Valerie Hannon’s career spans leadership of education systems, research, teaching, and capacity building. She is now an established thought leader in the field of education innovation.
Valerie co-founded Innovation Unit (UK and Australia) and has supported education change programs in numerous systems, including the UK, Europe, USA , Australia and Africa. She is a founding member and Co-Chair of the Global Education Leaders Partnership (GELP) supporting jurisdictions globally to scale their innovation and transform their systems.
Valerie is an expert adviser on education to the OECD, and a frequent contributor to the World Summit on Innovation in Education (WISE). She is a regular keynote speaker and facilitator at international conferences and workshops. Earlier co-authored books include Learning A Living: radical innovation in education for work (2013); and Redesigning Education: shaping learning systems around the globe (2013). Her latest book is THRIVE: schools reinvented for the real challenges we face (2017)
Keynote: A New Narrative for Inspiring Innovation
In this keynote, Valerie Hannon will argue that it is not individual educators who lack inspiration to innovate. It is systems that have not kept up with the fast-moving imperatives of the transforming world. We need a powerful new narrative about the purpose and direction of our education systems today, and what it needs to provide for young people in the future. In this session Valerie will set out the findings in her new book Thrive: schools reinvented for the real challenges we face (2017) which suggest that leaders around the world are re-assessing what ‘success’ will look like in the future.
Workshop: Innovation rooted in purpose: practical implications
This workshop will develop the themes introduced in Valerie Hannon’s keynote, and will explore some of the models of practice case-studied in her new book. Participants will be invited to explore the implications of explicitly adopting a more holistic, future-focused purpose: that of thriving in a transforming world, and the kinds of practice across the world that are modelling this process. They will consider the implications for their own schools and communities.