Guidepost #2: Where Are You On Your Own Changemaker Journey?
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.” — Paul Coelho
Ashoka believes that everyone is a changemaker; someone who can apply creative solutions to navigate challenges, problems, and social issues in small micro moments, or large scale systems change. We support this belief and want to help you see yourself (and by extension your learners) as agents of change capable of practicing changemaking in both small and large ways. So to begin, repeat this affirmation as often as you need to:
“I am a changemaker!”
Say it out loud, right now! Keep saying it out loud until it has resonance (and maybe even after that). Use it as a reminder that changemaking is a practice – it is the act of thinking, feeling, and doing empathy, teamwork, and leadership. And without these opportunities to actually practice, you can’t change the world, and neither can your learners.
As you consider your own learners and context, we encourage you to reflect on practicing changemaking as an act of thinking, feeling, and doing. We have provided a few reflection questions below to get you started.
When thinking about your own positionality, social identities, and social location, as well as the context through which you teach and learn, ask yourself:
- What are your hopes and dreams for yourself, your learners, and education more broadly?
- What is the vision that inspires how you design, deliver, and enact educational opportunities inside and outside the classroom?
- How do you see the roles of learners and educators?
- What are the social issues that you are passionate about, and how does your pedagogy address them?
- What are the social issues that your learners are passionate about, and how does your pedagogy nurture them?
- Why are you passionate about changemaker education?
In the introduction, we invited you to get curious about your changemaking mindset. This is an invitation to revisit Ashoka’s Changemaker Index as a starting point for reflection and action. Notice what might be the same or different for you with openness and curiosity.
