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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

Pro-democracy protests erupted in Thailand in February 2020. Students were in the vanguard. Such protests are extremely dangerous in Thailand. With me to talk about the protests is Kanokrat Lertchoosakul, an assistant professor at the Faculty of political science at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. She has followed student activist movements for many years and has interviewed hundreds of student protesters. She specializes in student movements, left-wing activism and democratization in Thailand. www.freshedpodcast.com/lertchoosakul -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we continue the mini-series on global learning metrics. Last week we heard from Eric Hanushek about the desirability of large scale international assessments such as PISA. He argued that cross-national tests offer ways for countries to see what is possible when it comes to student learning. But what effect are large scale international assessments having on national governments? In my conversation today, I speak with Radhika Gorur about how PISA, and its embedded assumptions about education, are going a global. In our conversation, Radhika unpacks what it means to “see like PISA.” She finds three major ways governments around the world have embraced PISA. First, governments have assumed that the very purpose of education is to increase GDP, which is a cornerstone of PISA and the OECD. But of course education has many more values that are much harder to define. Second governments have narrowed the field of vision of the meaning of education to be in line with what PISA has been able to test. In effec

Do constitutional rights stop at the schoolhouse gate? Are American students, in other words, granted the freedom and protections outlined in the US constitution? This question doesn’t have an easy answer. My guest for the next two episodes is Justin Driver. In his new book, The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind, Justin explores most if not all Supreme Court rulings on students in public education. Justin Driver is the Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. His first book, The Schoolhouse Gate (2018 Pantheon), is receiving rave reviews. The New York Times called it “indispensable” while the Washington Post called it “masterful.” https://freshedpodcast.com/driver-p1/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Children are inundated with technology. Video games, smartphones, and computers are common in the lives of today’s digital generation. With school closures from the covid-19 pandemic, learning from home only added to the screen time overload for many children. How do children and young people use and are affected by technological transformations in their everyday lives? How are schools and education systems adapting to these changes? And what might we learn from the coronavirus when it comes to technology and education? With me is Halla Holmarsdottir a Professor in the Faculty of Education and International Studies at the Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway. She is currently the coordinator of a large-scale European Research project funded by Horizon 2020 (grant agreement No 870548) entitled The Impact of Technological Transformations on the Digital Generation (DigiGen). The DigiGen project focuses on the impact of digital technology on the lives of children and young people primarily in Europe. freshe