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Kids Education Revolution

place India + 9 more

We reimagine education WITH children.

Across the world, students, who are the primary stakeholders in the system, are for the most part mere recipients of an education where their voices are often marginalized and suppressed. At KER, we believe that this can be changed by creating safe spaces for voice, working in partnership with children and by helping students unleash their potential for a better world.

HundrED 2021
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Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED 2021

Web presence

2017

Established

37.2K

Children

10

Countries
Updated
June 2020
I left KER wondering how we can engage with many more educators all over the world in such a powerful experience. This could be foundational for the educational revolution we want to see!

About the innovation

Welcome to the Kids Education Revolution!

What we do:

At KER, we aim to create a movement of students and educators who reimagine education together. We believe that this movement will lead us to our vision which is - 'All kids will unleash their potential for a reimagined world.’

KER is a platform for educators and students to explore and experiment with 3 Principles and a set of skills called the 8Cs (described below). This exploration is done through discussions and different virtual and in-person spaces such as webinars, online courses, retreats, workshops, summits and also through sharing of resources from our website and social media.

As mentioned above, our work is anchored in the learning and building of3 core Principles:
Safe Space for Voice: We believe that a safe space is a place where kids can be who they are and say what they believe. Equally, it is a space where they practice listening to what others say without judgment and valuing others for who they uniquely are. Safe spaces can look like honest conversations, circles of dialogue and listening and classrooms where mistakes are integral stepping stones to learning.
Kids and Educators as Partners: We believe that partnership in education is where educators and students listen to and learn from each other. It shifts control and decision making from being in the hands of the adult to sharing power and responsibility with students. It enables students to play a role at all levels of the education system in determining why education matters, what education should be and how it should be delivered. Partnership can look like peer-to-peer learning or mentoring, students actively involved in school governance, students speaking at education conferences and students advising the government on education policy.
Kids as Changemakers: We believe that when kids identify a problem they care about and go through a process to find a solution they grow in their learning and leadership in unprecedented ways. We have seen children of all ages and diverse backgrounds engage in community change and grow both as students and as citizens in the process.

Additionally, the skills or 8Cs that will ensure that our students and educators thrive in the 21st century world are:
• Creativity
• Collaboration
• Critical Thinking
• Communication
• Compassion
• Courage
• Curiosity
• Consciousness

All of this, along with the need to bring change through the approach of love will help us reimagine education.

Why we do it:
We exist because we believe that the purpose of education needs to change as it is currently not setting up children for success. Over the years, we’ve seen that the quality of learning in schools remains low, graduation rates limit further life choices, adults do not listen to children, and that holistic education is still a nascent thought for many. The vast majority of our children will therefore grow up ill-prepared for a life of economic equality, personal fulfillment and broad contribution to the world.
Our children tell us that they want education to be different. They want an education that gives them freedom of choice and equality to work in partnership with their teachers, an education that cultivates compassion, trust and joy, an education that gives them a safe space to be their authentic selves and to raise their voice, and an education that is fun and gives them access and exposure to opportunities, arts and sports.

Thus, KER is a bold collective of students and educators who look into the mirror, knowing that we must reimagine education to create a better world.

Our hope for next year:
KER will become a recognized global platform that works towards driving a reimagined education for all children. Through students in governance, and amplification of innovations, we will feel the ripples of change all around the world as the 3 Principles and 8Cs will become the new normal for the 80,000 educators and students we work with.

Impact & scalability

Impact & Scalability

Kids Education Revolution is a platform that allows our students and teachers to flourish developing 21st century skills. They focus on student and teacher collaboration to work towards more impactful learning experiences. Their goal is to become a recognised global platform that works towards driving a reimagined education for all children through more student centred learning.

HundrED Academy Reviews

I love how their approach is focused on working AUTHENTIC PARTNERSHIP with students. By exposing young minds to the work that KER does we can inspire them to view education with a whole different lens. can 100% see this innovation being very helpful in my own community.

Inspiration - that's what I feel about KER. If there are such projects as KER, we can have a hope that the education in the world will be changed for better.

- Academy member
Academy review results
Impact
Scalability
Exceptional
High
Moderate
Limited
Insufficient
Exceptional
High
Moderate
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Read more about our selection process

Implementation steps

Learn more about our 3 Principles through online courses!

Safe Spaces for Voice- Through this course, teachers will understand why safe spaces are important for a student’s growth and mental health, and will also learn how they can create such safe spaces for their students. Teachers will learn different strategies that will help them provide emotional outlets to their students and encourage the students to express themselves freely.

Kids as Changemakers - This course on Changemaking will help teachers explore the need for students to work as changemakers while learning about how this impacts both the students and the community around them. They will deep dive into the skills, mindsets and knowledge that students develop by working for change. They will also be equipped with actionable resources to take this idea back to their classrooms.

Kids and Educators as Partners- Through this course, teachers will explore what working in partnership with our students can look like. They will understand the role of student voice in driving meaningful learning experiences as well as explore toolkits that will allow them to do so.

Understanding Student Leadership through Webinars

1. 'What Teacher Practices & Perspectives Grow Students' Leadership' by Steven Farr, Lead, Global Learning Lab, Teach For All

2. 'Using Design Thinking with Students to Solve Local Civic Problems' by Kuldeep Dantewadia, CEO and Co-Founder, Reap Benefit

3. 'Defining, Teaching and Assessing Students' Critical Thinking Skills' by Jeff Heyck-Williams, Founder and Director of Curriculum, Two Rivers School Public Charter School, USA

4. 'Fostering 21st Century Skills in Virtual Learning' by Craig Johnson, Alex Ray Johnson and Mario Fishery, American School of Bombay

5. 'Integrative Arts: Nurturing the creative process as a tool for transformation' by Nimo Patel, Musician and Humanitarian

Learning Loop Discussion - how do you learn from students?

Across India, there are students who are leading peer counseling sessions to deal with exam-related pressure and starting community centers to drive adult literacy. Deeply rooted in empathy and a belief in the transformative power of education, these students' projects are getting us to wonder - what are our kids doing to reimagine education? and what are the factors that have enabled these students to reimagine education?

Here is what we learned from our 2018 discussion -

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZBlfunczl-t63c4J9ySsuJniMUb9yfDX/view?usp=sharing

How can you learn and listen from kids?

There are two ways you can engage with kids using this resource -

A - Conduct your own Learning Loop discussion in your classroom or school!The few kids whose stories we have documented can be found in this video playlist.


  1. Go through the above videos and student portfolios and pick 6 or 7 profiles that you’d like to discuss.

  2. Next, select a balanced group of students and educators that would be a part of the discussion.

  3. If you are conducting this discussion at the classroom level then, make sure you are inviting other educators such as other teachers from the school to join the kids in your classroom.

  4. If you are conducting this discussion at the school level then, create a mix of students and educators from other classrooms.

  5. You would need a total of 15-25 kids and educators that are balanced in gender, caste, race and age.

  6. Send the videos and portfolios to the selected group a minimum of 10 days prior to the discussion. Instruct the participants to place the students on a spectrum from 1 to 5 where 1 will be a student whose values we most aspire for and would want to learn more from. Make sure that you also share the following as prework for the participants to complete before the day of the discussion, and ask them to answer the following questions for each and every question - What can we learn from students most reimagining education that unleashes student potential and voice? What are the factors that have enabled these students to reimagine education? How can we foster an environment for more students to reimagine education?

  7. Divide the participants into small groups of about 5 people each; these will be the groups they’re in for the entire discussion.

  8. To conduct the discussion, you can refer to the following - Session Plan and Presentation. The discussion consists of selecting students and narrowing down the list to two students which might make you uncomfortable but keep in mind that this is the part where the most learning will emerge. Towards the end, the group will spend time discussing the commonalities between the top 2 students and how they can take these learnings back and apply them in their work.

  9. Be sure to put your learnings together and bring them back to your kids and educators.

B - Create your own Learning Loop!The entire process is a fascinating experience and a great opportunity for you to learn more about your students and document their stories.


  1. Identify the students whose stories you’d want to capture.

  2. Spend some time documenting their stories in the following ways - Videos: We took video interviews of the student leader, their educator, peers, and parents. You ask them questions on what inspires them, what they’d like to see in the education system, and about their life/project so far.Student Portfolio:Ask the kids to put together different artefacts that would capture their journey - their personal vision, the change-making project they’ve taken up and an online psychometric test. Ask them to fill in this portfolio.

  3. The next step of the process would be to organize a Learning Discussion, for which you can follow the instructions given above.

Do share your learnings and experience from the process with us!

Learn how to host your own KER Summit!

Click on the link given below to learn how to create your own KER Summit through a simple design thinking process of Feel, Imagine, Do and Share.

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