Teaching as Collective Leadership - A Conversation with Wendy Kopp
May 8, 2022
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Wendy Kopp, CEO and Co-founder of Teach For All, discusses the need to reshape education, the evolution of Teach For America and Teach For All, collective leadership in teaching, the importance of global networking, addressing teacher attrition, and taking action to create positive change.
Collective leadership is crucial in improving education systems and ensuring equal opportunities for all children.
Teach for All empowers teachers to become locally rooted leaders, contributing to a more equitable and sustainable education system.
Deep dives
The Power of Collective Leadership in Education
Collective leadership is essential in addressing the challenges within education systems. The Teach for All network, with its locally led independent organizations, aims to cultivate collective leadership to ensure all children have equal opportunities. The organization works towards developing students who can shape a better future by enlisting promising leaders to teach in resource-constrained environments. These leaders are not only foundational for student learning but also contribute to a lifetime of leadership. The network emphasizes the importance of engaging diverse stakeholders such as students and parents in rethinking education, fostering students' agency and awareness, and supporting holistic outcomes beyond just academic achievement.
The Evolution of Teach for America and Teach for All
Teach for America and Teach for All have evolved over the years to focus on broader purposes and deeper impacts in education. Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp recognized the importance of locally rooted leadership and joined forces with social entrepreneurs worldwide to adapt this approach in different countries. Building on the success of Teach for America, Teach for All emphasizes globally informed, locally rooted leadership, empowering teachers to recognize challenges as systemic issues and shift mindsets towards collective problem-solving. By enlisting diverse leaders and transforming their teaching experiences, these organizations aim to shape a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable education system.
The Role of Learning Networks in Education
The power of global learning networks has been magnified during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic. Teach for All has leveraged its network to share solutions, engage in cross-border learning, and build learning communities. Through virtual platforms, teachers, alumni, and education stakeholders have connected, exchanged insights, and created communities of practice. This networked learning approach has facilitated the rapid sharing of strategies, fostering resilience, adaptability, and continuous improvement. By prioritizing practitioner-led learning and a spirit of inquiry, the network has emphasized the importance of capturing insights, surfacing hypotheses, and sharing best practices to accelerate progress in education systems globally.
Redefining the Purpose of Education
The pandemic has highlighted the need to rethink the purpose of education and make it more relevant for students' lives and the challenges they will face. Teach for All advocates for a new purpose that develops students as leaders who can shape a better future. This entails fostering a broader set of outcomes, such as agency, awareness, social emotional skills, and problem-solving abilities. By engaging students as partners, enlisting parents and caregivers, leveraging technology, and placing social-emotional development at the core, education can become more meaningful and impactful. The insights gained during the pandemic have reinforced the urgency of redefining education to address the complex challenges of the modern world and foster student success.
Wendy Kopp is CEO and Co-founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent organizations working to develop collective leadership to ensure all children have the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
Prior to launching Teach For All in 2007, Wendy founded and led Teach For America – which has proven to be an unparalleled source of long-term leadership for expanding opportunity for children in the United States – for 24 years. Wendy led the development of Teach For All to be responsive to the initiative of social entrepreneurs around the world who were determined to adapt this approach in their own countries.
