Freshed

Today we flip the script. Susan Robertson interviews me as part of her weekly Ideas Lab seminar at Cambridge University. We discuss the creation and evolution of FreshEd and what the podcast’s impact has been on higher education. We recorded this interview in front of a live Zoom audience. freshedpodcast.com/brehm -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Does more schooling always lead to a better life? Is this optimistic view a certainty everyone around the world can expect? My guest today, Fran Vavrus, has recently written a new book that weaves together her 30 years of work in Tanzania with her own biography as an academic, mother, and development practitioner. She details the tension between the certainty and uncertainty inherent in education. Fran Vavrus is a Professor of Comparative and International Development Education at the University of Minnesota. Her new book is Schooling as Uncertainty: An ethnographic memoir in comparative education. freshedpodcast.com/vavrus‎ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Shadow education is private supplementary tutoring. East Asia is often assumed to be the center of private tutoring. But it’s actually a global phenomenon. Today Mark Bray joins me to talk about shadow education in Africa. Mark Bray is the Director of the Centre for International Research in Supplementary Tutoring (CIRIST) at East China Normal University in Shanghai, and UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education at the University of Hong Kong. His latest book is Shadow Education in Africa: Private Supplementary Tutoring and its Policy Implications. freshedpodcast.com/markbray-2/ ‎ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

What does it mean to be both an activist and an academic? With me today are Colette Cann & Eric DeMeulenaere. They have spent their careers wearing both of these hats. They’ve found ways for their activism to create social change in the academy and for their academic pursuits to inform their activism. In their new co-written book titled The Activist Academic: Engaged Scholarship for Resistance, Hope and Social Change, they present their own journeys as a guide for merging activism and academia. Colette Cann is an Associate Dean and Professor in International and Multicultural Education in the School of Education at University of San Francisco. Eric DeMeulenaere is an Associate Professor in Clark University’s Education Department. https://freshedpodcast.com/cann-demeulenaere/ ‎ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Vietnam has been herald as an education superstar. In just a few years, it both increased access to education and improved student learning outcomes. What explains Vietnam’s success, and can other countries learn anything from the Vietnam experience? My guest today is Jonathan London, Associate professor of Global Political Economy at Leiden University. He has a new working paper for RISE, which stands for Research on Improving Systems of Education, entitled “Outlier Vietnam and the Problem of Embeddedness: Contributions to a critique of the political economy of learning.” In our conversation, he details the history of Vietnam, its system of decentralization, and the process of household co-payments to education. www.freshedpodcast.com/london -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

To kick off the year, Professor Marie Lall joins me today to talk about education reform in Myanmar. Marie Lall has recently published a new, Open-Access book entitled Myanmar’s Education Reforms – a pathway to social justice? I’ve posted a link to the book on our website. Check it out! She is a professor at the UCL Institute of Education and has over 25 years of experience in the region. www.freshedpodcast.com/lall -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Special note: New episodes start next week! School students all over the globe have declared a “Climate Emergency.” For some time now, youth have been striking for immediate and effective action to stop global warming and secure the habitability of our planet. Greta Thunberg is perhaps the most recognizable student protesting. You’ve probably seen her moving speech at the United Nations. In the context where students skip school to protest, what role do teachers play? More broadly, what is the role of education in times of climate crisis? One group of university professors and activists have thought deeply about these questions. They have recently launched a “Call to Action” for educators, asking signatories to transform their pedagogies and curricula, realign research agendas, and reformulate policy frameworks – all in line with the climate crisis and other environmental challenges. In short, signatories are asked to voice their concerns any way they can in their professional work in and outside the class

Today we take a critical look at human rights. My guest is Radha D’Souza. Radha has a new book entitled: What’s wrong with rights? Social movements, Law, and Liberal Imaginations. In our conversation we discuss why there has been a proliferation of human rights since the end of World War II and how these rights have actually furthered the interests of the transnational capitalist class. Radha also discusses education as a human right and the challenge it has for social movements and unions such as education international. Radha D’Souza teaches law at the University of Westminster, London. www.freshedpodcast.com/radhadsouza/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

On Wednesday, the Trump presidency comes to an end. To look back at the past four years, we are going to replay this episode with Julian Vasquez Heilig. In this episode, we explore the schooling received by children affected by the Trump administration’s immigration policy of family separation. This was one of the most sinister policies of the Trump era, one in which the incoming Biden administration promises to reverse in the first days in office. Julian Vasquez Heilig is the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. When I spoke with him, he was a professor of educational leadership and policy studies at California State University Sacramento. Julian writes a blog entitled “Cloaking Inequity”. In the post discussed in this episode, he reported on a Texas-based detention center forcing children to use an online, for-profit charter school. www.freshedpodcast.com/heilig -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

In the aftermath of the riots in America, I thought it would be timely to replay my conversation with Cynthia Miller-Idriss. Our conversation focused on her book, The Extreme Gone Mainstream, which looks at far right youth subculture in Germany. Many of the insights she reveals about extremist groups in Germany can be applied to the groups that stormed the Capitol building in America. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is Associate Professor of Education and Sociology at American University. Her book "Extreme goes Mainstream?: the Commercialization of Far Right Youth Subculture in Germany was published by Princeton University Press. https://freshedpodcast.com/cynthiamilleridriss/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Many students move across national borders to attend university. Although the number of these globally mobile students is small compared to the total number of students enrolled in higher education, there numbers are increasing. But the patterns are changing, with more regional and south-south mobility. The role of scholarships in promoting these new patterns of student mobility is gaining attention by researchers and development aid alike. My guests today, Joan Dassin and Aryn Baxter, have recently contributed to a new edited collection entitled International Scholarships in Higher Education: Pathways to Social Change, which was edited by Joan Dassin, Robin March, and Matt Mawer. Joan Dassin is a Professor of International Education and Development and Director of the Masters Program in Sustainable International Development at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Aryn Baxter is an Assistant Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and Director of the Masterc

Note: FreshEd is on holidays. Since the pandemic continues to rage worldwide, I wanted to re-air an interview from March. Much of what Yaneer Bar-Yam mentioned then is still true today, 9 months later. -- Blaise Pascal, the 17th Century French mathematician and physicist, once wrote “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” As people and governments around the world are wondering whether or not to self-isolate to stop the spread of covid-19, Pascal’s adage has become more pertinent than ever. As we grapple with our new world, I wanted to bring you a special episode of FreshEd. With me is Yaneer Bar-Yam, a physicist, systems scientist, and founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute. Yaneer has spearheaded endcoronavirus.org, which aims to minimize the impact of Covid-19 by providing useful data and guidelines for action. In our conversation, Yaneer discusses what different countries are doing in response to the virus and talks specifically

Today Susan Robertson and Mario Novelli join me to review the year. And what a year it’s been! Covid-19 has upended the world. But how has it upended research on education and globalization? Has it changed how we think about and teach comparative and international education? Susan Robertson is a professor of education in the Faculty of Education at the university of Cambridge. Mario Novelli is Professor in the Political Economy of Education at the University of Sussex. They are co-editors of the journal Globalisation, Societies, and Education. https://freshedpodcast.com/2020inreview/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

What’s the relationship between school dropout, child marriage, and early pregnancy? Do girls drop out of school because of early marriage or pregnancy? Or is it the reverse? My guest today is Erin Murphy-Graham who has researched these questions extensively in Honduras. She focuses on the agency of girls in their adolescence and the disconnect between schooling and their futures. Erin Murphy-Graham is an Associate Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley. She’s recently published with Alison Cohen and Diana Pacheco-Montoya a new article in the Comparative Education Review entitled: School dropout, child marriage and early pregnancy among adolescent girls in rural Honduras. freshedpodcast.com/Murphy-Graham/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today I wax philosophically with Dennis Shirley about his new co-edited special issue of the ECNU Review of Education entitled Beyond well-being: Educating for Wholeness and Purpose. In our conversation we discuss the future of education and the dialectic between well-being and learning. Dennis Shirley is Duganne Faculty Fellow and Professor of Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. He’s co-editor with Stanton Wortham, and Deoksoon Kim of the latest issue of the ECNU Review of Education. freshedpodcast.com/shirley/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today I talk with Kang Zhao about how Chinese policy has interpreted and implemented notions of competency-based education, which has been advanced in global organizations such as the OECD. Kang sees core competencies as limiting and calls for an education beyond competencies. Kang Zhao is an associate professor in the College of Education at Zhejiang University. He’s latest article published in the ECNU Review of Education is entitled Education for Wholeness, but beyond competences: Challenges to key-competences-based education in China. freshedpodcast.com/zhao/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

My guest today is Steve Klees, professor of international education policy and a distinguished scholar teacher at the University of Maryland. Steve has a new book entitled The Conscience of a Progressive, which draws on his 45 years of work around the world as an economist and international educator. In the book he compares conservative, liberal, and progressive views on a wide range of social issues. Steve’s critique goes to the heart of neoliberal capitalism, pushing us to confront the intersectional challenges of gender, class, race, ethnicity, LGBTQ rights, and disability. freshedpodcast.com/steveklees-2/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

How can we think of indigenous knowledge systems as a paradigm for research methodology? With me are Elizabeth Sumida Huaman and Nathan Martin to discuss their new co-edited volume entitled Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Research Methodologies: Local Solutions and Global Opportunities. Navigating the interplay of multiple knowledges and research paradigms can be extremely beneficial. Elizabeth Sumida Huaman is an associate professor of comparative and international development Education in the college of Education and Human development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Nathan D. Martin is an Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. freshedpodcast.com/sumida-huaman-martin/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we take stock of public education in the United States after the 2020 election. With me are Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire. You may know Jack and Jennifer from their education podcast called Have You Heard, which you should definitely check out. They’ve also recently co-written the book "A Wolf at the schoolhouse door: The dismantling of public education and the future of school," which traces the war on public education in America. They argue that we should be watching the changes at the state level after the recent election. Jack Schneider is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and Jennifer Berkshire is a freelance journalist. They co-host the podcast Have you Heard. freshedpodcast.com/Schneider-Berkshire/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we look at some of the colonial legacies in discourses around girls’ education. With me are Chris Kirchgasler and Karishma Desai. They’ve recently published an article entitled, “’Girl’ in Crisis: Colonial Residues of Domesticity in Transnational School Reforms,” which was published in the Comparative Education Review. Chris Kirchgasler is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Karishma Desai is an assistant Professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. https://freshedpodcast.com/kirchgasler-desai/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com