Interview with Wendy Kopp: "Empowering, training and supporting teachers for the Digital Age"

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

Welcome to the EnlightED Podcasts, the worldwide conference that focuses on the challenges of education in the new world. Driven by Fundación Telefónica, IE University and South Summit, it gathers leading experts in education, technology and innovation. Thank Access to technology is not enough to guarantee equal opportunities. The real key to educational improvement lies with teachers.

Find out why teachers are the drivers of change in this talk between Wendy Kopp, CEO and co-founder of Teach for All, and Magdalena Brier, Managing Director of ProFuturo.

Magdalena Brier (0:52)

Hello, Wendy. It is a great pleasure to speak with you today. Thank you very much for participating in this session.

Wendy Kopp (0:59)

Thank you so much. It's such an honor, and congratulations to you on this recognition.

Magdalena Brier (1:06)

Thank you. Education is currently at the center of the public debate, as it has never been before. This can be positive as big changes are needed in the field of education, but at the same time, it is a complex issue.

We run the risk to get lost in the debates, or what is even worse, to end up making changes that will not improve the overall situation of education around the world. Our challenge today at this session is to hopefully contribute with some ideas and proposals that can be useful for this ongoing global debate about education.

We might not come up with solutions, but I hope that at least we manage to give the audience some food for thought based on our experience. ProFuturo has worked for the last five years to bring quality digital education to the most vulnerable children around the world. Teach for All is a global network developing collective leadership to ensure all children have the opportunity to fulfill their potential. Wendy, how do you do that in Teach for All?

Wendy Kopp (2:11)

Well, Teach for All is a network, as you know, of independent locally led organizations in 60 countries and growing with a global organization to help all of them learn from each other. And what brings us together across the network is an understanding that the fact that the circumstances of children's birth predict their educational outcomes and life outcomes is a big systemic challenge that requires many changes, which requires, as we say, collective leadership, people, teachers, students, parents, school leaders, school system leaders, policy leaders, and everyone really around the whole ecosystem around children exerting leadership.

So what these network organizations do is work to develop that leadership through enlisting people of all different academic backgrounds and all different career interests who are promising leaders to channel their energy into the arena of working with the most marginalized children, initially by committing two years to teach in under-resourced communities. They invest a lot in those teachers in pursuit of really important immediate outcomes for kids and also really important long-term outcomes because those two years are foundational for really a lifetime of leadership and advocacy for children. So those teachers who commit just two years never leave the work and they end up working in partnership with many others to affect the changes that we need from every level of the system and outside of the system as well.

Magdalena Brier (3:49)

This is really amazing, Wendy. The OECD published recently a report based on the results of the PISA assessment that showed that over the last two decades, there has been no real improvement in the learning outcomes of students across OECD countries with no pandemic and despite many educational reforms and rising expenditure.

In 2019, the World Bank used the term learning poverty to give name to a terrible reality. 53% of 10 year olds in low and middle income countries were unable to read and understand a short text appropriate for their age. A figure that went over 80% in the poorest countries.

It is clear that education was already in crisis before COVID-19 and that access to quality education is unequal. It is also obvious that the pandemic will only worsen the situation. Wendy, I have heard you before speaking about equity as a key in education. Could you explain this further?

Wendy Kopp (4:56)

You know, we think it's so key because all children have immense and unlimited potential and yet whole segments of children in every part of the world are facing many extra challenges as well as just systemic bias. And as a result, they aren't met with the expectations and provided with the supports they need to fulfill that potential. And we just know that our collective welfare really depends on all children having the education and support and opportunity necessary to develop the skills to create a better future, really for all of us, to solve these increasingly complex problems that face us.