Research - Wonder: Education Reimagined

Research & Ideas

The thinking behind the work.

Wonder’s ideas are grounded in rigorous research and lived practice. Here are publications, keynote work, and the thinking that drives every programme — written for educators, institutions, and anyone who believes a better world starts with better questions.me

Scholarly Work

Publications

Wonder’s scholarship is grounded in the work of Weber, Gramsci, Freire, Polanyi, hooks, Andreotti, Raworth, Giroux, Nussbaum, and Pashby.

Doctoral Dissertation · University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, May 2025

Recovering Epistemic Sight in a Neoliberalized World: Critical Economic Literacy for the Promotion of Critical Global Citizenship Education

This dissertation investigates how neoliberal economic ideology has shaped the pedagogical assumptions of five secondary teachers at one of China’s most elite international schools — and demonstrates that Critical Economic Literacy (CEL), operationalised through the DISRUPT thinking routine, enables epistemic recovery and a renewed commitment to Critical Global Citizenship Education. Using intentionalist orientational qualitative inquiry, data were collected across nine months through surveys, reflective journals, revised unit plans, semi-structured interviews, and Most Significant Change narratives.

The research was first titled 'Dismantling the Iron Cage of Neoliberalism' — but at the doctoral defence, the committee agreed that the iron cage metaphor does not connote the hope that it could be dismantled, nor is it accurate to lived reality. Thus the dissertation was retitled 'Recovering Epistemic Sight' — and interestingly, this also gave birth to the idea of the Velvet Cage. Big thanks to Professor Nick Burbules. The term Velvet Cage was first coined by sociologist George Ritzer, 2004, however he only used that term in relation to education, while I have expanded this to describe the lived reality of the educated and privileged in our world today.

Forthcoming Journal Article · Theory & Research in Social Education

Teaching What They Cannot See: Critical Economic Literacy, Epistemic Blindness, and the Possibility of Critical Global Citizenship Education

An empirical research article tracing how Critical Economic Literacy addresses the epistemic blindness that prevents educators from teaching Critical GCE.

Forthcoming Book Chapter · Bloomsbury

Recovering Epistemic Sight: Unshackling Critical Global Citizenship Education through Critical Economic Literacy

A book chapter contributing to the international conversation on global social justice education — examining how CEL enables teachers to see, question, and move beyond the neoliberal assumptions shaping their practice.

Keynote · March 2026

Who Told You That Story?

Festival of Hope, Keystone Academy

The IB Festival of Hope is a global youth initiative by the International Baccalaureate — creating spaces for students, educators, and thinkers to turn complex challenges into positivity and hope. The Beijing edition at Keystone Academy convened students from public schools across Beijing, international schools across China, and a delegation from Cambodia.

Wonder was invited to deliver the keynote — an invitation to educators and school leaders to surface the economic narratives embedded in their curricula, and to ask: who benefits from the stories we treat as common sense?

If we can see the stories now — does that make us responsible for changing them?

A student's question, Festival of Hope, Beijing, March 2025

Video & Media

Watch & Listen

Why the SDGs will fail and what we must do about it

As the most intelligent species on this planet, we are also the only species destroying our own home. How come?” — Dr Jane Goodall. Wonder’s answer: the problem is not intelligence. It is epistemic blindness

Why We Need Critical Economic Literacy

An introduction to Critical Economic Literacy — why it matters, what it makes possible, and how it changes what educators can see and do in their classrooms.

In Conversation: Critical Economic Literacy, Economics of Hope, and the Stories We Inherit

A 36-minute conversation with Dr. Emiliano Bosio — editor of Ethical Global Citizenship Education (Cambridge University Press) — exploring what Critical Economic Literacy is, why GDP myths matter for educators, how neoliberalism operates as invisible water in schools, and what an economics of hope might look like.

Series GCE Interview Series with Dr. Emiliano Bosio

Newsletter · Essays · Notes

Essays

What does indie film “Dear You” taking Asia by storm warn us about trust in the AI age?

source: moviesdock.com An indie film filmed completely in Chaoshan (潮汕) dialect has taken Asia by storm in the last few months. “Dear You” or Love...

Let’s Catchup…for Real!

It has been a decade since I wrote my first LinkedIn post titled When it’s too late to say goodbye. In that article, I lamented...

We Are Nature- Even if the Economics Says Otherwise

What is Regenerative Education? Regenerative education goes beyond the typical focus on academic achievement to embrace student well-being, environmental stewardship, and community engagement. It draws...

Conversations

Podcasts, interviews & panel discussions

The conversation is growing. Podcast appearances, interviews, and panel discussions will appear here as they happen.

Let's Build Something

Education for a regenerative world doesn't build itself.

If this thinking resonates — bring it into your school, your institution, your community. Wonder works with people who are ready to collaborate across the old boundaries, to question the stories running our schools, and to build something genuinely different.