While I have played witness to conflicts throughout my lifetime both at home and around the globe, the last 10 years working and living in Iraq, Turkey and Spain have challenged my worldviews significantly. As an international educator, I feel compelled to dig into concepts related to interculturalism, global citizenship and sustainability. We all experience the world differently given our own schema - funds of knowledge and identities. It is an ongoing endeavor to train my brain to listen for understanding as an open-minded observer: to understand other ways of seeing, hearing and doing as well as to accept these differences while looking for the commonalities. Then, it is our common humanity - human dignity that surfaces to the forefront for me. I can build cultural bridges for constructive relationship that work from a place of care and wisdom.  

My time in Iraq was impactful as I arrived during the war with DAESH. My students were daughters and sons of parents who had experienced the Baathist party's war on diversity, free speech and thought. This experience drove me to focus two of my research papers for the University of Bath doctoral program on Iraq so I could better understand the region, the constant turmoil that leads to waves of conflict and the history of my husband's Kurdish family. What I uncovered through touring the Kurdish north, teaching Kurdish children for 3 years during the ISIS war and then through my research is reflected in the image below.

To read more explore...

• https://halabjamemorial.org/ 
• https://www.newtactics.org/perspectives/amna-suraka-unexpected-place-healing/ 
  

In 2023, we immigrated to Spain for two years. My first trip to the Reina Sofia Art Museum, I got to spend time observing Picasso's work, Guernica (which I have now seen on 3 different occasions). I have to admit, at that time, I was ignorant about the Spanish history behind the painting entirely. The painting itself is massive with so much symbolism and I found it difficult to understand as I lacked the background knowledge. I knew quite a lot about World War II and had visited many memorials across Europe back in the 80's and later the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. I had read books and taken World History and Geography at the university. However, I had yet to understand the role of Spain, Franco and Spanish fascism during that time period as well as the history behind the Spanish Civil War. I had seen movies (in Spanish) that impacted me like Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) and Butterfly's Tongue (La Lengua de las Mariposas). So like I have done in other countries I have immigrated to, I began to educate myself more about Spanish history by traveling and visiting museums to learn my host country's stories, perspectives and challenges.

 The Guernica Peace Museum [Museo de la Paz de Gernika], Spain
The trip to Gernika (Guernica) did not start as an inquiry into peace for me. It unfolded throughout the visit to the museum itself. It is a powerful museum that confronts the visitor with the concept of peace through an epistemological lens. Additionally, I made connections to my prior research that I did for my coursework at University of Bath as well as life experiences while living abroad.

​I spent a lot of time that morning slowly reading the various case studies highlight in the museum. These activists over the years who have fought for peace by advocating for freedom of speech (economic status, race, gender), equal representation (economic status, race, gender), an invitation to participate equitably in the legislative process and the access to equal rights for all. Provocative questions ran throughout the exhibition...

• What is peace? 
• At what cost do we (society) achieve peace? 
• Who pays the price for another groups’ peace?
• When peace is obtained at any cost, is it peace?
• What is the relationship between peace, participation,  representation and marginalization?

Then to experience the museum itself learning about the bombing experience, reading the stories of survival and loss. It provoked me in a good way. Since visiting this museum, I see the headlines and daily streams of news differently. I connect back to peace and then the macro-concepts of my research studies.

While there, I purchased this book by William Smallwood (pictured above) who was the first reporter to arrive and document the events from primary source survivors.

Hopes for a Sustainable World
As an international educator now for over 22 years, I have internalized a more global perspective that seeks to understand other cultures, countries and peoples rather than to categorize, label and de-value them through "othering" or by using a deficits-based lens. Over time, I have felt increasingly connected to the cultures and countries who have welcomed me to contribute to their society through residency. Now, I see the world increasingly intertwined, as interdependent sectors who can support and benefit from one another for a sustainable global future. I find myself fully aligned with the ideals of the United Nations as stated in these documents below:

​Universal Declaration of Human Rights
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

Secondly, I recognize that I stand on the shoulders of so many women who came before me to fight for equal rights - the right to citizenship independent of a man, the right to vote, to own property, to have a bank account, to drive a vehicle, to travel independently, to determine a career path... it is a long list for certain.

Current global events challenge the very fabric of what I have taken for granted - the norms of honor, integrity, respect and global collaboration ever since the formation of NATO and the end of World War II. If we all have human rights, why do governments exclude demographics and excuse themselves from obligations to honor those rights with distinct people groups? Look at the following timeline:

• February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. I was in Turkey at the time and we received many displaced families. to our school. This war continues... and who knows what the outcome will be or when it will end. This war has put to test relationships within and between the EU, the USA and the NATO alliance in general at times. 
• October 2023, Israel went to war with Hamas, decimating the Palestinians of Gaza. This also continues with ongoing calls for humanitarian aid. It is heartbreaking to watch the suffering that is happening there.
• The USA by a sweeping majority, re-elected President Trump who took office once more in January 2025. Since taking office, there has been increasing polarization, threats, revenge tactics and a break-down in the democratic processes. I find the videos of ICE at work disturbing and upsetting.
• A glimpse of hope for the future of the USA in the election of a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani. He is an immigrant, a muslim, so intelligent, kind and a visionary reformer! He is showing the USA what democratic socialism looks like - when the government serves the people for the common good to make life easier. 
• There are widespread protests in Iran taking place that are resulting in many deaths.
• Now, January 2026, the rights of minorities in Syria including the Kurds (near and dear to my heart because of my husband), the Druze, Alawites and Christians. 

Global norms are shifting, cracking and begin to break down. The world as we know it may be changing beyond what Artificial Intelligence is changing. As an expat, it is hard to believe and accept. I am unable to accept the increasing rhetoric of hate as well as the ostracizing tactics that I hear coming from politicians in the country of my birth, the USA.

​What does one do in the face of polarizing political rhetoric?  Or the dehumanizing actions by government officials who we expect to protect us? Or the outright aggression that results in wars?​

The nagging in the back of my brain returns to the concept of peace. And the ways we can guide our students to be inquirers into the concept of peace. We cannot hide our students from what is happening in the world. One action international educators can take is to use the current events as points for an inquiry into peace. ​

​As a concept-based inquiry teacher, I am fascinated with ways in which we can guide students to use their critical thinking skills to find the big idea or produce their own unique generalizations to express understandings about the unit of inquiry.  While working with grade 5, I explored the use two different tools to draw out those understandings. I wanted to know if they could produce a generalization that extended the central idea since they had already been exposed to it. Secondly, I wanted to know if they could generate a generalization about the transdisciplinary theme, How We Express Ourselves.  
 
To address my first goal of extending the central idea, I gave each student a concept wheel (see figure 1). Because this was their first experience with this tool, I guided them through each step. Together we decided on the concepts we had learned about and used those as our categories around the concept wheel. I observed the students thoughtfully engaging with the engagement which meant we had reached that synergism of thought connected to the 3D curriculum (see figure 2). They were able to write a variety of statements, demonstrating both conceptual understandings and knowledge gleaned from our inquiry around the question posed in the center of the wheel. I then asked them to write a big idea using the concept wheel as a starting point. This was too difficult and I got a lot of thoughtfully confused looks. So, I wrote the central idea on the board:
 
People express ideas, emotions and reflect social issues through their art.
 
But I challenged them to extend it. I asked them the questions, why and so what? This resulted in some nice generalizations but it would have been better if they had never seen the central idea in the first place. I would like to try it again without the central idea on the wall and see if we come close as a class to writing the intended understanding. I will repeat this exercise with grade 5 at the end of this upcoming unit to see if there is a difference.
 
The following day, we thought about our transdisciplinary theme and how it related to each student personally. I developed a tool with questions drawn from our central idea and lines of inquiry with our TD theme at the center (see figure 3). This was also the first time I tried to draw out their new understandings of the TD theme. I am still in the process of developing my own understandings about the best way in which to do this. I realized some of my questions were difficult to answer for some of my students. I realized it is important to continue to develop metacognitive thinking skills in order to learn and know more about themselves. so not all of my students were using enough reflective or metacognitive thinking to be able to interact with the graphic organizer. It will be a skill that I would have to continue to build with them. 
 
What is my take away? I see that learning to use these types of tools and becoming a CBCI teacher is a learning curve that takes practice. Each time will get better and as I learn to scaffold the thinking better, the results will get better. It also means more collaboration with other teachers pursuing the same approaches to learning. Discussing our attempts, reflecting together and finding ways to improve together is much better than trying alone. I encourage you to make connections with others who are also working to improve their skills and understandings about CBCI.

"The Big Idea," Global Women Network, Eva Smith, 2014.

Erickson, L, Lanning, L. and French, R. (2017). Concept-based curriculum and instruction for the thinking classroom, 2nd ed. Corwin: Thousand Oaks.

​It is the beginning of a new academic calendar year which fills us all with anticipation about the teaching and learning that will be taking place, the relationships we will build and the challenges we will face and conquer.  As an inquiry school, facilitating the IB Primary Years Programme, we are currently asking ourselves the question, ‘how can we grow as an inquiry school?’ As a staff, we have begun to reflect on our beliefs about inquiry as well as our current understandings. We are considering our process throughout each stage of the inquiry cycle developed by Kath Murdoch. Our staff are acknowledging what we do well and looking at the areas that we want to improve. As lifelong learners, this should be an annual process and lead us to continuous process improvement at MEF IS.
 
To better facilitate this reflective process, we are participating in a staff inquiry into Turkey. As the PYP Coordinator, I posed the question, ‘what do you wonder about Turkey?’ This question has lead us into a free inquiry about Turkey to delve into any area of interest, be it historical, cultural, geographical, current events, fashion, economics, cuisine or entertainment. This approach allows for freedom of choice which makes the learning relevant to each teacher individually as all will be inquiring into their own questions about Turkey. As we find ways to answer our questions, we hope to rediscover the process of learning something new through the lens of the learner. If we become aware of the many ways we can inquire into answering our own questions generated through personal curiosity, then we can apply this in the classroom to improve inquiry at MEF IS.
 
You may be curious and wondering what I mean exactly. I would encourage you to ponder the same question we are considering. What do you wonder about Turkey? Identify your personal curiosity and begin to follow the stages of the inquiry cycle to not only answer your question but deepen your understandings about Turkey and act. Action can be a shift in pre-conceived ideas or it can be to share what you learned with others. Action takes many forms but it always brings change. Pay attention to process you follow to investigate.

• Do you read an article?
• Do you interview people?
• Do you take notes and ask more questions?
• Do you schedule a trip to see and experience a historical location firsthand?
• Do you try to cook a recipe or take a class?
• Do you investigate alone or ask someone to work with you?
• Do you spend time on the internet or prefer to concrete experiences such as visiting a museum?
• Do you follow a self-guided tour or join a guided tour?

 
What are the ways you inquire? Get to know yourself as a learner again. As educators, we watch our students to observe the ways they learn. This helps us to tailor our learning engagements to meet their needs throughout the entire inquiry process. How can we improve the teaching and learning cycle so that students find learning relevant and meaningful? I believe relevance is so key. It is like selling the why.  Why are we learning this - how does it connect to reality and in what way will it help me later in life?