29 سبتمبر - 1 اكتوبر 2026
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مركز ذي أرينا الرياض للمعارض والفعاليات| المملكة العربية السعودية.
Karina Bustamante Pahuara
Language Teacher - Repton School Dubai
Ms. Bustamante is an accomplished language educator and educational consultant with over twenty years of experience in international education. Her professional expertise includes IB inquiry-based pedagogy, concept-based curriculum design, bilingual education, and world language instruction, with a strong focus on student agency and meaningful learning. She is deeply passionate about reimagining world language classrooms to promote international-mindedness, intercultural understanding, and global citizenship, while honouring local culture and identity and building meaningful connections across communities.
Ms. Bustamante has taught languages across diverse educational contexts in New York and Dubai. She currently works as a language teacher at Repton School Dubai, and, in addition to her school role, she serves as an educational consultant for Difusión (Spain) and Klett World Languages (USA), collaborating on curriculum development, teacher training, and innovative language-learning resources. She is also a frequent presenter at international conferences and professional learning events worldwide.
Ms. Bustamante holds a Master’s degree in Spanish as a Foreign Language from the University of Barcelona, Spain along with a Certificate in Language Program Management and a TESOL Certificate from Columbia University, New York.
Speaker Sessions
GESS Talks Live
1525
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Connecting Cultures, Heritage, Thinking, and Learning in Today's Classrooms through Inquiry-Based Learning
Session Summary:
How can educators deepen students' thinking while honoring culture, heritage, and language in today's multilingual and multicultural classrooms? This workshop explores how inquiry-based learning provides a powerful framework for moving beyond surface-level understanding toward meaningful, concept-driven learning. By placing authentic questions and real-world contexts at the center of instruction, inquiry allows students to engage deeply with ideas while drawing on their cultural background, linguistic repertoire, and lived experiences as valuable learning resources. Aligned with the aspirations of Saudi Vision 2030, this approach develops learners who are confident thinkers, effective communicators, and culturally grounded individuals. Join this session to:
• Learn to create inquiry-based learning experiences that integrate culture and heritage as integral components rather than separate themes, exploring concepts through local heritage, Arabic language and identity, and global perspectives while fostering cultural continuity and global openness
• Discover how inquiry-based approaches create purposeful spaces for multiple languages in learning, enabling students to move flexibly between languages, make cross-linguistic connections, and use language as a tool for thinking rather than simple translation
• Gain concrete strategies for planning culturally responsive inquiries, supporting multilingual learners, and creating learning experiences that value students' identities while promoting deep conceptual understanding, strengthening both academic language development and cognitive flexibility
