EdRising: a Movement not a Moment

I’ve just arrived home after a fabulous two-days in Auckland at the EdRising Convening. We had just over 100 education thought leaders coming together for two jam-packed days of inspiration and conversation about the future of education – and the collective energy in the room was palpable at times.

Through the two days we explored five key themes – which I thought I’d share in this blog post to provide readers with an idea of the sorts of things we discussed. Over the coming weeks the EdRising team will be processing all of the feedback that was gathered during the table conversations and putting this into a ‘sharable’ form that will be made available on the EdRising website.

Leading for equity and agency is crucial in transforming education systems to create more student-centred, equitable learning environments. This approach focuses on empowering individuals and fostering collective efficacy, which are essential for driving meaningful change. Equity and agency operate in a powerful symbiotic relationship: equitable systems deliberately create conditions where all individuals can develop and meaningfully exercise their agency, while strengthened agency empowers diverse voices to advocate for and create more equitable practices. This mutual reinforcement creates a virtuous cycle that drives deeper systemic transformation.

Providing opportunities for students to engage with real-world and authentic learning experiences is an important part of this work. Collective efficacy, the shared belief in a group’s ability to make a difference, amplifies this transformational potential. Embracing cultural values, especially Te Ao Māori, is key to quality teaching and learning for Māori students and supports them to experience success as Māori. This cultural recognition enhances the overall learning experience for all students, fostering a strong sense of identity and belonging while creating the conditions for transformative change that benefits both individuals and communities.

The provocations we explored together were:

• “How might we redesign our educational structures to simultaneously value diversity, promote equity, and encourage both individual and collective agency? What leadership approaches make this possible?”
• “In what ways can cultural values and perspectives (particularly Te Ao Māori) transform our understanding of equity and agency in education, and what implications does this have for leadership practice?”

Community-led transformation emphasises the power of local communities as the driving force behind meaningful and sustainable change in education. Genuine community leadership goes beyond token consultation or occasional input—it places decision-making authority, resource control, and implementation responsibility directly in community hands. In practice, this might look like iwi-governed learning initiatives, parent-designed curriculum adaptations, or student-led school improvement projects where authority is authentically shared rather than merely delegated.

By building ecosystems where schools, families, and community organisations collaborate as equals, we create learning environments deeply connected to the needs, aspirations, and cultural identities of the communities they serve. This approach recognises parents and community members not as passive recipients or occasional advisors but as active partners with legitimate expertise in the design, implementation, and sustainability of educational initiatives.

Importantly, community-led transformation extends its impact to the broader education system through grassroots advocacy, responsive governance, participatory decision-making, and community-based funding initiatives. This approach fosters culturally responsive practices, particularly important for indigenous communities like Māori in New Zealand, ensuring that cultural values such as Te Ao Māori are central to educational transformation.

By empowering communities to lead change, we create more accountable, transparent, and responsive education systems that drive long-term, systemic transformation, expanding educational leadership and ensuring that reforms are sustainable beyond specific programs or funding cycles.

The provocations we explored together were:

• What conditions and structures enable authentic community-led transformation where families, iwi, and local organisations are true decision-makers rather than just contributors or consultants?”
• “How can community-led approaches bridge cultural values and system requirements to create learning opportunities that are both locally relevant and systemically sustainable?”

The Digital Futures theme focused on the rapidly evolving landscape of technology in education, particularly the increase of virtual and online education, and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for teaching and learning. Digital technologies are not merely enhancing traditional educational approaches – they’re fundamentally transforming what’s possible in teaching and learning by creating entirely new modes of knowledge creation, collaboration, and personalisation that were previously unimaginable.

This theme addressed the critical need to develop digital citizens who are not only prepared for the digital world but can also thrive in it. It emphasised the importance of digital literacy as a core competency for students and educators alike, while recognizing that the most powerful educational experiences emerge when technological innovation is balanced with meaningful human connection. The challenge is not choosing between technology and human relationships, but thoughtfully integrating digital tools in ways that deepen rather than diminish our connections with one another.

In this era of technological advancement, there’s a pressing need for schools and educators to embrace the transformative potential of digital technologies while maintaining the interpersonal foundations of effective teaching and learning. This includes leveraging virtual education opportunities to improve access for learners, regardless of their geographical location or personal circumstances, while ensuring these digital spaces foster genuine community and connection.

By focusing on Digital Futures, our aim is to understand how digital technologies can fundamentally reshape education while equipping learners with the skills to navigate the digital landscape critically and creatively. This approach seeks to bridge the digital divide, transform learning experiences, and prepare students for a future where digital competence and human connection are equally integral to personal and professional success

The provocations we explored together were:

• “How can we leverage AI and emerging technologies to fundamentally transform educational experiences while ensuring equity of access, strengthening human connections, and developing critical digital citizenship?”
• “What balance of virtual and in-person learning creates the most resilient and accessible education system for all learners, and how might this vary across different communities and contexts?”

This theme focused on recognising and nurturing a broader set of future-enabling capabilities beyond traditional knowledge-based metrics. It emphasises the need for education systems to evolve, incorporating diverse forms of assessment that capture the full spectrum of student growth and achievement. Such as shift involvers practical challenges of transitioning from established success metrics to more holistic ones, particularly the concerns of stakeholders who value traditional measures.

This approach aligns with research-backed frameworks that integrate academic knowledge, cognitive skills, and social-emotional capacities. It also resonates with the OECD’s Future of Education and Skills 2030 project, which aims to equip students with competencies to tackle unforeseen societal challenges and use yet-to-be-invented technologies.

By embracing alternative assessment tools and methods such as micro-credentials, rubrics, and progressions, we can move beyond standardised testing and exams. This shift allows for a more personalised, nuanced and comprehensive evaluation of student capabilities, including critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and innovation. It also includes building rich portfolios of evidence that showcase learning across all aspects of life to support a more holistic view of student development and success.

The provocations we explored together were:

• “How might we create assessment systems that honour both traditional academic measures and future-enabling capabilities while remaining equitable, accessible, and meaningful for all learners?”
• “What processes could involve students, parents, iwi, and communities in co-creating definitions of success that reflect diverse cultural values and aspirations while maintaining educational rigour?”

Leading for transformation requires educational leaders with the mindset and disposition to act as systems thinkers, and to recognise that their decisions, at any level of the system, have ripple effects across schools, communities, and the broader education system. This theme emphasises the concept of “leading from the middle,” a deliberate strategy that bridges top-down and bottom-up approaches to change. Leaders operating in the “middle” – whether as school leaders, middle managers, or district-level influencers – play a pivotal role in connecting policy with practice, aligning system priorities with local needs, and fostering coherence across all levels of education.

This approach highlights the importance of relational trust, collaboration, and shared ownership in driving transformational change. By balancing leadership within schools and at the system level, leaders can ensure that their efforts support learners, teachers, and schools in meaningful ways. Leading from the middle also emphasizes culturally responsive practices and inclusive leadership, particularly in contexts like New Zealand, where honouring Te Tiriti and other cultural frameworks is essential to creating equitable and sustainable systems of learning.

This theme will set the scene for participants to explore how to develop personal dispositions, strategies, and theories of action that enable them to lead transformational change while navigating the complexities of their own contexts. This theme encourages leaders to reflect on their influence across levels of the system and identify actionable ways to ensure alignment between their leadership practices and the ultimate goal of supporting all learners.

The provocations we explored together were:

• “What specific leadership practices build the relational trust necessary for transformational change, and how do these practices shift when working with different stakeholders across the system?”
• “How can educational leaders effectively ‘lead from the middle’ to drive transformation while balancing system requirements, local needs, and diverse cultural perspectives?”

Where to next?

I’m excited to have been a part of these two action-filled days. There were so many moving pieces where so many things could have gone wrong (such as bringing in external speakers online) but in the end everything went as smoothly as we could have hoped for.

Our theme across the two days was to ensure that we were there to start a movement, not simply have a moment, which is so often the experience of educators who withdraw for a PLD session. We attend, and very quickly the excitement fades when the ‘real world’ takes over again. In this room the energy seemed different, and at the end of the second day, each participant was handed a ‘personal pledge’ card and invited to write a statement to themselves about what they are going to commit to doing personally as a result of having attended the event.

Keep an eye on the EdRising website for regular updates, subscribe to the EdRising newsletter or join the EdRising online community to keep up with what’s happening with this exciting initiative.

US Tour Opportunity

If you’re interested in pursuing some of these ideas further and would like to take the opportunity to link with some international thought leaders we’re offering an EdRising tour to the US in the week of 24 October until 2 November. This will take in attendance at the Aurora Symposium in New Orleans and visits to some innovative schools in San Francisco before heading home to NZ. More details on the EdRising website.