Influencing Innovators
Director of Learning Design and Events at Education Changemakers and one of Australia’s most connected education influencers, Summer Howarth shares her career story and insights into the work she is passionate about in this interview.
How do you describe what you currently do?
I find great teachers and help them to do their job better. It's what I needed when I was starting out; excellent examples of awesome teachers that I could learn from. I mainly work with aspiring leaders and teachers keen to further develop their practice through design, although my current design and strategic consultancy work also has me working with government, corporate and non-profits to build ideas, skills and networks with their teams too.
I have always held a firm belief that magic happens when clever people come together to work on great ideas, or to solve tough challenges that concern them. Events are a brilliant example. I was frustrated
INNOVATOR |
from early in my career with the lack of teacher-led events or PD opportunities. It seemed like you had to have a foreign accent, or have been around for decades to have any credibility or kudos. I worked hard with some talented people early in my career to change that; Teachmeet being a great example. It was awesome to be around when cool people decided to look at that UK-based idea and make it Aussie. I've been designing and delivering events-based learning pretty much my whole career; from bringing PD in-house at Ravenswood, to AITSL Learning Collective and Australia's education innovation event; Educhange. I have been the director and curator of Educhange for the past five years alongside a brilliant team of design, leadership and learning experts at Education Changemakers.