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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Academic writing is more than proofreading
A student came to a Language Advisory session (LAS) last week with a three-page single-spaced assignment and asked me to proofread it. I pointed out that our job is not to proofread, but to help with academic writing. The student was surprised, but we ended up having a useful session looking at the way he…
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Are we getting left behind with 21st century literacies?
I was recently at the European COST network meeting in Cyprus on ‘The digital literacy and multimodal literacy practices of young children’. The event was attended by delegates from over thirty countries and the network promises to provide a valuable and much-needed forum for synthesising and sharing research related to young children’s digital lives. The…
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Gazing into the teacher supply crystal ball: a response to Educational Excellence Everywhere
Last month’s White Paper provides much for teacher educators to think about. Chapter Two lays out how the class of 2020 might train to teach. The pen portrait of Chris on page 34 has been painted to show a perhaps predictable picture involving school based training at a SCITT as part of a multi-academy trust. The…
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Teaching observations
“Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.” (Keats) Teaching, by definition, is an activity that is observed, (McMahon, Barrett and O’Neill,2007), and during my career as an initial teacher educator and CELTA trainer I have probably observed literally thousands of hours of teaching practice. Teaching is inherently a very personal activity, since classroom decisions…
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Step away from the data
I am a governor of a secondary school which is in the process of becoming “good”. To be clear, I mean here the “good” that is measured and measurable by Ofsted. I actually think the school is already good: the staff are hard-working and committed, the pupils are motivated and well-behaved, and everyone who is…
Got any book recommendations?