Having moved a lot as a child and schooled between Bournemouth and London, Dr Eri Mountbatten-O’Malley had a tricky relationship with mainstream education. ‘Some schools were great, some schools were kind of difficult with huge comprehensives, sometimes it felt more like I was walking into a zoo  than a school’ he said.  Despite coming out of school without any qualifications at all, he started to develop his academic interests later in life. Having completed his PhD in human flourishing, he has worked at Bath Spa University as Senior Lecturer in Education Policy a for the past two years.

Dr  Mountbatten-O’Malley joined the Leadership for Flourishing Group to explore how leaders can be better equipped themselves to flourish to help others to flourish. Inspired by a conversation on the civic aspects related to global flourishing and grass roots movements with  the former UN official, Ramu Domadoran,  he established the FlourishCafe at Bath Spa University “to provide a space that could provide a catalyst for personal growth, development and positive social change from a grassroots perspective.”

You can hear more on his work on University Speaking – BBC Radio Somerset – Dr Eri Mountbatten-O’Malley, Senior Lecturer in Education Policy, talks about educational philosophy and the new FlourishCafé initiative (two parts: clips start at 00:18:48 and 00:42:13).