Regional Gatherings of Identity Leaders and Leaders of Learning

As a national community in mission, the diversity of contexts across the country is the source of significant learning. In an attempt to provide a space for connection and making meaning in response to the disruption of the pandemic, the EREA Liberating Education Team has been convening regional online meetings with Identity Leaders and Leaders of Learning from across EREA. While the list of key ideas below doesn’t fully account for what was shared, it does a shine a light on some key insights:

Relationships, Relationships, Relationships

No matter the school community, what came to the fore was the valuing of people and the way in which relationships fostered the way communities responded. Many spoke of how the relationships between the school and home became the critical pillar for connection and learning continuity, all be it in a new form. While this is always the case, the way in which schools communicated with families provided a source of confidence in very challenging times.

Stepping up

All communities recollected how teachers were able to go beyond themselves, in many cases demonstrating tenacity that they didn’t know they had. At the same time, there was a strong recognition of how staff felt vulnerable and to varying degrees were able to not hide from that.

Learning

Schools were incredibly agile in providing learning continuity through whatever means they had at their disposal. While there was a recognition of the real impact of a ‘digital divide’, many schools spoke about how the capacity to learn remotely provided some students with a sense of freedom.

While recognising the stress and impact that has come with the response from schools, there is also a readiness to co-create new ways of educating young people.