Meet Hannah Wilson, an independent consultant and facilitator who specializes in leadership development and training. Hannah was one of the founding members of the Women in Education Leadership movement WomenEd in the UK. She is a DfE coach for the Women Leading in Education initiative and an advocate for flexible working. She specializes in: Diversity, Inclusion and Equality, Professional Learning, Early Career Teachers, Mental Health and Wellbeing. I met Hannah through my work with WomenEd, but she is a twitter superstar in her own right and I had seen her posts long before I connected with her. As a vocal champion of serving under-represented voices in leadership, she leads by example, taking decisions led by strong core values and modeling what it means to be an ethical leader: coincidentally, that’s also her twitter handle. After speaking to both Lawrence and Hannah I have been struck by a strong similarity in their outlooks: We need to think about the umbrella of all the diversities, and the need for the majority to consider our individual power and privilege as well as that of the groups we identify with. We need to think about all of the "protected characteristics." These refer to the 2010 The Equality Act passed in the UK, and identify groups protected by equality legislation – age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion, sexual orientation, or civil status. Being able to understand the terminology and the fact that discrimination exists in many forms helps us all to recognize our own privileges and unexamined advantages at work and in the world at large, and it shows that the fight to eradicate discrimination is a bigger one than many of us initially think. But it also binds us in that fight in different, powerful ways.
Hannah’s conviction in what she does is absolutely rock-solid. I love her quote about leaving a job because she’d rather step aside than be compromised and then get ill. Important, system-changing work has come to her because of that sense of purpose and desire to improve things. By amplifying what you stand for, and following what you believe in, work comes and people gravitate towards you because it’s authentic. She is exactly the type of leader PilotEd seeks out: one of a breed of highly networked, disruptive leaders: COVID seems like the moment that we will see an important surge of collective agency to change school and educator cultures from toxic ones. Lines in the sand are being drawn by courageous leaders like Hannah, and finding your tribe means you don’t have to be the one person in your school, or multi-academy trust (MAT) banging your drum about change, now you can connect.
WomenED is just one of those tribes, but there are many others, with different focal points: BAMEed, AIELOC, Daily Writing Challenge group on twitter, seeking out empowering conferences online to be part of, peer support circles, and educator coaching sessions.
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PilotEd - Education, rebooted. We talk to innovators, creators, and trailblazers working in education who enable and embrace positive chance, for all of us interested in happier students, smarter teaching, and lifelong learning. Made with purpose in Barcelona. Hosted by Career and University Counselor, Kyra Kellawan.
The PiloEd Podcast is available through Spotify.
