-
Learning through outdoor adventure today helps young people adapt to the challenges of tomorrow
Within a world which currently resembles a moving target, an enormous amount of unmitigated information is at young people’s fingertips. Consequently, the measure of their knowledge is not the amount of this information which can be retained (cognitive skills). Rather, it is their ability to curate (filter and process) material coupled with an understanding of […]
-
England’s Pisa is decidedly lop-sided
This year’s PISA results were launched in the offices of Policy Exchange. It was a fitting choice – according to Nick Gibb the former schools minister, given that of all the think tanks, Policy Exchange is one of those which has had the greatest influence over the direction of England’s education policy since the election […]
-
Minimising harm in research with multilingual parents – protecting participants through creating translanguaging space
Research ethics in higher education institutions are increasingly led by the mantra: protect the institution, protect the participants, protect yourself. Mostly this is quality assured through increasingly bureaucratic processes involving form filling and standardised risk assessments. As ethics representative for SIOE this has caused me many sleepless nights thinking about whether the multiple ethics forms […]
-
COP28: Opportunities for the education sector
We are now nearly halfway through the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai. The COP conferences are intended for governments to agree policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated with climate change.Later this week, Friday 8th and Saturday 9th December, the first annual meeting of the Greening Education Partnership […]
-
COP28 kicks off this week and education plays a crucial role in the conference
COP28 kicks off this week and education plays a crucial role in the conference The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28 for short) takes place in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December this year. The COP conferences are intended for governments to agree policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated […]
-
Speaking volumes and silent echoes: uncovering government priorities for disabled young people in the SEND review
“Language exerts hidden power like the moon on the tides.” Rita Mae Brown (2011) In a recent paper from the Right to Review project, we analysed the SEND Review (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), a Green Paper that set out the government’s proposed reforms for the SEND system. Our aim was to interrogate “the hidden […]
-
Writing on writing: five suggestions for challenging your writing practices
In this post I reflect on strategies that help me write. Of course, I still get stuck, distracted or temporarily disheartened, feeling that whatever I write is inadequate. But writing captures, however clumsily, an expression of an idea, an argument, a position, at a moment in time. And it can always be revised. As I […]
-
Writing the doctorate
Writing the doctorate is hard. I am reminded of this of late, as four of my doctoral students are in the mythical writing up stage. I say ‘mythical’ because we all know that students don’t just ‘write up’ once the data analysis is done and dusted. My students have been writing continuously over the course […]
-
Widening Participation in 2023: shifting policy drivers, shifting institutional responses
Widening participation is essentially about two things: 1) making it easier for underrepresented groups to access higher education than it would be otherwise – a project closely tied to notions of social justice and attempts to eradicate access inequality; 2) it is about ensuring that there is a sufficiently highly educated labour force for the […]
-
Teachers of the world, we salute you!
To celebrate World Teachers’ Day 2023, colleagues at the Sheffield Institute of Education recall the teachers that meant the world to us. Mr Eskdale, Gosforth East Middle School, Newcastle Upon-Tyne, 1976-1979Mr Eskdale understood, as I look back at it now, that if you take an interest in a child, they will be motivated to do […]
Got any book recommendations?