Fireside Chat: What are the greatest challenges facing education in 2025 and beyond?

The conversation revealed educators wrestling with fear, dehumanization, authoritarianism, and systemic challenges while finding ways to center humanity and joy in their practice. Rather than offering easy solutions, the panelists explored the tension between working within broken systems and acknowledging their limitations. They emphasized the importance of relationships, self-care, and community building.

"Fear as a primary issue right now in education... what that results in is, um, more reactivity, so less choice over our actions, and more just, like, biological reactiveness." - Maria Munro-Schuster

"The two things that I think are most pressing... is, like, working against authoritarianism and... resisting the easy wins of adopting authoritarianism in our classrooms." - Chanea Bond

"Our future survival is predicated upon our ability to relate within equality. So, we have to be able to think about our problems as not just our problems." - Lucket Kiche

• How do you recognize fear-based responses in your educational setting? What specific practices might help create conditions where fear transforms into curiosity or connection rather than control?
• Multiple panelists discussed the "lack of humanization" in education, with Lucket specifically critiquing PBIS as treating students like "rats and pigeons." How do you distinguish between systems that support human flourishing versus those that manipulate behavior? What would truly humanizing practices look like in your specific context?
• Chanea describes the "absence of joy" as a critical issue and positions joy as resistance to authoritarianism. How do you understand the relationship between joy and resistance in education? What would it mean to center joy in your practice without ignoring or minimizing real challenges and injustices?
• Will argues that schools cannot fundamentally change and that energy should focus on relationships and care rather than reform. How do you reconcile this perspective with your daily work in educational institutions? Do you agree with the fundamental notion that change is not fundamentally possible?