I introduced the conference, also on behalf of Gloria Addae, one of the first EduSpots Catalysts who was unable to join the event, reflecting on the important lessons that come from the EduSpots mission. I first met Cat in 2017 through my school philosophy teacher and volunteered to organise a book drive. By 2019, I was able to attend the first youth conference in Ghana and meet some of the core catalysts of the EduSpots community. This is where I found that everyone really understands the importance of authentic community-led movements in creating sustainable change, especially in the landscape of education. As we know, many of us teachers and educators ourselves, it takes a village.

Cat Davison, CEO and Founder of EduSpots, kicked off the day with some ethical dilemmas in community-led education. We worked through some real examples of reaching moment that feels like a crossroads which changes the direction of local action. From striving to develop female leadership roles to the issues with mass scaling without local context, it is often the moment where you don’t know what’s next that you can learn the most about the potential transformative perspective that comes with building community-led educational processes.

David Heinemann gave an inspirational and honest investigation into the process of discovering and developing your personal power and leadership. As an experienced facilitator, coach and fellowship programme lead David gave a unique perspective on how to build confidence and create time for rest. It really is true that as activists, teachers and communities, rest is often an act of resistance against an ever accelerating economy and everyday reality. It is in first building trust with yourself that you can share the strength of that trust with others.

Stella Gyimaah Larbi shared on her experience of engaging communities in education from her perspective of a Ghanaian teacher and 2025 Global Teacher Prize Finalist. Talking about community engagement and literacy development, Stella shared some of her journey moving from a classroom teacher, to a teacher advocate in settings cross the word, highlighting the role of building community in this process through her “ENGAGE” acronym of E – Empower N – Network G – Grow A – Advocate G – Give E – Energize – we certainly felt her energy as she moved around the room learning more about the students’ plans for the future, and sharing the unique ‘champagne clap’.

After a short break, Headteacher at St Vincent’s School and 2021 Top 10 Global Teacher Prize Finalist David Swanston shared his take on knowledge-to-action and how we can learn from visually impaired communities about the reality of building equitable partnership. He highlighted that our world is not built for students with learning impairments, and that their employability and well-being can often rest in the hands of badly designed symptoms that could be altered with even limited financial investment, opening our eyes to the challenges faced by his students, and his role as an advocate for their educational and wider needs.

Cormac Russell, the Founding Director of Nuture Development, gave a dynamic and personal keynote speech. Sitting next to him beforehand, I told him I was looking forward to his speech and asked what might he be talking on? He replied, he wasn’t sure yet and he’s equally looking forward to finding out. Before introducing his key argument on moving from what’s wrong to what’s strong, he shuffled up the conference asking us to regroup with the people we hadn’t had the chance to speak to yet that day. This visceral way of engaging in how our connected community could be formed and actioned instinctually was a powerful start to an hour-long interactive session during which we were able to build a tangible collection of assets that we can use to build a welcome for the stranger at the edge. We discussed how like-mindedness is not always the friend of learning, as groupthink and purity politics takes over the global stage, the authenticity of community-led educational movements is crucial and this is the EduSpots mission – to build community on its own terms, not spreading ideas but connect people, and to build communities based off what’s strong. This is how we can give the authority back to the student, by bringing your needs, but also bringing your gifts – these gifts of the head, the heart, the hand and the feet that let us know the power in what we know, feel, act on, and what we stand for. 

 

Amy Bray, CEO and Founder of Another Way, brought an inspiring and personal account of the role of community and compassionin fixing the climate crisis. Since she was pre-tween, Amy felt the internal drive for justice and knew that her voice mattered no matter what adversity she faced. Changemakers, like the conference participants and the incredible EduSpots catalysts, know this drive is inescapable and moulds your character, the way you think, and the power of your voice. EduSpots sees this unique and transformative energy in each member of our communities, and this personal and adaptable faith is why it won’t be long before EduSpots will be all over the world training, connecting and equipping a new generation of Catalysts!

The student element of the session closed with two students sharing their projects, the first from Hakan Umur from Wellington College, relating to support for farmers in Turkey. He shared details of his financial and economic workshops designed to empower both men and women farmers of the Aegean region equally, enabling them to make informed and conscious decisions while ensuring equal participation in household decision-making. This was followed by Mominn Nawaz from LSE who spoke about his experience setting up a mentoring programme at Sevenoaks School, alongside his strategies to promote further religious understanding and inclusion.

Finally, the dinner guests for the 10th anniversary dinner were invited to hear Akorfa Dawson, EduSpot’s Head of Programmes (Spots and Leadership Development), in further conversation with Cormac Russell where we got into some gritty details and expansive discussions on protecting communities from institutions, saying no to misaligned funders, the benefits of mass localism rather than the ideology of globalism, and the role of collective grieving in sustaining community connections.

Wherever there is a consciousness, a movement, or a collective, we can feel and find the divergent voice. You could know this experience as a ‘problem child’, healing generational trauma and expression the unconscious pain of the whole group; or a dissenting voice, a political, spiritual or ideological voice or signal that represents freedom of thought within the collective consciousness; and sometimes it is us, we are the divergent voice. This can be scary because it requires the courage to risk a sense of belonging, but this perspective holds a secret wisdom huge enough to create transformative change. I introduced this conference as a chance to listen to the divergent voice inside of yourself. To have the courage to notice the voice, what it disagrees with and the alternative solutions to build on what is strong. At this meeting of divergent voices, we were all able to strengthen the pillars that will support the future of authentic and grounded community organising by not being afraid to listen, share and support authentic connections.

I wish I could somehow write in one of the notorious and epic EduSpots “claps” to finish off this article, this is my best attempt… <3 Wow! <3 Wow! <3 WOW!

Speakers with members of the EduSpots staff, intern, and trustee team, alongside some conference attendees.