Pedagogy and Academics
Leading with Conviction
Last week I had the privilege of joining principals and school leaders from Loreto schools across Australia for three days of conversation, reflection and shared thinking about the work of leading Loreto education today.
Our opening keynote speaker, Professor David Hall, began with a provocative question. In education, we talk endlessly about flourishing: flourishing schools, flourishing students, flourishing communities. But honestly, how many of us feel like we’re flourishing on any given day? Most of the time, we’re just trying to survive. And yet the language of “living our best lives” becomes one more box to tick in an already exhausting list.
Our second keynote, Professor Miriam Tanti, turned our attention to another urgent concern: the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Drawing on reflections from Pope Leo XIV, she framed AI not as a technological problem, but as a profoundly human one.
If we fail to protect individuality, digital technologies - capable of mimicking faces, voices and behaviour - risk eroding the very foundations of human civilisation.
It’s a confronting thought, one that reminds us as educational leaders to keep our focus on the human, rather than the technology. We have a responsibility to deliberately cultivate habits that help young people to question, interpret, and make sense of reality. This is not optional - it is essential.
Building on this idea, the conference concluded with reflections from Hon. Mary Delahunty, who reinforced the vital role schools like Loreto play in offering a counterculture to the demands of digital life and its relentless expectations. She spoke about the psychobiology of online identity - the pull to perform, curate and brand oneself in digital spaces. In this precarious environment, young people can feel pressure to advertise bold opinions to gain attention, so identity begins to feel less like something lived and more like something staged.
Against this backdrop of curated identities and performativity, she returned us to a simple truth: Mary Ward was not building a brand. She was following a conviction.
It’s a useful distinction. And perhaps a necessary one.
In a zeitgeist that often feels fast-moving and uncertain, the conference was an encouraging reminder that the Loreto sisterhood continues to move in the right direction.
A heartfelt thank you to Lisa Sexton, our Assistant Principal: Head of Junior School, for her exceptional leadership, vision and the countless hours she dedicated to bringing this event to life.
Mel Pedavoli
Assistant Principal: Pedagogy and Academic Leadership