LISA Conference - George Walker and his 6 Challenges

Every two years all the International Schools that are members of the London International Schools Association organise a ful day of professional development for all their teachers. This year all MS/HS teachers were invited to the King Faisal Academy in Acton.

The day is filled with small workshops ran by teachers from all of the schools which focused on the idea of "Global Perspectives." These included workshops ranging from "Flipping the classroom" to "Service Learning Iniatives to Open Students Minds."

The Keynote Speaker was George Walker whose career has spanned teaching science, university lecturer, school leadership as director of the School of Geneva (the world's oldest and largest international school), and finally as director general of the International Baccalaureate Organization for a number of years.

His speech was an interesting one which the challenges for cultivating an International education for the next generarations that goes beyond the ideals of the IB Organisation. He suggested that there are six challenges for global citizens that we as International Educators must face :-

• Diversity
• Complexity
• Inequality
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Easterncentricity

He explored each of these elements in detail - and you can read further on his ideas here. Many of his ideas and thoughts resonated and left everyone with food for thought alongside the continuing quotation from Thomas L. Friedman with which many would hope and believe an IB education can lead: -

"One of the newest figures to emerge on the world stage in recent years is the social entrepreneur. This is usually someone who burns with desire to make a positive social impact on the world, but believes that the best way of doing it is, as the saying goes, not by giving poor people a fish and feeding them for a day, but by teaching them to fish, in hopes of feeding them for a lifetime. I have come to know several social entrepreneurs in recent years, and most combine a business school brain with a social worker's heart. The triple convergence and the flattening of the world have been a godsend for them. Those who get it and are adapting to it have begun launching some very innovative projects." (The World is Flat)

An inspiring and interesting day for all, and of course thanks goes to the King Faisal Academy for friendly and open welcome to their school.