4000 Youth Designing their own Education | Project DEFY at Voices of Change

The Most Impactful & Scalable SDL Model | 4000 Youth at Project DEFY (Design Education For YourSelf): When we talk about successful Self-Directed Learning (SDL) models, most people mention Sudbury schools or Agile Learning Centers. But what if the largest and most impactful SDL initiative is growing in the Global South? Meet Project DEFY (Design Education For Yourself) – a groundbreaking model that operates 29 free SDL centers (Nooks), serving over 4000 youth across India, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda. In this special Voice of Change session, we’ll be joined by 4 members of the DEFY team from different countries to share how they’re creating sustainable, community-led learning spaces, empowering people to take control of their own education, and building true alternatives beyond the traditional system. Don’t miss any Voices of Change webinar signing up to our newsletter: https://evolvingeducation.org/en/newsletter-eng/ More information about DEFY: https://projectdefy.org/ 00:00:00 Introductions 00:09:50 Searching for happiness 00:14:05 Creating the first Nook 00:19:10 What's a Nook 00:25:10 Showing the latest Nook 00:29:00 Community engagement 00:33:42 Non-judgement & love 00:39:25 How to communicate with families 00:44:10 Extractive development mindset 00:50:36 Tech in Nooks 00:58:20 How to collaborate 01:05:08 Audience Q&A: ages 01:06:05 Audience Q&A: facilitation 01:09:34 Definition of learning 01:15:00 Systems change 01:22:00 Fundraising & Impact measurment #ProjectDEFY #SelfDirectedLearning #VoiceOfChange #DecolonizeEducation #EducationInnovation #CommunityPower