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Democracy in Schools: Creating Systems Rooted in Participation and Trust
Nurturing Intellectually Safe and Emotionally Supportive School Cultures
Reclaiming Play as the Heart of Early Learning
Land, Work, and Community: Foundations for Adolescent Growth
Fireside Chat – CAN versation on the I CAN Mindset
Building Teacher Capacity for Learner-Centred Pedagogy
The Changing World of Higher Education
Montessori, Movement and Childhood
Founder, SchoolScape, Bangalore
A pioneering advocate of child-centred education in India, with decades of work in schools and large-scale education reform
Amukta Mahapatra is the founder of SchoolScape and has been a passionate advocate for child-centred education for several decades. She began her career at The School, KFI in Chennai, and later, as the first Principal of Abacus Montessori School, she helped shape a contemporary approach to Montessori Practices from preschool to high school.
Amuktha’s work has spanned both independent schoolsand public education programmes With UNICEF and state governments, she contributed to the design and rollout of teacher development initatives, including the Activity-Based Learning (ABL) programme that reached thousands of schools and teachers in Tamil Nadu and beyond. Deeply Committed to Democratic and Inclusive Approaches she has organised and participated in many national and international conferences, and conƟnues to serve on naƟonal task forces on early childhood care and teacher education.
Author; Former Educator, KFI The School, Chennai
An educator and writer who bridges corporate, social, and educational spaces, weaving philosophy, art, and literature into learning.
Ashwin Prabhu has over two decades of diverse experience across corporate, educational, and social development spaces. A University Gold Medalist in Computer Engineering and an MBA from IIM Mumbai, he began his career in the corporate sector with Cognizant, Citibank, and Amazon.
At 32, he shifted to full-time teaching at The School, KFI in Chennai, where over five years he taught English and Social Sciences, experiences that continue to shape his outlook. Later, at the Azim Premji Foundation, he focused on grant-making and NGO collaborations across themes like urban poverty, migrant labour, adolescent girls, and mental health.
Ashwin is also a noted writer, with books such as Classroom With A View – Notes from the Krishnamurti School (Tara Books, 2022) and Sculpted Stones – Mysteries of Mamallapuram (Tulika Books, 2024). His forthcoming work explores themes at the intersection of education, philosophy, and culture.
Founder, Papagoya Education, Bangalore
Founder of Papagoya, creating joyful and supportive learning spaces inspired by Nordic early childhood practices.
Helen Issar is the founder and director of Papagoya, a Nordic inspired model kindergarten and school firmly based in principles of Play in learning and offers a play focused approach for children from 12 months to 18 years. Through Papagoya's play-focused model, she is transforming education in India by adapting holistic, play-centric approaches and ensuring joyful and meaningful learning for children.
With over 20 years of experience spanning multiple continents and across marketing, entrepreneurship, and education, her passion to support women back to work post motherhood and allow them time and space to balance family and careers combined with her love to create joyful learning environments for children, resulted in the start of Papagoya.
Helen is also featured in "Hum: When Women Lead," a book by UN Women and the Ford Foundation, recognizing her contribution to supporting working women and reinventing education in India.
AMI Trainer
A leading Montessori adolescent trainer whose pioneering work in Sweden brought the Erdkinder vision to life.
Jenny Marie Höglund is an AMI Trainer at both the 6–12 and 12–18 levels and a leading voice in Montessori adolescent education. In 1995, she founded a Montessori school in Göteborg, Sweden, and later the Montessori Centre for Work and Study, offering adolescents a residential Erdkinder experience.
Since 2003, she has been part of the AMI-NAMTA Orientation to Adolescent Studies, blending Montessori philosophy with adolescent realities. With a Master’s in Education, she supports the growth of both students and educators.
Grounded in land, work, and community, Jenny continues to inspire Montessori guides worldwide with her vision of prepared environments for adolescence.
Founder, Riverside School, Ahmedabad
A designer turned educator and social entrepreneur, Kiran has pioneered child-centred change through the globally recognised I CAN mindset.
Kiran Bir Sethi is a designer turned educator, a principal who became an education reformer, and today a social entrepreneur. A graduate of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, she brings the language of design—iteration, prototyping, and user-centred innovation—into education and social change.
In 2001, she founded The Riverside School, now recognised globally as a living laboratory for design-led educational practices that nurture the I CAN mindset in children. This philosophy grew into Design for Change (DFC), launched in 2009, which has become the world’s largest movement of and by children. Today, DFC spans 60+ countries, reaching over 2.2 million children and 65,000 teachers, using its simple four-step FIDS framework: Feel, Imagine, Do, Share.
Kiran is also the founder of aProCh (A Protagonist in Every Child), an initiative to make cities more child-friendly, and the Riverside Learning Centre, which helps schools worldwide adopt Riverside’s model. Her work has received global recognition, including the Yidan Fellowship, HundrED.org Hall of Fame, and the World’s Best School Prize for Innovation (2023). Her book, Every Child CAN (HarperCollins, 2023), chronicles this journey of reimagining education through design.
Director, IMC, Bangalore / Chennai
A lifelong Montessori educator and trainer, shaping teachers and extending Montessori to diverse communities.
Ms. Uma Shanker is Director, Indian Montessori Training Courses, Chennai (IMTC-C) and Erode, and Mentor- Advisor, Indian Montessori Centre, Bangalore. She has worked in the field of education for the last four decades and has been training teachers in the Montessori Method of education since 1998. s
Fifty plus courses have been conducted since then and around 1800 teachers have done their training at IMTC- Chennai. There are around 50 Montessori schools in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu established by the alumni and some have already grown to become high schools. She has worked in partnership with NGOs like Sri Ramacharan Charitable Trust, Nishkam Trust and MKM Charitable Trust to train their teachers to work in the schools of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), Balwadis and Government Schools. Around 100 teachers of GCC have also done their training at IMTC.
She has written a book, A Guide to Montessori Education for the Early Years. Her book for parents called, ‘Your Child and You’ was published in August 2017. She was awarded the Lady Kalyani Sivaswami Ayyar Best Teacher Award for her contribution.
Education Reformer, Ignus Group, Noida
A distinguished education thinker and reformer bridging policy, classroom practice, and systemic change.
Subir Shukla is a distinguished education practitioner whose work spans policy, grassroots implementation, and reform. As former Educational Quality Advisor to the Ministry of Education (MHRD), he was central to the Quality Framework for the Right to Education and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
He is currently Principal Coordinator of Group Ignus (IgnusERG, Ignus-PAHAL, IgnusOUTREACH), advising governments across Asia on inclusive and scalable education models.
His work includes curriculum, textbooks, teacher training, and systemic capacity building.
In 2024, he delivered a keynote for IARTEM on “Developing High Quality, Affordable Textbooks in Low-Resource Environments,” underlining his ongoing commitment to equity and quality in education.
Former Educator, KFI The School; Core Member, ThinQ
An educator and critical thinking advocate engaged with higher education, social change, and public dialogue.
Sriram Naganathan has long worked to improve education for marginalised students in India. He has been associated with IgnusERG, a collective working on government school reforms, and is a core member of ThinQ, which nurtures critical thinking. He has also been a History teacher at The School, Chennai (KFI).
Trained in Business Journalism, Sriram was a Reuter Fellow at Oxford, and held editorial roles at Business India and Business World, while also writing for international journals. Today he combines his background in media and education, contributing to both Venture Intelligence and initiatives in school reform.