Teachers as Builders: Insights from Stephen Jull, Maruf Hasan & Sean McWeeney of Teach For All

Stephen Jull is the Global Head of AI and Educational Technology at Teach For All, leading efforts to connect educators with frontier AI labs. He’s joined by Maruf Hasan, a Bangladesh-based educator building AI tools in low-resource settings, and Sean McWeeney, a UK teacher focused on AI’s impact in high-need schools.

💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:

1.  How teachers are moving from AI users to AI builders 
2.  Why the most impactful AI innovation is happening in classrooms, not companies 
3.  How global educator communities accelerate learning and innovation 
4.  The role of AI in supporting underserved students and closing learning gaps 
5.  Why teacher ownership is critical to the future of edtech 

✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:01:20] Introduction to Teach For All’s AI initiative and global educator community
[00:05:22] Stephen Jull on building partnerships between teachers and frontier AI labs
[00:08:16] Sean McWeeney on creating AI tools for marking and real classroom needs
[00:11:59] Maruf Hasan on using AI to support underserved students in low-resource settings
[00:14:51] How the AI community operates without centralized control and why it works
[00:18:30] Global collaboration: shared challenges across classrooms worldwide
[00:22:35] The power of community in turning non-technical educators into builders

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Alex Sarlin: Tuck Advisors was founded by entrepreneurs who built and sold their own companies, frustrated by other m and a firms. They created the one they wished they could have hired but couldn't find. One who understands what matters to founders and whose North Star KPI is the percentage of deals closed. If you're thinking of selling your ed tech company or buying one contact Tuck advisors now. 

[00:00:24] Sean McWeeney: I was like actually something that can help teachers mark.

And then I kind of took it a little bit further and I was like, what are the exact things that I want as a teacher as well? Not a kind of piece of software that's come from a bigger organization. All the needs. So I mean that's, that's the kind of thing I've really been working on and using in my school and wider in terms of department.

And that was the really exciting thing that you could create something that was so relevant to your context and you as your teacher could directly feed into it, directly design it. And then you could even make changes.

[00:01:05] Alex Sarlin: Welcome to EdTech Insiders, the top podcast covering the education technology industry from funding rounds to impact to AI developments across early childhood K 12 higher ed and work. You'll find it all here at EdTech Insiders. 

[00:01:20] Ben Kornell: Remember to subscribe to the pod, check out our newsletter, and also our event calendar, and to go deeper, check out EdTech.

Insiders Plus where you can get premium content access to our WhatsApp channel, early access to events and back channel insights from Alex and Ben. Hope you enjoyed today's pod.

Hello, EdTech Insider listeners. It's me, Ben Kornell, and I've got a group of special guests today. You all know Stephen Jull. He is the global head of AI and educational technology at Teach For All an OG in the EdTech space. This pivotal moment as AI reshapes education, he and his team are focusing on building reciprocal partnerships between educators and Frontier AI model companies, ensuring teachers are at the center of shaping the future of AI for education, and we're also joined by two special guests.

Maruf Hasan, a classroom teacher from Bangladesh and one of the AI LCCs most prolific builders. Maruf created a learning gap intervention tool with AI generated assessments, realtime teacher dashboards, and automated remediation loops. He built in a low resource setting and his work reflects the belief that key AI innovation is happening in classrooms, not boardrooms.

And we have Sean McWeeney, a UK based educator and teach first alumnus with a sharp perspective on how AI is reshaping what it means to teach in high needs schools. Sean has been an active voice in the AI LCC community on questions of equity assessment and teacher wellbeing. On what it looks like for teachers to genuinely shape the tools used in their classroom.

So, without further ado, we've started very high level around AI and education. Today we're getting real. Let's get real with Stephen, Maruf and Sean, welcome to EdTech Insiders. 

[00:03:14] Stephen Jull: Thanks a lot. Lemme just, uh, first pass to my guests and friends here to give a little intro as to where they're sitting and where they're calling it from today.

[00:03:22] Sean McWeeney: Hi I'm Sean, I'm the UK teacher currently. I came from work today to so join you guys. And I've been a teach for 10 years taught in the UK and taught in group as well and it's been amazing to be part of a sort of global group teachers. I've learned so much from everyone around the world in terms of this really new, super fast paced technology, which is AI and how it's impacting us. 

[00:03:47] Maruf Hasan: Hi there. I'm Maruf and I'm a teacher from Bangladesh. I completed my two years of fellowship from teacher Bangladesh, and you can see how no resource setting I'm in currently right now.

I recently completed my fellowship and exploring the possibilities of AI in education. Especially in the low resource settings at the same time to actually address diversity, equity, and inclusion. So thank you and really nice to be here today. 

[00:04:11] Stephen Jull: Hey, thanks. Thanks Maruf and Ben before you. I'll let you kick off and get us going here.

But I just wanted to say just before this, Ben, we were having a pre-call. Of course, as we do, Sean and I were on the call. I'm messaging him of course, you know, in the various regular channels and, uh, he was bit of radio silence there for a while. Then of course, he like turns up. Steven, I just managed to, like my friend, grabbed a, you know, new laptop from me and I'm racing down to my friend's house and, uh, sort of chasing ahead of like a power outage I think that he had, uh, where he's living right now.

So Maruf is like a star for like, making stuff happen when it just has to happen. So, and also what time is it there, ma, before we get going on this? Because, uh, we're approaching midnight there. 

[00:04:48] Maruf Hasan: So it's 11:06 PM here. So ideally, 

[00:04:51] Stephen Jull: awesome. Thanks for being here. Amazing. 

[00:04:53] Ben Kornell: Yeah. So I mean, our listeners I think are excited to dive into the global use cases for AI and um, would love to hear from your educator learning community.

I will say for many of us who've been following your journey, Steven, just six months ago, it felt like you were kicking things off. And then to have folks who've been actively building. Seems like a whirlwind six months. Can you tell us a little bit about how this initiative has evolved and you know, the role that partnerships play?

[00:05:22] Stephen Jull: Thanks, Ben. Yeah, and first of all, thanks for your generosity across tech community. Of course, over many, many years. And I think you, you and I had checked in a few times just as I was beginning this role with Wendy Copp and Teach For All. And you, you're right, it's been, the first six months has been an absolute whirlwind, but it's felt like startup ecosystem, Ben.

So it's, I really felt at home, let's put it that way. The beauty of what I was able to, you know, walk into here was that. You know, when you're starting a startup, there's a lot of uncertainties. There's zero foundations. But what we have at Teach For All of Courses, I had the privilege of walking into, uh, an environment which had the stability of 30 years plus of vision values.

Thesis of engaging with young people, people entering work for the first time, consider education as potentially their first form of employment. Taking that on as a challenge, uh, getting in close proximity to the issues that matter in their home communities. Support education in schools where may not otherwise have access to highly qualified, highly motivated educators, and then either staying in education, then going on, you know, into into education or social impact or whatever that happens to be after their two year.

I had the advantage of landing in that environment, and so I'm surrounded by talent, like talent and foundations. And so it then, to be honest, it was difficult in so far as like, how do you do this with this unpredictable technology and not break the stability of what is an established brand and trusted process that Wendy has set up over many, many decades across now 63 countries?

So the, the journey was really, let's create a space for the talent. To shine and shine. You know, my work historically, Ben, has really been about like build something, put it out into the world, or find other people who are building things. Create a space for people to explore and just by doing that, don't create a bottleneck.

Don't try to impinge on creativity and opportunity. And that's really kind of the architectural foundation to the AI literacy and collective very carefully. That's six months whirlwind.

[00:07:45] Ben Kornell: Alignment across the org in a vertical way, but the innovation really comes bottoms up. So you know, Sean, tell us a little bit about the work that you've done with ai. I think there's optimism and a lot of fear in the space about AI and the educational context. And you work with low income schools where sometimes that.

Doesn't translate. Can you tell us what you've built, where you see the opportunities and possibilities, and also where are we off track with rolling out AI in the education context? 

[00:08:16] Sean McWeeney: For me, I think a really exciting moment, there was lots of, um, when we first sort of started with the, with the network, people were using it to sort of like do lesson planning and kind of create artifacts on Claudes.

But for me, a kind of moment that, I mean, that was amazing in itself, but then the next step that was even more incredible was using it to code. I've never coded in my life at all, but when I saw the capabilities of it just through coding to sort of produce very early on, I produced something just I. And then I was thinking, what is it that that my school really needs?

Or what is it that my context really needs right now? And I'm actually in a school, the UK's got lots of examinations. I think we're the most examined country in the developed world, and that means that we've got lots of, 

[00:09:05] Ben Kornell: we're close behind you, but yes, you're in the lead. 

[00:09:07] Sean McWeeney: Yeah, we're there. You know, so it's essays.

Teachers, mark would be really good. And then I kind of took it a little bit further and I was like, what are the exact things that I want as a teacher as well? Not a kind of piece of software that's come from a bigger. All the needs. So I mean that's, that's the kind of thing I've really been working on and using in my school and wider in terms of department.

And that was the really exciting thing, that you could create something that was so relevant to your context and you as your teacher could directly feed into it, directly design it, and then you could make changes. One it of it, which we've done in terms of marking, done a kind of like whole cycle mark.

Students work, give them feedback, let them redraft, and then kind of saw, oh, actually this is how we need to change it. And we could, we could iterate at speed that you just, you wouldn't be able to do as a software company. And the other thing is we own it. There's kind of like there's ownership of the tech that teachers didn't really have before.

That is, that is really exciting all the way from designing it to reacting to it, to getting feedback from the students about what they would need. So for me, that's been really exciting. And then, and then it's led on working with, well. Kind of globally as well. 

[00:10:34] Ben Kornell: Let's come back to the power of the community, and it is really interesting, just this sense of ownership.

It's both like the IP ownership, but also sense of owning the outcomes and feeling engaged and involved. Ruth, can you talk a little bit about what you've built and where you see the biggest opportunities? As Sean says, there's unique opportunities in each context. What are the opportunities in your context that you've been exploring?

[00:11:00] Alex Sarlin: We will be right back. This season of EdTech Insiders is brought to you by Cooley. LLP Cooley is the go-to law firm for education and EdTech innovators offering industry informed counsel across the pre-K to gray spectrum. With a multidisciplinary approach and a powerful EdTech ecosystem, coolly helps shape the future of education.

This season of EdTech Insiders is brought to you by Starbridge. Every year, K 12 districts and higher ed institutions spend over half a trillion dollars, but most sales teams miss the signals. Starbridge tracks early signs, like board minutes, budget drafts, and strategic plans, and then helps you turn them into personalized outreach, fast, win the deal before it hits the RFP stage.

That's how top Ed tech teams stay ahead.

[00:11:59] Maruf Hasan: So basically I saw, uh, see AI as an opportunity to actually support students who are left behind, to be honest, because AI is the only tool which can actually. Give you their proper time 24 7 all the time. So that's what actually students of underserved community needs a proper guidance. What actually confuses me, like we often are really very much concerned about the AI ethics and all, but we should be concerned.

But when we. Actually using AI as a large language model. So then we should be, but I believe that we teachers are responsible to redirect that heavy technological masterpiece to a certain level where student get real experience, right? And we have, we, the teachers have that responsibility to redirect the AI's purpose.

And I believe that AI has actually decentralized our technology usage in education system because. When you try to access any kind of AI tools in education or technology, so you need some kind of subscription or you need to buy some courses for big companies. But after AI arrived, like a non-technical guy like me, can also develop tools which can actually give our students a profile learning experience, curate that learning journey, and I believe that.

We have so much usage of AI for our students. We can integrate, like curate videos, our textbooks, and show it to the visual learners as well. We can also help our kinesthetic learners as well. So AI is like every single day. AI is actually giving us new concepts, new things, especially in 2026, we are seeing that agent AI has become a thing.

So ultimately, from lowering the burden of the teachers to actually support students to the most personalized level. I believe that AI is going to reshape the education system of this world in the future. So that's what I, 

[00:14:06] Ben Kornell: so we had Maru cut off there, but he was dropping some knowledge bombs and some really, really great insights around this future of decentralized ai.

Uh, actually, a theme that both of you hit on is the role of the educator in harnessing. Of AI greatest and that frankly scare some people who are centralized control has this community. That idea creators, we're gonna connect the creators. Have you constructed that in a way that ensures that there's quality control, ensures that the best ideas are winning and then it's not every educator for himself or herself?

Steven? 

[00:14:51] Stephen Jull: Yeah. Thanks Ben. And I'm sure jump back in, it's just like kind of a, I mean it's, that's a great example of just like right, the barriers that you have to overcome. And as we get through this. This, this pod Ben. We'll come back to something these guys have been working on, which is the offline, uh, model.

So, we'll, I'm gonna make a mental note for myself too, to make sure we hit on that because these two guys are collaborating on some really cool offline literacy support for, for learners in schools, in, in all environments, which is brilliant. First of all, like I talked briefly, uh, thanks for the question, like how we've come to this point.

And so I talked about the foundations and of course what Wendy's built here and, and we're just dealing with like a pool of like incredible talents just to reinforce and double down on that. And then your question is, you know, about like, well, well how do you, how do you manage quality control in an environment like that?

So initially, of course we decided to kick off a pilot. As you know, we kicked that pilot off with, with philanthropic, our great first, you know, frontier Labs partner. And we had a really nice announcement with them. We're doing, done some really excellent work. So establishing a relationship with one of the Frontier Labs was a really key component.

The, the AI collective in the first, not because. A Frontier Lab partner in order to bring together this talent pool. Uh, but what this talent pool was looking for was more than what, you know, any one person could, could give them. Right. Because the, the diversity of need and kind of the, the level of interest was so the breadth was so incredibly.

Diverse across 63 countries to have a series of workshops delivered that say internally by a series of so-called experts just wouldn't cut it. Sean's politely sitting there, just kind of like along in some capacity there. So when you bring on like Frontier Labs, that creates an opportunity like okay, right.

Uh, we have access now to an opportunity to work. Very closely with engineers, products, safety people, you know, people working on, on the business side of things like how this is rolled out, professional development. And it created an opportunity for this very big community to get involved at various levels, depending on what they're interested in.

So. We have this WhatsApp community. We have about a thou, actually we have about 15 plus people in the Aicc. Now as a part of a pilot. We just wrapped up phase one, moving into phase two. And about 50% of those are in, uh, very large WhatsApp community. Uh, all self-organized around language groups, interest groups.

And in those interest groups we get, uh, groups of people upwards of about 3, 3 50 people in each of those communities exploring ideas. And what I have to say is like, you know, I've been asked this question and I'll wrap on this, Ben, uh, I've been asked this question about like, well, you know, Steven, should we be surfacing, you know, some of the identified talent more, you know, or people who are doing like the really big builds And my go-to Ben has always been, that's not really where.

The emerging ideas, and so by opening it up to everyone to play equally across this landscape by us, ostensibly by us not getting involved and trying to predetermined or predict the direction that people were moving with this technology. After spending time in live webinars and live AMAs with. You know, our colleagues over at Philanthropic, and again, in the first instance we'll be working with the other labs too, of course, in the future.

That just creates this opportunity for people to find, you know, where it is that they wanna land. And actually, Sean touched on this initially, where people started early stage with lesson planning, and there's been this progressive journey from literacy through to, uh, creator as we've gone forward. So, I mean, ostensibly, you know, create the conditions.

Ben, as you know. The real talent finds way and people, the community. 

[00:18:30] Ben Kornell: This idea that community isn't just contiguous to your local context is quite interesting. And yet the local context plays a really big role. Um, Sean, I'm actually curious, you know, in terms of. Where you're collaborating on AI work, how much of it is part of this Teach For All global community, and how much of it is within your local school and your local school system community?

[00:18:59] Sean McWeeney: Well, I think what's been really interesting is sort of the idea that we are all teachers in very diverse settings, but yet we all, and again.

Mean Bangladesh, myself in the uk. Real connection between actually the needs of our students' happening in, of students who have English a second language have a well, um. It's kind idea of like living locally and context as well. Um, so there's been so much similar actually between the needs of our students, the discussion around it, sharing ideas with it.

Well,

something.

The other side of the world, like who was more engaged? Kind of proactive than teacher in my own school who didn't have half the energy. And I think that's been the kind of most inspiring thing about, it's the energy that people have brought and the interest and the kind of daily WhatsApp excitement as well, where someone would say, have you seen this?

And that's also how fast AI is moving. Have you seen this thing or have you seen that? And that's been the thing that's really opened my eyes to what's possible with it as well. 

[00:20:38] Ben Kornell: Yeah. Ma, I see that you've joined too. How has the community added to your experience and also your ideas and. Practical solutions.

[00:20:48] Maruf Hasan: So before joining the community, to be honest, before October last year, so I was just doing this thing as a hobby and also support my students. I was exploring through different types of AI tools and all, and I was thinking about different strategies, but I was seeing no one from my country doing it. And then when I actually found this community, it actually gave me that space to share my ideas.

Especially when I joined the community, like Rhonda reached out to me and told me to, uh, like you are doing amazing, inspired me a lot. Then I had a chance to actually talk with other teachers who are doing amazing things with AI in education and got new perspectives, to be honest. Then I made Juul and, and et cetera.

Got huge learning opportunities from Claude, from Reid Hoffman, Reid Hastings and so on. Then I was developing, uh, tools through a different tool. Then I got introduced to CLO code and someone from the community also reached out to me, like when I mentioned that I, I do wanna know more about, uh, using Code Code as I'm a really non-technical person, and she literally reached out to me.

Gave me one hours of her time and then showed me how I can actually publish my own app through plot code, which really inspired me a lot. And today, literally today, I shared one of my very first work with. Plot code within the community. So it has been a really great learning journey for me, to be honest.

And when I joined people were always talking about like, uh, the prompting and uh, strategy of prompting and then now everyone is like building new AI tools and finding out different strategies. It's so fun to be there. 

[00:22:35] Ben Kornell: That's so inspiring to hear. We're running out of time. For this pod, but Steven, if people wanna find out more about the community that you're building, potentially some of the projects that people are launching, what's the best way for them to learn more?

[00:22:50] Stephen Jull: Yeah, the best way probably is to, uh, come visit, Teach For All, check out our website. You can find most of us there on the staff team, uh, for the rest of us, for, you know, Sean and Maruf, maybe we'll.

A reach, maybe reach out to the, the community and we could even post some shared insights. If people wanna, in our AI, literacy and creative collective community can definitely put those, those people in touch because, uh, this community is growing fast and innovating even faster. 

[00:23:18] Ben Kornell: Yeah, and, and I would say like some of the themes from this interview are timeless community is valuable, the role of the educator is critical, the sense of ownership.

These are things that existed long before AI existed, and there's also this sense of something new, which is power to create, to adjust, adapt, evolve, iterate. That is really new in the world of EdTech. It's Ed first, tech Second, we've got as educators to use the skills and tools and advantages we have on the education side.

But putting it together with this new technology, I, I'm coming away Ma and Sean really inspired and it makes me think about like, what does this look like two years from now, four years from now, five years from now? The role of teacher and the role of builder. You know, the idea that somebody far away from the problem had to solve these things before, now it's coming together, and that's such an exciting moment, not just for educators across the world, but also for the learners themselves.

So thank you, Sean. Thank you Maruf, for joining. Steven, as always, anytime you wanna have your community members. On the EdTech Insiders Pod, we love to hear what's happening. Uh, thank you all for joining, and folks, uh, check out Teach For All's website. We can learn more about all of this work. Thanks. 

[00:24:44] Stephen Jull: Thanks, 

Ben.

[00:24:45] Sean McWeeney: Thank you. 

[00:24:46] Alex Sarlin: Thanks for listening to this episode of EdTech Insiders. If you like the podcast, remember to rate it and share it with others in the EdTech community. For those who want even more, EdTech Insider, subscribe to the Free EdTech Insiders Newsletter on Sunday.

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