272: Learning through connection and community with Decoteau Irby

Decoteau creates teaching and learning experiences, music and stories, and opportunities for people to be in community. Be it through music, encouraging the use of urban green spaces, or creating opportunities for Black people to generate wealth and wellness, his priorities are grounded in “going at it” together and creating space for people to shine.Throughout his life, he has created all sorts of things, spaces, and experiences. These include businesses, such Derute Consulting Cooperative, a firm he co-founded in 2013; Visioning Black Spaces LLC, a collective of families that pool and invest our resources to improve Chicago’s Black neighborhoods; and Deaky Bug Creative Works LLC, a firm he uses to curate and finance his personal creative endeavors and collaborations.Decoteau is a professor at University of Illinois at Chicago and author or co-editor of several books, including Stuck Improving: Racial Equity and School Leadership (Harvard Education Press) and a children’s book Magical Black Tears: A Protest Story (Derute Consulting Cooperative).Through all of his work, he is committed to creating spaces that bring people together in community. He is active in his neighborhood community garden and serves as treasurer for his local park advisory council. Finally, a self-taught guitarist, songwriter, performer, and recording artist; with two albums released and available on his website.Websitewww.decoteauirby.comSocial Media InformationTwitter: @decoteauirbyIG: decoteaublackLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/decoteau-irbyShow SponsorThe National Association for Primary Education speaks for young children and all who live and work with them. Get a FREE e-copy of their professional journal at nape.org.uk/journalMentioned in this episode:NAPE Al Kingsley Summit PromoWatch Mark Taylor interview Al Kingsley about 'Creating Digital Strategies for Schools' as part of the Primary Education Summit 2023 - Visions for the Future - presented by National Association for Primary Education (NAPE) https://www.educationonfire.com/creating-digital-strategies-for-schools/

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Do you feel the education system is sucking the life out of you and the pupils you serve? I think many of us wish we could click our fingers and make it fit for purpose. A place of growth with shared learning that empowers pupils to be their best selves, so they can create a world they want to inhabit now and in the future. While a magic wand or a visionary politician might sound like the answer I believe change is already happening. Educators are changing futures one conversation at a time. New technology and the environments where we learn are beginning to look different both in and out of the classroom. I hope you are seeing this first hand and are excited about what you can share with your pupils. We are having conversations, sharing organisations and communities that are supporting education in a way that you may have not experienced. Educational change will come from us all working in way that supports the best interests of each of our pupils, personalised learning. Governments and policy makers will follow when they see fully how it can be different. So let us teach, coach, mentor and create an environment that fuels every child with feedback, inspiration, resilience and empowerment. The Education on Fire community is shining the torch, so no matter where you are in the world or how you are supporting children this podcast is here for you. ‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.’