Education, as it was initially organized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was designed to meet very different challenges than those we face today. There have been many efforts to shift education to address new contexts that result from societal transformation. There have also been international initiatives in response to interconnected global issues that impact ecological systems, the viability of economies and communities and the health and well-being of people. This article offers a perspective that aligns with Hopkins' (2013) view that the repurposing of education must reflect a vision that contributes to well-being for allindividually, collectively and for the 'other than human' life on our planet. As part of an emerging transformative sustainability education paradigm, this article offers a philosophical framework and points to certain theoretical and practical dimensions for what the authors are framing as the Living School concept.

The education reforms called for in 21st century education initiatives have been characterized as radical. International efforts to reformulate education for 21st century teaching and learning are well-funded initiatives by coalitions including governments, not-for-profit organizations, and large corporations. This article is a critique of the emergence of 21st century learning showing that a preoccupation with competencies and skills can be interrogated for that to which 21st century learning gives voice, but also for that which it silences. The fundamental question of the purpose of education, or for what do we educate, is virtually absent in most discussions of 21st century learning. Finally, I offer an alternative curricular vision to the techno-optimistic belief in progress prevalent in the discourse of 21st century learning. In the call for radical reform, I propose another understanding of the word “radical,” one that includes an ecocentric, life affirming understanding that roots education in a life code of value and in a living community of relations large enough to embrace the multidimensionality, the responsiveness, and responsibility at the heart of the pedagogical relation.

This article provides a critical overview of national and international efforts to shift education to what has been commonly called 21st century learning. Governments, non-profits, and corporate consortiums are in large part responsible for education reform designed to re-conceptualize K12 education for the 21st century. The article introduces an integrative transformative educational concept called the Living School that connects K12 educational reform with Education for Sustainability, sustainable community development, and individual well-being. Brief portraits describe schools that reflect Living School attributes. Ambitious initiatives to transform education for the 21st century require enlightened leadership and governance structures for scalable, system-wide reform. This paper offers an alternative vision for educational leadership and governance to support education reform based on a holistic approach to sustainable community economic development. An interdisciplinary model of professional learning to prepare education leaders for an alternative vision of education leadership is proposed.

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to share the results of research into the experience of teacher risk-taking in the classroom. The development of children as risk-takers is featured prominently in curriculum documents and reports calling for the competencies of 21 st century learning. Teachers are expected to become 21 st century learners who model risk-taking. The repeated calls for the development of risk-taking students through the modeling of risk-taking teachers makes the experience of risk an important pedagogical question. However, 21 st century learning documents do not take up substantively the meaning of teacher risk-taking.Research Design: Phenomenological research is concerned with the unique and the individual and in that regard each teacher-participant represents particular perceptions of risk-taking experiences and responses to risk in the classroom. The six (6) teacher-participants responded to a call distributed widely to teaching staff in a Canadian school district. The inquiry relied on phenomenological interviews and experiential life world material. In this paper three phenomenological themes are described: risk and readiness; risk and the in-between spaces of pedagogy, and risk as exploration and finding a way. This research allows us to understand teachers' lived experience rather than assume the meaning of the terms risk and risk-taking.

This study examined elementary school teachers’ experience of pandemic preparedness efforts by provincial and local agencies in Nova Scotia, Canada during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. Eleven (11) elementary teachers were surveyed and interviewed and their responses analyzed to determine themes that have pedagogical significance for both education and health promotion. Teachers surveyed experienced a profound sense of responsibility for the children for whom they act in loco parentis. Teachers perceived themselves to be infection control agents and acted on behalf of students to mitigate the spread of the disease. Due to the unique relationship between elementary teachers and children there were high levels of fear and anxiety experienced. Teachers felt fearful for their personal safety and for the health and well-being of their students and reported high levels of anxiety in children. Elementary teachers, who are on the front line of pandemic response, need to be central to administrative efforts to prepare, educate and provide training for those in contact with a high number of vulnerable populations. Further research is required on the experiences of middle school, secondary teachers and principals at all levels of schooling.