FreshEd

Today I talk with Kang Zhao about how Chinese policy has interpreted and implemented notions of competency-based education, which has been advanced in global organizations such as the OECD. Kang sees core competencies as limiting and calls for an education beyond competencies. Kang Zhao is an associate professor in the College of Education at Zhejiang University. He’s latest article published in the ECNU Review of Education is entitled Education for Wholeness, but beyond competences: Challenges to key-competences-based education in China. freshedpodcast.com/zhao/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

My guest today is Steve Klees, professor of international education policy and a distinguished scholar teacher at the University of Maryland. Steve has a new book entitled The Conscience of a Progressive, which draws on his 45 years of work around the world as an economist and international educator. In the book he compares conservative, liberal, and progressive views on a wide range of social issues. Steve’s critique goes to the heart of neoliberal capitalism, pushing us to confront the intersectional challenges of gender, class, race, ethnicity, LGBTQ rights, and disability. freshedpodcast.com/steveklees-2/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

How can we think of indigenous knowledge systems as a paradigm for research methodology? With me are Elizabeth Sumida Huaman and Nathan Martin to discuss their new co-edited volume entitled Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Research Methodologies: Local Solutions and Global Opportunities. Navigating the interplay of multiple knowledges and research paradigms can be extremely beneficial. Elizabeth Sumida Huaman is an associate professor of comparative and international development Education in the college of Education and Human development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Nathan D. Martin is an Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. freshedpodcast.com/sumida-huaman-martin/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we take stock of public education in the United States after the 2020 election. With me are Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire. You may know Jack and Jennifer from their education podcast called Have You Heard, which you should definitely check out. They’ve also recently co-written the book "A Wolf at the schoolhouse door: The dismantling of public education and the future of school," which traces the war on public education in America. They argue that we should be watching the changes at the state level after the recent election. Jack Schneider is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and Jennifer Berkshire is a freelance journalist. They co-host the podcast Have you Heard. freshedpodcast.com/Schneider-Berkshire/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we look at some of the colonial legacies in discourses around girls’ education. With me are Chris Kirchgasler and Karishma Desai. They’ve recently published an article entitled, “’Girl’ in Crisis: Colonial Residues of Domesticity in Transnational School Reforms,” which was published in the Comparative Education Review. Chris Kirchgasler is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Karishma Desai is an assistant Professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. https://freshedpodcast.com/kirchgasler-desai/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Pro-democracy protests erupted in Thailand in February 2020. Students were in the vanguard. Such protests are extremely dangerous in Thailand. With me to talk about the protests is Kanokrat Lertchoosakul, an assistant professor at the Faculty of political science at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. She has followed student activist movements for many years and has interviewed hundreds of student protesters. She specializes in student movements, left-wing activism and democratization in Thailand. www.freshedpodcast.com/lertchoosakul -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we continue the mini-series on global learning metrics. Last week we heard from Eric Hanushek about the desirability of large scale international assessments such as PISA. He argued that cross-national tests offer ways for countries to see what is possible when it comes to student learning. But what effect are large scale international assessments having on national governments? In my conversation today, I speak with Radhika Gorur about how PISA, and its embedded assumptions about education, are going a global. In our conversation, Radhika unpacks what it means to “see like PISA.” She finds three major ways governments around the world have embraced PISA. First, governments have assumed that the very purpose of education is to increase GDP, which is a cornerstone of PISA and the OECD. But of course education has many more values that are much harder to define. Second governments have narrowed the field of vision of the meaning of education to be in line with what PISA has been able to test. In effect, we only talk about what we can actually measure on the test, missing so many other subjects and areas that are also important to education. And the third issue she finds is that we now talk about an impersonal “Student” as represented by PISA. The many reports put out by the OECD talk about so-called “students”, but they are always abstracted and without color or context. Who is this so-called PISA “student” and why do states compare their young citizens to her? Radhika Gorur is an Associate Professor at Deakin University, Australia, and a Director of the Laboratory for International Assessment Studies. She will speak at the inaugural CIES Symposium this November. The article discussed in this podcast can be found in the European Educational Research Journal. https://freshedpodcast.com/radhikagorur/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Do constitutional rights stop at the schoolhouse gate? Are American students, in other words, granted the freedom and protections outlined in the US constitution? This question doesn’t have an easy answer. My guest for the next two episodes is Justin Driver. In his new book, The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind, Justin explores most if not all Supreme Court rulings on students in public education. Justin Driver is the Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. His first book, The Schoolhouse Gate (2018 Pantheon), is receiving rave reviews. The New York Times called it “indispensable” while the Washington Post called it “masterful.” https://freshedpodcast.com/driver-p1/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Children are inundated with technology. Video games, smartphones, and computers are common in the lives of today’s digital generation. With school closures from the covid-19 pandemic, learning from home only added to the screen time overload for many children. How do children and young people use and are affected by technological transformations in their everyday lives? How are schools and education systems adapting to these changes? And what might we learn from the coronavirus when it comes to technology and education? With me is Halla Holmarsdottir a Professor in the Faculty of Education and International Studies at the Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway. She is currently the coordinator of a large-scale European Research project funded by Horizon 2020 (grant agreement No 870548) entitled The Impact of Technological Transformations on the Digital Generation (DigiGen). The DigiGen project focuses on the impact of digital technology on the lives of children and young people primarily in Europe. freshedpodcast.com/Holmarsdottir/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

World Teachers Day is next week, on Monday, October 5th. This year, the event is being held entirely online because of covid-19. With me is David Edwards to talk about the online event and some of the key people who will join. We also talk about some of the big issues that teachers face worldwide because of coronavirus. David Edwards is the general secretary of Education International, the global federation of teachers unions representing some 32 million teachers worldwide. He is also a board member of FreshEd and a regular guest on the show. Be sure to join the World Teachers Day celebration by visiting 5oct.org. Again, that’s the number 5OCT.org. Everyone is invited.