Is Systemic Change in Education Possible? A Conversation with Alex Beard

There are very different ways of 'doing' education all around the world and my guest this week has spent many years exploring and deeply understanding many of them. As Alex Beard highlights in this conversation really powerfully, "does the purpose match the how or the process?" And how does this align with the values of the communities involved? When there is so much ideological warfare and polarisation around, we need more wise voices like Alex who are deeply expert and evidence-based but also oriented strongly around values and purpose.

After starting out as a teacher in a London comprehensive, Alex did his MA at the IOE before joining Teach For All (https://teachforall.org/), a growing network of independent organizations working in sixty countries to ensure that every child has access to an excellent education. while building collective leadership and driving systemic changes from within and outside of the education sector. He is the Senior Director at Teach for All and leads the Global Learning Lab supporting a global network of leaders working to drive systemic change in the fields of social innovation, school leadership, teacher training and policy-making. He has written extensively about his experiences in search of the practices that will shape the future of learning in publications such as the Guardian, Financial Times and Wired. He is the author of Natural Born Learners: Our incredible capacity to learn and how we can harness it, published in 2018 and he wrote and presented The Learning Revolution, a three part series on the future of education for BBC Radio 4 (2020). I've also had the privilege of chatting to Wendy Kopp, Alex's colleague and founder and CEO of Teach for All in episode 79 so do also check that one out!

Alex's website: https://www.alexbeard.org/

The Learning Revolution documentary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000h93c/episodes/player

The Missing Piece report: https://teachforall.org/MissingPieceBrief

Social Links

LinkedIn: @alex-beard - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-beard-08901915/