INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL: Listening Hub
Due to ongoing internal work, the Inclusion Champion has chosen to remain anonymous. This Listening Hub is shared to support sector learning, while protecting the trust that underpins our meaningful inclusion work at the GEC.
At the Global Equality Collective, our work is not about leaderboards or recognition for its own sake — it is about leading inclusion with confidence, integrity and care.
We are grateful to this Inclusion Champion and proud to share this anonymised Listening Hub so others can learn from this example. This is an non-profit, international school, serving about 600 students with a mix of international and local faculty.
Why listening mattered here
This work began with a growing recognition that some voices within the school community were not being fully heard.
In particular, the daily realities of local staff — shaped by rising inflation and economic pressures — were not sufficiently understood within the wider DEIJ strategy.
As the school reflected:
“The daily realities of local staff due to the volatility of inflation were not being heard.”
Leaders acknowledged:
“We could not continue our DEIJ initiatives without our local staff feeling a sense of belonging in our community.”
The school recognised that without addressing these lived experiences, inclusion work risked becoming disconnected from reality.
“The GEC Platform provided us with a safe and confidential platform to collect staff perceptions, without compromising trust.”
Anonymous, Inclusion Champion
Who was listened to
The primary focus of this phase was on:
Local staff (faculty and support staff)
The wider staff community, including expatriate colleagues
As the school identified:
“Local staff (faculty and support staff) were the experiences that were missing, marginalised or misunderstood.”
Careful consideration was given to psychological safety, anonymity and ethics.
“The Staff Survey and Index gave us more granular details about the experiences of all staff, including expatriate staff, through the Kaleidoscopic Data framework.”
Anonymous, Inclusion Champion
How listening was done
The school used a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative insight:
GEC Platform Staff Survey
Staff Index analysis
Listening Circles facilitated by HR
Follow-up Listening Circles with the Head of School
“The GEC Platform’s Staff Survey was used to reveal the experiences and perceptions of the staff for leadership to gain better insight into areas of concern and immediate action.”
“‘Listening Circles’ were carried out by HR with local staff, then continued with the Head of School with expatriate staff included.”
Listening was designed to be accessible and meaningful — not extractive.
“The Listening Circle with HR was facilitated in the local language, removing the language barrier.”
“The purpose was to gain insight into the various areas of concern to inform next steps.”
“The Staff Survey and Index gave us more granular details about the experiences of all staff, including expatriate staff, through the Kaleidoscopic Data framework.”
“The GEC Platform included areas often overlooked, represented by a smaller percentage of participants — for example women who have been or are pregnant or in menopause, and single-parent families.”
Anonymous, Inclusion Champion
What was heard
The findings revealed both expected and unexpected insights.
“There was an acknowledgement that the compensation between local and expatriate teachers was significantly different.”
However, what emerged more strongly were broader belonging challenges:
“What was new was some of the other areas where staff felt a lack of a sense of belonging — including career progression opportunities, recognition for achievements, support for breastfeeding mothers, paternity leave, and a perceived language and cultural hierarchy.”
“What was new was some of the other areas where staff felt a lack of a sense of belonging — including career progression opportunities, recognition for achievements, support for breastfeeding mothers, paternity leave, and a perceived language and cultural hierarchy.”
Anonymous, Inclusion Champion
The GEC Platform also surfaced voices often overlooked:
“The GEC Platform included areas often overlooked, represented by a smaller percentage of participants — for example women who have been or are pregnant or in menopause, and single-parent families.”
A clear pattern emerged:
“The clear divide between the social and economic realities of local and expatriate staff was causing tension within our community which may not always have been seen or heard.”
What changed because of listening
Listening led directly to leadership action.
“Our Head of School has worked with external consultants and the Board of Governors on revising compensation for local staff to keep up with inflation.”
“There will be more restructuring in the next few years as a result of these findings.”
Importantly, the cultural shift began alongside structural change:
“The staff are gradually starting to feel heard and that they belong to our community again directly due to using the GEC Platform.”
What happened next
Early signals of impact included:
“More confidence that the leadership were attentive and cared about the staff.”
“Reduced anxiety.”
This reflects a shift in trust, engagement and wellbeing, even as longer-term changes remain in progress.
What this Listening Hub is listening to now
The next phase of listening is focused on complex, strategic questions:
“How do we plan for sustainability of our programs and services in a volatile economic and political environment?”
Listening is now embedded as an ongoing leadership practice:
“Ongoing listening circles with the Head of School and a smaller committee meeting regularly with them.”
Why This Listening Hub Matters
This case study highlights a critical truth:
Inclusion cannot be separated from economic reality, power dynamics and lived experience.
By choosing to listen deeply — and act —
this school has taken important steps toward
ethical, sustainable and meaningful inclusion.
The most important inclusion challenges are often the hardest to hear.
This Listening Hub demonstrates how courageous, ethical listening can surface complex realities — and create the conditions for meaningful change over time.
Across the Global Equality Collective network, organisations are using this approach to move beyond surface-level initiatives and build inclusion strategies grounded in lived experience.
And if you want to learn more, just get in touch or click the buttons to learn about our GEC Platform or meet more of our schools creating Inclusion Champions in every classroom!