John Fishcetti

Professor John Fischetti believes education can move from systems historically designed around success for some to learning environments committed to success, opportunity, and human flourishing for all. His work challenges schools and universities to prepare learners for their futures, not our past, and to make preparation for life, contribution, and lifelong learning more important than preparation for exams.

John is particularly interested in how schools, TAFEs, and universities can use time differently, redesign learning and assessment, strengthen their distinctive value propositions, and lead transformation in a world increasingly shaped by generative and agentic AI.

John is co-author of the recent book The Future of Schooling in a GenAI World. The book examines how generative AI is changing teaching, learning, assessment, leadership, and the design of education itself. John's work in this area begins from a human-centred premise: the future can be shaped with, not by, AI. He argues that educational institutions can use emerging technologies to expand human creativity, critical thinking, judgement, agency, equity, and opportunity rather than diminish them.
John is also Chair of the Future Talent Council's Center for Education Transformation. The Future Talent Council is a global think tank based in Stockholm, Sweden, that connects leaders from business, government, education, industry, and policy to explore the future of work, careers, learning, and human capability. Through the Center, John works with more than 40 leaders across schools, community colleges, TAFEs, universities, government, and industry to transform education and build human-centred institutions in which students and staff can thrive and contribute to a stronger civil society.

Across more than 40 years, John has worked in transformational school and university reform, the redesign of teacher education, and the modernisation of educational leadership. He has held teaching, research, and senior university leadership roles in both Australia and the United States. He has also supervised more than 50 doctoral candidates to completion, helping to develop the next generation of educational leaders, researchers, and change-makers in Australia, the United States, and beyond.