. 🌍 Patagonia prioritises lasting products over fast fashion. ⚖️ They confront sustainability’s contradictions. 🛑 Their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign urged reflection. Organisations grounded in strong values can resist extractive systems.

"Is prescribing centrally what every student must learn in each grade of school and testing to see whether they have learnt it the way to optimise learning and improve national performance?"

🇦🇺🕯️🇺🇦“We came here from Ukraine. Matilda was my first born Australia. I thought that 'Matilda' is the most Australian name that can ever exist, so just remember the name, remember her” said Matilda’s father.

You may know better than to use an AI extension on a browser, but in case you have a friend or relative who needs to know this...

Erik Lindemann seems to always find new angles, purposes, uses, and ideas for using thinking routines to maximum effect. CoT Summit attendee will be inspired by learn from and with him.

Ferguson has given some prefects the portfolio of school culture. "Their responsibility is to stop the rank protection if they start to hear about it, and I want them to build the collective efficacy of the year group and make sure that everybody’s included." www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

With scaffolding and support, this school creates a pathway for students to lead their own IEP meetings, and become active participants in making decisions about the future. 💪 #SpecialEducation #EduSky

The best school leaders and teachers have several things in common, says author Liz Wiseman. “They create an environment where people want to learn and contribute. They ask good questions and they spotlight people’s good work.” Here’s how. 🏫 #SchoolLeaders #Principals #EduSky

When teachers are offered opportunities for intellectually demanding professional learning, participation and satisfaction increase. Intellectual wellbeing enables teachers to resist reductive systems and reclaim teaching as a creative profession. patrickgalexander.org/2023/03/03/i...

NAPLAN has helped create a monster that has come back to haunt the governments that created it. Dean Ashenden challenges AARE to broker a Fix NAPLAN collaboration. https://loom.ly/vpd3N88

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” — Postman Our new book shares how educators are shifting from control to curiosity. Launch dates: Mel 13 Feb | Syd 20 Feb | Adel 12 Mar | Bris 27 Apr www.routledge.com/Cultivating-...

The “debate”. My @smh @theage cartoon.

Rethinking “evidence-based practice” — honouring the complexity of teaching and elevating educator voice in how evidence shapes schooling. 🎧📚 ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/ha...

“More than half of government secondary students miss a month of school a year, with many claiming it is because what they’re being taught is not relevant.”

“The treatment of Aboriginal people was a mistake. We can recover from mistakes. Just talk to young people about plants and animals and that will change everything. Start growing Australian plants. We have knowledge.” Bruce Pascoe at Cool.org Biodiversity in Action

What if schooling asked not what students must know, but who we want them to become? Agile leadership, trust, and a Culture of Thinking are reshaping modern education. 📘 Book out now: www.routledge.com/Cultivating-... 🚀 Book launch coming 2026!

“Everyone matters; everyone is needed. In an interconnected world, no one is healthy until everyone is healthy. No one is free until everyone is free.” ssir.org/articles/ent...

"The way we pay attention to a situation, individually and collectively, determines the path the system takes and how it emerges." www.dailygood.org/story/450/un...

Two-thirds of California's power comes from clean energy. For 9 in 10 days so far this year, we were 100% powered for some part of the day by clean energy. The Golden State has become the world's fourth-largest economy because of our climate leadership, not in spite of it.

"We are now living in the age of consequences. They are the consequences of the Consumer Story. They cannot be solved from within its logic; and so the story is breaking." www.amazon.com.au/Citizens-Why...

Already in our university's library! Looking forward to reading it!

"If teachers are controlled, they control. If teachers are empowered to inquire and innovate, they do the same for students." — Gill & Gagliano 📖 Cultivating Cultures of Thinking in Australian Schools — out now. Stay tuned for a 2026 launch! ✦ www.routledge.com/Cultivating-...

Nature journaling, the research suggests, can deliver excellent benefits across grade levels. Not only can it teach critical thinking skills, but it improves focus and connects students to the outdoors. 🌳 🧵1/11

The more girls in a class, the merrier. Data on 87k students: In cohorts with more girls, boys and girls have better mental health. More female peers predicts closer friendships for boys—and better body image & STEM grades for girls. Girls build cultures of competence and care.

"Increasingly, we are “done to” rather than listened to. If we do not articulate what we do and why we do it, others will narrow the scope of our work, our spaces, and our impact." community.acel.org.au/blogs/camero...

Neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang spoke with Edutopia’s @stephenmerrill.bsky.social about why adolescent students search for deeper meaning—and what that tells us about designing schools that engage teens. Read the conversation here 👇 #EduSky

What really drives long-term improvement in education systems? Llasting reform doesn’t happen through command and control. It happens when those closest to learners have the capability, agency, and capacity to lead change themselves. www.thirdstory.org/thoughts-ins...

— @marcusluther.bsky.social

Lisa Delpit describes warm demanders as teachers who “expect a great deal of their students, convince them of their own brilliance, and help them to reach their potential in a disciplined and structured environment.” www.edutopia.org/article/how-...

“Write your own job description.” For senior roles, we ditched interviews, psychometric tests & pre-set JD’s. Candidates wrote 500-word visions & presented them to staff & students. Result? Original, creative, insightful applications. www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1934...

Join @mesterman.bsky.social, co-author of The Next Word, for a session on how AI can give educators an almost-unfair advantage: smarter planning, better learning, and more time. events.humanitix.com/unlocking-ti...

The calls to overhaul Victoria’s VCE assessment system are essential. Students are asking for understanding, not memorisation. It’s time to reimagine assessment - to value growth, creativity, and collaboration over high-stakes tests. www.woodleigh.vic.edu.au/news-editori...

‘How can everyone most powerfully pursue a purpose that transcends us all?’ Traditional organisational models come with limitations. Today, a new “Teal” paradigm is emerging, emphasising self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose. www.strategy-business.com/article/0034...

“I knew I’d found the right recipe when a Year 12 said: ‘asking questions I am not sure of, without caring whether I look silly!’” – April Taylor 🌱 Creating classrooms that nurture curiosity, reflection & student agency transforms learning. Book release - www.routledge.com/Cultivating-...

We are thrilled to partner w Project Zero, the California Teacher Development Collaborative & our host Del Mar Union School District for our 2nd Annual Cultures of Thinking Summit. If you haven't already, add your name to our mailing list. Registration opens in the next few days. lnkd.in/giZAwMY5

“Characterized by self-management, wholeness, and a deeper sense of purpose, these organizations – which he describes as “Teal” – operate largely without organization charts, management hierarchies, quarterly goals or other traditional management strategies.” enliveningedge.org/features/wha...

“Victoria’s “outdated” 1980s-era approach to final high school exams should be replaced with a system that includes project-based tasks, with students leading the calls for change.” www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

“By 2050, every child would need a few years of schooling in the Three R’s. After that, teachers would expose students to activities that would challenge their thinking and guide them toward professions that excite them. I don’t think going to school for 10 or 15 years makes sense.” Howard Gardner

“Every time I teach , I feel joy. I feel satisfaction at seeing someone understand something that I care about. I’ve just been in awe of the teachers around me, like, how masterfully they take control of their classes and how they explain concepts. They’re just so skilled.”

“This absurd system we still subject our young people to. All the HSC is teaching is how to memorize information and then regurgitate it to answer exam questions.”