In early December 2025, I had the honor of joining an extraordinary panel for EdPrepLab’s fifth World Café, a global virtual convening focused on how teacher education must evolve in response to rapid technological, political, and social change. The session brought together educators, researchers, and policy partners from around the world for what turned out to be a deeply generative conversation.

I was privileged to share the (virtual) stage with Linda Darling-Hammond, whose framing remarks set the tone for the entire discussion; A. Lin Goodwin from Boston College; and Michele Simons from Western Sydney University. The event was moderated by Cathy Yun from the Learning Policy Institute.

The conversation ranged widely: from the lingering aftershocks of the pandemic on student well-being and connection, to the digital divides shaping access and agency, to the “dead ideas” we’ve held onto in teacher preparation for far too long. We talked about what it means to prepare teachers for classrooms where students speak over 100 languages, and what happens when algorithms reach into remote villages to reshape young people’s relationships with knowledge. Throughout, we returned to a central question Linda posed in her framing remarks: How can teacher education evolve to be more agile, collaborative, and bold in leading the future of learning?

You can watch a recording of the virtual conversation below.