Nothing Without Us

Introducing our 2023 Virtual Summit - Reimagining Diversity, Equity, Inclusion for a new era of Ethical Leadership

In this episode Angie introduces some of the speakers and conversations that will be available at the Summit, which will be taking place on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th October 2023.

Register for your free ticket - https://www.beingluminary.co.uk/summit

Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/meet-our-virtual-summit-speakers

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.

Introducing our 2023 Virtual Summit - Reimagining Diversity, Equity, Inclusion for a new era of Ethical Leadership

In this episode Angie explains the purpose and format of the summit, which will be taking place on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th October 2023.

To be notified when tickets are available, sign up for Angie’s newsletter at  https://beingluminary.myflodesk.com/2023summit

Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/our-2023-virtual-summit-is-here

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.

"I'm really interested in this idea in spiritual education. And we don't we say it, but we don't really engage with it in schools. And when I have talked about it, people get a little bit kind of itchy."

In this distilled episode, Angie talks to Rebecca Leek about how her faith as a Quaker informs her teaching, and why schools in Britain don't engage well with faith.

Rebecca Leek is an experienced strategic leader who has worked across a wide range of settings and organisations. She has been a headteacher, executive headteacher, chief executive, a teacher and a Senco. She is a systems thinker, an innovator, and has been described as 'a harbinger of light'. She is increasingly in demand as a speaker, trainer and writer and brings with her a wealth of knowledge and insight from her involvement in a number of sectors including the arts, social enterprise, communications, permaculture and education.

Rebecca describes herself as a holistic leader and is interested in systems and cybernetics (governance and management), belonging, and spiritual sustenance within schools. Her practice as a permaculturist informs much of what she does, and in particular the principles of valuing diversity and the marginal.

Find Rebecca on Twitter @RebeccaLeek_

Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/in-conversation-with-rebecca-leek

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.

“So I want to live in a liberal society where people can have their freedom of speech recognised where people can debate openly on issues on the issues of the day, where people can debate things. Yeah, I think I think liberal societies need debate. And I think they need to have people feel confident enough to call others out as part of that debate. But debate isn't possible where tone policing happens, I don't think because debate requires that everybody's voice does get to be heard, however, that voice is being used. And so I think tone policing and other underminings of the way that something is delivered are a really effective way of actually avoiding liberalism and avoiding debate in a liberal society.”

In this solo episode, Angie tackles the thorny issue of freedom of speech and cancel culture, and proposes some questions to ask ourselves when we feel ‘cancelled’.

Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/freedom-of-speech-vs-cancel-culture

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.

“Now I've been the token., so I can wholeheartedly speak from experience of how being the one representative made me feel both a kind of responsibility, and a specialness, but also a visibility that perpetuated my marginalisation. That visibility, that responsibility and visibility also meant that it was impossible to genuinely include me, because I was never just like everybody else, I was always just the voice over there, that might have a really different way of viewing things. And so although I applaud any organisation for wanting to have people in the organisation, who come from a whole range of different backgrounds, experiences, hold a whole range of identities,. I think that without the proper procedures, processes and culture in place, you are at risk of making things worse.” 

In this solo episode, Angie explores the dangers of tokenism, both to the individual and to organisations. She invites you to ask why you want representation, and to consider how to ensure that true representation avoids tokenism.

Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/tokenism-vs-representation-and-why-you-may-not-want-either

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.

“Our colourblindness attempts to sanitise, through our intention, the very reliable and very lived impact of the significance of colour in the lives of many people who are racialized as black or brown. Because colourblindness ignores the persistence of racial discrimination and the lack of equity experienced in the day to day lives of people who hold racialized identities.”

In this solo episode, Angie explores why the ideas of neutrality and colourblindness in leadship are problematic. She proposes some tips to consider for yourself when confronting colourblindness and the supremacy of whiteness in your own thinking, and developing colour consciousness for yourself.

Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/colour-blindness-does-not-exist

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.

“When we say that we need to run diversity training, what we actually do is reassert the centre ground. We say we need to train people who don't hold minoritized identities, (the centre ground (everybody who we understand)) on all of those people who do have minoritized identities (those at the margins (everybody that we don't understand)). So what it becomes is a reassertion of the idea that there can be a centre ground, when in actual fact, it's kind of an impossibility. If we are talking about diversity, the question always has to be, diverse from what? Diverse from WHO?”

In this solo episode, Angie questions the limits of ‘diversity training’ that focuses on othering minoritised groups, and instead suggests that DEI training that examines ourselves has longer lasting effects within an organisation.

In the latter part of the episode, Angie poses some questions to ask yourself next time you run training for and about minoritised people.

Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at www.being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/wanna-know-the-limits-of-diversity-training

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.

"I do think that because of my experiences, and because of, of my feeling around learning, that made me excel in the classroom as a teacher, because I really could understand how to do the building blocks of learning, you know, and break things down and make sure that understanding was there. I think that teachers I've met that have not struggled at school and that have been, you know, those learners that are flying through, have found that journey of being able to break learning down harder."

In this episode Angie talks to Carla Whelan, Chief Executive Officer at Empower Trust, about how her experience of school has informed her teaching and leadership practice.

After studying at St Martin’s University College, Carla began her career in Newham, London. Quickly moving into leadership roles and coordinating a variety of subjects. In 2000 Carla moved to Plymouth, Devon and worked in two primary schools coordinating year groups and specialising in English and PE. Returning to Shropshire in 2003 she spent two years as Head of Inclusion at a local secondary school, acquiring a valuable insight to learning across both primary and secondary.

Following numerous roles, advisory positions and leadership experiences Carla moved into Headship in 2013 and then into the Executive Director of Education role in 2020.

Carla is an authentic leader who holds integrity as a key value. She is fuelled by the passion to ensure she lives and breathes our values, so they become more than words on a document. Considering herself a ‘forever student’, who full heartedly believes in reading and researching as a core to her work, Carla is committed to ensuring she provides an up to date support to our academies. This hunger for knowledge and determination to turn information into action helps ensure our academies are always striving ahead in education.

She joins Empower Trust as CEO in September 2023.

Carla mentions ‘Intelligent Accountability: Creating the conditions for teachers to thrive’ by David Didau

Connect with Carla on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-whelan-36a10455

Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/in-conversation-with-carla-whelan

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.

"What I have realised over this summer break, which itself has been a liminal space between everything that I worked on last year, and everything that has come together for the year ahead, what I've realised and come to realise, is that my practice has developed, my leadership training has developed into me facilitating liminal spaces for others, in order that they can emerge out of that space, knowing the first step that they are going to take towards lighting the way." 

In this solo episode, Angie explores her current thinking on the liminal space between dusking and dawning, and how this informs her thinking on luminary practice.

References - 
Lighting the Way: The Case for Ethical Leadership in Schools, by Angela Browne
Illuminate, by Nancy Duarte
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami
Anne Janzer - book coach
Richard Rohr 

You can find out more about Angie and the Being Luminary programme at www.beingluminary.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/the-language-of-luminaries

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.

"Once we dispense with the timeline, and the expectation that, you know, things are going to happen on a particular timeline, we can actually position ourselves in ways that make us feel excited about what's going to happen next. So our goals no longer feel impossibly hard to achieve. It becomes actually, what a journey,  I'm excited about the journey. I wonder what's going to happen along the way?"

In this solo episode, Angie unpacks her programme The Melanated Mastermind, which is enrolling now.

You can find out more about the programme here www.beingluminary.co.uk/work-with-us

A full transcript of this episode is available at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/the-melanated-mastermind-unpacked

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/the-myth-of-meritocracy

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.