The Future of Teacher Wellbeing

Mark Anderson worked for 22 years in two stints for Pearson plc, latterly as Managing Director Pearson UK. He was previously Managing Director Europe and President for International Strategy & Business Development. He now has a portfolio career which includes chairing the education businesses Edify and Macat. He is also a non-executive director of Really English and an adviser to EDIA and FutureWhizmedia in Amsterdam. He was chair of London Metropolitan University from 2016 to 2022 and is a former Cambridge Fellow in Science & Policy. He is the author of The Leadership Book (FT Publishing, 2e 2013).

Megan Crawford is a professor of education at Coventry University. She has also worked at other universities including UCL, Cambridge and Warwick as well as assist.

She is chair of a medium-size MAT in Milton Keynes which mainly consist of schools that were opened from new, and where teacher well being is high on the agenda. Her research focus is on leadership, emotion and well-being, primarily in schools but also in higher education She has published widely.

When Megan worked at Cambridge, she was a fellow of Hughes Hall.

Carla has been at the international forefront of EdTech - including AIED - and the Futures of Education. She is a thought leader and heavily involved in strategy development and innovation or the reinvention of education and learning, as well as the transformation of education institutions. Her vast experience of over 20 years, informed by the Science of Learning, the Learning Sciences and extensive EdTech eco-systems’ engagement, includes forming and running an EdTech ThinkTank or catalyst: the Tmrw Institute, EdTech policy, strategy and product development, setting up an accelerator as well as having extensive mentoring and coaching experience, engaging with EdTech startups globally. Carla has worked with international education publishers, international universities and sits on several (advisory) boards, including: DEFI (Digital Education Futures Initiatives at Cambridge University). She is currently heavily involved in the strategy development and initiatives on AI in education.
She is an occasional author and can be found as a speaker or moderator at many a conference.

Emma is director of Those That Can Ltd. She has 25 years of experience as a teacher and leader in UK secondary schools and currently teaches in Alternative Provision. She is a qualified Performance Coach and speaks regularly on teacher wellbeing, recruitment and retention.

Emma writes for a variety of publications including TES and BBC Teach. She has completed a doctorate on teacher well-being and parenting at Middlesex University and is author of How To Survive in Teaching (Bloomsbury, 2018) and A Little Guide For Teachers: Wellbeing and Self-Care and A Little Guide for Teachers: Engaging Parents and Carers.

She is currently writing her fourth book, Real Lives of Teachers, due for publication with Sage Education in 2024.

She can be found at https://www.those-that-can.com/.

Dr Fawaz Abu Sitta is a UNESCO Chair for Anticipatory Systems, a Hughes Hall Visiting Fellow and a futurist who has worked with governments and across the corporate world to help envisage alternative futures. Together with colleagues at the Centre for Futures Studies at the University of Dubai he continuously improving his methods and this focus on the potential futures of education is his current area of research.

Dr Imogen Casebourne is Research Lead of the Innovation Lab at DEFI, The Bridge, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, UK. Before moving to research, she spent many years in the Ed Tech industry as a designer of educational technology. Her research focuses on design approaches such as futures thinking in the design, development and implementation of educational technology, including mobile technology, AI and immersive experiences. She is interested in the role technology may play in supporting experiences of community and serendipity in learning. She has an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and is interested in the role it may play in education. https://www.deficambridge.org/should-we-trust-chatgpt/

Riya Kartha is a lifelong learner, writer, poet, arts-facilitator and educator. Currently a PhD candidate and a member of CPERG (Cambridge Peace Education Research Group) at the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, her research focuses on the inner lives and spirituality of teachers who practise value-creating education and Daisaku Ikeda’s human education in their pedagogy. Riya’s early research explored the implementation of the arts in learning in schools, centring questions around self-expression and safe spaces in the arts-based English language classroom in India. Having been an assistant lecturer in India and in Japan, Riya is keen to engage in conversations on how to nourish the inner lives of teachers across contexts and cultures. Riya remains most interested in how to disrupt archaic practises of writing staid biographies within academia and should you reach the end of her bio here, she encourages you to get in touch in order to further explore how to collaborate to recentre heart, spirit, wonder and humanity within education again.

Al is CEO of NetSupport / Chair of a Multi-Academy Trust and previously Alternative provision, Specialist provision and all-through Academies. As well as his 30-year CEO and Chair roles, Al is chair of his region’s Governors' Leadership Group and chairs the regions SEND Board. With 20+ years of governance experience, Al also sits on the Regional Schools Directors Advisory Board for the East of England. He is Chair of the BESA EdTech Group and chairs his regional SEND board.

Author of The Headteacher’s Handbook – the Essential Guide to Leading a Primary School, and editor of The Curriculum Compendium, and an experienced head teacher for nearly 18 years, Rae believes that despite the many challenges of school leadership, for the sake of their children, colleagues and communities Head teachers should be, “flamingos of hope and not lemmings of despair!”

Rae started her headship journey in January 2007, formerly at The Spinney Primary School, Cambridge and at Milton Road Primary School, Cambridge since January 2020, Rae describes being a head teacher as “the best job in the world”!

Interested in policy and passionate (some might say obsessed) with education, Rae was a member of the Primary Head teachers' Reference Group at the Department of Education for nine years. Rae is a founding member of the sponsoring committee of the Cambridge Chapter of Citizens UK and a Judge for the Smiley Charity Film Awards. In 2004 Rae was delighted to receive the inaugural Cambridge Arts Network Award for “Outstanding Commitment to the Arts”.

Rae has contributed to several books on education and her top-selling first book "The Headteacher's Handbook" was published by Bloomsbury in August 2021. Keen to support, coach, and inspire new and aspiring Head teachers in the profession, Rae enjoys presenting at conferences as well as delivering training for local authorities and national teaching school hubs.

Rae is a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching (FFCT), and in October 2021 was thrilled to receive an Honorary Fellowship from The University of Suffolk for her work in education. Rae is starting on her third (and final) book “Powerful Global Pedagogies” to hopefully be published in 2026. If anyone has ideas or case studies to contribute to this publication, Rae would love to hear from you!

Mark Unwin, CEO of Create Partnership Trust, is an experienced leader in education, focusing on Trust and school improvement with integrity, inclusion, and compassion. With over two decades of experience, he understands the unique challenges faced by schools, particularly in areas experiencing significant deprivation.

Throughout his career, leading schools and trusts in five English cities, Mark has championed inclusive education and emphasised the importance of staff wellbeing and professional development, creating supportive environments within schools. At Create, he has explored AI technology's role in enhancing the day-to-day work of teachers and school leaders, aiming to reduce workload, promote wellbeing, and empower school staff to regain some of the joy of teaching.

Alongside a team of UK educators, Mark developed a suite of AI tools, led by askKira.com, which assists school staff in focusing on building relationships and delivering high-quality, inspiring teaching and learning. At Create, he is researching the role of AI, analytics, and combinational technology to help staff answer some of the "big questions" in education.