Education

Empowerment over fear

Free resources promote pro-active approach to learning in the pandemic

<h2>Educational inequalities and addressing wellbeing needs have been the focus for some countries since the pandemic shone light on their disparities&period; These have been welcomed&comma; but are also very reactive solutions&period; Perhaps the new year gives us a chance to think and work differently&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>What approaches and resources are needed to help schools take transformative action to address learning loss in a locally responsive manner&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Over the past two years&comma; teachers and leaders have shown agency and commitment&comma; proving their ability to be agile and change at short notice&period; However&comma; no system can work in emergency response mode indefinitely&period; Reflection isn’t enough&period; Educators need to learn &OpenCurlyQuote;what is not there yet’ in order to see our situation as a professional learning opportunity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A recent research paper from Cambridge University&comma; <em>The Covid-19 Learning Crisis as a Challenge and an Opportunity for Schools&comma;<&sol;em> encourages us to think differently about the problem space we find ourselves in&period; It encourages us&comma; as a &OpenCurlyQuote;unified profession’ &lpar;an alliance&rpar;&comma; to collaborate and share new pedagogical practices in order to learn how to deal with the future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>First&comma; we must visualise our problem space and &OpenCurlyQuote;see’ the mechanisms at play&period; Alongside collaboration and visualisation&comma; tools can also help us craft a way forward instead of leaving us to hang on for the latest policy change or advice from ministries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>We have a choice to continue in crisis mode&semi; being reactive and exhausted&comma; or take charge of our futures and support each other to be proactive and empowered&semi; serving the communities we love&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>We can’t wait for another academic year to pass&semi; another cohort of children leaving school unfulfilled&period; We need to be brave and role model the collaboration we hope to see from the leaders of the world&period; Let’s put the educational dollar aside and begin our empowering journey where we own our futures&comma; instead of living in fear&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The following resources have been designed to support our schools and leaders to take action&comma; they have been created by enaginglearningvoices&period;com and are being offered FREE to anyone who needs them&period; The tools will help schools visualise and conceptualise their problem space&comma; then interrogate the mechanisms at play and then broaden their scope by using their values to add cohesion to distance&sol;physical learning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Click on the link for the free tools being offered&comma; including A Spoonful of Sugar&comma; which aims to address concerns schoolchildren may have about the pandemic&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;engaginglearningvoices&period;com&sol;resources-and-tips-1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;engaginglearningvoices&period;com&sol;resources-and-tips-1 <&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The more hands we can get them into the more chance we have of being proactive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;<em>AUTHORS&colon; Rebecca Thomas and Steve Saville&comma; creators of Werewere school <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;engaginglearningvoices&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">www&period;engaginglearningvoices&period;com<&sol;a><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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