Introducing the Sustainability and Regenerative Practices Special Interest Group: 28 November

15:00 (London time)

Facilitators

Dr. Zoe Badcock has rich experiences in sustainability, teaching, assessing, and developing the IB Environmental Systems and Societies interdisciplinary course, leading sustainability-related activities in her schools, and now co-chairing the ECIS Special Interest Group in Sustainability and Regenerative Practices and co-founding the SGIS Collaborative Learning Group. She has 20 years of leadership experience in International Schools and understands the complexity of leading change in a large organisation. Recent additions to her portfolio of experiences include Compassionate Systems and becoming a Compass Educator and a Warm Data Host.

Jan Dijkstra is the Sustainability Lead at the International School of Geneva (Ecolint), a post he assumed late August 2023. Before that he was a teacher of Mathematics and TOK for more than 25 years. In his current work he tries to build a new narrative around his school as an Ecosystem, bringing together the pedagogical and technical professionals in the community around learning and living together. He works with principals, directors, teachers, students, parents and outside organisations to build capacity in the larger community to face the challenges of the polycrisis in creative and actively hopeful ways. He also hosts online S4RF (Schools for Regenerative Futures) meetings, where educators, thinkers and creatives meet to find viable ways forward for their schools. Jan would like to imagine that schools were conceived as social technologies that serve life on planet Earth. He spends a lot of time on his bike listening to podcasts.

Phil Keech is an experienced international school leader dedicated to the success of students.  He joined the International School of Luxembourg in 2011 as the Upper School Deputy Principal and took up his current role in August 2023. His approach to schoolwide sustainability is innovative and he created a framework centred on Nature Based Learning, Student Leadership, and Service Learning which has moved ISL quickly towards more sustainable ways of thinking at a system-wide level. He has organised international sustainability events and has presented at national and regional sustainability conferences.

Kyle Shahan is Sustainability Coordinator and an Outdoor Learning Educator at the International School of Düsseldorf. In the gardens, he facilitates learning experiences that connect students with nature and foster attitudes of stewardship and responsibility.  As Sustainability Coordinator, he works with students, teachers, parents, leadership, and partners to create sustainable and regenerative change to ‘Campus, Curriculum, and Community’. Kyle believes that schools exist to make the world better, and is especially motivated by the collaborative open spirit of those engaged in sustainability and regenerative work in schools.