FreshEd

Today we explore the relationship between UNESCO and the World Bank from the 1960s through today. My guest is Maren Elfert. She has recently published in the International Journal of Educational Development an article entitled “The power struggle over education in developing countries: the Case of the UNESCO-World Bank Co-operative program, 1964-1989.” Maren Elfert is a lecturer in education and s...

Today we explore the global education architecture and its failures to ensure quality education. My guest is Girindre Beeharry. In a new article in the International Journal of Educational Development, he calls on the international community to focus on foundational literacy and numeracy and says it is high time for the global education community to hold itself accountable. His article is entitled...

Today we flip the script. Susan Robertson interviews me as part of her weekly Ideas Lab seminar at Cambridge University. We discuss the creation and evolution of FreshEd and what the podcast’s impact has been on higher education. We recorded this interview in front of a live Zoom audience. freshedpodcast.com/brehm -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodca...

Does more schooling always lead to a better life? Is this optimistic view a certainty everyone around the world can expect? My guest today, Fran Vavrus, has recently written a new book that weaves together her 30 years of work in Tanzania with her own biography as an academic, mother, and development practitioner. She details the tension between the certainty and uncertainty inherent in education....

Shadow education is private supplementary tutoring. East Asia is often assumed to be the center of private tutoring. But it’s actually a global phenomenon. Today Mark Bray joins me to talk about shadow education in Africa. Mark Bray is the Director of the Centre for International Research in Supplementary Tutoring (CIRIST) at East China Normal University in Shanghai, and UNESCO Chair in Comparativ...

What does it mean to be both an activist and an academic? With me today are Colette Cann & Eric DeMeulenaere. They have spent their careers wearing both of these hats. They’ve found ways for their activism to create social change in the academy and for their academic pursuits to inform their activism. In their new co-written book titled The Activist Academic: Engaged Scholarship for Resistance, Ho...

Vietnam has been herald as an education superstar. In just a few years, it both increased access to education and improved student learning outcomes. What explains Vietnam’s success, and can other countries learn anything from the Vietnam experience? My guest today is Jonathan London, Associate professor of Global Political Economy at Leiden University. He has a new working paper for RISE, which s...

To kick off the year, Professor Marie Lall joins me today to talk about education reform in Myanmar. Marie Lall has recently published a new, Open-Access book entitled Myanmar’s Education Reforms – a pathway to social justice? I’ve posted a link to the book on our website. Check it out! She is a professor at the UCL Institute of Education and has over 25 years of experience in the region. www.fres...

Special note: New episodes start next week! School students all over the globe have declared a “Climate Emergency.” For some time now, youth have been striking for immediate and effective action to stop global warming and secure the habitability of our planet. Greta Thunberg is perhaps the most recognizable student protesting. You’ve probably seen her moving speech at the United Nations. In the co...

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...

On Wednesday, the Trump presidency comes to an end. To look back at the past four years, we are going to replay this episode with Julian Vasquez Heilig. In this episode, we explore the schooling received by children affected by the Trump administration’s immigration policy of family separation. This was one of the most sinister policies of the Trump era, one in which the incoming Biden administrat...

In the aftermath of the riots in America, I thought it would be timely to replay my conversation with Cynthia Miller-Idriss. Our conversation focused on her book, The Extreme Gone Mainstream, which looks at far right youth subculture in Germany. Many of the insights she reveals about extremist groups in Germany can be applied to the groups that stormed the Capitol building in America. Cynthia Mill...

Many students move across national borders to attend university. Although the number of these globally mobile students is small compared to the total number of students enrolled in higher education, there numbers are increasing. But the patterns are changing, with more regional and south-south mobility. The role of scholarships in promoting these new patterns of student mobility is gaining attenti...

Note: FreshEd is on holidays. Since the pandemic continues to rage worldwide, I wanted to re-air an interview from March. Much of what Yaneer Bar-Yam mentioned then is still true today, 9 months later. -- Blaise Pascal, the 17th Century French mathematician and physicist, once wrote “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” As people and governments aro...

Today Susan Robertson and Mario Novelli join me to review the year. And what a year it’s been! Covid-19 has upended the world. But how has it upended research on education and globalization? Has it changed how we think about and teach comparative and international education? Susan Robertson is a professor of education in the Faculty of Education at the university of Cambridge. Mario Novelli is Pro...

What’s the relationship between school dropout, child marriage, and early pregnancy? Do girls drop out of school because of early marriage or pregnancy? Or is it the reverse? My guest today is Erin Murphy-Graham who has researched these questions extensively in Honduras. She focuses on the agency of girls in their adolescence and the disconnect between schooling and their futures. Erin Murphy-Grah...

Today I wax philosophically with Dennis Shirley about his new co-edited special issue of the ECNU Review of Education entitled Beyond well-being: Educating for Wholeness and Purpose. In our conversation we discuss the future of education and the dialectic between well-being and learning. Dennis Shirley is Duganne Faculty Fellow and Professor of Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human...

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 t...

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 iss...

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 S...

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," whi...

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 Wisconsi...

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 stud...

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 conver...

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...