The Learning Future Podcast with Louka Parry

What masks do you wear in the world? How can we all step into vulnerability and self-love to create safer, kinder communities as men?In today's episode, Louka speaks with Ashanti Branch, an inspiring educator, advocate and social entrepreneur raised by a single mother on welfare in Oakland. After studying engineering at California Polytechnic, Ashanti found his passion for teaching while tutoring struggling students. In 2004, as a first-year teacher, Ashanti started The Ever Forward Club to provide a support group for African American and Latino males who were not achieving the level of their potential. The Ever Forward Club has since helped 100% of its members graduate high school. Ashanti is on a mission to change how students interact with their education and the way schools interact with students. After being featured in The Mask You Live In documentary, a Fellowship at the Stanford d.school, Campaigns for Black Male Achievement, and The Gratitude Network, Ashanti has launched the #MillionMaskMovement. The #MillionMaskMovement connects people worldwide in a self-reflective experience that helps people visualise and realise, "I am not alone."

They discuss moving towards a human paradigm in education, emphasizing well-being, collaboration, and social intelligence. The importance of investing in people for positive impact and the challenges of subjective understanding of systems. Exploring the role of optimism, collaboration, and societal factors in driving change. Embracing hopefulness as a strategy in the face of complexity and radical change.

In a Covid world, all of us have experienced loss. So how might we understand grief and powerfully acknowledge the fact that all things come to an end, including our lives and those of others around us? In today's powerful episode we speak with Zenith Virago about the rites of passage in our lives and how we can powerfully experience loss and death. Zenith is a maverick and respected pioneer, teaching both nationally and Internationally, with her work best described as assisting people to die well, and for families and friends to have a healthier bereavement, especially involving sudden death or trauma, assisting people to know and reclaim their legal rights, and co-create their own social rites of passage. Zenith is the Executive Officer and founding member of the Natural Death Care Centre Charity for over 25 years. She is committed to cultural change, informing, educating and empowering individuals and communities and co-author of The Intimacy of Death and Dying, and subject of Zen & the Art of Dying, and patron of the Good Funeral Guide, UK.

What is education for? And how might we create a new definition of success, that enables us all to thrive in life, society, and on our planet? In today’s episode, we speak with Valerie Hannon, co-founder of Innovation Unit, a social enterprise creating new ways for people to belong and contribute to thriving societies. We discuss learning ecosystems, how we define success, and what kind of new school we need for the learning future. Valerie Hannon’s career spans leadership of education systems, research, teaching, and capacity building. She has supported education change programmes in numerous systems, including the UK, Europe, USA, Australia and Africa, and is a founding member and Co-Chair of the Global Education Leaders Partnership (GELP). Valerie was Director of Education for Derbyshire, and an advisor on creativity in the Department for Education. She has led many Innovation Unit education programmes, including Next Practice projects, Learning Futures (in the UK), and Learning Frontiers (in Australia). She has been consultant adviser to Finland, British Columbia in South Africa (KZA) and is an established thought leader in the field of education innovation. Valerie is an expert adviser on education to the OECD, and a frequent contributor to the World Summit on Innovation in Education (WISE). She is a regular keynote speaker and facilitator at international conferences and workshops. Valerie’s new book, published by Innovation Unit Press, is called THRIVE: schools reinvented for the real challenges we face. thelearningfuture.com