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. ​

The Formation of Strategy Teams: Curious, Persistent, Creative
We divided up into small working groups to take ownership for driving the documentation of our philosophical and pedagogical approach: best practice research, content, strategies, skills for clear scope and sequence documents. As a completely new program, we had to ensure alignment across the grades. This would also ensure that our practices reflected the sales pitch our parents heard. 

What documents needed articulation?

• Collaboration in the Lower School: This document encompassed all of our Essential Agreements for interactions, ongoing meetings (a wide variety of types of meetings), homeroom/specialist responsibilities for tier 1 instruction, steps to collaborate with learning support for tier 2 or 3 support, approaches to behavior issues, playground agreements, etc. Over two years, this document expanded to articulate all expectations clearly.
• Assessment Handbook: This document encompassed our approach to assessment elaborating our cycles of reporting through conferences or formal student reports. It also elaborated ways to conduct assessment, to triangulate data and how to use assessment to make decisions about teaching and learning.
• Language & Literacy Scope and Sequence: This document encompassed our beliefs about language development and literacy instruction. We strove to align to the Science of Reading through Structured Literacy and the application of a functional approach using Systemic Functional Linguistics. It explained the strands that must be included in the homeroom practices each week for holistic literacy instruction. It also elaborated the AERO standards and UK Birth to 5 Matters for the Early Years. This document also included our host country, the Spanish Language for homeroom teachers to be informed.
• Philosophy of Play: This document opened the discussion to our Early Years team and how we would approach learning and teaching in Kinder 1, 2, 3 and into grade 1. We had to learn a holistic, developmental program that made space for play with a team who had not been exposed to play-based learning yet. In the document, we defined play and playful guided by Harvard Project Zero's newest publication. Then we began to unpack over the next two year, through ongoing training, what continuous provisions implies; how we can invite, nudge and provoke interest; the role of the teacher and the role of the student. Over time, we wanted to have the resources and spaces for play-based learning to always be available to all ages on campus. 
• Mathematics Essential Strategies: This supporting document encompassed our approach to reasoning by developing skills for problem-solving through strategies that build and extend upon one another. This aligned to NZ Mathematics and Pam Harris' resources for problem strings as well as her top models and strategies document. Our school chose to participate in the CBI Mathematics Project Pilot which would take time for us to fully understand and internalize the phases and understandings. So, it remained important to us to map out our strategies and models sequentially.
• Documents launched after school start:
  • Technology Usage / Digital Citizenship / Scope and Sequence
  • Social and Emotional Learning / Safeguarding and Child Protection

The Design of our Initial Program of Concept-Based Inquiry

As a CBCI consultant, I took the team through the introduction to teaching for conceptual understanding. We reviewed the Structure of Knowledge, the role of facts and concepts, the ways to identify a concept. Then we reviewed the purpose of learning to scaffolding the thinking by assessing generalizations. It is important to understand why we generalize and how we assess those generalizations - statements of understanding. Then we reviewed the the types of questions we can pose.

Additionally, every teacher was provided a copy of Concept-Based Inquiry in Action which became our guide for a book study throughout the school year. Also, we frequently referred to it during collaborative planning meetings when thinking about strategies to use at each stage of the cycle. To further support this process, our team also joined the CBI Mathematics Project which organizes units aligned to the same cycle for inquiry leading to generalizations as a form of assessment.
​
Using the Standards that we had agreed upon, we began to identify the concepts that we could use to build a program of inquiry. It was a messy process with lots of sticky notes and moving concepts around. We began with science and then added social studies until we could identify the conceptual lens that would be the driver of the unit. This would allow for authentic connections by specialist teachers. This was an initial attempt with almost all teachers new to inquiry-based learning except two. There was great enthusiasm as we brainstormed in small teams the units of inquiry for the upcoming launch. As small groups began to present their units of inquiry, they share their reasoning for the units and how they drew upon the standards. Others across the team provided feedback for further revision or adaptations. I chose to take a supportive stance even when I saw some units as potentially challenging for one reason or the other so that teachers could thoroughly experience the process of creating a unit, rolling it out and then later reflecting and revising based on their own experiences with the units of inquiry. 

Time and ongoing support would be the strategies that we would rely upon to build strategies and tools for full implementation. Our team as well as our brand new incoming cohorts of students faced a sharp learning curve. The majority of our students transferred because of a learning challenge and they had never been exposed to inquiry-based learning. It would take time!

In June 2024, we conducted a vertical and horizontal review of our Program of Concept-Based Inquiry to improve our units of inquiry as transdisciplinary learning opportunities. Our review process intentionally uses processes to provide participation that is authentic and agentic. I want to see teachers in reflective conversation about practice and content. This yields meaningful changes for improvements. Taking the time to make it interactive always pays off. Teachers are active, on their feet, observing, discussing and making notes. This brings the level of energy up, engagement increases and participation is more meaningful.

Ongoing professional development on restorative practices conducted by one of our team members. This was supported by further development of our handbook on learning support as well as identifying a curriculum framework to include in our program - Second Step with Safeguarding and SEL Curriculum Standards and Benchmarks by ICMEC and CASEL.

I facilitated ongoing professional development on Systemic Functional Linguistics after school to make SFL relevant and accessible. These lessons were organized for a grade 2 classroom level; however, the lesson lab experience opens doors to ideas for ways to make adjustments for different levels of challenge.

End of Year Professional Growth Reflection
In June of 2025, our Lower School team dedicated time to reflect once more. This time, I organized a reflection that focussed on a continuum of personal growth and development through the lens of our pedagogy. If you click through the images below, you will see examples of the continuum (beginner to world class). Based on feedback from our NEASC visitor, we had focussed our program on 4 pedagogical anchors as follows: 

• Concept-based Inquiry
• Approaches to Learning
• Inclusion and Differentiation
• Progress Monitoring and Reflection

I asked our team members (including myself) to honestly consider personal strengths and potential areas for growth. Areas for growth can be seen as opportunities to explore and extend on what we know now. They do not have to be seen as a weakness. The objective was to end the school having given thought to goals for development and making those reflections visible to our community. This information would inform the faculty meetings calendar for PD as well as the identification of resources for supporting PD.

This image above highlighted by Julie Stern on LinkedIn was helpful for guiding our conversations with a trusted colleague. I encouraged everyone to partner up with a trusted colleague to discuss how they were growing and what personal goals he/she might be considering to move their learning journey forward. Everyone on our team participated, including myself. The energy in the room was engaging. Teachers were reflecting, writing reflections and sharing honestly with one another. Exit tickets were used by each individual to identify personal strengths and areas for growth.

UPDATE:
Unfortunately, I was unable to see this endeavor through due to sudden layoffs over the summer of July 2025. It is terribly sad when one invests so heavily in an organization (knowledge, skills, schema and passion) and cannot see the results or impact of the vision-casting and investment - all the hours dedicated (evenings, weekends, vacations), the intellectual knowledge and the energy. The school's value of caring (integral to the guiding statements) did not manifest in the financial management or strategic planning of the institution. 

When I launched the program with our team, we spoke of taking 5-6 years to develop our team's collective capacity to facilitate concept-based inquiry using an embedded language approach. We believed that all teachers are language teachers so developing our capacity to use strategies that support that was a significant aim that would require ongoing sustainable support. Our homeroom teachers were learning to provide critical structured literacy lessons. Secondly, we wanted to develop our ability to facilitate reasoning by integrating the Problem Strings recently published by Pam Harris and Math-is-Figureoutable with the CBI Mathematics project. These goals were no small endeavor whatsoever; however, I bid the school farewell. I look forward to the next learning community in whom I will have the opportunity to inspire and pour my energy into; a community with belonging, care and financial sustainability.

Upon a visit to Reggio Emilia, Italy
When I first learned about Reggio Emilia’s approach to learning, I was forming my research questions for my final Action Research project to conclude an M.Ed. at George Mason University. I was interested in finding a variety of ways to capture the conceptual understandings of my students who had not developed sufficient English language ability to express themselves, as they would have liked. My professor recommended that I check out the work of Loris Malaguzzi and The Hundred Languages of the Child.  The deeper I delved into the resources I found about the municipality of Reggio Emilia and its approach to learning, the more I wanted to be a participant in an International Study Group. This April, I was able to attend along with one of our ECC teachers and what an inspiring experience it was for us both.  
 
Values and Beliefs
We saw the positive impacts of the goals set by the community of Reggio Emilia back in the late 1940’s at the close of World War II; goals to build a community that created new identities and new rights for women and children. This was based on a series of choices; cultural, ethical and political in nature. These goals were intended to foster community participation and innovation in education to make the child a priority in order to build a positive, respectful community for the present and future. A new life, a new way, new values and a new community by committing to the commons, values for the common good.

• Education is a right and responsibility of all and must be available to all
• Relationships – between the schools and the municipality, the families and the schools, the children and their teachers
• A New Image of the Child – a skilled child, building competence through relationships, who enjoys challenges, creating beauty and constructing knowledge through testing, observing and interacting with the world around them. A child full of ideas and thoughts to be honored.

 
Positive Impacts
As the school I’m working at is currently walking through a combined CIS/NEASC self-study, our staff is in in the process of re-evaluating our mission, vision, beliefs about learning and teaching and the roles we play as leaders and teachers. We are searching for the impacts of our endeavors, reflectively searching for evidence and pondering actions we might take. Have we achieved our mission? Are we on the road to achieving our vision? These are big questions and require a lot of thought.
 
This experience at Reggio Emilia enabled to me to see concretely what it looks like when a school system and the community work together to achieve their goals out of a common vision and commitment . The people of Reggio Emilia that I encountered were caring, respectful and helpful. They have a multitude of programs to reach children (0-12th), the elderly and for interaction between all age groups. Their annual municipality budget sets aside 13% for the early years programs. This community reaches out and welcomes visitors, immigrants (17%) and anyone who engages with their community.
 
Visible Learning
One strong value of the Reggio Emilia educational project was to make visible the educational contexts and children’s learning inside the schools and outside in the community. Learning is visible wherever one looks in the early childhood centers and schools. The materials and partially constructed projects left accessible in the ateliers, piazzas and classrooms show the thinking and understandings that are forming. The learning panels published and posted on the walls demonstrate the pedagogy (why), the process (how) and the conceptual understandings (what) the students have developed as a result of the progezzione (project). Publications are produced annually about the projects completed and gifted to parents. Projects are shared with the community in a variety of creative ways.
 
Participation
Parents are welcomed into the schools to demonstrate the value of participation. They are encouraged to come into the piazza, casually drop their children and chat with teachers about life to pass along important information or ask questions. The face-to-face interactions are highly valued and emails are avoided. Parents elect leaders to work alongside the teachers to promote learning and participation within the community. They can suggest field trips and assist with projects while in process and in the publication or presentation of projects to the community.
 
We had the opportunity to learn about two very important projects: the rights of the child and the hospital through the lens of the child. Both projects involved the community and resulted in action that impacted the community positively. Why? The community used the children’s ideas to publish and display these rights in all the schools as well as to make them available to the public through buttons and postcards. At the hospital, the children decided to gift their thoughts to make the hospital more welcoming. These thoughts were organized and artistically displayed by the Reggio Emilia atelieristas. Now patients in the hospital can get some respite from their fears by reading the thoughts of the children, thoughts that provoke smiles.
 
Learner and Teacher Agency
The PYP is releasing enhancements to update their framework and align it to the current research on learning and teaching. There is a new focus on agency and the learner’s voice, choice and ownership. I’ve been pondering this as I wondered what it looked like in action as well as what shifts our staff would have to make to say we both value and empower agency.
 
The teachers of Reggio Emilia value the child to the extent that is agency in action; it is embedded in their practice. They listen to the voice and ideas of the child, documenting the learning process and thoughts through pictures and anecdotal notes. The documentation guides the decisions about learning. It is visible in the centers on clipboards, binders and portfolios.
Teachers are knowledgeable about childhood development; stages of development and take research seriously but do not allow that knowledge to limit their ability to personalize the education for their students. They do not categorize their students into developmental boxes. It does not become a barrier. They honor and respect the child and the fact that each child is unique. All decisions appear to stem from their values and beliefs about the child. They allow their students to develop strategies for finding knowledge and support them throughout the process within their zone of proximal development. They allow their students to spiral back to what they know naturally as they attempt to spring to a new level of development.
 
Teacher agency is visible through the professional development time they use to collaboratively discuss their experiences each week about the learning that is happening. They work together to overcome difficulties, challenges and find the best way to respond to the ideas and thoughts of the children as they thoughtfully steer the projects through provocations, discussions, reflections and time for experimenting.  They work together to consider ways to re-launch a project that may have stalled slightly and continue extending the project to build new understandings. This belief statement resounded with me deeply, “I learn with you and you learn with me.” It is an atmosphere that does not value hierarchy but rather cooperation and collaborative reflective practice.
 
Creativity, Motivation and Curiosity
In this environment, creativity abounds. The walls and displays are student made. Beauty is everywhere. It is fostered and the children’s innate need to make things beautiful is honored. I never saw any child bored or acting out. The environment was relaxed, not tied to a rigid schedule, but allowing children the freedom and time to explore their curiosity. Children actively engage in projects for extended periods of time. The content is relevant and is founded in questions the children have so their interest is peeked. They investigate answers through concrete experiences with materials, field trips and experiments.  Technology is a tool that is used when they find themselves unable to solve problems without it. The environment is rich with materials and places to explore the answers to their questions.
 
They foster creativity by pursuing creativity themselves.  At Reggio Emilia, collegiality is the key to sustaining creativity. The teachers read about it, surround themselves with creative materials, attend museums and art exhibits. They discuss ideas together and allow ideas to flow uninhibited.  The children are their allies in creativity and are prompted to join in the discussion.
 
Tips from Reggio Emilia:

• Creativity comes from your hands; you have to get your hands dirty and use your hands so play with the concepts, materials and tools you’re offering your students
• When you fall in the love with the materials you’re offering the children, they will find it fun, also.
• Feed creativity by surrounding yourself with creative materials, visiting exhibitions and participating in cultural experiences
• Challenge yourself to change your perspective – look at the world around you differently

 
Dreams and Goals  
Now that I have had this experience, I am pondering ways to share my experience with my colleagues; an experience that left me profoundly impacted. I consider the ways we as a team can change the way we see our roles to minimize the hierarchy and increase the amount of collaboration for the benefit of all stakeholders. I’m excited about the shifts in the PYP and can now visualize learner agency (students and teachers). Together we can explore more deeply what that means for our students, parents and to each of us personally. We can reimagine learning and work to increase participation of all – our students, our parents, our teachers, our support staff and our leadership team.
 
I wish to experience that value and idea of professional development….”I grow with you and you grow with me.” and I look forward to exploring ways to make my beliefs about the child visible to our community alongside my colleagues.