The Harvard EdCast

• What It Really Means to Be a Strategic Leader

  Strategic leadership may be one of the hardest — and most vital — skills for school leaders to master. Liz City, senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a long-time coach to school and system leaders across the country, says strategic leadership is not innate but a skill that can be learned and strengthened over time.“We're in a context which, over the last five years, has been full of uncertainty and ambiguity,” City says. “I think that makes it harder for people to be strategic. It puts people in a kind of reactive survival mode, which is not our best place to be.”Learning how to be strategic can mean the difference between finding success over being less effective, doing too much, and burning out, she says. Drawing from decades of experience and recent research, City emphasizes that being strategic is not just about setting goals — it’s about taking intentional action, maintaining focus over time, and deeply understanding people and systems. In her new book, “Leading Strategically: Achieving Ambitious Goals in Education,” she and co-author Rachel Curtis outline five key elements of strategic leadership: discerning, cultivating relationships, understanding context and history, harnessing power, and think big, act small, learn fast.She explains how leaders often get stuck, especially around power and discernment, and offers practical advice for moving from reactive leadership to purposeful progress. “You can lead from lots of different vantage points. I think we assume that if you have formal authority, you have power, and you'll be able to get things done,” City says. “It turns out, though, that most things are accomplished through a large measure of informal authority.” In this episode, City shares what it really means to lead with purpose, especially in today’s climate of uncertainty and change.

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• Why Invest in Global Education Now

  It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the statistics on global education — millions of children, especially in low- and middle-income countries, are spending years in school without mastering foundational skills. But as Harvard Lecturer Robert Jenkins reminds us, we can't afford to stay stuck in what we think we know about the learning crisis. Innovation is not just possible — it’s essential, he says.“When you look at the big picture overall globally, it feels daunting, the scale of the challenge,” he says. “But when you disaggregate that and see the incredible innovations and proactiveness of many leaders, many educators, the commitment of educators around the world, indeed, [it’s] very exciting, and reason for optimism.” While expanding access to education has been a major achievement, Jenkins points out that access alone doesn’t guarantee learning. “There was, I think, a very simplistic understanding that by promoting access and enabling kids to go to school, that would automatically translate into higher levels of learning and success in learning levels,” he says, “meaning kids, by going to school for many years, would graduate with the level of learning that would enable them to realize their full potential. And that's not the case.” True progress, he argues, requires tailoring education to individual needs, investing in holistic student support, and improving quality at every level.With the growing threats of declining humanitarian funding, Jenkins warns this has the potential to stall or reverse progress in education systems worldwide. However, he also believes that a greater awareness and engagement from high-income countries, along with encouraging innovation, evidence-based interventions, and inclusive leadership can lead to transforming global education systems.In this episode of the EdCast, Jenkins dives into what’s working, what needs to change, and how educators everywhere can play a part in transforming global education, so every child has the chance to thrive. 

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• What Textbooks Teach Us — And What They Don’t

  Texas and California often appear to be worlds apart when it comes to politics and culture, but the education students are getting – as far as their textbooks go, at least – may not be so different.University of Chicago Assistant Professor Anjali Adukia investigated more than 260 textbooks used in both public and religiously affiliated schools in the two states, analyzing their portrayal of race, gender, religion, and historical events. “I think the part that was the most surprising to me is despite this narrative of political polarization, we actually don't necessarily see that in the books themselves that are given to kids on average,” Adukia says.While there are differences, especially regarding religious content, textbooks used in both states tend to emphasize similar themes such as family, nature, and history, she says. Additionally, the textbooks also feature similar portrayals of females in passive and stereotypical roles, while males are more often linked to power, politics, and military.She argues that textbooks play a crucial role in shaping students' identities and worldviews, transmitting cultural values and societal norms. Despite changing public attitudes, these textbooks remain largely unchanged, posing important questions about how educational content influences future generations and the values that schools are endorsing.“The process of education and its associated books and curriculum materials necessarily, and by design, transmit the knowledge that we care about, the values that we care about. They transmit messages about who belongs in what spaces in society,” Adukia says. “Also, the presence and the absence of different identities can send messages to kids which can contribute to how they view their own potential and the potential of others.”In this episode, we explore the similarities and differences across textbooks in public and religious schools, and the role textbooks play in shaping students’ identities and worldviews. 

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• The Words We Choose: How Language Shapes Children's Emotional Lives

  As a third-grade teacher, Lily Howard Scott noticed how she spoke to students impacted more than just their experience in the classroom. How teachers speak to their students and intentional shifts in language can nurture children’s inner lives, foster self-regulation and reduce perfectionism, she says, and become their inner voice.“The thing about teachers, particularly elementary school teachers, is they have this superpower, which is that they catch kids at a moment where their capacity for neuroplasticity is more remarkable than it will ever be again. These kids are developing theories about themselves and their abilities, and they're bucketing themselves in all ways that may stay with them for the rest of their lives,” Scott says. “They're establishing thinking patterns that will stay with them, and elementary school teachers spend 1000 hours a year with their students in the same connected classroom… subtle shifts in language that help kids learn these basic things, that they have agency within, that they can choose which thoughts and feelings to amplify and which to quiet.”Scott shares that young children are remarkably receptive to reflective conversations about language and often adapt the terms in creative, personal ways — such as a student renaming their “inner voice” the “President Decider.” She highlights the power of reframing mistakes as "brilliant mistakes," which invites curiosity rather than shame. This shift, supported by neuroscience and the work of researchers like Lisa Feldman Barrett and Carol Dweck, helps children interpret challenges with a mindset geared toward growth and resilience.How to make these shifts is now the focus of Scott’s work and the central theme of her book, “The Words that Shape Us,” where she shares classroom-tested strategies and brain-changing teacher language.Learning to speak differently as a teacher or even parent can be challenging, but Scott stresses the importance of modeling lifelong learning alongside children. For instance, by admitting their own struggles with perfectionism or learning from errors, teachers can foster trust and mutual growth. Scott explains that language like “feelings are visitors” (inspired by Rumi’s The Guest House) helps children understand emotional regulation and agency. She admits that young children are particularly receptive to language shifts. Perhaps even more importantly, the effort to tweak how we speak to children may also play a role with children’s mental health. “If your mind is better company when you're seven, you hold on to these language nuggets and you repeat them to yourself when you're 17, so I think elementary school, it's not the precursor to serious learning. It's the most serious learning, and we should tip our hats to elementary school teachers and understand the immense and enduring influence they can have,” she says.In this episode, Scott shares insight into when children are taught empowering, compassionate language early, they carry it with them for life, enabling healthier thinking patterns and emotional well-being. She provides caution against well-meaning but common phrases like “try harder” which may inadvertently shame children. 

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• How to Educate for Social Action

  To succeed in school, in life, and as contributors to a more equitable society, students must be able to recognize, analyze, and challenge systemic injustices, say Harvard Lecturer Aaliyah El-Amin and Boston College Professor Scott Seider. Through their research, they are examining what it truly means to pursue education for justice in K–12 schools.“The kids who are in classrooms right now are our country's next generation of leaders,” says El-Amin. “They’re the people who are going to help determine whether we continue on our current path of deep injustice and human suffering, or whether we chart a new course toward a more just society — one where people across differences have equal access to well-being and thriving.”El-Amin and Seider argue that equipping young people with the tools to understand and respond to injustice is not only critical to building a more just society but also key to supporting youth development—academically, emotionally, and civically.“Young people who are more critically conscious of injustice are more civically engaged. They have higher self-esteem. They have better mental health…” says Seider. “The primary goal of nurturing young people's understanding of injustice is to prepare them to help build a better world. But we also have growing evidence that this critical consciousness contributes to positive youth outcomes.”To explore how justice-oriented education is being implemented across different contexts, the researchers studied more than 100 schools, identifying four core strategies for embedding this work throughout K–12 education:Building adult capacityCentering justice in the curriculumPartnering with families and communitiesEngaging students in social actionWhile this work may look different depending on the local context, El-Amin and Seider believe it can be implemented in schools everywhere.“Students are asking big questions about the world around them,” says El-Amin. “And when students are curious, engaged, and eager to participate in these conversations, educators have a powerful opportunity to bring them into critical consciousness and advocacy right in the classroom.”This episode of the EdCast explores how schools can become places where students are not only academically prepared but also empowered to confront—and help transform—the world they inherit.

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