Tim Logan introduces a mini-series on five alternative secondary education programs across Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, Singapore, Wales, and Peru. Nineteen young people share what energizes them and the competencies they're gaining in programs like Big Picture Learning, Green School Bali, and the African Leadership Academy, challenging the exam-driven model.
Welcome to the Future Learning Design Podcast.
These courses kind of made me feel like, yeah, no, I'm kind of capable of anything because when you break it down, it was really interesting seeing the process of that.
You can speak about change all day, but for you to actually get a chance and make a change, I feel like that's very unique to ALA and one of its best traits.
Hi everyone, my name's Tim Logan and the podcast is produced by Good Impact Labs. Thanks so much for joining me for this final episode of 2025. I'm really excited to be able to share a selection of conversations about some really exciting things happening all around the world for young people and pathways through the upper end of their high school experience. This is often the business end of formal schooling where we demand that young people just knuckle down and suffer the rigors of high-stakes standardized exams and college entrance tests. This mini-series of conversations really shows you that something else is not only possible, but happening.
The course is kind of like a good conversation that makes you think about the aspects you usually wouldn't, and it doesn't just throw info at you.
It's my real privilege I get to interact with and learn about some of the most exciting innovations globally, and I really want to use this platform to share these inspirations with educators, leaders, parents, and policymakers around the world. And even better, to actually hear from the young people themselves who participate in them. Too often, I think, we can talk a great game of hyperbole and hubris about our apparently paradigm-shifting designs, but the young people actually experiencing them are telling a different story. In this miniseries, you'll hear from 19 young people about their experiences of the kinds of competencies they feel they're learning and that they need to learn. What they find energising and enabling, and how they feel about the adults who are very often giving so much heart and hard work into this work to support and guide them.
Everything you guys have said is like perfect. It makes me so happy because Big Picture literally changed my educational life. It changed the way that I actually view education and how it should be for people as well.
You'll hear about the International Big Picture Learning Credential in Australia, the Greenstones at Green School Bali in Indonesia, the African Leadership Academy program in South Africa, the IB Systems Transformation Pathway at UWC Southeast Asia in Singapore and UWC Atlantic College in Wales, and lastly, the Global Impact Diploma, which is being run at a number of schools around the world, including the American International Schools in Lima, Peru, Budapest in Hungary, and Bucharest in Romania.
Being a student who takes systems in those classes makes those conversations even more richer and even more diverse because it in a way adds another lens to it. A lens that is not included in the textbook and a lens that you learn through kind of exploring the system, through having an experience there.
I really do hope listening to these conversations are as inspiring as it was for me to have them with these incredible young people. If you know of other innovations that you'd like to see featured on future miniseries, then please do share them with us at goodimpactlabs.com/contact. And I'm wishing you all a very relaxing break over the holidays with your loved ones and a very hopeful 2026.
