One Good Question
Blog Archives
One Good Question: The Book.
"In what ways do our investments in education reveal our beliefs about the next generation’s role in the world?"
- Rhonda Broussard, author, One Good Question
It all started with this question. From 2015 - 2017, I interviewed global education leaders about their perspectives on my one good question. Thank you to everyone who read the interviews in this original series! Your comments, feedback, and questions have been inspiring. In the process of writing the blog, I learned so much from these leaders about my own assumptions and education perspectives, but more importantly, I learned a lot about the power of questioning.
I'm honored to start the next phase of wondering: One Good Question, the book. Later this year, CALEC/TBR Books will publish One Good Question, a reflection on these original interviews and how the dual pandemics in 2020 have challenged our education perspectives even further. Watch this space for more information about pre-sales, book release events, and speaking events.
7 books, 2 talks, 1 TV show and Al Pacino – What One Good Question Folks are Reading.
Fall Reading Recs
During every One Good Question interview, we have awesome side conversations and anecdotes that don’t make the final edit. I’ve noticed my reading list grow in direct relationship to our side bars. As you start planning your personal fall syllabus, here are a few titles that might resonate:
On design — Aylon Samouha: The End of Average: How we succeed in a world that values sameness, Todd Rose
Rose opens his Ted Talk and book with the following poignant anecdote : In the 40s as planes where getting faster and more complex, there was a spike in plane crashes. They checked the planes and said the planes were fine, but the pilots were making errors. They tried to solve for the pilot errors and began designing the cockpit for “the average pilot.” They took some average pilot demographics and size to adjust, but there were still no improvements in performance. They quickly learned that none of the 400 pilots sampled actually measured the average size of their calculations. The cockpit wasn’t designed for any real person. Eventually they tried to fit the system to the individual and invented adjustable seats, etc. things, that we take for granted now. In the book, you learn that that’s the secret of all design: any system that is trying to fit the individual is actually doomed to fail.
On elite education — Peter Howe: Excellent Sheep, William Deresiewicz
Deresiewicz is a first generation immigrant whose father was a professor. His basic premise is that elite education in the US is producing intellectual sheep who are terrified of failure. These youth grow up with model CVs from birth, but have no resilience, creativity or desire to think outside of the box. Without giving it all away, he concludes that « If we are here to create a decent society, a just society, a wise and prosperous society, a society where children can learn for the love of learning and people can work for the love of work...We don't have to love our neighbors as ourselves, but we need to love our neighbors’ children as our own...We have tried aristocracy. We have tried meritocracy. Now it’s time to try democracy.
On local funding — Susanna Williams: Parks and Recreation, NBC
With national elections on the horizon, we focus on national policy and the influence of national lobby groups. The general public has little understanding about how state and local funding decisions are made. State government deals with the important daily stuff, but it’s not sexy, so there’s a lack of TV/entertainment exposure to those decisions. If you want to learn about local funding issues, watch Parks & Rec. In most states, local legislature is limited to those whose jobs allow them to have flexible jobs for 6-months – ranchers and farmers in western states and self-funded individuals who are so wealthy that they don’t need to work. That’s who’s making our local policy and funding decisions.
On creating coalitions — Dan Varner: Any Given Sunday, Oliver Stone
My favorite movie inspirational scene is this great speech form Any Given Sunday. Al Pacino’s in the locker room and giving his football team the encouragement to get back out and turn the game around. « The inches we need are everywhere around us. On this team, we fight for that inch. » His point, and the way that it inspires me, is that when creating our coalition, we had to recognize that “the inches we needed” were already there -- in our schools, green space, food service, healthcare -- and it was up to us to harness that power.
On diversity in ed tech — Mike DeGraff: Making Good: Equality and Diversity in Maker Education, Leah Buechley
In Leah’s talk, she highlights the imperative we have to define maker education separately from the mainstream Maker Magazine and Faires. Those events tend to be homogenous groups that reflects the values and interests of it’s audience. To me, this is exactly why we, in education, need to systematically develop opportunities around making for a more diverse population, which, early indications show, is working.
On questioning — Anu Passi-Rauste: A More Beautiful Question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas, Warren Berger
I was a visiting a small non-profit in Boston and the ED recommended this book to me. It’s all about how to make a good question. My one big takeaway is that I need to figure out my One Good Question before I start my next project. What is the most beautiful question that I want to raise ?
On accountability — Tony Monfiletto: The Allure of Order: High Hopes, Dashed Expectations, and the Troubled Quest to Remake American Schooling, Jal Mehta
Mehta outlines how the investment in accountability at the back end of the education system is an effort to make up for the fact that we haven’t invested as aggressively in the front end. We don’t put enough time, energy or strategy into good school design, preparation of teachers, or capital development. Because we don’t put enough resources into those areas, we try to make up for it in accountability structures.
On solving complex problems — Tom Vander Ark: The Ingenuity Gap: How can we solve the problems of the future?, Thomas Homer-Dixon
Dixon's work centers on the fact that we seem incapable of addressing our basic problems. The problems that we’re facing in society grow in complexity. Their interrelatedness with each other and our civic problem solving capacity is diminishing. We’ve created enormously complex systems, but we have more and more black swan events that we can’t predict or solve. If you’re trying to figure out how to address complex system needs, this book helps to order your thinking.
On AI — Tom Vander Ark: The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Ray Kurzweil
People have a linear memory and we assume that the future will be like the past, but the future is happening exponentially faster than we appreciate. In The Singularity is Near, Kurzweil posits that computers will be smarter than people, and that, while we know it’s happening, we can’t fully understand the implications of that trajectory.
On bias — Rhonda Broussard: Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, Mahzarin Banaji & Anthony Greenwald
This is the psychology behind the Project Implicit research and it’s fascinating. Through clever analogies, card tricks, and pop culture references, the researchers teach us how our brains create bias, how that can convert to prejudice or discrimination, and how to make peace when our aspirational beliefs and implicit biases are at odds.
When Women Succeed, the World Succeeds. #IWD2016
In honor of International Women's Day/ Journée des Droits des Femmes, a look back at Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka's talk "When women succeed, the world succeeds."
We need to get decision makers to stop seeing women as the problem or charity case. We will not overcome inequality or poverty or sustainable peace if we do not improve the lives of women. There are only 20 women heads of state in the world. if we had more female leaders we would not be in this state. Women are part of creating the world we all want. We have to invest in women. When you leave women out, you compromise the rest of the nation.
What it will take for more governments, institutions, schools, etc. to understand that improving the lives of girls and women will increase opportunities for the entire society?
The Year in Review: 10 Good Questions.
Asking the right questions is more important than having the right answers. One of my favorite parts of the fall interviews was to hear these amazingly accomplished, visionary thinkers and doers ask questions that they couldn't answer on their own. Looking forward to hearing more questions in the new year.
1. Zaki’s One Good Question : Bangladesh has made lots of progress to educate more people in our society, but we see that the system is not yet producing a respectful society. Education is about creating global peace. Are we matching what we really want to accomplish through education ? Are we missing the way that education should be defined ? (BL)
2. Saku’s One Good Question : My question is an extremely boring one: What is the point of school ? Once we answer that, then we can move on to the question of how to educate all youth. (FI)
3. Michael’s One Good Question : How much input should local, state, and federal governments have on the programmatic strategies of schools, given their variation in education goals and knowledge of effective programs ? (US)
4. Noëlle’s One Good Question : How well does our education system engage students? Ideally, I would specify "boys" rather than just "students" because boys are falling behind in Malaysia. Girls outperform boys in Maths and Science unlike international norms. And in public universities, girls account for 70% of the intake. Our education blueprint has highlighted the risk of "lost boys". It appears our education system isn't really working out for boys. Given the patriarchal expectations within conservative communities, I wonder what impact this achievement gap will have on the next generation. (MY)
5. Allan's One Good Question: Given the importance that we place on education and that we know what it takes to provide high quality education for all children, why haven’t we solved it for all children ? That’s what this country has to wrestle with. (US)
6. Alex's One Good Question: I asked this question earlier on Twitter. I’ve been thinking a lot about how our philosophy of education as parents is different/similar to our approach as educators. The places where those two perspectives are in tension are the most interesting areas for me to explore. As a parent, I value personalization, socio-emotional development and self-directed learning a lot more than I did as an educator. What do those seemingly disparate perspectives mean about high quality education for all children ? (US)
7. Marcelo's One Good Question: This is hard. My question. Of course I have children, is it possible for them to have a better future ? I am seeing here in Brazil we face immediate threats to global warming. Strong period of economic depresssion. Huge problem in education. Do they have a good future ? Thinking more globally, will they even have any place to go ? (BR)
8. Karen’s One Good Question : How can a student’s experience build on his/her fount of knowledge, both linguistic and cultural ? (US)
9. Ellen’s One Good Question: If the most critical student competencies for the future are about addressing complex problems with diverse populations, how can we better prepare teachers to do the same? (US)and the one that got us all started...
10. Rhonda's One Good Question: In what ways do our investments in education reveal our beliefs about the next generation's role in the world?
What good questions will you ask in 2016 about our world's education needs?
Didn't Get the Answers You Wanted in 2015? Maybe You're Asking the Wrong Questions…
But when you start thinking you know everything, you stop being curious.
I started 2015 asking, what, I thought, was a bold, reflective question for the year. It was our first morning in Havana, and we were introduced to the ceiba tree and her place in Cuban history : meetings, prayer, dreams, wishes, gratitude. I took a solemn walk around the ceiba tree three times, asking for clarity for the year ahead. My professional and love lives were exploding in ways that felt beyond me. I hoped that the ceiba would help me quiet my heart and brain, and eventually show me the right paths for both sets of complex needs.My ask for clarity was steeped in doing life better. Work better. Love better. Improve outcomes. Change behaviors. I thought those would be the right answers and that the ceiba would help mefigure out how to execute them. As 2015 draws to a close, I have certainly gotten the clarity that I asked for, but the answers were not what I wanted. Here I sit, nursing a broken heart, on the other side of a painful work transition, and questioning everything again. Before the ball drops this week, I want to commit to asking the right questions for 2016, not necessarily getting the right answers. Something manageable between « What is the meaning of life ? » and « What are my interim goal metrics ? »This weekend, Ravi Gupta penned an article about the need for students to engage in deep questioning. « When a student does not have courage, time, and space, their questions are often basic or vague — and sometimes don’t evenend with a question mark. Can you help me? . . . I don’t understand . . . This is hard. » Sound familiar ? He’s described my ask for clarity perfectly. I hadn’t asked a deep question, but made a vague plea for help. What if I had applied his advice for how schools can teach students to question, to guide my adult inquiry?
There is a gap between what we ask for, what we can intuit, and what we actually need to learn. In Ian Leslie’s forthcoming Curious, he focuses on the paradox necessary to remain curious--- understanding enough about something to find it interesting, but not having the answer be so complex that questioning is overwhelming and unattainable. The right question fits uncomfortably in that space, inspiring us to ask and giving us hope that the answer(s) are totally within reach.This fall, I started asking myself questions about my beliefs in education, trying to test how I wanted to serve my professional purpose. Those questions were a step up from vague clarity, but they were still statements in disguise. They were really easy to answer and justify with rich examples from my work. I had brilliant responses to those questions, because they didn’t force me to reconsider my position, to adopt a different perspective, or to learn. Then it occurred to me that I couldn’t answer my own question with the same knowledge that asked it.
So I went back to my inquiry and, this time, decided to ask my peers and colleagues around the world to weigh in. Not just the peers who would mirror my perspectives, but those who had completely different ways of seeing the question. In One Good Question, I ask international thought leaders and doers in education to reflect deeply on their country’s investments, policy, and practices. Throughout the fall conversations, every interviewee noted that facing the One Good Question challenged their own thinking (victory for questioning !). For many, they were unsure if their country leadership was asking themselves this type of essential question to inform education design/reform. How many of our country policies, state priorities, and school practices are based on the right answers to the wrong questions ?There's an inherent tension about the urgency of public education transformation. I get it.We don't feel like we have the luxury of time to reflect, iterate, and deepen adult learning because we’re trying to make swift, scalable transformation for all kids. But if, as leaders- and I mean all of the ways that we lead in this movement -- we're asking the wrong questions, those « wrong » questions will still give us answers. If we’re not asking complex enough questions, we might even be convinced that we have the right answers.The questions that we ask matter, so we should give ourselves the time and space to ask the right ones.
Tensions in Formal vs. Informal Education Solutions.
During the break-out sessions at the GNF Women’s Forum, I participated in “Leaders as entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs as leaders” and “Innovations & challenges in education” and was pleasantly surprised to hear how the conversations blended so seamlessly. Entrepreneurs from around the globe raised questions about the role of formal education in preparing youth to lead. “How can we teach our students differently? How can they learn to harness the opportunities in their environment? How can they learn to be entrepreneurs? In Africa, we can’t create jobs for all of our people. I wish that there was a way for the schools to give them the skills to create jobs for themselves. How can we give skills to students to make them more self-sufficient?”One of our facilitators, Irina Anghel-Enescu (EF, Romania), is on the jury for Global Teacher Prize and asked us directly if we thought the entrepreneurial ecosystem would be improved if educators taught these skills explicitly. All of the finalists for last year’s prize shared an entrepreneurial spirit—they created new models, founded schools, and expanded education access. While they are all highly impactful teachers in their parts of the world, what set them apart was their entrepreneurial mindset and how they took the initiative to change outcomes for all of their students.
There is a growing debate about the role of formal education vs. informal education to prepare this generation for the future. When our conversation took an overly critical turn of formal education, Pilvi Torsti (EF, Finland) of Helsinki International Schools reminded us that these are not competitions. Me & My City is a Finnish example of how formal and informal education partner in the best interest of learning. We have to invest in both levels for deep national or systemic change. She shared that Finland’s decision to invest in education was made when it was a poor agrarian country. Pilvi encouraged us to invest in our human capital now. All sectors need to make conscious decisions to value formal education and integrate role models from other sectors into the sphere.Our panel during the “Innovation in education” session continued to explore this tension. Bernardine Vester (EF, New Zealand) gave an overview of how the marketization and commodification of education has impacted New Zealand and asked what the growing privatization of education means for equity and inclusion. Amr AlMadani (EF, Saudi Arabia) shared his start-up success for how deep, intentional partnership of informal education (robotics and STEM competitions) and formal education is reinvigorating student interest and parent support in his country. Maria Guajardo (Kellogg Fellow, Japan) brought in cross-cultural perspectives on leadership and women’s empowerment. Common threads across their diverse experiences: formal education alone does not change social practices, expectations, or real-world outcomes.
“What’s missing is not the tools. Everybody is watching, but nothing is changing. Passion and love of the game is missing.” – Amr AlMadani
In Saudi Arabia, education has a high cultural value and high government investment (25% of budget towards formal education), yet those two high-level alignments have not inspired passion-filled teaching and learning. Instead of blaming teachers, parents, or cultural practices, Amr decided to offer a solution to the passion question and inspire learning and positive parent participation.Maria inspired our group conversation with her One Good Question : As we become more globalized, how do we lead across differences? How does leadership look the same or different? For her, the question of intersection—where leadership development intersects with culture and tradition— is essential. Education has to be the vanguard for leadership change.Like in every group of education thought leaders, our participants challenged each other to consider different lenses:
On questions of feminization and devaluation of formal education: It’s the economy, stupid. How can we look at the curve of where education attainment and economics meet (personal earnings and GDP)?
On questions of the role of women in formal leadership spaces: The perception of being a leader is different in various cultural contexts. You can be a leader outside of the home and inside of the home.
On equality/inclusion: Can we explore this more? Urbanization and growth of the middle class are all supporting the privatization of education. Does it have to be a negative view or is it an opportunity for more people to come to education? Making the whole system public doesn’t seem realistic at this moment at all.
On informal education: Are there growing demands within our countries where privates are stepping in to fill the gaps? Particularly where the state has failed minority/marginalized populations? Are we seeing this growth and is it a long-term positive trend?
In NZ we moved from social democratic state to one more focused on markets. I have not given up on public education, which is why I’m working with a nonprofit group to insure that t the best teachers end up in the schools with the highest poverty needs. The rising social inequalities arise out of the growing tendency to commodify education and marketize it. It’s no use trying to hold back the tide. How do you use the process to ensure that those who have the least get the most potential? Their potential is our future. Most of the students in Auckland are no longer white and middle class. They’re brown. WE have to do something about it.
Le but de L'enseignement.
“Un enseignement qui n’enseigne pas à se poser des questions est mauvais.” - Paul Valéry
Is Academic Language Enough? Social Capital and Minority Languages.
When I first listened to Suzanne Talhouk's Tedx Talk "Don't Kill Your Language," I selected the Brazilian Portugese subtitles. I have been learning Portuguese for the past three months and it made sense to practice my reading comprehension. But I mostly chose Portuguese because, of the 28 subtitles possible, my heritage language, French, wasn't an option. What an ironic way to begin a reflection on the importance of language protectionism!As a language advocate, I'm accustomed to language protectionism arguments, but what I appreciate most about Talhouk's work, is that she isn't preaching to the choir at an academic conference. She originally gave this talk at TEDxBeirut and is admonishing her peers for elevating the status of English and French over Arabic. Talhouk gives familiar positions about native language fluency supporting mastery of additional languages (Cummins, 1994), and the emotional link to language and memory (Schroeder & Marian, 2012). These are widespread logical reasons that we should maintain our heritage languages. Talhouk herself is a poet and also invokes Khalil Gibran's work and complexity of thought in their language. Essentially her argument is that Lebanese people are deciding that their language is less professionally and artistically valuable than English and French. She urges her peers to publish research, create art, and engage deeply in their language. Don't take my word for it, let her tell you about it directly.[ted id=1803]My biggest idol in language revitalization work is New Zealand's Maori advocacy community. So much of the success of New Zealand's Maori renaissance is due to the language immersion and korero maori community. It's possible to study from preK through university and receive all of your instruction in te reo maori. New Zealand has strong national policy to protect te reo maori and support the work of language advocates. Picture the language revitalization platform as a three-legged table: policy and education institutions are significant. In my native Louisiana, we have similarly strong policy and education movements for French heritage language. New Zealand however, has made greater advances in their third prong: social capital of the minority language.In my parents' generation, we have artists and language activists like Zachary Richard and David Chéramie, who committed to writing in French before, and in great anticipation that, we would eventually be able to read their work in our language. They were sowing the seeds for social capital and heritage language legacy. Where New Zealand has created more momentum, is in inspiring my generation of artists to be equally committed to language activism. Maori Television (especially their Te Reo channel) and Huia Publishing are institutional examples of promoting social capital of the minority language. They produce a wide range of programs, texts and develop maori-speaking artists to reach broader audiences in te reo. Rob Ruha, is a contemporary singer-songwriter, who writes traditional waitas, choreographs kapa haka and writes pop songs in te reo. He believes strongly that he is writing in te reo to reflect our generation's experiences and inspire our children's generation to enjoy and value te reo.My children, now 10 and 7, are used to the fact that, whenever given the choice of language, we choose French. From the check-out at Home Depot and the ATM, to our movie audio tracks, musicians and greeting cards, we're intentional about making memories in our language. Speaking, and certainly raising my children in a minority language in the US, requires an effort on my part. The irony is not lost on me though, that I'm writing this blog in English and not French. Duly noted.If you are a champion for your minority language, ask yourself, who are the artists, poets, singers, actors, who are carrying the social status of your language for the next generations? Then ask what legacy are you leaving the next generation now via social media platforms that will keep your language relevant? Talhouk cautions Arabic-speakers in their use of social media. She gives the example of transliterating an Arabic word in a tweet. "Whatever you do, don't write Arabic in Roman characters! That's a disaster! It's not a language." Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi are just a handful of languages that succumbed to Roman script long before the influence of social media. On that point, she may be fighting a losing battle.I would love to follow Suzanne on Twitter, but, as you can imagine, her feed is entirely in Arabic.
Did I offer peace today?
Did I offer peace today?
Too often we expect that peace happens to us, that someone else gives us peace or extends the olive branch. We expect that peace happens around us, institutions and organizations and entities make peace. For this year's International Day of Peace, let's focus on how we are each offering peace to ourselves and others.
One Good Question
"I want to ask one good question."That's all? I can ask one good question now. That's what I thought when I heard my colleague share her intellectual goal for the new school year. I had no idea how difficult it would be to ask my students one good question, a question that wasn't leading, that didn't tip my hand or reveal my beliefs, that didn't force students to defend a single position, nor one that allowed them to respond solely with anecdote and opinion.In the fall of 2003 I was working with new peers in the second year of Baccalaureate School for Global Education in Queens, NY. This was the year that would challenge my teaching forever. Over ten years later, I'm still challenging myself to ask one good question. My work in international education has changed, but the need for good questions remains. In this blog I will be exploring international education and access for all students through multiple lenses, but all with the same question: In what ways do our investments in education reveal our beliefs about the next generation's role in the world?Spoiler alert: I am completely biased. My education career is built on ways that we are increasing access and opportunity for all students to connect with the world outside of their local neighborhood: multilingualism, cross-cultural and intercultural competencies, international perspectives, peace-building, youth action and agency, socio-economic diversity. I look forward to having my assumptions challenged and learning innovative ways that different countries, communities, and schools are answering this question.