Teachers' Voices

To wrap up season 4, educators share books, films, and tools to inspire other teachers, students, and learning communities at the start of the new school year. Nina shares some highlights in the episode, and the full list is below. Thank you to everyone who sent in their recommendations. Books In the Small Places: Stories of Teacher Changemakers and the Power of Human Agency by Fred Mednick, recom...

In what ways do students vary? How can teachers take account of variability when students develop at different paces and across different dimensions of learning? In this episode, Nina speaks with Sarah Bichler, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Passau in Germany. Sarah says children grow and learn in different ways, sometimes steadily, sometimes through abrupt shifts. Recogniz...

What role do families play in children’s learning as they grow into adolescence? How can teachers build partnerships with parents and caregivers? What happens when schools work with families? In this episode, Nina speaks with Elisabetta Aurino, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Barcelona in Spain. Elisabetta shares findings from her research in Ghana showing how caregivers can...

How can educators recognise and build on the strengths children gain from adversity? What happens when teachers shift from seeing deficits to seeing potential? How are children changing their own narratives with the support of educators? In this episode, Nina explores children’s resilience and the strength they gain from living in difficult circumstances. Nina first speaks with Gabriele Paone, a r...

How can teachers support students in emergencies or difficult contexts? In this bonus episode, Nina hears advice for teaching in challenging conditions from four educators. First Nina meets Diana Suárez, a teacher in Colombia and an expert in multilingualism and multiculturalism. Diana says that safe play spaces let children reconnect, express themselves, and feel joy again. Next, Nina speaks to G...

What makes leadership and innovation critical in education during emergencies? How do local educators overcome challenges with limited resources? How can communities and technology help sustain learning in crisis contexts? In this episode, Nina first speaks to Katy Noble, Head of Education in Emergencies at Teach For All, based in Palestine. Katy shares insights from 15 years working with crisis-a...

Why is evidence so important in education solutions? How is evidence incorporated into large-scale educational solutions? How can evidence lead to greater equity in education? In this episode, Nina first speaks to Vicky Colbert, from Colombia. Vicky is the founder of Fundación Escuela Nueva, an NGO that has shaped the way multigrade classrooms operate. Vicky tells Nina how they use evidence to ens...

Should arts and science come closer together? How are teachers bringing these subjects together in the classroom? In this episode, Nina talks to Pamela Burnard, Professor of Arts, Creativities and Educations at the University of Cambridge in the UK. “When we look at creative industries, real world practitioners are not sitting in expert siloes, they are collaborating, they are co-authoring,” Pamel...

What is high sensitivity? How many children in a classroom are highly sensitive? How can teachers support highly sensitive children? In this bonus episode, Nina talks to  Michael Pluess, Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Surrey. Michael has been studying children’s individual differences in sensitivity for more than 10 years. Around 30% of children are highly sensitive, he...

Should learning be easy or effortful? What’s the zone of failure and why is it useful for learning? How can teachers design tasks for deep learning? In this episode, Nina talks to  Manu Kapur, Professor of Learning Sciences and Higher Education at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. When Manu was a teacher of grade 12 mathematics, he noticed that student understanding was quite shallow, even when explanati...

Why is sleep important as children grow? Are young people getting enough sleep? How can schools work with families to make sure children get the sleep they need? In this episode, Nina talks to Jared Saletin, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University and the Associate Director of the E.P. Bradley Hospital Sleep Research Laboratory in Rhode Island, the US. “Sleep is cr...

In this episode, Nina first meets Chaitra Murlidhar, in Boston in the US. Chaitra is the Global Lead of Leadership Development at Teach For All. Teach For All developed a Teaching as Collective Leadership Framework, which puts growing student leadership at the core of its approach to education. “Nobody can do this alone”, Chaitra says. “We are all connected with the common challenges we face in ed...

In this short bonus episode, teachers Magdalena Balica, Kawita Thani and Sanja Vičević Ivanović share their tips for supporting teacher and student wellbeing in the classroom. Magdalena Balica and Sanja Vičević Ivanović, who were guests on the full episode about teacher wellbeing, suggest using mindfulness techniques for stress relief, cultivating the social side of wellbeing, and focusing on your...

What supports teachers’ wellbeing? Can improving teacher wellbeing impact students’ wellbeing and their learning? In this episode, made in collaboration with the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB), Nina first talks to IB researcher Magdalena Balica from the Hague in the Netherlands. Magdalena looks at three elements of teacher wellbeing: Satisfaction with school life, positive emotions,...

What support do teachers need from their leadership teams? How does school leadership impact children’s learning? In this episode, Nina first hears from Shulammite Ajayi, a science teacher in Nigeria. Encouragement from her school leader helps Shully to motivate her students. “ When teachers are encouraged, when teachers are well-equipped with tools, with 21st century strategy, teachers want to wo...

What could solve the challenge of teacher shortages around the world? What inspires teachers to become teachers in the first place? How do teachers find a connection with their students? In this episode, Nina talks to Carlos Vargas, Head of the Teacher Task Force Secretariat at UNESCO. The Teacher Task Force was formed in 2008. Its mission is to fill the gap in quantity of teachers and quality of...

Teachers are one of the most influential and powerful forces for equity, access and quality in education. They provide children with the knowledge, skills, attitude and tools needed to reach their full potential. Join Nina Alonso for the fourth season of the podcast in which she shares powerful stories from teachers around the world, talking in their own words about their own experiences. Every ep...

The final episode of Teachers’ Voices season 3 opens with Sister Zeph, winner of the 2023 Global Teacher Prize, talking directly to teachers. “You are a future maker”, she says. These words inspired the rest of this mini-episode, which explores futures literacy. What is futures literacy? What do students gain from futures literacy? How can teachers incorporate it into their classrooms? Former teac...

Why is it important to make sure children have words to name their emotions? How can teachers promote mental health and wellbeing? Is it possible to remove academic pressure from school? In this episode, Nina first meets Sarah Griffiths, a Senior Research Fellow at University College London and Co-Director of the Wellbeing and Language Lab in UCL’s department of Clinical, Educational and Health Ps...

What types of physical activity benefit students? Can bringing movement and play into different academic classes help children learn? How can spaces and classes for movement be inclusive? Nina first meets Fotini Vasilopoulos, a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney in Australia. “Physical activity is important for physical health, for mental health, and it also can drive behaviours f...

In what ways do students differ from each other in their learning? How does one student vary in their own learning from day to day? How can schools embrace these types of learning variability? In this episode, Nina talks to Julia Leonard, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Learning variability, Julia explains, is both “my learning might be different than your learning” and “my l...

How can teachers help students make a positive change in their communities? How can schools better connect education with the future of work? In this bonus mini episode of Teachers’ Voices, Nina hears practical tips from last episode’s guests Alison Yang, Barbara Bilgre, Maud Seghers, and Larisa Akrofie. Nina is also joined by Tanya Sheckley, an edupreneur and host of the podcast Rebel Educator. A...

What is an entrepreneurial mindset? Why should educators nurture entrepreneurial mindsets in young people? What entrepreneurial projects have teachers developed in classrooms around the world? In this episode, Nina first speaks to Maud Seghers. Maud is a global education advisor at VVOB in Belgium, an international organisation devoted to education development. An entrepreneurial mindset is not ju...

What barriers keep girls from fulfilling their potential in STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics – subjects?  Nina first meets Maliha Fawzia, the interim Global Head of Girls’ Education at Teach For All. Maliha joins Nina from Bangladesh. Maliha explains that the first barrier for girls studying maths and science is feeling welcome in the classroom as girls. “It's f...

What is neurodiversity? How does it differ from neurodevelopmental disorders? How can schools make sure all children feel like they belong? In this episode, Nina meets Alyssa Alcorn, lead researcher for the Learning About Neurodiversity at School (LEANS) project at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Alyssa explains that neurodiversity concerns everyone, because everyone has a brain. Neurodiv...