David:

I bring to our team: 30+ years experience as a teacher, leader, consultant and school principal. My ongoing work with primary and secondary schools enables me to bring a credible approach grounded in the dailies realities teachers and leaders face.

In addition to my work across Australia and New Zealand, my experience with schools and educators in places such as Turkey, Thailand, the UK and Japan have all contributed to making the 'classroom' in which I operate larger and richer, deepened my understanding of global learning, and the value of diversity.

Joan:

Educator | Author | Learning Pioneer

For more than seventy years, Joan Dalton has dedicated her life to helping people learn.

Teacher, consultant, author, facilitator and mentor, Joan has influenced generations of educators across Australia and internationally through her pioneering work in learning, teaching, leadership development, learner agency, inquiry and human flourishing.

Beginning her career in the 1960s, Joan witnessed—and helped shape—some of the most significant educational changes of the past half-century. Long before concepts such as learner agency, capability development and future-focused learning became widely recognised, she was working with teachers and school leaders to create learning environments that nurtured curiosity, deep thinking, collaboration and lifelong learning.

Through her consultancy work, Joan partnered with schools, dioceses, education systems and professional organisations throughout every Australian state and territory, including remote Indigenous communities, and internationally across New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Türkiye, the Czech Republic, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 1996, Joan co-founded Hands On Educational Consultancy with David Anderson. Together they developed innovative approaches to leadership capability, learning and teaching, inquiry and professional learning that continue to influence schools and systems today.

Joan has authored or co-authored more than a dozen publications, including Adventures in Thinking, Becoming Responsible Learners, Extending Children’s Special Abilities, Learning Culture for Learning Impact and the Learning Talk series.

Her latest book, For the Love of Learning: Our Call to Flourishing (2026), brings together a lifetime of educational wisdom. Combining memoir, educational history and a vision for the future, it explores how education can help young people and those who teach them flourish in a rapidly changing world.

Its accompanying Companion Guide and Facilitator Resource is designed to help put those ideas to work. (To be published late 2026)

Joan’s contributions have been recognised through numerous honours, including Victorian Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders, the Inaugural Tasmania Award for Distinguished Services to Teaching, and international recognition from Microsoft as a global education leader.

Joan retired from active educational consultancy in 2023, after more than six decades in education. She continues to write, mentor educators and contribute to professional conversations about learning, leadership and the future of education.