FreshEd

Today we celebrate the life and work of Paulo Freire, who was born on September 19, 1921. Freire has had an enormous impact on education around the world, from his concept of freedom and praxis to this understanding of oppression and liberation. I’m sure many listeners have read his famous book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” With me today is Alma Flor Ada who knew Freire and was deeply influenced by...

Today we take a critical look at the idea of competency-based education. Not only is the term hard to define but also it has various political agendas depending on which organization is promoting it. With me are Kathreyn Anderson-Levitt, a Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the University of Michigan–Dearborn and Meg Gardinier, who teaches at the School for International Training’s (SIT) Doctora...

Today Mari Casellato joins me to talk about her FreshEd Flux episode, which aired last week. I recommend you listen to her Flux episode before listening to this interview. It’ll make a lot more sense! In our conversation today, we talk about the history of environmental education and how it is different from education for sustainable development. Mari details youth conferences in Brazil in more de...

Today we air the third episode of Flux, a FreshEd series where graduate students turn their research interests into narrative-based podcasts. This episode is by Mari Casellato, a recent graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University. Mari takes us on a journey through time, revealing the potential of youth participation in environmental education in Brazil (and beyond). You might be thinking Br...

Next week we will air another episode of Flux, our series where graduate students turn their research interests into narrative-based podcasts. In fact, it’ll be the last episode of Flux for the year before we launch the application period for the next round of fellows. Next week’s episode will be about environmental education in Brazil. Environmental education is different from education for susta...

Today I’m going to play an old episode that has taken on new meaning now that we’ve aired Yardain Amron’s Flux episode, “Education is not the silver bullet.” If you don’t remember or haven’t listened, Yardain brought together multiple stories of student activism in India and Puerto Rico to paint a picture of how the privatization and marketization of higher education is a violent act. Back in 2017...

Today Yardain Amron joins me to talk about his FreshEd Flux episode, which aired last week. I recommend you listen to his Flux episode before listening to this interview. It’ll make a lot more sense! https://freshedpodcast.com/flux-amron/ In our conversation today, we talk about his process of creating podcasts and telling stories. He says he dwells on contradictions that often go unnoticed. Yarda...

Today we air the second episode of Flux, a FreshEd series where graduate students turn their research interests into narrative-based podcasts. In this episode Yardain Amron crafts a narrative that shows complex theories in action. He doesn’t simply tell his listeners what these ideas are or name them explicitly. He takes us to disparate places–from universities in India and Puerto Rico to Occupy W...

Today we explore the language of instruction in refugee education. Although learning in a home language is important, often it’s impossible for refugee children. Such tensions have important implications for refugee futures which are often unknowable. My guests are Celia Reddick and Sarah Dryden-Peterson who have recently co-written a new book chapter entitled “Refugee Education and Medium of Inst...

Today we look at some of the tensions implementing Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” My guest is Antonia Wulff who has closely followed the development, adoption, and implementation of the SDGs for nearly a decade. She even edited an open-access book about it, which was published las...

Today we take stock of the first human rights guiding principles for education, known as the Abidjan Principles. Adopted in 2019, these principles provide guidelines for State obligations to provide quality public education and the role of the private sector in education. My guest is Frank Adamson, Assistant Professor at California State University, Sacramento. Together with Sylvain Aubry, Mireill...

Today we look at the way in which dissertations in the early 20th Century produced and governed the emerging field of education and how these new knowledges moved across the world. Our focus is on Teachers College, Colombia University. My guest is Daniel Friedrich, an Associate Professor of Curriculum and Director of the Doctoral Program in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers Col...

Elite schools help reproduce the capitalist class. The sons and daughters of the wealthy go to elite schools to gain networks and receive education that helps maintain their social status in the future. My guest today, Karen Lillie, has looked at this process in an elite school in Switzerland that enrolls children from around the world. She finds that students are in the process of becoming part o...

Today I replay my conversation with Julie Mead from August 2019. We speak about her co-written report with Suzanne Eckes for the National Education Policy Center entitled: How school privatization opens the door for discrimination. In our conversation, we touch on a range of issues related to voucher programs and charter schools. Julie reminds listeners that the dictionary definition of discrimina...

Today we celebrate the life and work of Aziz Choudry, who died suddenly on May 26, 2021 at the age of 54. Aziz was a scholar-activist who fought injustice worldwide. He appeared on FreshEd twice, so to honor his legacy here is his first appearance from February 8, 2016. -- Social movements produce a huge amount of intellectual knowledge. Yet, in many academic circles, this knowledge is overlooked....

Today the journalist, author, and academic, Gary Younge, joins me to talk about race, identity, and education. Our conversation starts with his reflections on the UK Government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which published its report in March. We then touch on a range of issues from across his career. Gary Younge is a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester. He worked...

Today Daniela Hernández Silva joins me to talk about her FreshEd Flux podcast episode, which aired last week. Spoiler alert: we talk about her Flux episode in depth in today’s show. So, if you haven’t already listened to her flux episode, I recommend you hit pause now before continuing with this episode. In our conversation today, Daniela details how podcasting allowed her to combine her creative...

Today we launch the first episode of Flux, a FreshEd series where graduate students turn their research interests into narrative-based podcasts. In the first episode of Flux, Daniela Hernández Silva takes listeners to a faraway place in the Colombian countryside. Here, reality is transformed. She uses magical realism to create a composite character called Jose. Jose gives voice to the hundreds of...

It’s common to believe that education makes people socially mobility. The more education one receives, the more job prospects one will have. There are whole economic theories that explore the relationship between education, productivity, and earnings. Because of this commonplace assumption, education is believed to reduce inequality. But what if the power we commonly place on education is misplace...

Today we explore the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and its work in education. My guest, Christian Ydesen, looks at the history of the OECD to show how the international organization has shaped-shifted overtime. From this perspective, the OECD is dynamic and includes far more products and viewpoints than its famed PISA examination. Christian Ydesen is a professor at the Dep...

Today we take an inside look at Low Fee Private Schools. With me is Joanna Härmä who has recently published the book Low-Fee Private Schooling and Poverty in Developing Countries (Bloomsbury 2021) Joanna Härmä is a writer and researcher on education and development. She also owns and operates a low fee private school in India. Joanna is a visiting research fellow at the Centre for International Ed...

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 fro...

Today we think about the power of ideas and imagine what life might look like after capitalism. With me is Tim Jackson. In his new book, Post Growth: Life after capitalism, Tim shows the limits of the dominant metaphors used to explain our current world and argues for new metaphors to help imagine a sustainable, just, and creative future. Tim Jackson is the director of the center for understanding...

Special Note: Check out FreshEd's new Portuguese-language podcast called Eduquê, which launched today! https://freshedpodcast.com/eduque/ -- Climate change and its effects aren’t some future possibilities waiting to happen unless we take action today. No. The effect of climate change is already occurring. Today. Right now. Around the world, people have been displaced, fell ill, or died because of...

Today we explore the response of the Finnish education system to the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike many countries with children out of school, the narrative of “learning loss” never emerged. In fact, as Pasi Sahlberg tells me, the opposite happened. Pasi Sahlberg is a professor of education policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He’s been a regular on FreshEd for the past fi...