FreshEd

Today we explore UNESCO’s roadmap for the future of higher education. My guest is Noah Sobe. Noah Sobe is the Chief of Section for Higher Education at UNESCO. The new report we discuss is entitled Transforming Higher Education: Global Collaboration on Visioning and Action. freshedpodcast.com/sobe/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we explore the meaning of comparison from a theoretical approach that combines Policy Mobilities and Assemblage theory. My guests are Steven Lewis and Rebecca Spratt. Steven Lewis is an Associate Professor of Comparative Education at Australian Catholic University where Rebecca Spratt is a PhD candidate. Their new book is Assembling Comparison: Understanding Education Policy through Mobiliti...

Today we unpack the term “safey”, which pervades education debates world wide. My guest is Marta Estellés. Marta Estellés is a senior lecturer in the school of education at the University of Waikato. Her new, open access book is entitled The Safetyfication of Education: Neoliberalism, Psychopolitics and the End of Critical Education. freshedpodcast.com/estelles/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEd...

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 -- I was recently interviewed on the Continuing Studies Podcast, which is hos...

Paid message: Sign up for the University of Zurich International Summer School: freshedpodcast.com/summerschool -- 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...

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) -- freshedpodcast.com/...

Join our 2026 Annual General Meeting on March 11: zoom.us/meeting/register/6aweHqYJRhKE8oSyrAnPLA -- Paid message: Sign up for the University of Zurich International Summer School: freshedpodcast.com/summerschool -- 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 a...

FreshEd will return with new episodes soon! Join our 2026 Annual General Meeting on March 11: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/6aweHqYJRhKE8oSyrAnPLA -- 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, 20...

Paid message: Sign up for the University of Zurich International Summer School: freshedpodcast.com/summerschool -- 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 Ins...

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, histor...

If you find FreshEd a valuable education resource, please consider becoming a member by visiting freshedpodcast.com/support. -- 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. D...

If you find FreshEd a valuable education resource, please consider becoming a member by visiting freshedpodcast.com/support. -- 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...

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. -- 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 wh...

FreshEd is on holidays. We'll be back soon with new episodes. -- Today we explore the idea of degrowth. With me is Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist, author, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the United Kingdom. He is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics, and Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. He...

FreshEd is on holidays. We'll be back in February. -- Today we explore aboriginal voices in education research in Australia. Australians will soon vote in a referendum about whether to change their Constitution to allow for the creation of an advisory body made up of First Nations peoples. This body would to provide advice to the Parliament and the government on matters that impact indigenous comm...

FreshEd is on holidays. We'll be back in February. -- Today Fazal Rizvi joins me to talk about his forthcoming book entitled Globalization and Educational Futures. Fazal revisits the rise of the popular discourses of globalization, examines many its discontents, and suggests nonetheless that it is too hasty to imagine its total demise. Fazal Rizvi is Emeritus Professor in Global Studies of Educati...

As we near the end of 2025, it’s time to take stock of the year. What were the big events this year and how might they impact the field of comparative education? What new ideas emerged? And where is our field headed in 2026? Continuing this FreshEd tradition, Susan Robertson and Mario Novelli join me for the last episode of the year. Mario Novelli is professor in the political economy of education...

Today we unpack the Chinese term minjian and conceptualize it for the field of comparative education. My guest is Baiwen Peng. Baiwen Peng is a doctoral student in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. His new article is “Minjian: exploring education ‘among the people’ in China,” which was published in Comparative Education. freshedpodcast.com/peng/ -- Get...

Today we unpack the education experiences of students from the former Soviet Union who have migrated to Canada. My guests are Sarfaroz Niyozov, Stephen Bahry and Max Antony-Newman. For the past few years, they have been working on a research project that has explored the experiences of the high school children with post-Soviet backgrounds in the Greater Toronto Area. The research project strives t...

Before we start today’s show, I’d like to welcome our newest FreshEd Members, Amy Stambach and Tian Renxiang. Thank you for your support. If you think FreshEd is a valuable educational resource and want to join our growing community, sign up at FreshEdpodcast.com. -- Today we unpack education alternatives to reimagine education for just futures. My guests are Frank Adamson and Carol Anne Spreen. F...

Today we explore the production of global learning metrics inside the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. My guest is Clara Fontdevila, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Clara’s newest article is entitled “The politics of good enough data. Developments, dilemmas, and deadlocks in the production of global learning metrics,” which was publish...

Thanks for listening to FreshEd. It’s rewarding to produce for the thousands of listeners around the world. But it takes a lot of work to make regular episodes. What sustains our effort are voluntary memberships from paying supporters. If you are enjoying FreshEd and would like to join our membership community, please sign up at www.freshedpodcast.com. -- Today we take stock of climate education,...

Today we explore foundational learning in low and middle income countries. My guest is Michelle Kaffenberger. Michelle Kaffenberger is the Director of evidence translation at the What Works Hub for Global Education the University of Oxford. I Spoke with her on the sidelines of the Development and Education Conference (DevEd) held in Melbourne, Australia last week. https://freshedpodcast.com/kaffen...

Today we dive into the field of education in emergencies, highlighting its entanglements with colonialism, empire, and racial capitalism. My guest is Jess Oddy. Jess Oddy is a researcher at the university of Bristol and has worked in various capacities in the field of education in emergencies. Her new article is “Retelling education in emergencies through the black radical tradition: on racial cap...

Ten years ago, on October 26, 2015, something special began in Japan. While working at the University of Tokyo, I launched the first episode of the FreshEd podcast, marking the start of what would become a cornerstone of conversations in comparative and international education. Over the past decade, FreshEd has grown into a global platform – far larger than I ever imaged -- connecting listeners in...