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Creating a Sense of Belonging and Connection for All of our Learners

Hannah Wilson

We are in the decade of action to work towards achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as outlined by the United Nations. Diverse Educators is committed to doing the work across our network by connecting our training offer, our events programmes and our vision, mission and values with the global goals to transform our world, together. 


We believe:

  • in a shared vision and a collective responsibility in working towards the SDGs, together;
  • that through meaningful collaborative partnerships across our network and wider education community, we can have a greater impact in addressing societal issues, together;
  • that our schools are shaping global citizens and that we are all responsible for the world that we co-create, together. 


Togetherness is about finding what we share in common, rather than focusing on what makes us different.


Whilst we believe there is a part for all of us as educators and schools to play in all 17 SDGs, we align our work specifically to 7 of the SDGs as outlined below through our commitments: www.diverseeducators.co.uk/the-sustainable-development-goals 


Becoming a global citizen evolves as we develop an understanding of our own identity and an awareness of our own place in the world. By understanding ourselves, we develop connections and a sense of belonging with our own community.


So how do we support our learners in developing self-understanding and self-awareness? And how do we create opportunities for our learners to take control of their own lives?


We need to create space in the curriculum, but to create space to review what we teach and how we teach it, we need to start with creating a space for the educators to reflect, explore and discuss our own identities and share our own lived experiences.

We agree that education is the “the great liberator” that will inspire and empower our learners to be future change-makers. However, in order to liberate the learners, we need to liberate the curriculum, and we can only do that if we liberate ourselves first. 



One of our mantras in the #DiverseEd community is “doing the inner work to do the outer work”. We need to understand who we are, what has shaped our attitudes and our behaviours as human beings to understand how they have shaped us as educators. We need to acknowledge that we all have biases that filter how we experience and how we see the world.


As educators our biases play out in the texts we choose to teach, the role models we choose to showcase, the critical theories we choose to engage with. Each choice we make in our long, medium and short- term planning as a teacher is a selection and a filtering process in what we are exposing our learners to.


To fully activate SDG4 we need to have a clear sense of purpose of:

  • why we are committed to creating a sense of belonging;
  • how we are going to intentionally do this;
  • what the desired impact on our learners will be as a result.


It is an explicit process to ensure that all of our learners feel connected to what they are being taught and to what they are learning, and thus feel connected to their community and to the wider world.


As a cisgendered, heterosexual, able-bodied white woman, I had a high sense of belonging in my learning journey as a student, but I become very critical of studying a canon of “dead white guys”. As a result, I chose to read Post-Colonial Literature for my Degree which exposed me to a global canon with a world perspective. My education popped the white bubble I had grown up in North Devon to expose me to diverse lived experiences.


To educate is to nurture hearts and minds. The future of education is to ensure that we diversify our curriculum and our pedagogy to create belonging for all learners. As educators we can transform a learner’s experience of school by ensuring that they have visible role models. As school communities we can shape the next generation of global citizens who will become future change-makers in the world.


Hannah Wilson is Director and Founder of Diverse Educators

www.diverseeducators.co.uk | Follow @DiverseEd2020 #DiverseEd 



First published in Engage 23.



BY HANNAH WILSON • March 16, 2022
By Ann Beatty April 4, 2025
Sparks Bristol is a collaborative community project initially envisioned by The Global Goals Centre, (GGC) more of which below. A few years ago, GGC took over an empty Marks and Spencer store and that’s how Sparks was born. Sparks is a department store with a difference, co-created by Global Goals Centre and Artspace Lifespace. On the ground floor is a huge range of shops, installations, events and more. Upstairs is a hub for local artists, it offers affordable studios as well as rehearsal and performance space. The Global Goals Centre is a Bristol-based educational charity inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs). GGC believe the SDG’s or Global Goals as they are sometimes known, can be reached, with imaginative solutions and widespread education and engagement. They work with partners to promote creative solutions and deliver ground breaking projects that work towards these ambitious goals. The Steve Sinnott Foundation supported the Global Goals Centre with seed funding when it first started over 5 years ago. This month we went to visit them to see how they are getting on and we were taken aback by the volume of work they have achieved since they started. It is amazing to see how though working together with other local community groups it has grown into the vibrant centre it is today. All of the creative projects they host are linked to the SDGs. They cover topics that tackle poverty, education, climate change, fashion recycling and upcycling, to name a few.
By Ann Beatty March 28, 2025
Spring is definitely here, daffodils, blossom and crocuses are all basking in the bright sunshine. There is still a chill in the air in the shade but it's happening and all the seeds that were sown over the last few months are coming to fruition. At the Foundation, we have been planning the year ahead and our Positive Periods and Prevention of Gender Based Violence programmes got underway this weekend in Haiti and Ghana. These projects will have a long-lasting effect on the lives of the women and girls who take part: tackling the root causes of gender-based violence and enabling girls to attend school every day when they have their period, to feel safe at school and know how to take action when they are faced with violence. These are the first of many projects planned for the year ahead as we continue to work towards Education for All children everywhere.
By Hannah Frisch March 7, 2025
The outlook for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) on global education is far from rosy. But a gloomy future isn’t inevitable. Disappointing statistics are the result of political choices that can be shifted and there are thousands of youth, grassroots activists and civil society organisations across the UK advocating for global education to make these changes. We need more people involved to build the momentum, we need to make a difference in challenging circumstances. You can help! Here’s how; Making global education a UK priority The UK is an important donor and champion for global education. However, education has been gradually deprioritised on the development agenda. Global education spending has plummeted from 13.5% of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2013 to just 3.5% in 2023, and education was one of the sectors hit hardest by the abandonment of the 0.7% gross national income (GNI) target for ODA. With Labour’s annual budget confirming another reduction in the aid budget, funding for global education is under threat of being cut even further unless we stand together to say this can’t happen. While education is a domestic priority for the new Government, it has yet to emerge as a strong theme in their development agenda. As the Labour Party continues to develop their approach there is a unique opportunity for advocates to connect these dots and make the case for why education must be a key part of the Government’s international plans. For the Government to take action it needs to hear demand for change. There are many issues MPs recognise are important, but if they do not hear about these issues from constituents it can be hard for MPs to be vocal about them in Parliament. Following an election where many parliamentary seats were won with tight margins, MPs need to hear from the people they represent that global education must be on their agenda. With over half of MPs elected for the first time this year, many are actively looking for a steer on what issues to work on. We can give them one! How to Get Involved Write to your MP about why global education needs to be a bigger priority for the UK Government and encourage members of groups you are a part of, such as your union branch or a local community group, to do the same. This can have a real impact on your MP’s interest and ability to act for global education. You can also connect with other grassroots activists and get resources for taking action from international development advocacy organisations like Results UK. You can learn more about Results UK’s grassroots network on our website. If you are a teacher, get your school involved in the Send My Friend to School Campaign (SMF). Send My Friend is a UK civil society coalition advocating for SDG4 which supports a mass UK schools campaign to amplify student voices calling for universal quality education in solidarity with their peers around the world. Free campaign packs are available on the SMF website for primary and secondary levels with everything teachers need to run the campaign in their school. Parliamentarians can learn more about education issues and how to act by joining the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Global Education, a cross-party group that brings together Parliamentarians interested in the right to education and provides them with knowledge and resources to be champions of the issue. By joining our voices through collective action, we can make a real difference in moving the needle on this issue. Together we have a chance to rechart the course for the realisation of quality education for all. BIOGRAPHY Hannah Frisch is the Senior Policy and Parliamentary Advocacy Officer for Education at Results UK and a Co-Chair of the Send My Friend to School Policy and Parliamentary Working Group. She is a policy advisor for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Global Education in the UK Parliament.
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