Emergent Thinkers™

Working with Learners, Leaders, and Communities

I am delighted to offer a range of educational and research consultancy services, welcoming both short-term and long-term collaborations. With a robust portfolio spanning diverse sectors, I specialise in delivering tailored solutions to meet the unique needs of local authorities, education departments, SMEs, corporates, public services, and community groups.

Alongside this professional work, I design family- and school-focused learning experiences through Harmonious Heroes™ and Emergent Thinkers™. These initiatives nurture curiosity, creativity, and confidence in learners of all ages, supporting both home-educating families and school communities. Each offers imaginative ways to explore ethical leadership, care, and community through play, reflection, and enterprise, creating connected spaces where curiosity and criticality can flourish together.

Key Areas of Expertise

Learning, Curriculum, and Creative Thinking

• Embedding Entrepreneurship into Learning: Supporting schools and home-educating families to integrate entrepreneurial thinking, creativity, and ethical enterprise across subjects and learning environments.
• Higher-Order Thinking Development: Helping educators and parents nurture creative, critical, and metacognitive skills (HOTS) in learners of all ages, drawing on doctoral research into lived experiences of teaching and facilitation.
• Curriculum Design and Reflective Practice: Offering support with the Curriculum for Wales and wider national frameworks, including creative approaches to inquiry-based and experiential learning.
• Phenomenological Research and Case Studies: Capturing lived experience and learner stories to inform evaluation, strategy, and evidence-based improvement for schools, communities, and home-learning networks.

Culture, Leadership, and Sustainable Change

• Facilitating Cultural Change: Designing and delivering bespoke programmes that strengthen collaborative, inclusive, and values-driven practice across organisations, schools, and community groups.
• Sustainable and Ethical Leadership: Guiding leaders, educators, and learning communities to adopt sustainable, reflective approaches aligned with the UN SDGs and Wales’ Well-being of Future Generations Act.
• Community Engagement and Capacity Building: Empowering local and grassroots networks to co-create meaningful, sustainable change through participatory workshops and reflective dialogue.
• Guest Speaking and Workshops: Delivering engaging sessions for educators, parents, leaders, and policy-makers on topics including entrepreneurship education, sustainable leadership, phenomenological research, and values-driven transformation.

Who I Work With:

• Home-Educating Families and Schools: Partnering with families, teachers, and learning communities to nurture curiosity, confidence, and creative thinking. I offer reflective workshops, curriculum support, and bespoke learning design through Harmonious Heroes™ and Emergent Thinkers™, helping learners of all ages explore ethical leadership, care, and enterprise.
• Education Departments and Institutions: Providing curriculum innovation, professional development, and strategic support for educators and leadership teams. Expertise includes embedding entrepreneurship education, developing higher-order thinking, and aligning practice with the Curriculum for Wales and wider policy frameworks.
• Local Authorities: Supporting workforce development, cultural transformation, and community engagement projects. I work with councils and regional networks to design reflective CPD, evaluate impact, and strengthen values-led learning strategies.
• Public Services: Helping organisations such as the NHS, fire services, and housing associations align values with operational goals through leadership development and cultural change programmes.
• SMEs and Corporates: Designing tailored training and leadership development initiatives to build innovation capability, operational efficiency, and collaborative culture.
• Community Groups and Social Enterprises: Facilitating grassroots initiatives, supporting funding and evaluation, and helping communities co-create sustainable, locally relevant solutions.

Why Work With Me?
Clients choose to work with me for my ability to translate complexity into clarity and action. Combining practical expertise with academic research, I offer evidence-based, values-led solutions that align with the distinct needs of each learner, leader, and community I support.

Whether you are a school seeking curriculum innovation, a parent designing reflective home-learning experiences, a local authority developing workforce capability, or an organisation pursuing culture change, my approach is adaptable, relational, and grounded in lived understanding of how people learn and grow together.

I bring over two decades of experience facilitating learning and transformation across education, enterprise, and public services. My practice draws on both professional experience and doctoral research in higher-order thinking and educator development, bridging insight from classrooms, boardrooms, and community settings.

I am also an experienced speaker and facilitator, confident working with audiences of any size — from intimate reflective workshops and practitioner circles to international conferences and expert roundtable discussions. My sessions invite curiosity, participation, and the kind of reflective dialogue that leads to lasting change.

My services are intentionally designed to be inclusive and accessible, supporting learning and collaboration across diverse ages, abilities, and contexts. For project discussions, collaborations, or tailored consultancy, please feel free to contact me directly at Dr Felicity Healey-Benson – Dr Felicity Healey-Benson healeybenson-education@outlook.com

Research Interests

• Facilitating Value Creation, Entrepreneurship
• Harmonious Entrepreneurship
• Phenomenology
• Educator Development incl. EntEd Development
• Complexity Theory
• Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking skill development
• Innovative Pedagogy and Technology-based Assessment
• Online/Distance Learning
• Applied Sustainability