Working Together – Winning Together
Amanda Martin, president of the National Education Union, 2020.
The work of the Steve Sinnott Foundation began in 2009 to build upon
the legacy left behind following Steve’s death in 2008. Now, after 10
years’ experience working in partnership with teachers and educators
worldwide, the Foundation has secured its reputation in its own right.
SSF projects are offering life changing experiences for many people
across the world.
I am so proud of my association with the Foundation and of the fact
that I worked with it from its very early days. When I first met Steve
I was a young teacher. His calm, unifying and strong educational
values really resonated with me. He encouraged and welcomed
ideas and advocated trade unionism alongside the absolute need for
social justice and fairness. However, it wasn’t until I spoke at Steve’s
memorial service that I realised the true impact he had regarding
education and solidarity not just in the UK but across the world.
In its quest to continue work imbued with Steve’s values, the
Foundation has at its heart the ethos of enabling and partnership. It
ensures that while initial support is provided, those involved in the
various projects are not dependent upon the Foundation. The aim
for each project is that it can expand and thrive; that learning and
successes can be shared. Every project involves working together
to develop trust and ownership so that the they are not only fit for
purpose but are sustainable, locally owned, managed and valued.
The Foundation’s key vision is working towards the achievement
of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). It believes that quality
education is the key to achieving all seventeen of the Sustainable
Development Goals. The Foundation’s commitment to gender
equality is something I believe it should be proud of as it sits at the
forefront of all its thinking. The vision that started with Steve has
definitely been built upon and expanded by the Foundation. The work
of SSF has impacted positively on so many lives.
The Positive Periods Project has captured the true power of
collaboration between trade unions and the Foundation. To date
it has enabled girls in The Gambia to be given the opportunity to
change their lives through being able to attend school every school
day throughout the month.
Teachers in The Gambia have shared their learning with Sierra
Leonean teachers and they in turn are sharing learning and training
with colleagues in Uganda and Malawi; educators in Cuba and Haiti
are also involved in sharing this learning. This has not only meant the
completion of one successful project but has, in fitting with Steve’s
philosophy, inspired, encouraged and empowered those involved to
share their success - showing the real meaning of partnership and
working together.
Despite some setbacks the Learning Resource Centres in Haiti and
Nepal have put education at the centre of these communities and
proven that education can make a difference.
All of these projects show the importance of education globally and
the link with international solidarity that the Foundation continues to
achieve.
As I complete my presidential year, I am reminded of the words of
encouragement Steve was always willing to give and I know that
through their work the Foundation continues to inspire that can-do
attitude. Sadly, due to Covid19 there is no National Education Union
(NEU) Annual Conference this year which is a shame because in
writing my own speech I looked at the speech Steve gave when he
was the National Union of Teachers (NUT) President. Words of unity,
passion and solidarity resonated throughout and that’s what would
have resonated in my words too.
“Working together, winning together” is certainly a motto I live by,
because together we can achieve so much more. Whether that be
highlighting and striving to defeat inequality and hardship or actively
involving others in projects that can make a difference and make the
world a fair and equitable place.
Steve was taken too early from those he loved but through its ethos,
aims and hard work the Foundation has ensured that one man’s
solidarity and love has touched, enhanced and improved so many
more lives than he might have ever imagined.
From Engage issue 20.
AMANDA MARTIN • October 6, 2021
On Friday evening ( 29 May, 7.00 pm The Actors Church Covent Garden) we had the pleasure of listening to this very special concert, bringing together the Choir of King's College London and the Princeton High School Orchestra in a celebration of international friendship, collaboration, and shared values. This project reflects a commitment to peace, sustainability, equality, and cultural exchange, uniting young musicians from the United Kingdom and the United States through the universal language of music.
How a simple act of practical solidarity is transforming the journey to school in The Gambia’s Central River Region North Policies have been written. Schools have been built. Yet for many children in The Gambia’s Central River Region North, access to education is still measured in kilometres, not opportunity.
‘In a single hour vast tracts of shaded woodland became a jumble of torn trees and upturned soil, exposed to the glare of the summer sun. Such land-clearing events are rare, but forests exhibit remarkable resilience in the face of disaster. I’m told that the Chinese character for ‘catastrophe’ is the same as that which represents the word ‘opportunity’. And, the blowdown, while catastrophic, presented opportunities for many species.’ (Wall Kimmerer, 2003: 89). In the context of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world (Stein, 2021) what kinds of education for hope might support children’s and young people’s critical engagement in local and global issues? In the spirit of exploring the possibilities of hope further, this short article focuses on the area of global citizenship and sustainabilityrelated education. It will briefly open by sharing commonalities across pedagogical approaches that take up the concept and act of hope more critically, and close by offering reflective questions for educators, with suggestions for further reading. Perhaps it is a kind of hope that is grounded in the present, in future reimagining(s), in ethical solidarity, and an acknowledgement of our deep entanglement with the living metabolism of planet earth 1 our singular home (UNESCO, 2021); a hope that engages with complex root causes and lived realities of multiple overlapping crises in critically reflexive and contextually relevant ways. As McCloskey notes, ‘Hope can fire our collective imagination and critical consciousness as a mainspring to activism and intervention in the world.’ (2025: 3). Commonalities across critical pedagogical approaches to hope include: Acknowledging the context of a ‘seamless single story of progress, development and human evolution’ (Andreotti, V.D.O., 2021b Relating to social and ecological justice and the wellbeing of people and planet Using participatory, action-orientated and inquiry-based learning processes Exploring diverse worldviews and perspectives Practising grounding in the present with opening up possibilities for change (relational, embodied, response-able 2 ) Experiencing ‘struggle’ in different forms (dialogical, selfreflexive, open-ended) Engaging individual and collective agency, action and activism Looking for lifelong and life-wide learning and unlearning. 1 See ‘Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness’, in Machado de Oliveira Andreotti. 2021a 2 See ‘Crossing Borders’ in 2 Depth Education “Depth Education and the Possibility of GCE Otherwise, 2021b. Source: Andreotti, V. 2021a & 2021b., Atif, A. (2025)., Bourn, D. 2021., Bryan. A. and Mochizuki,Y., 2024., Giroux, H.A. 2025., Meade, E. 2025. Whilst engaging in the concept and act of hope more critically reflect upon: What kinds of education for hope might you explore further and why? How might you provide generative spaces for engaging in diverse worldviews and perspectives? In what ways can you facilitate individual and collective agency? How might you support learners’ practice grounding in the present in order to relate differently? In what ways can you support learners in navigating complex root causes and lived realities of local and global issues? As Chief Ninawa Hini Kui affirms, ‘The future depends much less on the images we project ahead than on our capacity to repair relations and build relationships differently in the present.’ (Andreotti et al, 2023: 73. An invitation for further reading: Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future . d’Abreu, C., Belgeonne, C., Bourn, D. and Hatley, J. (2025) ‘Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future’. DERC Research Paper 24. London: UCL Institute of Education. Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism. Machado de Oliveira Andreotti, V. (2021a) ‘Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism’ , London: Penguin Random House. Development Education and Hope . McCloskey, S. (2025). (ed) ‘Development Education and Hope’. ‘Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review’ , Vol. 41, Autumn. Centre for Global Education, Belfast. Link to and download the full reference list here
