Learning before Leading: Reimagining Professional Development in Schools
Learning Before Leading: Reimagining Professional Development in Schools
Framing the Possibility
Peter Block reminds us that the real power in organisations doesn’t come from control or answers, it comes from the questions we’re willing to live inside. When we ask what matters, what we care about, and what we’re willing to commit to, that’s when transformation begins.
This is the foundation of LearnFest.
It’s not a programme to deliver. It’s a space to inhabit, a space where educators are invited to reflect before they act, to name what they value before they implement, and to find their voice before they lead.
Leadership Begins with Reflection
Leadership doesn’t begin with strategy. It starts with clarity, often shared in dialogue. It grows from a deeper understanding of who we are and what kind of learning and community we want to be part of.
LearnFest began as a collaborative platform for adult and teacher learning in Latin America, designed to uncover and support a layer of visionary leadership hidden beneath the surface of international schools. These educators didn’t need more tools or new initiatives. They needed permission to imagine, and a space where they could grow the language and confidence to lead change.
The Learning Architecture
Each LearnFest cohort gathered around fifty educators from across the region. The structure was hybrid with twelve 90-minute online sessions, followed by an optional in-person Lab in a regional capital. At the time, Zoom and hybrid engagement were still novel, and the online space became a quiet revolution in itself.
The learning journey began with reflection. Each week, participants were offered a triad of provocations: a video, a reading, and a lighter resource, each chosen to stretch thinking and challenge assumptions. They interacted asynchronously, commenting and conversing on digital threads, and then joined synchronous sessions to reflect together.
Every session was carefully designed: a welcome, an icebreaker, then deep reflection on the provocations, followed by a short “pill of knowledge”, a theoretical anchor. Breakout groups provided space for exploratory dialogue. The tone was never about performance. Instead, it created the civic space that Peter Block describes, a space for reflection, voice, and community.
We encouraged participants to say, “I don’t know” and to see this not as a weakness, but as a leadership strength.
Deep Roots, Not Just New Tools
The philosophical foundations of LearnFest were drawn intentionally. Peter Block’s work on belonging and civic engagement guided our architecture. IDEO’s design thinking shaped the learning cycles. And the belief that leadership is identity work, not just skill-building, sat at the heart.
In the final four sessions, the focus shifted from reflection to practice. Participants brought innovation projects from their contexts and received peer feedback. They practised pitching their ideas, something rarely taught to teachers in schools. We emphasised emergent design, valuing messy beginnings and co-creation over perfection.
The Face-to-Face Lab
And then came the Lab. A four-day, face-to-face experience designed with intention. The Lab invited participants to work in cross-school teams, develop their projects into MVPs, rehearse storytelling, and strengthen the bonds that had formed online. It was a gathering built around Peter Block’s principles: human connection, peer ownership, and the courage to experiment.
What made LearnFest different wasn’t its content; it was its architecture of trust. It was the way it opened a protected space where leadership could emerge authentically, from below.
Local Versions, Distributed Leadership
We also scaled LearnFest down to the school level. We ran in-school versions that used asynchronous provocations and hybrid sessions, respecting teachers’ schedules and agency. Participation was voluntary, a radical move in systems where most meetings are compulsory. The result? Deep engagement, authentic ownership, and real school change.
Interestingly, some of the most powerful leadership came not from those already in formal roles, but from those who emerged through the LearnFest process. They co-designed sessions, facilitated learning, and went on to lead implementation teams. We didn’t create a pipeline, we cultivated a field.
From Learning to Leading
So when I say learning comes before leading, I don’t mean it as a slogan. I mean it as a structure. A way of thinking about how leadership is grown.
Let’s stop designing programmes to “upskill” teachers. Let’s design ecosystems where teachers discover their own direction. Let’s build learning spaces that don’t just transmit knowledge, but unlock possibility.
“The future is created through choice, not prediction.” Peter Block, The Answer to How Is Yes
Let’s learn and then let’s lead. And let’s start in that order.