reeducated

Goutham Yegappan
  • 5.0 (6)
  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Conversations reimagining, rethinking, and reinventing modern education.

  1. 14H AGO

    What Education Is Really For? | Rupert Wegerif | Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge | Season 12 Episode 11 | #186

    In this conversation, I sit down with Rupert Wegerif to explore one of the most fundamental questions in education, a question that is often avoided or quietly assumed rather than openly discussed. What is education actually for. We begin with personal origin stories and quickly move into a deeper examination of meaning, purpose, and why so many students today feel competent yet disconnected, informed yet without hope. Rupert shares how his early struggles with meaning shaped his path into education and why he believes that learning without purpose can leave people feeling empty rather than empowered. We explore the idea that education has always served as a way of situating people within a larger story, whether cultural, philosophical, or existential. As modern systems have moved away from shared traditions, we discuss what has been lost and what might still be recovered. Much of the conversation centers on dialogic education, not as a teaching technique, but as a way of opening shared spaces of thinking where insight can emerge. We talk about why asking “why” feels threatening in schools, how authority reacts when meaning is unclear, and why humility and listening are essential educational virtues. We also turn toward the future, especially the role of technology and artificial intelligence in learning. Rather than framing AI as the opposite of dialogue, Rupert challenges that assumption and suggests ways technology can expand thinking when used thoughtfully. The conversation ends with reflections on hope, collective intelligence, and the responsibility of education to help people feel connected to something larger than themselves. This episode is an invitation to slow down and reconsider what learning is meant to nourish in us as human beings. Chapter: 00:00 Introduction and Rupert Wegerif’s background 02:00 Early struggles with meaning and entering education 05:30 Why students ask “why” and why schools resist it 08:30 Competence without hope in modern education 11:30 Education, tradition, and the loss of shared meaning 15:00 Authority, fear, and avoiding existential questions 18:00 Connection, belonging, and finding meaning beyond the self 22:30 Education as process rather than product 26:30 Falling in love with learning and asking why 30:30 What cuts people off from connection 33:00 The origins of dialogic education 36:00 Dialogue as shared space rather than debate 39:00 Identity, disagreement, and philosophical humility 43:00 Teaching dialogue without turning it into a rule 47:00 Writing, language, and keeping meaning alive 49:30 AI, technology, and dialogic thinking 54:00 Education, hope, and long term futures 58:00 Daily practices, reflection, and remembering mortality

    1h 1m

  2. 1D AGO

    Education in the Shadow of Violence | Diana Rodríguez Gómez | Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison | Season 12 Episode 10 | #185

    In this episode, I speak with Diana Rodríguez Gómez about what education looks like in places shaped by violence, displacement, and fragile state institutions. Our conversation begins with her work in Latin America, particularly near the Colombia-Venezuela border, where schools operate under conditions of uncertainty that most education research rarely addresses. Diana explains how schooling in these contexts cannot be understood as neutral or separate from politics, since classrooms are deeply entangled with state power, security forces, and local forms of governance. We explore how teachers, students, and families navigate education when the state is inconsistent, mistrusted, or present primarily through coercion. Diana shares insights from her ethnographic research, showing how schools become sites where ideas of citizenship, human rights, and belonging are negotiated daily. We talk about refugee labels, migration, and how policy categories often fail to reflect lived experience. In these environments, education can offer stability, but it can also reproduce exclusion and control in subtle ways. Toward the end, we reflect on what this research means for how we study education more broadly. Diana challenges the assumption that schools everywhere function in similar ways, urging researchers and policymakers to take context seriously. This episode is ultimately about humility in educational thinking and about listening carefully to the people living inside systems shaped by violence, uncertainty, and resilience. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:00 – Diana’s path into education policy and ethnography 05:00 – Why studying education in violent contexts matters 09:00 – Education near the Colombia Venezuela border 13:00 – What state fragility looks like inside schools 17:00 – Schools as political and social institutions 21:00 – Teachers navigating fear, uncertainty, and responsibility 25:00 – Migration, displacement, and the refugee label 29:00 – How policy categories fail lived experience 33:00 – Human rights and education on the ground 37:00 – Citizenship, belonging, and exclusion in schools 41:00 – When education reproduces control rather than care 45:00 – The limits of global education policy frameworks 49:00 – Why context must come before reform 53:00 – What ethnography reveals that data cannot 57:00 – Rethinking neutrality in education research 01:01:00 – Implications for policymakers and researchers

    1h 7m

  3. JAN 17

    Why Understanding Is Harder Than Knowing | Tina Grotzer | Senior Research Scientist at the Harvard Graduate School of Education | Season 12 Episode 9 | #184

    In this conversation, I speak with Tina Grotzer, a leading researcher in the learning and cognitive sciences, about what it actually means to learn in a complex world. We begin by unpacking learning not as the simple acquisition of information, but as preparation for future thinking and adaptation. Tina explains how our minds form causal models, why we rely on default patterns, and how real learning often requires the difficult work of unlearning deeply reinforced pathways. As we move deeper, we explore why schooling so often strips away complexity rather than engaging with it. Tina shares research showing that young children are often capable of sophisticated causal reasoning, yet lose this ability over time as education prioritizes efficiency, surface understanding, and right answers. We discuss procedural knowledge, conceptual understanding, and what she calls getting to the structural bones of ideas. This leads to powerful examples from science education, climate change, and everyday reasoning, where oversimplified models prevent meaningful understanding. In the final part of the conversation, we turn to humility, perception, and truth. We examine confirmation bias, attention, and why different people genuinely experience different realities. Tina reflects on the emotional challenge of confronting complexity, the courage it requires to sit with uncertainty, and the importance of communities that support deep conversation. We end by considering how education could better cultivate wonder, courage, and regenerative hope in a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Chapter: 00:00 – Introduction and everyday learning stories 03:00 – What learning really means 07:00 – Learning as preparation for future thinking 10:30 – Metacognition and knowing how your mind works 14:00 – Reinforced pathways and the challenge of unlearning 18:00 – Why simple models are so hard to let go 22:00 – Critical exceptions and model revision 26:00 – Procedural versus conceptual knowledge 29:00 – Getting to the structural bones of ideas 33:00 – Perception, attention, and confirmation bias 37:00 – Humility, truth, and different ways of knowing 41:00 – Science, uncertainty, and changing explanations 45:00 – Education, inequality, and responsibility 49:00 – AI, human cognition, and epistemology 53:00 – Courage, complexity, and emotional resilience 57:00 – Essential questions and living curricula

    1h 1m

  4. JAN 15

    The Unintended Consequences of School Reform | David Labaree | Professor Emeritus of Education at Stanford University | Season 12 Episode 8 | #183

    In this episode, I sit down with David Labaree, one of the most influential historians of education in the United States, to examine how schooling came to occupy such a powerful and complicated role in American life. We begin with his personal journey into the field and quickly move into a deeper discussion of education as both a promise and a problem. Schooling, he explains, has long served two competing purposes at once: helping people get ahead while also helping families stay ahead. That tension, he argues, sits at the core of many of our current educational struggles. We spend much of the conversation unpacking how education became a primary marker of identity, status, and worth. From elite college branding to standardized testing, we explore how learning slowly gave way to credentials, metrics, and competition. David shares striking examples of how pressure, particularly in high performing communities, can turn schools into sites of anxiety, fear, and even harm. We talk about how reforms focused on efficiency, accountability, and measurable outcomes often narrow what counts as learning and push aside curiosity, beauty, and depth. Toward the end, we reflect on what it means to change complex systems responsibly. Rather than offering quick solutions, David argues for humility, historical awareness, and caution. Reform, he suggests, should begin with understanding how schools actually function before trying to fix them at scale. This episode is a thoughtful exploration of why education so often fails to live up to its ideals, and what it might mean to slow down, ask better questions, and take the human consequences of reform seriously. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:00 – David’s path into the history of education 05:00 – Why education carries so much social weight 08:00 – Schooling as opportunity versus schooling as status 12:00 – How credentials replaced learning 16:00 – The rise of competition and educational anxiety 20:00 – Why reforms often deepen inequality 24:00 – Measurement, accountability, and narrow definitions of success 28:00 – High performing schools and hidden human costs 32:00 – Why good intentions lead to bad outcomes 36:00 – The limits of large scale reform 39:00 – Humility, history, and rethinking change

    43 min

  5. JAN 13

    Curiosity as the Engine of Learning | Elizabeth Bonawitz | Professor of Psychology at Harvard University | Season 12 Episode 7 | #182

    In this conversation, I sit down with Elizabeth Robbin Bonawitz to explore one deceptively simple question: how do humans learn before they can even speak? We begin with early childhood and unpack how infants and young children actively explore the world, test hypotheses, revise beliefs, and build intuitive theories long before formal education begins. Rather than seeing learning as passive absorption, we examine it as a dynamic process driven by curiosity, exploration, and social information. We dive deep into how learning works across the lifespan, focusing on the underlying rules of thought that remain surprisingly consistent from infancy through adulthood. We discuss intuitive theories, prior beliefs, and how evidence interacts with what we already think we know. Through concrete examples, from touching a hot stove to understanding gravity, we explore how people generalize experiences, revise mistaken beliefs, and decide which explanations to trust. This leads into a fascinating discussion about testimony, expertise, and why trusting others is both a strength and a vulnerability in human learning. Toward the end, we focus on curiosity itself and why it matters so much for education. Elizabeth explains curiosity as the mental state that prepares the mind to learn, aligning attention, memory, and motivation before new information arrives. We talk about the difference between curiosity and motivation, why grades can sometimes suppress real learning, and how classrooms can be designed to support questioning rather than rote compliance. This episode is a deep reflection on learning as a human capacity that begins far earlier and runs far deeper than most educational systems recognize. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction02:00 – What it means to study learning scientifically05:00 – How infants learn before language08:30 – Children as intuitive scientists12:00 – Exploration, play, and hypothesis testing16:00 – How prior beliefs shape what we notice20:00 – Learning from evidence versus learning from people25:00 – Trust, testimony, and social learning29:30 – Why humans rely on others to understand the world34:00 – When trust helps learning and when it misleads38:00 – Curiosity as a mental state that prepares learning42:00 – Curiosity versus motivation in education46:00 – Why grades and rewards can suppress curiosity50:00 – Designing classrooms that support questioning54:00 – What education can learn from early childhood

    57 min

  6. JAN 12

    How Schools Actually Change? | Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell | Professor of Education and Organizational Studies at Harvard University | Season 12 Episode 6 | #181

    In this conversation, I sit down with Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell to explore why so many well-intentioned education reforms fail once they reach real classrooms. We talk about the gap between policy design and day to day school life, and how organizational structures quietly shape what teachers, students, and leaders are actually able to do. Drawing from her experience as both a former classroom teacher and a scholar of organizations, she explains why good ideas often lose their power as they move through complex systems. We dive into how schools function as layered institutions, from individual classrooms to districts and state systems, and why focusing on only one level misses the larger picture. She shares concrete examples of how schools become more concerned with appearances and compliance than with learning itself, and why efficiency often replaces deeper questions about purpose, meaning, and human development. We also discuss how social norms, professional identities, and unspoken rules influence whose voices are heard and whose ideas get ignored. Throughout the conversation, we return to a central question: how can schools create conditions where real change is possible? Rather than searching for a single perfect policy or purpose, we explore the importance of making space for questioning, uncertainty, and multiple perspectives. This episode is a deep reflection on what it would mean to treat education not as a machine to optimize, but as a living system that requires trust, patience, and imagination. 00:00 – Introduction 02:00 – Ebony’s path from classroom teaching to organizational research 05:00 – Why education reform often fails in practice 09:00 – The gap between policy design and school reality 13:00 – Seeing schools as organizations, not just classrooms 17:00 – How systems shape teacher and student behavior 21:00 – Compliance, appearances, and institutional pressure 25:00 – Why good ideas lose power as they scale 30:00 – Professional identity and unspoken school norms 34:00 – Whose voices matter in reform conversations 38:00 – Efficiency versus meaning in education systems 42:00 – The danger of searching for one perfect solution 46:00 – Creating conditions for real change 50:00 – Trust, uncertainty, and adaptive leadership 55:00 – Rethinking reform as a long-term process 59:00 – Closing reflections on imagination and institutional change

    1h 7m

  7. 12/15/2025

    Learning to Think, Not Just to Answer | Jon R. Star | Professor of Education at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education | Season 12 Episode 5 | #180

    In this episode, I speak with Jon R. Star, an educational psychologist whose work focuses on how students learn mathematics and how teachers can support deeper understanding rather than rote performance. We begin by discussing the gap between educational research and everyday classroom life, and how Jon has worked to bridge that divide by continuing to teach middle school math while conducting research. He shares how years of studying algebra, problem solving, and student thinking have transformed not only his research questions but also the way he shows up as a teacher. Our conversation explores what mathematics actually is and why so many students experience it as distant, rigid, or purely about memorizing answers. Jon explains why math is a unique discipline centered on patterns, proof, and the search for truth, and why focusing only on usefulness or test outcomes misses its deeper value. We talk about the tension between abstraction and real-world relevance, the danger of teaching math as a means to future rewards, and how classrooms can instead invite students into genuine mathematical thinking that applies far beyond numbers. The episode closes with a wider reflection on education, motivation, and the culture of competition that surrounds grades, college admissions, and achievement. Jon challenges the idea that learning must always be driven by external rewards, while also acknowledging the realities teachers and families face. Together, we explore whether it is possible to cultivate curiosity, wonder, and love for learning inside systems built around outcomes. This conversation is ultimately about math, but it is also about what it means to learn something deeply enough that it becomes a way of seeing the world. Chapters:00:00 – Introduction02:00 – Jon’s path into mathematics education05:00 – Bridging research and real classrooms08:00 – What mathematics actually is as a discipline12:00 – Why students experience math as rigid and mechanical16:00 – Process versus answers in math learning20:00 – Flexibility, strategies, and mathematical thinking25:00 – The role of abstraction and proof30:00 – Real world relevance and its limits35:00 – Grades, motivation, and external rewards40:00 – Teaching curiosity inside outcome driven systems45:00 – What deep understanding really looks like50:00 – Learning for its own sake55:00 – What math education could become

    1h 2m

  8. 12/11/2025

    What We Do Not Know: Migration, Childhood, and Curiosity | Gabrielle Oliveira | Associate Professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education | Season 12 Episode 4 | #179

    In this episode, I speak with Gabrielle Oliveira, an anthropologist whose work explores migration, parenting, and the lives of children moving across borders. We begin with her reflections on raising her own children and how becoming a parent reshaped the way she understood her research. She describes the gap between ideals and practice, the constant need for flexibility, and how every phase of parenting reveals something new about ourselves. That tension between theory and lived experience becomes a guide for understanding the families she studies. Our conversation opens into the deeper human realities of global movement. Gabrielle explains why migration has always been a basic part of human life and how modern borders, surveillance, and fear have changed the story. She shares examples of children bringing memories of detention into classroom moments, showing how experiences of displacement appear in small, unexpected ways. We talk about xenophobia, inequality, and the narratives that shape who society considers deserving. Through her stories, it becomes clear that migration is not only about crossing a border but about carrying entire worlds of culture, memory, and hope into a new place. The episode becomes personal as we explore what it means to not know. Gabrielle describes the humility required for ethnographic work, the thousands of hours she spent inside families’ homes, and the courage it takes to sit in discomfort without trying to control the narrative. We reflect on the importance of listening in education, on what it means for teachers to build trust with students, and on how curiosity can become a way of honoring the lives of others. This conversation is about migration, but it is also about wonder, responsibility, and the ongoing work of learning how to see. 00:37 — Meeting Gabrielle and her work on migration and parenting02:00 — What parenting teaches us about uncertainty04:30 — Ideals versus real life in teaching and caregiving07:00 — Cultural stories about love, parenting, and childhood09:00 — Migration as philosophy and lived experience11:00 — How movement today differs from the past13:30 — Borders, surveillance, and the politics of fear16:00 — Racism, xenophobia, and narratives of who belongs19:00 — Religion, culture, and the idea of "Western civilization"21:00 — Immigration debates, infrastructure, and real constraints24:00 — Fear of difference and how stories shape perception25:30 — Education, assimilation, and the role of schools28:00 — Why teachers rarely ask about students’ lives30:00 — Classroom examples and the challenge of deep listening33:00 — Trauma, trust, and how children express migration histories36:00 — Teaching practices that help children feel seen39:00 — How little we know and the humility to keep learning41:30 — Expertise, lived knowledge, and the limits of certainty45:00 — The nature of ethnographic research and deep hanging out48:00 — Following conversations rather than directing them51:00 — What fieldwork does to the researcher55:00 — Curiosity, ego, and the meaning of attention

    1h 1m
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About

Conversations reimagining, rethinking, and reinventing modern education.

Information

  • Creator
    Goutham Yegappan
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    186
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Goutham Yegappan
  • Show Website
    reeducated