Max Hope (she/her)

My name is Max and I want to change the world.

I have spent most of my adult life working, in one way or another, in the field of education. I spent 15 years as a youth worker in one of the most socially and economically deprived cities in the UK, and then spent a decade as a university academic. I have researched extensively and published about radical, progressive, and alternative education (see https://maxhope.co.uk/ for full list of publications and conference presentations).

I used to think that the best way to ‘rewild education’ was to change the way that I practiced as an educator. I still believe this is important, but in addition, I can now see that the process of rewilding education is a deeply personal one. Educators cannot authentically offer something to others that they have not experienced themselves. We cannot support others to be deeply connected to the living world if we are not deeply connected to it ourselves. We cannot encourage others to take hold of their own agency if we do not have a firm grasp of our own. We must, in my view, be deeply embedded in a personal process of rewilding ourselves. We must be on own our journey to be wild, free, alive, and whole.

The process of rewilding ourselves means questioning deeply held assumptions about the lives we lead and what matters within this. It means diving into our own hearts, souls, and psyches. It means making decisions about what we need to do to be as authentic as possible. It might mean changing our lives in ways that are challenging for others. In my experience, it is painful, and it can be slow, but it can also be life-changing and life-enhancing in all the best ways. This is the work that I now strive to offer to others.

I am Director of Rewilding Education and lead many of the programmes. I co-facilitate Call of the Wild in Devon. Alongside these programmes, I co-lead The Lodge, a self-directed, consent-based learning community for home educated children in Herts/Essex which aims – not to rewild – but to support children and young people to stay wilded and stay connected in the first place. I set up and run Write On Changemakers which supports activists and changemakers to write.