Freshed

Today we dig into the ways in which governments in low- and middle-income countries make decisions on education. What interventions work and which should be scaled? My guest is Brad Olsen. As he shows, these questions are a lot more complex than we might think. Brad Olsen is a senior fellow with the Center for Universal Education in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. He has recently published the report “Government Decisionmaking on Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Understanding the Fit among innovation, scaling strategy, and broader environment.” This report is part of the Research on Scaling the Impact of Innovations in Education (ROSIE) multiyear project housed at the Center for Universal Education at Brookings and part of the Global Partnership for Education’s Knowledge and Innovation Exchange. Brad’s opinions expressed on today’s episode are his alone, not official Brookings’ policy. https://freshedpodcast.com/olsen/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @Fre

Today we talk about what it would mean to queer higher education. My guests are Louise Morley and Daniel Leyton. In their new book, they disrupt some of the norms and common ways of thinking in higher education today.  Louise Morley is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sussex and Daniel Leyton is a Lecturer at the University of Exeter. Their new book is entitled Queering Higher Education: Troubling Norms in the Global Knowledge Economy. https://freshedpodcast.com/morley-leyton/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Today we explore the way in which education and economic well-being were linked in the USA. My guest, Jon Shelton, calls the link a myth and shows how it prevented alternative visions of education from expanding and furthering social democracy. Jon Shelton is a Professor and chair of democracy and justice studies at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. His new book is The Education Myth: How Human Capital Trumped Social Democracy (Cornell University Press, 2023). https://freshedpodcast.com/shelton/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Today we air the last episode of Flux Season 2. Flux is a FreshEd series where graduate students turn their research interests into narrative-based podcasts. This episode was created by Michael Rumbelow, a PhD student at the University of Bristol. In his Flux episode, Michael takes listeners on a sonic journey to explore block play. He weaves together sounds and ideas to show the power and possibilities of play. I hope you enjoy today’s episode. freshedpodcast.com/flux-rumbelow -- Credits: This episode was created, written, produced and edited by Michael Rumbelow. Johannah Fahey was the executive producer. Brett Lashua and Will Brehm were the producers. Vicki Mitchem played Virginia Woolf and Bertha Ronge, Dave Jackson played Friedrich Froebel, Karl Marx, and Charles Dickens, and Simone Datzberger played Melanie Klein. Studio audio technicians were Patrick Robinson and Simon Vause. Thank you and Aray to Sifo Lakaw, chairman of the Association of Pangcah Language Revitalization in Taiwan, Adrian Rook

Today we air the next episode of Flux. a FreshEd series where graduate students turn their research interests into narrative-based podcasts. This episode was created by Aizuddin Mohamed Anuar, who recently graduated with his PhD from Oxford and is now a lecturer in education at Keele University. In his Flux episode, Aizuddin problematizes the meaning of development. Is development always a forward motion? Or does it weave side to side like a river? And how does development get written onto lives? Is it always bad? Is it always good? Aizuddin meanders through these questions, connecting family memory to the development of Malaysia. freshedpodcast.com/flux-anuar -- Credits: Episode created, written, produced, and edited by Aizuddin Mohamed Anuar. Executive Producer: Johannah Fahey Producers: Brett Lashua and Will Brehm Voices: Narrator, Inner monologue, Translation of Mak, Willard C. Bush: Aizuddin Mohamed Anuar Long: Nazmi Anuar Joint reading from text: Nazmi Anuar and Ahmad Akif Mak: Noraini Ahmad Y

Today we air the next episode of Flux. This episode was created by Bhavani Kunjulakshmi, a recent graduate of the UCL Institute of Education and staff writer at Feminism in India. Bhavani’s episode explores the meaning of colonization and decolonization in international development and education. We might think we know what colonization is. The history. The actors involved. The exploitation. But what does it feel like? And then what would it mean to decolonize? And what would that feel like? Bhavani explores these questions. freshedpodcast.com/flux-kunjulakshmi -- This episode was created, written, produced and edited by Bhavani Kunjulakshmi. Johannah Fahey was the executive producer. Brett Lashua and Will Brehm were the producers. Fred Brehm read the quote by Noah Chomsky and Fran Vavrus read the quote by Martha Nussbaum. Music was composed by M.C Couper The bell hooks’ clip was a part of ‘A Public Dialogue between bell hooks & Laverne Cox hosted by Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts’ (Creative comm

Today we re-air the first episode of the second season of Flux, a FreshEd series where graduate students turn their research interests into narrative-based podcasts. In this Flux episode, Yanan Yu tells a story that raises some interesting questions about how ability should be defined. Is it enough that she has a level ten certification in piano? And a master’s degree? And now works at the BBC? Or does she need something else to be considered able? freshedpodcast.com/flux-yu -- Today’s episode was created, written, produced, and edited by Yanan Yu. Johannah Fahey was the executive producer and Brett Lashua and Will Brehm were the producers. Flux theme music by Joseph Minadeo of Pattern Based music. The piano pieces in this episode, listed below, are all played by Yanan Yu: Claude Debussy: Ballade L. 70 Frederic Chopin: Etudes Op. 10 No. 3 Franz Liszt : Un Sospiro, Trois Etudes de Concert S.144 Sergei Rachmaninoff: Elegy Op. 3 No. 1 Wanghua Chu, 春江舟影 Thanks to Haozhou Ding, Zeyu Wang, Yishuang Xu, Xiaot

Today we air the third episode of Flux, a FreshEd series where graduate students turn their research interests into narrative-based podcasts. This episode is by Mari Casellato, a recent graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University. Mari takes us on a journey through time, revealing the potential of youth participation in environmental education in Brazil (and beyond). You might be thinking Brazil – where the Amazon was on fire just last year and the current Bolsonaro government has been routinely criticized for doing too little to prepare for the climate crisis. But back in the 1990s and early 2000s, Brazil spearheaded this idea of environmental education, which brought together a diversity of voices through national conferences and was seen as a political act. Mari was personally involved in this history. https://freshedpodcast.com/flux-casellato/ Credits: This episode was created, written, produced, and edited by Mari Casellato. Johannah Fahey was the executive producer and Brett Lashua and Will Bre

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Please take this survey on podcasting in higher education: www.freshedpodcast.com/survey -- In this Flux episode, Yardain Amron crafts a narrative that shows complex theories in action. He doesn’t simply tell his listeners what these ideas are or name them explicitly. He takes us to disparate places–from universities in India and Puerto Rico to Occupy Wall Street–and makes a connection between them by embedding stories within stories. Through this nested narrative, he shows us how the streets are schools by exploring spaces of activism as educative sites, while leading us to the core idea at the heart of this episode: the relationship between debt and violence. Yardain Amron is a freelance journalist and master’s student in Geography at the University of British Columbia. https://freshedpodcast.com/flux-amron/ Credits: Today’s episode was created, written, produced, and edited by Yardain Amron. Johannah Fahey was the executive producer and Brett Lashua and Will Brehm were the producer

Special announcement: Starting in July, the University of Canberra will be the new home of FreshEd! While Will moves to Australia, we'll be re-playing the FreshEd Flux episodes. Also, please take this survey on podcasting in higher education: www.freshedpodcast.com/survey -- In the first episode of Flux, Daniela Hernández Silva takes listeners to a faraway place in the Colombian countryside. Here, reality is transformed. She uses magical realism to create a composite character called Jose. Jose gives voice to the hundreds of people Daniela spoke with during her five-years of ethnographic fieldwork. By raising Jose’s voice and listening to what he has to tell us, Daniela offers an alternative reading of Escuela Nueva, the award-winning rural education program founded in Colombia. She challenges policy assumptions about rural education in Colombia as a way to begin to change the narrative. Daniela also questions academic conventions and critiques the legitimacy of academic knowledge over local experience. T

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Please take this survey on podcasting in higher education: www.freshedpodcast.com/survey -- Today we continue our mini-series called the FreshEd Questionnaire. I’ve been asking guests a set of standard questions after each interview. These questions focus on how guests approach writing, reading, research, and supervision. I want to talk about them to highlight the many different approaches to the day-to-day activities we do inside universities. Today’s episode focuses on reading and writing. I asked guests to describe how they approach writing and to name their favorite book or author. Here’s what they had to say. freshedpodcast.com/323-questionnaire -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Please take this survey on podcasting in higher education: www.freshedpodcast.com/survey -- Today we continue our mini-series called the FreshEd Questionnaire. I’ve been asking guests a set of standard questions after each interview. These questions focus on how guests approach writing, reading, research, and supervision. I want to talk about them to highlight the many different approaches to the day-to-day activities we do inside universities. Today’s episode focuses on research. I asked guests to describe how they approach research and to give one piece of advice to a new student in terms of conducting research. Here’s what they had to say. freshedpodcast.com/322-questionnaire -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Please take this survey on podcasting in higher education: www.freshedpodcast.com/survey -- Today we continue our mini-series called the FreshEd Questionnaire. I’ve been asking guests a set of standard questions after each interview. These questions focus on how guests approach writing, reading, research, and supervision. These are the day-to-day activities we do inside universities, but we don’t talk too much about them. I want to talk about them to highlight the many different approaches. Today’s episode focuses on supervision. I asked guests to describe their preferred method of supervision. Here’s what they said. freshedpodcast.com/321-questionnaire -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

Today we explore the interconnections between Educational Assessment and Inclusive Education. My guests are Alison Milner and Ezequiel Gómez Caride. Alison Milner is an assistant professor in the Centre for Education Policy Research of the Department for Culture and Learning at Aalborg University in Denmark. Ezequiel Gómez Caride is an assistant professor at the School of Education at the University of San Andrés in Argentina. Together with Christian Ydesen, Tali Aderet-German and Youjin Ruan, they’ve recently co-written the book Educational Assessment and Inclusive Education: Paradoxes, Perspectives and Potentialities. https://freshedpodcast.com/milner-caride/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Today we look at systems thinking in international education and development. With me are Moira V. Faul and Laura Savage. Moira V. Faul is Executive Director of NORRAG, and also a Senior Lecturer at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Laura Savage is the Executive Director of the International Education Funders Group (IEFG). Their new co-edited collection is entitled Systems Thinking in International Education and Development, which is Open Access. Please note: NORRAG provides financial contributions to FreshEd. https://freshedpodcast.com/faul-savage/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Today we explore the production of global learning metrics inside the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. My guest is Clara Fontdevila, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Clara’s newest article is entitled “The politics of good enough data. Developments, dilemmas, and deadlocks in the production of global learning metrics,” which was published in the International Journal of Educational Development. Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Thanks to Matthew Thomas for organizing the event. https://freshedpodcast.com/fontdevila/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Today we explore scholarly podcasting: what it is and why it matters. With me is Ian M. Cook, who has recently published the book Scholarly Podcasting: Why, What, How? Ian M. Cook is Editor and Chief at Allegra Lab. He is an anthropologist whose work focus includes urban India, scholarly podcasting, open education, and environmental (in)justice. https://freshedpodcast.com/cook/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Today we explore one Ph.D. student’s journey from Yemen to the USA. We dig into different traditions of Islam and education, and what it means to shift between extremes. My guest is Abdulrahman Bindamnan, a Ph.D. student in Comparative ‎and International Development Education at the University of ‎Minnesota. He serves as a Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center ‎for the Study of Global Change and is a contributing writer for Psychology Today where he documents his journey living abroad in a regular column. https://freshedpodcast.com/bindamnan/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Today we explore the process of colonization and decolonization from a comparative perspective. My guest is Lachlan McNamee who has recently published the book Settling for Less: Why states colonize and why they stop. Lachlan McNamee is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at UCLA and a Lecturer of Politics at Monash University. https://freshedpodcast.com/mcnamee/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Today we explore the experiences of Black Caribbean youth in the United Kingdom and the United States. My guest is Derron Wallace, an assistant professor of sociology and education at Brandeis University. Derron Wallace’s new book is The Culture Trap: Ethnic Expectations and Unequal Schooling for Black Youth. https://freshedpodcast.com/wallace/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate