Meet the OEB26 Speakers: Lani Watson

We are pleased to welcome Dr Lani Watson as a keynote speaker for the OEB 2026 Opening Plenary.

Philosopher Dr Lani Watson, Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, has spent nearly two decades exploring the power of questions and how they shape learning, judgement and understanding.

At OEB26, she brings this perspective to the Opening Plenary and this year’s theme, Sovereign Learning: Trust, Agency & the Education Reset.

(Leni Watson photographs by Urszula Sołtys)

What was your first thought about this year’s conference theme “Sovereign Learning: Trust, Agency & the Education Reset”?

The ability to ask questions is a special form of agency and one that humans are distinctly positioned to use in powerful and productive (as well as destructive) ways. It is also an extraordinarily effective learning mechanism. For me, the most important tool we can preserve and promote in education is precisely the capacity to ask questions, of ourselves, of each other and of our technology. It doesn’t get more sovereign than that.

If you could look into the year 2046, what do you envision learning will be driven by?

My hope is that learning will increasingly be driven by learners themselves.

Which learning technology has recently impressed you?

Paper and pen.

Which book should everyone read?

Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana of The Right Question Institute (I’d love you to read mine too, of course!)

What was your most significant learning experience?

Too many to mention! But the things I’ve learned about myself in therapy have changed my life in many ways.

Which question is asked too rarely when we talk about learning?

Who is asking questions and who is answering them in the classroom…

What would be the title of your autobiography?

A Life In Questions (but this has already been taken by the provocative BBC broadcaster and interviewer Jeremy Paxman!)

What are you looking forward to the most at this year’s OEB?

The Q&As.



Thank you, Lani! Lani Watson will be speaking at OEB 2026.