Earlier this year I had the privilege of being introduced to Jason McGrath who was a keynote speaker at a conference in New South Wales where I was also a keynote speaker. Jason had been a principal of an area school (K-12) in the Hunter Valley region, completing a PhD on futures studies in education before taking up a research role at the OECD’s Centre for Education Research and Innovation (CERI) in Paris. Jason’s keynote and workshops were fascinating to be a part of – he modelled the core belief he holds about the importance of working collaboratively to develop our view(s) of the future. His deep knowledge and understanding of approaches to futures thinking, and his comfort with dealing with the ‘messiness’ of ideas drew everyone in.
Since returning to NZ I’ve kept in touch with Jason as there are many areas of overlap in our interests regarding education futures, and this week I recorded a conversation I had with him about what it means to rethink compulsory schooling for the 21st century. Jason drew on his experience as a long-time school principal and his recent work with the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation in Paris. Together we explored how futures thinking, stronger dialogue across systems, and more deliberate learning between countries can help shift education beyond short‑term pressures and foster deeper connections between policy, practice, and research in Australia, New Zealand, and beyond.
The conversation is the first in a series of “Conversations about the future of education” that I’m planning to produce as part of my involvement with the EdRising project. You can view my conversation with Jason below:
In our conversation, Jason makes a subtle but powerful point about the kind of network leaders need if they are serious about futures thinking in education. It is not enough to surround myself with people who see the world the way I do; I also need those who will push back, ask awkward questions, and name what I am not seeing.
In my own words, his advice sounds like this: build a deliberate mix of companions. One group are the people who share my broad values and hopes for learning – the ones who help me feel less alone and give energy to the work. The other group are the constructive challengers – people close enough to understand the context, but different enough to disrupt my assumptions and offer alternatives.
If I take that seriously, it becomes a design task for my professional life, not an accident:
- Map my current network: who mostly agrees with me, and who reliably stretches my thinking.
- Notice which side is missing; then intentionally seek out one or two people who can fill that gap, locally or internationally.
- Before major decisions, ask: “Who have I checked this with – someone who ‘gets’ what I’m trying to do, and someone who might see it quite differently?”
For Jason, this kind of mixed network is part of how systems avoid simply “borrowing” policy and instead learn with and from each other in more honest, generative ways. For me, it is also a reminder that the future of schooling will be shaped as much by who I choose to be in conversation with as by any framework or strategy document I write.
Listening back to this conversation, what stays with me is Jason’s insistence that the future of schooling is not something any of us can design alone. His core advice is simple but demanding: talk to each other more, and talk better.
For me, that lands as a personal challenge. Who, beyond my own school or organisation, do I regularly sit with to compare notes, poke holes in our assumptions, and share what is and isn’t working? Jason’s experience in Europe reminded him that serious systems invest time and attention in these conversations, not to copy-paste each other’s policies, but to learn out loud together. How I’d love to see that happening here in New Zealand at the moment!
So here are the prompts Jason’s message leaves me with:
- Who are “my people” across the system – in other schools, sectors, regions, or countries – that I need to be in regular conversation with?
- What am I willing to put on the table for critique – a policy, a timetable, an assessment practice – so others can help me see what I’m missing?
- How can I make it normal, in my context, to ask “Who else is thinking about this, and how can we talk with them?” before locking in the next decision?
If we each acted on those questions, even in small ways, we would begin to build the kind of cross-system dialogue Jason describes – the kind that keeps our focus on a richer, longer-term future for learners, even when the pressures around us try to drag us back to the past.
