-
Responding to complexity: a new third tier for school based education
Change has become a constant in the English school education system. A major driver has, and for the moment continues to be, the Government’s on-going strategy for a school-led self-improving system which incorporates a number of new, and relatively new, organisational structures and influential roles. In no particular order these include the office of Regional…
-
Warning: May contain nuts. The role of lectures in student learning
It was about fifteen minutes after take-off and I was offered a thimble full of diet Coke and a postage stamp size packet of peanuts. Despite the minuscule size of the packet of peanuts, emblazoned across it was the statement ‘Warning: may contain nuts’. This worried me on two levels: firstly as a packet of…
-
Is Friendship Something that can be Taught in Schools?
This is the question that both a New York magazine and a Dublin radio show were eager to ask me after the recent publication of my research article in the International Journal of Early Years Education titled ‘A Pedagogy of Friendship: young children’s friendship and how schools can support them’. This study followed seven children…
-
What’s the meaning of International Students?
Four thousand students at Sheffield Hallam are eligible to wear the International Student wristband. These identity markers draw institutional distinctions surrounding fees, immigrations rules, police registration and visas. But wearing the wristband can trigger images of students who lack criticality, are passive, plagiarize, and follow other deficient learning habits. Lecturers and students do well to…
-
Bridging the great divide? Building understanding between primary and secondary schools
In the past few weeks, two issues have come together for me, both focussed on the transition from primary to secondary school. Firstly, like thousands of other children in Year 6, my elder son and his school received the results from the new Key Stage 2 (KS2) assessments introduced by the government this year. Secondly,…
-
Space matters – but how, why and to whom?
Doreen Massey died recently. ‘Doreen who’ I hear most of you asking? She was a feminist, a geographer and a political activist who worked at the Open University (http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/27/doreen-massey-obituary). Like other cultural icons we’ve lost recently (David Bowie, Prince, Victoria Wood, Muhammad Ali) Doreen Massey’s death feels significant. Along with a few others (Henri Lefebvre,…
-
To praise or not to praise: is that the question?
Two years ago a casual conversation with a colleague about my experience of what I call the ‘deficit model of praise’, that is “what is the point of telling someone they have done well? If they are not told that they are wrong then it is obvious that they have done OK” provoked an unexpectedly…
-
Religious students in a secular sector need a stronger voice
The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis recently suggested that religious intolerance towards Jewish students is at such a level that Jewish students are being routinely ‘vilified’ on campus. Although he was addressing wider recent debates about anti-Semitism, he particularly targeted vice chancellors for their failure to address ‘Jew hatred’ religious intolerance. Jewish students are not alone in being the…
-
Does it matter where James Bond went to school?
It would appear that Daniel Craig has drunk his last shaken Martini and the role of James Bond is up for grabs. This transition to the next Bond has given opportunity to speculate, suggest and lobby for the actor who should next take up the mantle of 007. Over the past 54 years 10 actors…
-
Quantity over Quality
Over the past two decades there has been an unprecedented focus on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The 1998 National Childcare Strategy set out the then Labour government’s intention to increase ECEC provision across the sector through a number of initiatives. This continued during the Coalition term of government. However, during this time, policy…
Got any book recommendations?