The Imaginari Fellowship

Where Teachers ReimagineTeaching

How can teachers reimagine education?

The Imaginari Fellowship begins by inviting teachers to explore the subtle narratives that shape today’s schools.

Drawing from their own wisdom, experience, creativity, and energy, fellows work together to create learning spaces that reflect a more just and vibrant world.

By joining the fellowship, teachers become part of a movement to reimagine education and inspire change in their communities.

Illustration of a teacher and students in a reimagined classroom

People

Theodore Richards

Theodore Richards, PhD - Educator & Philosopher

Theodore Richards, co-founder of the Imaginari Fellowship, is the founder of The Chicago Wisdom Project.
He has taught in various settings, from graduate school to afterschool programs on the south side of Chicago . He is the author of eight books and numerous literary awards, including two Nautilus Book Awards and three Independent Publisher Awards. His most recent work is Reimagining the Classroom. He lives on the south side of Chicago with his wife and three daughters .
Learn More About Theodore
Seth Biderman

Seth Biderman, MA, Ed.S - Educator & Leader

Seth Biderman, co-founder of the Imaginari Fellowship, is a former teacher, principal, and manager of the Institute of Teaching at the Academy for the Love of Learning.
A graduate of the public schools of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Seth has taught at every grade level, from preschool to college, and led schools in Santa Fe and Washington, DC. He has published essays on education in Hechinger Report, The Voyager, The Educator’s Room, and elsewhere. Seth currently lives in DC with his wife and daughter.
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Testimonials

[A]n invitation to dive into the wreckage that surrounds us, and swim as hard as we can toward a fresh approach to teaching and learning, parenting and mentoring. Theodore Richards is a perfect guide: experienced, wise, and courageous. He foregrounds relationship-building, sees the young not as targets of instruction, but as three-dimensional creatures on an immense journey of discovery and surprise. Teaching becomes, then, not an act of transmission, but a transformative voyage for everyone involved.
Bill AyersEducation scholar and activist
Theodore Richards is an inspired educator and artisan of cultural regeneration, a visionary activist.
Bill Plotkin, Ph.D.Author of Soulcraft, Wild Mind, and Nature and the Human Soul
Seth is a skilled guide into places we need to go as teachers. He speaks from a place of profound experience and knowledge, but with an empathy and caring that befits our profession.
Randy GrilloPrincipal and former teacher, Santa Fe Public Schools
I loved how Theodore created a safe and interactive space. And the collaboration was unmatched—it was the meat of the course. The prize was within the experience of learning and thinking.
Andrea Stubblefield, M.EdEarly Childhood Specialist - Office of Early Childhood Education, Chicago Public Schools