Teachers' Voices

Teachers' Voices, the podcast in which teachers tell their own stories, in their own words, is back for season two.   No matter the learning context - from Stockholm, to Uruguay - teachers are one of the most influential and powerful forces we have for equity, access and quality in education. And they’re an important part of sustainable global development.  Join Nina Alonso for inspiring inte...

As adults we take it for granted that we have the ability to choose. But for children, they don’t always have the awareness that they have choices available to them.  Yet having agency, i.e. making choices based on active engagement in decision making, plays a vital role in developing a child’s self esteem as well as enabling their learning.  In this episode, we hear from Natalia Kucirkova, Profes...

Good school practices are the key to helping build better educational systems, says Renaud Comba, research manager at UNICEF, but detecting exemplary school practices is easier said than done: “For the first time we are paying attention to the already created, contextualized, cost effective local solutions that local stakeholders have created through practice and through understanding where they l...

Investing in children’s foundational educational skills is key to their learning and development, as these skills are the building blocks for other life skills and further education, says Professor Ricardo Sabates, a researcher dedicated to equipping out-of-school children in the global south with basic numeracy, reading and writing skills. “One of the challenges that we have is that when children...

We all remember that one teacher from school who had a long lasting positive impact on us. In this episode, we hear once more from a variety of educators around the world, each one sharing why they’re so passionate about preparing children for their future. First we hear from Nadia in New York:  “The long impact that teachers have is we do things that we are passionate about, from our heart we pou...

Our world is evolving so quickly and the skills that students needed to thrive just a few years ago are fast becoming obsolete. So what 21st century core competencies do students need to learn to succeed in our modern world? In this episode we are joined by two inspiring teachers, Enzil and Samaya, who, despite working in very different places – The Bahamas and Nepal - and teaching very different...

One key aspect of children’s lives and development which many of the teachers we have spoken to for this podcast have mentioned, regardless of who they’re teaching and where they are, is the relevance of parental and family engagement in children’s education.  Their observations mirror the findings of today’s guest Sharon Wolf, an applied developmental psychologist interested in how young children...

Over the last 18 months teachers have had to find innovative ways to not only teach, but engage with students. For many, they’ve relied on technology to help them educate their students. But how do technology and play contribute to learning? In today’s episode, we explore the intersection between learning through play and technology. First we speak with Bo Stjerne Thomsen, Chair of Learning Throug...

Children need to develop reasoning skills in order to carry out problem solving in the real world, says Professor Lindsey Richland. But what are reasoning skills and why are they so important for children to learn, and what role can teachers play in helping develop them?  Lindsey explains:  “When we are learning how to reason and how to use that information, teachers are able to use those resource...

Play is essential for learning and development. Typically, we associate play-based learning with young children, but, says Bo Stjerne Thomsen, Chair of Learning Through Play and the Vice-President of the Lego Foundation, an international expert on play, learning and creativity, play is beneficial for all ages. “Play is inherently about engagement, about motivation to engage in things that are diff...

In this special episode, Nina is joined firstly by Gemma Wirz, Editor in Chief of BOLD to discuss the show’s journey so far, and to pause and reflect once more on why it’s so important to listen to teachers’ voices: “I have always been fascinated by oral traditions and communication as a means of disseminating culture and education. I believe that teachers’ stories need to be shared. They deserve...

Why is literature and storytelling so important for children and adolescents? This is the topic we explore in this latest episode of Teachers’ Voices with our special guest, Evelyn Arizpe, an expert in children's literature and literacy. Evelyn pioneered research into children’s responses to picturebooks and visual literacy and, in the last decade, her research has focused on migration and di...

There are 3 major challenges that teachers around the world have had to respond to during the recent COVID-19 pandemic: changing pedagogy, the mission, and dealing with challenges in their own households while trying to teach online.  “Many of our concerns have been about kids, and how we make sure that they're still learning. It's wonderful to hear the discourse turn to thinking about t...

If you’re an educator supporting children learning various languages, at different developmental stages and in different contexts and geographies, then don’t miss Kaja Jasinska, a cognitive neuroscientist interested in understanding how early life experience changes the brain’s capacity for language and learning.  “We found that school children who are learning two languages from birth actually ou...

This episode has some discussion around bulimia and mental health issues. Listener discretion is advised.  If you’re an educator keen to learn more about motivation and self esteem in children’s learning, don’t miss Eddie Brummelman, a researcher studying children's growing understanding of themselves as individuals, how children develop self-views, how these self-views shape mental health an...

In this episode of Teachers’ Voices, we explore the challenges of teaching and learning under adverse conditions with special guest, Willem Frankenhuis. Willem is an expert in developmental psychology, and specialises in social and cognitive skills and abilities that might be enhanced in harsh and unpredictable environments. Willem discusses why it’s so important to take adversity into account whe...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Teachers’ Voices where you’ll hear three very different stories of teachers coming at teaching from very different learning environments, contexts and situations. Yet all of these teachers share a passionate commitment to the particular needs of individual learners.  Our first special guest is Nora Marketos, co-lead of the learning school’s portfolio of the Jaco...

Teachers are one of the most influential and powerful forces for equity, access and quality in education. They provide children and young people with the knowledge, skills, attitude and tools needed to reach their full potential. Teachers' Voices is a podcast series from BOLD, the digital platform on learning and development. Join Nina Alonso as she shares powerful stories from teachers aroun...