QED specializes in transformational learning design and practices which focus on developing and supporting learning- and learner- centered communities. We have a deep commitment to educational equity, and to developing will, skill, knowledge, habits, and community capacity for ensuring all learners have diverse opportunities and personalized supports to be successful, regardless of socio-geographic-academic identities.

Our theory of change is based on a commitment to tapping the knowledge and expertise that already exists in every community, while providing coaching, facilitation, and additional resources and models of practice.

Three pillars for sustainable transformational learning systems

Learner-Centered Paradigm – cultivating and maintaining the perspective that the system exists to serve all learners, and needs to adapt and alter to meet the needs of those learners

Professional Culture – creating and sustaining brave and safe spaces in which conversations about the complexity of teaching and learning can flourish

Reflective Leadership – developing and coaching leaders’ capacity to work as “chief adult developers”

Building Capacity Across the Three Pillars

Adult Learning – training and coaching in QED’s Collaborative Reflective Inquiry (CRI) model

AKOM – developing a foundation of learning expertise through QED’s All Kinds of Minds (TM) neurodevelopmental framework for understanding learning and learners

Coaching – building capacity for acting effectively and with integrity, working with all system stakeholders

Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI) – cultivating collective voice, using stories as data for shared sensemaking

Social Emotional Learning/Trauma Informed Practices – fostering essential cultural practices to ensure the conditions for wholehearted living and learning for adults and youth

Transformational Systems Audits – partnering with school communities to observe, document, and reflect on existing and emerging learner-centered culture

Transition Support – leveraging assets to support learners through pivotal transitions

For more information about school-level transformational practices, see our Transformational Change Model.

To find out more about how Q.E.D. can support your school or organization’s work, please contact Kim Carter at kcarter@qedfoundation.org.