Education for social change Lukas Wallrich

The controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes is finally (slowly) falling at the University of Oxford, and Black Lives Matter protests have started or accelerated similar discussions in many other institutions. However, UK universities are still steeped in a legacy of colonialism and White privilege. In this podcast, I discuss with Mia Liyanage who recently published a high-profile report into the matter what decolonisation means, why it matters, and what the barriers are. The conversation definitely opened my eyes in some areas and gave me ideas of how I can approach teaching a bit differently in this academic year.

You can find Mia's report here and as we say in the conversation, it really is well worth a read.

As always, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions for guests, I'd be happy to hear from you, especially now that I am taking a step back to plan the next season. Please email me at lukas.wallrich@empower-training.de

Theme music from https://filmmusic.io: "Zigzag" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY 4.0

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In this episode, I interview Robin Goldberg, the Chief Experience Officer of Minerva Schools at KGI. Minerva started as a project to rethink undergraduate education in the US, and move it beyond the current stage when students spend a huge amount of money for what often amounts to poorly designed education. They have designed a whole new curriculum and pedagogical approach, that runs almost entirely online - an inspiration not just in the age of Covid. Apart from the state of undergraduate education and Minverva's proposed solution, we also discuss lessons learned in the process of starting a new educational endeavour, so this episode is well worth a listen. If you then want to learn more, check out the book published by Minverva's founder: Building the Intentional University.

As always, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions for guests, I'd be happy to hear from you. Email me at lukas.wallrich@empower-training.de

Theme music from https://filmmusic.io: "Zigzag" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY 4.0

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In this episode, I interview Chris Edwards, the CEO of Green School Taranaki in New Zealand. Before starting this school in early 2020, Chris was head of the United World College of South East Asia (UWCSEA), one of the largest international schools in the world; now he is building a much smaller school that is all about building a learning community in which much learning takes place outdoors and across subject boundaries.

In the interview, Chris recommends Planet of the Humans - a film that is freely available online and definitely worth watching. He also mentions the Mastery Transcript Consortium, a network of schools that want to certify learning in a way that goes beyond numeric grades in a small set of subjects - a fascinating initiative that I want to learn more about.

As always, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions for guests, I'd be happy to hear from you. Email me at lukas.wallrich@empower-training.de

Theme music from https://filmmusic.io: "Zigzag" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY 4.0

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Sandra Ricker (on LinkedIn) is the Edu Tech Lead for Quinoa Education (webpage in German), a private school in Berlin that caters for disadvantaged children in an inner-city setting.

In this conversation, we talk about how they dealt with lock-down, and Sandra shares many practical strategies for using edu tech during the crisis and beyond. The main tool they used is padlet.com which looks like a great platform for any kind of online collaboration.

As always, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions for guests, I'd be happy to hear from you. Email me at lukas.wallrich@empower-training.de

Theme music from https://filmmusic.io: "Zigzag" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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In this episode, I am speaking to Lord Jim Knight (@LordJimKnight), the Chief Education Officer at Tes Global. He was Minister of State for Schools and Learning under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and has since kept on working to improve education, both as a member of the House of Lords, and in various other roles.
In this conversation, we explore the challenges students and their teachers face during the Covid-19 lockdowns that have kept millions at home around the world. We discuss what schools should focus on when students return, and how the crisis might trigger some important reflection in the education system.
As always, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions for guests, I'd be happy to hear from you. Email me at lukas.wallrich@empower-training.de
Theme music from https://filmmusic.io: "Zigzag" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Photo by Psigrist - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
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James Tooley is Professor of Educational Entrepreneurship and Policy at the University of Buckinghamshire. His research work and other activities mostly focus on low-cost private schools, which he has come to see as one of the most powerful contributors to making high-quality education accessible to the poor in developing countries. In this conversation, we discuss how such schools work, why they are often overlooked in the development discourse, and how they can make a contribution. We also briefly explore James' general beliefs regarding the value of private schools that are independent of the state, and his attempts to make private education more accessible in the UK.
As always, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions for guests, I'd be happy to hear from you. Email me at lukas.wallrich@empower-training.de


Further reading

If you want to learn more about James' work and research, I would suggest starting with his engaging book The Beautiful Tree in which he shares his journey and his key lessons learned.
If you want to look further at the research, James suggested the following articles:
- Tooley & Longfield (2016) Affordability of private schools: exploration of a conundrum and towards a definition of ‘low-cost’
- Muralidharan & Sundararaman (2015) report on the Andra Pradesh voucher experiment (https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/130/3/1011/1931887) and James Tooley's alternative interpretation of the results that suggests that low-cost private schools perform better than reported initially
- Kremer et al (2005) on the shockingly high rates of teacher absenteeism in Indian government schools
If you are interested in the realities of James' work in India, "Imprisoned in India"[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Imprisoned-India-Corruption-Extortion-Democracy/dp/178590101X] is also worth reading. The book tells the story of this imprisonment in Hyderabad after he had angered authorities with his work on the failings of state education and the presence of corruption and highlights the value of the rule of law we often take for granted.
Theme music from https://filmmusic.io: "Zigzag" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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