FreshEd

Today we take a critical look at human rights. My guest is Radha D’Souza. Radha has a new book entitled: What’s wrong with rights? Social movements, Law, and Liberal Imaginations. In our conversation we discuss why there has been a proliferation of human rights since the end of World War II and how these rights have actually furthered the interests of the transnational capitalist class. Radha also discusses education as a human right and the challenge it has for social movements and unions such as education international. Radha D’Souza teaches law at the University of Westminster, London. Full transcript available at: http://www.freshedpodcast.com/radhadsouza/

Today we look at conditional cash transfers as a global phenomenon of educational development. My guest is Michelle Morais de Sa e Silva. Michelle has written a new book called Poverty Reduction, Education, and the Global Diffusion of Conditional Cash Transfers, which was published by Palgrave Macmillan. She finds that different political ideologies have been used to justify conditional cash transfers, helping them spread worldwide. Michelle Morais de Sa e Silva is a Lecturer in International and Area Studies in the Department of International and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma. www.freshedpodcast.com/silva

On June 30th, Sweden will officially cancel its agreement with Elsevier, one of the largest academic publishers in the world. No longer will new journal articles or books published by Elsevier be available in any Swedish university or library. Why is this happening? What’s behind the disagreement between Elsevier and Sweden?   Today Wilhelm Widmark, the Library Director at Stockholm University, joins me to talk about the state of academic publishing. Widmark serves as the Vice-Chair of the Swedish Bibsam Consortium steering committee, the group that negotiates agreements with publishers on behalf of universities and libraries across the country. Although he criticizes Elsevier for charging excessively high prices on academic publications, he places most of the blame on the academic system of meritocracy that is based on academic publications.

Today we continue our exploration of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and what it means for education. Last week, we looked at comparative education as a field. Today we look at teachers. What are the prospects and perils of the fourth industrial revolution for teachers? My guest today is Jelmer Evers. Jelmer is a teacher, blogger, writer, and innovator. He teaches history at UniC in the Netherlands and works with Education International, the global federation of teacher unions. He was nominated for the global teacher prize in 2012 and is known for his book called Flip the System. Today Jelmer and I discuss his new co-edited volume Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Standing at the Precipice, which was published by Routledge earlier this year. http://www.freshedpodcast.com/jelmerevers/

We’ve all heard the terms “Big Data,” Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. They are supposedly at the heart of a Fourth Industrial Revolution that, because of technology, is altering the way in which we live, work, and relate to one another. But how is this so-called era of datafication transforming what we mean by both “comparative” and “education”? Earlier this month, the Post Foundational Approaches to Comparative and International Education Special Interest Group of the Comparative and International Education Society organized a webinar entitled “The Datafication of Comparative Education.” The webinar brought together NelliPiattoeva, Ezekiel Dixon-Román, and Noah W. Sobe. I moderated the discussion, which focused on how data and algorithms are reshaping ways of thinking, seeing, acting, and feeling in educational research, policy, and practice. In this special addition of FreshEd, I’m going to replay our conversation because I think there is a lot of critical work to be done on cybernetic systems in education. http://www.freshedpodcast.com/freshed-116-the-datafication-of-comparative-education/

Private interests are increasingly becoming commonplace inside education. In today’s economic globalization, the attainment of knowledge is seen as the key difference between economies that succeed and economies that stagnate or fail. Perhaps more precisely, it is knowledge that determines if an individual — not a national economy—succeeds or fails. We call this the “knowledge economy” and it is one of the main reason why private interests have entered education systems. Private interests in education range from private schools and private textbook and examination companies to the emerging belief that education is an individual, positional good that can be purchased and to the financialization of education where companies buy and sell student debt. It also includes things such as evidence based policy and information technology Our guest today, Professor Gita Steiner-Khamsi sees herself as a second generation researcher of educational privatization. Whereas the first generation of scholars aimed at describing the phenomenon, she attempts to explain — or theorize — it. How can we explain the rise of a global education industry? Gita Steiner-Khamsi is a Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. She is a co-editor of the newest World Yearbook of Education, which focuses on “The global education industry.” The volume was co-edited with Antoni Verger and Christopher Lubienski and is the focus of today’s show.

Today: Case Studies. My guests, Fran Vavrus and Lesley Bartlett. They have a new co-written book entitled Rethinking Case Study Research: A Comparative Approach, which will be published by Routledge later this year. Fran and Lesley contend that the recent conceptual shifts in the social sciences, some of which have been discussed by previous guests on this show, demand that case studies re-configure their approach towards culture, context, space, place, and comparison. Fran Vavrus is a professor in the college of education and human development at the University of Minnesota. Lesley Bartlett is a professor in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. I spoke with Fran and Lesley in Mid-July. They have written an exclusive summary of their forthcoming book, Rethinking Case Study Research: A Comparative Approach, for FreshEd listeners, which is only available on FreshEdpodcast.com Check it out today.

Today we look at the lessons that can be learned from radical histories. My guests are Aziz Choudry and Salim Vally. They’ve edited a new volume entitled: Reflections on Knowledge, Learning and Social Movements: History's Schools (Routledge, 2018). They see history as an organizing tool and discuss the ways in which social movements have learned from the past. Aziz Choudry is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Social Movement Learning and Knowledge Production in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, University of Johannesburg. Salim Vally is the Director of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Johannesburg, and a Visiting Professor at the Nelson Mandela University. They are both active in various social movements and solidarity organizations around the world.

Today, we do a deep dive into the World Bank’s 2018 World Development Report. With me is David Edwards, the Secretary-General of Education International, a federation of 32 million teachers and other educators affiliated with unions and associations in 173 countries. David takes us through the report’s main points and offers a series of critiques compiled in a new report called “Reality Check.” He also gives us a behind the scene look at global education governance and comments on the teacher strikes happening in many states in America.

Today we continue our conversation with Makoto Itoh. Last week, we discussed educational privatization in Japan. This week, we explore the study of Marxism in Japan and the influence of Kozo Uno. Makoto Itoh teaches at Kokugakuin University and is professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo. His newest book, written in Japanese, is A guide to Capitalist Economy, which was published in February.