The Edge Podcast

Episode 4 – Global Learning Crisis The Edge with Ponnie & Debbie In this episode of The Edge with Ponnie & Debbie , we take a deeper look at what many experts are calling the global learning crisis — and the surprising ways it shows up across very different countries. Ponnie shares data from South Africa revealing that only about 31% of foundation phase students are reading for meaning , w...

Disparities in Education: Naming the Gaps Across Continents In this episode of The Edge with Ponnie & Debbie , we take a cross-continental look at education disparities in 2025 — and discover that while the contexts differ, the fractures often rhyme. Ponnie unpacks the realities across Africa: chronic underfunding, rural–urban divides, teacher shortages, and structural inequities that limit ac...

Episode 1: At the Edge of Education Welcome to The Edge —a new podcast where honest conversation meets global perspective. In this first episode, educators Deborah “Debbie” DeLisle (Tennessee, U.S.) and Ponnie ( Johannesburg, South Africa) introduce themselves, share how this cross-continental collaboration came to be, and name the questions that pulled them to the edge of conventional thinking ab...

Episode 1: Ethics in Education — Cheating What does it really mean to “cheat” in education—and why does it happen so often? In this first official episode of The Edge , educators Deborah “Debbie” DeLisle and Ponnie take a hard look at cheating—not as a simple moral failure, but as a signal of deeper systemic breakdowns. Drawing from lived experience across education systems in the U.S. and communi...