Meet The Education Researcher

Prof. Julia Resnik (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) talks about her ongoing research into the International Baccalaureate – comparing the program’s take-up in US and Canada through to Argentina, Ecuador and Chile. We discuss how the idealistic origins of the IB program have subsequently been shaped by national and local contexts, and what the IB tells us about the supposed internationalisation of...

“I’m not anti-technology … I’m pro-justice”. Dr. Marie Heath (Loyola University) works to encourage an informed scepticism about digital technology in education. We talk about getting critical tech issues into Social Studies lessons, conducting ‘techno-ethical audits’ of school platforms, and creative ways of encouraging students and teachers to reflect on issues of power and political economy. Fu...

Mark Andrejevic (Monash University) is a leading commentator on surveillance, information and digital media. In this interview Mark looks back on his highly acclaimed 2020 book ‘Automated Media’, and considers how these issues are beginning to play out in the digital technologies now being taken up across schools and universities. Full transcript available: https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/jour...

Professor Alison Taylor (UBC) has spent her career looking at the interplay between students, education, work and the economy. We talk about the changing nature of student life in time of precarious employment, the limitations of talking about educational ‘careers’ and ‘trajectories’, and the empirical methods that Alison has found to be particularly successful when researching student experience.

Professor Bob Lingard (ACU) reflects on the art and craft of being an education researcher. He talks about the distinction between ‘education’ research and ‘educational’ research, standing up for the added value of university-based research, and the need for academics to engage in the politics of education research. * full text transcript: https://criticaledtech.com/2022/07/08/what-makes-for-good-...

Knowledge is a fundamental aspect of education, but something that education research rarely addresses head-on. Dr. Kate O’Connor (La Trobe University) specialises in the sociology of knowledge, and in this episode talks about her work around curriculum development, online teaching, and the increasing pressure for academics to engage in open scholarship.

Prof Jen Gilbert (York University) is a leading international researcher in the area of sexuality, gender and education. We talk about school as a site of sexuality, Jen’s use of storytelling methods, tips for dealing with the media, and how perceptions of ‘risk’ have altered since COVID.

“Historians remind us of what we might prefer to forget” Johannes Westberg (University of Groningen) is one of Europe’s rising historians of education. We talk about his recent paper: “What we can learn from studying the past: The wonderful usefulness of history in educational research”, and consider the benefits of thinking more critically about sources of evidence, drawing on historical comparis...

Frank Pasquale (Brooklyn Law School) is a leading commentator on the social and legal consequences of AI, robotics and algorithms. Drawing on his 2020 book ‘The New Laws of Robotics’, Frank talks about various emerging issues around education and AI – from the changing status of professional educators to the possible regulation of ed-tech.

In this episode, Troy Heffernan (La Trobe University) talks about the continuing relevance of Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas to contemporary higher education. We talk about the importance of Bourdieu’s notion of ‘cultural trajectories’, his 1990 book ‘Homo Academicus’, and Troy’s own use of Bourdieu to make sense of rising tensions between university middle-managers and academics.

Despite their social democratic origins, Swedish schools now depend heavily on the support of commercial companies. Professor Malin Ideland (Malmo University) talks about her research into Sweden’s diverse ‘edu-business’ and ‘edu-prenuer’ sectors. Malin describes the breadth of work that these private actors take on, their underpinning ideology, alongside the impact this is having on public educat...

Chris Gilliard (@hypervisible) is a leading critic of surveillance technology, digital privacy, and the problematic ways that tech intersects with race and social class. We talk about the automated forms of surveillance that are coming into schools and colleges – from ‘online examination proctoring’ to the use of ‘Alexa’ in classrooms. Why do people in EdTech seem reluctant to call out the harms a...

Gert Biesta (University of Edinburgh) is one of the best-known – and most interesting - current philosophers of education. We talk about Gert’s recent interest in the work of Klaus Prange, the need to come up with better questions (rather than answers), the prominence of ‘empty concepts’ in education, and advice for early career academics starting out in education research. Full text transcription...

“Laptops will make a good school better, but they won’t make a bad school good” In this episode, we join Mark Warschauer (UC Irvine) for an overview of his 30 year career researching digital learning. We talk about why digital technology continues to be hyped as a ‘game changer’ in education, how children talk to computers as compared to humans, and Mark’s experience of editing the AERA Open journ...

Educational philosopher Carl Anders Safstrom (Maynooth University) joins us to talk about the past, present and future of ‘public education’. We trace the origins of the idea from post-war Europe back to the writing of John Dewey, and even further to the Ancient Greek ‘Sophists’. Carl Anders also considers how models of public education differ dramatically between countries – highlighting recent r...

How do students learn to interact with others? How do teachers cope with stress? In this episode, we join psychologist Rebecca Collie (UNSW) for an overview of her work on social and emotional development in schools. We talk about how students’ disruptive behaviours impact teachers, the concept of workplace buoyancy, and the challenges of doing rapid research on how teachers coped with the COVID l...

Does the idea of ‘globalisation’ still have any relevance for understanding education in the 2020s? Fazal Rizvi (University of Melbourne) talks about what education policy now looks like in light of the rise of Asia, alongside increased worldwide shifts toward nationalism, popularism, and anti-globalisation. We also discuss the digitization of society, the significance of post-colonial theory, and...

Val Mendes (UNESCO) brings a global perspective to the topic of AI and education – particularly in light of UNESCO’s focus on educational policy and practice around the world. We talk about the importance of seeing AI in ‘narrow’ terms, the idea of ‘augmented’ intelligence, what UNESCO is doing to support AI and education, and the big questions of what can AI do well in low- and middle-income coun...

What is the educational potential of artificial intelligence? Erica Southgate (University of Newcastle) talks us through some of the key issues surrounding the emergence of educational AI technology. We talk about the importance of AI explainability, the idea of big tech companies working alongside education communities, and the complex questions about the changing nature of learning with AI. A fu...

What role does science education have in a ‘post-truth’ era when some people deny climate change, oppose vaccinations, and believe COVID to be a hoax? In this episode, Gale Sinatra and Barbara Hofer talk about their new book – Science Denial: Why It Happens & What To Do About It. We discuss the psychology of science denial – from cognitive biases through to the influence of group identity – and co...

‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ is a key educational text - packed with radical ideas about critical pedagogy and the death of the authoritarian teacher. In this episode, we join Carlos Alberto Torres (UCLA) for a deep dive into the background against which Freire was writing, the specific contexts of his ideas, and how we should be engaging with Pedagogy of the Oppressed over 50 years since its publi...

Antero Garcia (Stanford University) talks about his work in the area of media education and civics. We start by talking about the future of civics education in US schooling. We also explore the roles that games and gaming can play in reimagining (and disrupting) what goes on in the classroom. From Trump to Twitch to Paulo Freire in 15 minutes!

“So you’re a science educator? That’s so radical!’ Sara Tolbert (University of Canterbury) is committed to challenging the politics and power that underpin science education. Sara talks about her work in supporting Indigenous knowledge and place-based learning in school, feminist approaches to teaching as care-work, and what we can learn from the classroom ritual of dissecting animals. We also ref...

“We cannot understand education policy and power in education only by looking at the nation state”. Dr. Jason Beech has just joined Monash University’s Faculty of Education. He talks about the importance of space and networks in comparative education, his work on ‘Global Middle Class’ families and ‘idiosyncratic’ policy enactment, and the differences he expects to see moving from research in Argen...

Professor Nathalie Sinclair (Simon Fraser University) is a leading philosopher whose work strives to change the way we think about learning and teaching maths. In this interview Nathalie talks about the importance of gestures when explaining mathematical concepts, why students should be encouraged to count on their fingers, and why there is room for aesthetics, values and romance when thinking abo...