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.

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?