FreshEd
FreshEd with Will Brehm
FreshEd is a weekly podcast that makes complex ideas in educational research easily understood. Five shows. Three languages.
Airs Monday.
Visit us at www.FreshEdpodcast.com
Twitter: @FreshEdPodcast
All FreshEd Podcasts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Airs Monday.
Visit us at www.FreshEdpodcast.com
Twitter: @FreshEdPodcast
All FreshEd Podcasts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 29, 2026 • 35min
FreshEd #419 – Continuing Studies Podcast (Neil McPhedran & Jennifer-Lee Gunson)
I’d like to welcome our newest member Susan Winton. I’d also like to say thank you to Kathryn Anderson Levitt and Beth Chapman for upping their membership level to UltraFresh. We couldn’t run this show without our members. And if you’d like to join our growing membership community, head over to freshedpodcast.com/support
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I was recently interviewed on the Continuing Studies Podcast, which is hosted by Neil McPherdran and Jennifer-Lee Gunson. Today I’m going to play that episode as it explores what FreshEd has been working on for the past decade. That is, trying to make academic knowledge more accessible, value the power of storytelling, and reimagine higher education institutions from the inside out. I hope you enjoy the show. And if you like it, be sure to subscribe to the Continuing Studies Podcast. They produce some great content at the intersection of higher education and podcasting.
https://www.continuingstudiespodcast.com
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Mar 22, 2026 • 31min
FreshEd #418 – Two Centuries of Schooling (Johannes Westberg)
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Today we explore keywords across two centuries of schooling. My guest is Johannes Westberg.
Johannes Westberg is full professor of Theory and History of Education, and chair of the unit of Pedagogy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. His new book is Conceptualizing Two Centuries of Schooling: Key Developments in the History of European Educational Systems, which will be published in May.
freshedpodcast.com/westberg/
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Mar 15, 2026 • 32min
FreshEd #417 – How Time Inequalities Shape Higher Education Mobility (Cora Lingling Xu)
Today we explore how time can be inherited like status or wealth and what that means for higher education mobility and inequality. My guest is Cora Lingling Xu.
Dr Cora Lingling Xu is Associate Professor in Sociology of Education at Durham University. Her new book is called The Time Inheritors: How Time Inequalities Shape Higher Education Mobility in China (SUNY Press, 2025)
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freshedpodcast.com/xu/
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Mar 8, 2026 • 38min
FreshEd #416 – Higher Education in Conflict (Savo Heleta & Mario Novelli)
Join our 2026 Annual General Meeting on March 11: zoom.us/meeting/register/6aweHqYJRhKE8oSyrAnPLA
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Today we explore higher education in conflict. My guests are Savo Heleta and Mario Novelli. We focus our conversation on the new special issue of the journal Globalization, Societies and Education entitled: Supporting and learning from universities in times of conflict: towards resilience and resistance in higher education, which was co-edited by Helen Murray, Birgul Kutan, Samia Al-Botmeh, Savo Heleta, Sardar Saadi, and Mario Novelli.
Savo Heleta is a research associate with the Chair for critical studies in higher education transformation at Nelson Mandela University. Mario Novelli is professor in the political economy of education at the University of Sussex.
freshedpodcast.com/heleta-novelli/
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Mar 1, 2026 • 34min
FreshEd #237 - Education for Peace and Human Rights (Maria Hantzopoulos & Monisha Bajaj)
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Today we explore the interconnections between the fields of peace education and human rights education. With me are Maria Hantzopoulos and Monisha Bajaj, authors of the new book Education for Peace and Human Rights: An Introduction (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Their book launches a new book series by Bloomsbury Academic on Peace and Human Rights Education, which brings together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars and practitioners in the field. It will provide a cross-section of scholarly research as well as conceptual perspectives on the challenges and possibilities of implementing both peace and human rights education in diverse global sites.
Maria Hantzopoulos is an Associate Professor of Education at Vassar College and Monisha Bajaj is Professor of International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco.
freshedpodcast.com/Hantzopoulos-Bajaj
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Feb 22, 2026 • 31min
FreshEd #415 – Students in an AI World (Mary Burns)
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Today we conduct a premortem of Generative Artificial Intelligence in education. My guest is Mary Burns.
Mary Burns is an internationally recognized expert in teacher professional development, online learning, and educational technology. She is the lead author of the new Brookings Institution’s study entitled “A new direction for students in an AI world: Prosper, prepare, protect.”
freshedpodcast.com/burns/
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Feb 15, 2026 • 28min
FreshEd #414 – Thinking through the Global Education Landscape (Christian Ydesen)
Today we unpack the past, present and future global education landscape, looking at various international organizations. My guest is Christian Ydesen, Professor in History of Education and Education Policy Analysis at the University of Zurich. He has written extensively on global education governance and will be running an international summer school this July that will unpack the theories, histories, and actors within the global education landscape. You can find more details about the summer school he is organizing at freshedpodcast.com/summerschool.
freshedpodcast.com/ydesen/
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Feb 8, 2026 • 26min
FreshEd #413 – Supporting Teachers in Conflict (David Edwards)
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Today we explore some of the big issues teachers are facing around the world, particularly in conflict areas.
My guest is David Edwards, the general secretary of Education International, the global federation of teacher unions representing more than 33 million teachers. David is also a board member of FreshEd.
https://freshedpodcast.com/edwards-2/
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Feb 1, 2026 • 34min
FreshEd #412 – Peace Education in divided settings (Kevin Kester)
If you find FreshEd a valuable education resource, please consider becoming a member by visiting freshedpodcast.com/support.
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Today we explore peace education as a form of global citizenship education in universities in divided settings. My guest, Kevin Kester, travelled to China/Taiwan, Cyprus, Korea, and Somalia/Somaliland to understand if peace as a form of global citizenship can be taught in universities where legacies of war, division, and colonialism remain deeply rooted.
Kevin Kester is an Associate Professor of Comparative International Education and Peace/Development Studies at Seoul National University (서울대학교) and director of the Education, Conflict and Peace Lab. His latest article is entitled “Peace education as a form of global citizenship education in universities in divided settings: challenges and prospects” which was published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.
freshedpodcast.com/kester/
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Jan 25, 2026 • 32min
FreshEd #411 – UNESCO's Fight for the Right to Education (Stefania Giannini)
If you value what we do, now is the time to join at FreshEdPodcast.com. If you represent an organization interested in partnership, please reach out there as well. We’re always looking for new partners.
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To kick off the year, Stefania Giannini joins me to talk about the past, present and future of international education. We discuss the challenges facing the rule-based international order and what that means for education. We unpack the global teacher shortage and the reality of some countries spending more on debt servicing than on education.
Stefania Giannini is the Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO and served as the Italian Minister of Education, Universities and Research between 2014 and 2016. We spoke just before the International Day of Education on January 24 and focused our conversation on UNESCO’s new report “The Right To Education: Past, Present, and Future Directions”.
https://freshedpodcast.com/giannini/
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com


