Following 15 years teaching elementary and middle school in the US, Peru, Malaysia, and China, Steve Sostak now specializes in working with schools, teachers, and students to integrate elements of the three Inspire Citizens' Impact Frameworks. He guides educators towards embedding compassionate empathy, deep thinking, and global and intercultural competence into relevant, action-driven learning outcomes linked to disciplinary, technology, and literacy standards. Steve facilitates best-practices in professional learning centered on the Global Impact School Self-Study: holistic, long-term, personalized, capacity-building experiences and reflections for administrative teams and preK-12 teachers and students.As a global TeachSDGs ambassador, Steve is committed to human and environmentally-centered learning that empowers students to make a positive impact on collective wellbeing and the sustainable development of the world.
Being a global educator is a natural evolution of his life experience. When Steve grew up, he had a lot of intercultural friendships in high school, and he was connected with a lot of different groups of people. He believes that those relationships, “ sparked a broader understanding of what communities could be.” Steve was a musician, touring Europe and North America for over 7 years. He played around 600 shows in a punk band and meet a lot of different people. Steve got his Masters in Education and, after a few years in Chicago, he and his wife decided to teach internationally, “knowing that the world was a bigger place.”
They moved to a few places including Malaysia where he was challenged by an administrator to start an elective on global citizenship. “That really opened my mind to what project-based learning could really be like if you launch it through the lens of community engagement and sustainable thinking.” This is where Inspire Citizens was born, in his classrooms over decade of wondering and experimenting with how to bring that alive for his students. “When the Sustainable Development Goals came out, it provided a really good framework for just that.” Calling his work applied civics, applied global citizenship, applied intercultural competence, applied anti-racist actions. He sees this as an opportunity for students to link their passions with needs and issues outside of themselves. “In essence, that is what the heart of what Inspire Citizens now does. We help to make that their why.” He partnered with his former co-teacher, Aaron, ( a drummer) who is a learning support specialist and the co-founder of Inspire Citizens. They work long-term with schools to co-design in their context to help transform education and make it relevant for all stakeholders. “The impact over the last 12 months has been massive.”
Preparing for his P3 recording was tough for Steve because music has been such an important part of his life. His musical interests have had many global influences from his time travelling and living on various continents. That made determining only three songs very difficult for him. This was exacerbated by the fact that Steve is also a musician. He was an all-state saxophone player in high school. When he was in university, he started a grass-roots punk style band which is how Sweep the Leg Johnny, his original band that was touring, came to be.
Steve’s nostalgic song is an old-school hip hop selection that reflects a pivotal 6th grade memory. He was lucky to be selected to go to a middle school archeology experience in Mesa Verde. An eighth grader, who Steve thought was the coolest guy in the world at the time, gave him a mixed tape that had this song on it. “I probably listened to that cassette maybe a thousand times.” Steve thinks that he could, even now, rap the entire thing. We spoke about the break dancing that he so joyfully conjured in his mind, recalling the image of his middle school friends. “Breakdancing...launched a unique culture and is still so relevant.” He can still do The Snake and The Robot. Here is Jam On It from Newcleus:
Steve’s identity song is one that he recently started listening to a lot. It’s by a UK band that he feels captures the spirit of the politics of punk. “I grew up listening to Fugazi...the political undertones of what they stood for resonated so powerfully through the independent scene that we were a part of that time, and I feel that this group captures some of that, even though they’re a mainstream band.” It was hard for Steve not to choose a Fugazi song, but he found this choice to be reflective of how things are today in the world. “You don't have to read too deep into it; it’s right there for you to consume and think about.” He loves bands that are willing to get their message out there and be themselves. So much about this song is about global citizenship. Side note: the title comes from a singer from another band through a challenged to create a song written around the name of the band members. Here is Danny Nedelko by Idles:
Steve’s inspirational song is one that he got to see live in a dance club in China with his adopted daughter from Peru. “They were such a unique addition to the electronic dance scene...they bring such a variety of cultures into the group itself…” During a recent moratorium for which Steve returned to Chicago to take a needed time out, this song really helped him. “This song was something that really connected with me...it really carried me through a time of stress and burnout.” This was a song that he and Aaron take with them to different schools and helps them to ask questions about their own beliefs and what they’re willing to fight for. Here is Believer by Major Lazer and Showtek
If you want to reach out to Steve, you can find him on Twitter. Inspire Citizens works with diverse communities and helps to facilitate learning using their Impact Frameworks, but they leave room for flexibility and context. “It’s exciting because we get to wear different hats wherever we go, and it's built on our ability to listen.” In a few weeks, Inspire Citizens will be publishing an open source PDF called A Global Impact School Self-Study: 10 pathways and 50 criteria to guide whole schools towards making global and intercultural competence their why. There will also be a data dashboard to help school reflect to score themselves and connect with others. Their pedagogy takes the best of inquiry, design thinking, project based learning and meshes it with standards-based learning and human centred learning through a framework called Empathy to Impact. Check out the pathways on their website and follow them to see the incredible work they are doing with schools, teachers and students to help them explore their whys, their whats, their so whats and their what nows. They are also working on a student leadership certificate that built around the mastery of leadership skills using the global competencies. So many new projects and exciting things to come. You can also check out Global Youth Media.
