About Us

Discover the story behind No Borders Learning and Sam’s professional experience across different contexts.

Our Story

No Borders Learning is a space focused on relational and critical pedagogies, shaped by Sam’s doctoral research.

At its heart, the work emphasises reflecting in and on action, valuing teaching as an artful and socio-materially situated act.

Dr. Sam Passeport

She/her/hers

Originally from France, I have spent most of my career abroad, working in international schools in India, and the public Higher Education sector in the Netherlands.

As a critical and relational pedagogue, I will always identify as a teacher. I have had the privilege to support or directly teach from preschool to higher education. I love throwing myself into unexpected and unpredictable educational encounters, sometimes by posing difficult questions, other times by simply observing from a distance and letting things be or emerge.

I enjoy using creative methods to engage students and teachers as co-authors of their feedback cultures. Through my work on feedback, I prioritise relationality over the neoliberal effectiveness discourse. By working with me, educators commit to examining their systems and fostering genuine feedback dialogues, by reviewing their feedback cultures and climates, considering systemic barriers, the invisibility of engagement, and hidden curriculum.

My Story

Originally from France, my work as an educator has been shaped by a deep commitment to relational pedagogies. I began my career as an English as a Second Language teacher, where I first recognised how language teaching can both reproduce and challenge the Colonial Matrix of Power (Mignolo). Language became, for me, not just a means of communication and expression, but a site of critical reflection and resistance and a pluriversal space.

During my nine years in India (Bangalore and Pune), I taught French across primary, middle, and high school levels (IGCSE, PYP, MYP, DP) and served as a Technology Integrator and Academic Leader. Working in the International School system, pushed me to interrogate the hidden curriculum.

My time in Bulgaria as Director of Curriculum & Assessment deepened my interest in Systems Thinking and coaching . I sought to cultivate environments where questioning, reflection, taking accountability, and healing could disrupt hierarchical, deficit-oriented models of relating and dialoguing.

Now based in the Netherlands, I work in higher education, engaging with relational pedagogies and systemic coaching to uncover the hidden curriculum, with a special focus on (formative) assessment and feedback.

Across contexts, my work is guided by a simple but radical question: How might we see, sense, and dismantle the matrix of power so that education becomes a relational act of liberation?

My Experience

  • Research

    Professional Doctorate in Education from University of Dundee (2025)

    Theme investigated: students’ experiences of teacher feedback.

    Use of creative methods: narrative frames, critical phenomenology, object/photo-elicitation.

  • Coaching

    Educationalist in the Dutch Public Higher Education System (2021-now).

    Certified Cognitive Coach - Foundation (Thinking Collaborative).

    Lead Instructor of the course “Coaching and Consultation in Inclusive Schools” at LEAD Inclusion.

  • Recognitions

    DUSA Outstanding Wellbeing and Student Support Award (Nominated, 2023).

    Chair of AEA Assessment Cultures (2025-now).

    ISTE Awards: Young Outstanding Educator Award (2017), EdTech Coach PLN Award (2016), and Emerging Leader Award (2016).