Re: Thinking education

Back-to-school 2026: Beginning the year with courage

“How do we bring that courage to the surface in challenging moments?”

In her back-to-school message, TC² Executive Director Usha James reflects on the courage we bring to teaching and learning, and what that might mean for the year ahead. 

A new school year can feel like a fresh start. But none of us arrives as a blank slate. We bring with us our experiences, our learning, our relationships, our hopes and fears, and everything else happening in our lives.

Usha reminds us that courageous inquiry can help us bring our whole selves to teaching and learning. 

What does it take to listen when something challenges what we thought we knew? To examine our own leadership and teaching practices with humility? To seriously consider student voice and create meaningful opportunities for agency? To invite learners into complex questions when we may not already know the “answers”?

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