A World Worth Living In

In this episode, interviewer Sally Windsor talks with Cathie Burgess who, along with co-authors Katrina Thorpe and Christine Grice, wrote a chapter about the arrangements that enable and constrain early career teachers as they apply Aboriginal curriculum and pedagogies. The teachers in the study completed Aboriginal community-led ‘Learning from Country’ (LFC) electives at university. Teachers focused on strengths-based learning approaches and developing relationships with Aboriginal communities, creating solidarity between local Aboriginal communities and the teachers.

For more, read Chapter 13: Aboriginal curriculum enactment: Stirring teachers into the practices of learning from Country in the city by Katrina Thorpe, Cathie Burgess and Christine Grice

In this episode, interviewer Mervi Kaukko speaks with Kristin Reimer about her work with students from the Monash Access Program (MAP), an alternative entry into university. The students in MAP have had educational disadvantage in their lives and offer their perspectives into education's role. Kristin talks about the potential for formal education to provide us with experiences of manageability, comprehensibility and meaningfulness in order to create a world where we are able to thrive individually and collectively.

For more, read Chapter 12: Education that makes life manageable, comprehensible and meaningful: Experiences of the Monash Access Program, a university alternative entry pathway by Kristin Reimer

In this episode, interviewer Sally Windsor speaks with Leila Khulud about the New South Wales Special Religious Education (SRE) as an opportunity for students of faith backgrounds to foster their religious identity and spiritual health. Leila is currently working on research that introduces an online SRE intervention for Muslim youth. In the conversation, online SRE is discussed as a large-scale, cost-effective, and practical educational measure for enhancing the wellbeing of adolescents of faith backgrounds in public schools.

For more, read Chapter 11: New pathway to adolescent wellbeing: The case for online Special Religious Education in public schools by Leila Khaled

In this episode, interviewer Mervi Kaukko speaks with Gørill Warvik Vedeler about the chapter she co-wrote with Marete Saus, Tatiana Wara, Hilde Sollid and Astrid Strandbu about the lives of young people in an Arctic region of Norway.

The conversation highlights the reasons that young people have chosen to live in this region, rather than focusing on why young people are choosing to leave. It also reveals the young people's unique perspective on how to live sustainably and well in the Arctic region.

For more, read Chapter 10: Practices of living well among youth in an Arctic region by Gørill Warvik Vedeler, Marete Saus, Tatiana Wara, Hilde Sollid and Astrid Strandbu

In this episode, interviewer Kristin Reimer discusses what living well looks like for some families experiencing separation and divorce with Linda Mahony. The conversation explores how educators want to do the right thing by families experiencing separation and divorce but don’t always know what that is. Linda discusses a project in which she asked the families themselves to find out what they identify as being important to them, what they need to help their children thrive in schools and in the world, and the important role that teachers and schools can play. We learn about the importance of keeping lines of communication open and the delicate dance that teachers need to do as they identify the needs of children and families and respond to them in sensitive ways. 

For more, read Chapter 9: Living well in the aftermath of separation and divorce: The role of teachers, schools and early childhood services by Linda Mahony.

In this episode, interviewer Kristin Reimer talks about education that interrupts schooling with Nicole Brunker. The conversation explores the difference Nikki sees between schooling and education; how little space there is - for both students and teachers - in the current tightly constrained system; and how crucial it is to encourage moments of interruption, where we consider not just how school is but how it could be. Nikki discusses a project where she invited children and young people to prepare a creative response to their experience of schooling to live well in a life worthy of all. She sought to listen to the experiences of children, with as little adult filtering as possible. We learn about the importance of respecting people’s agency and about finding ways to create more space for experiences of freedom, imagination and inspiration. 

For more, read Chapter 8: A schooled life: Dissonant glimmers for interruption amidst the tightly constrained practice of schooling by Nicole Brunker

In this episode, interviewer Kristin Reimer talks about the importance of play in education with Mervi Kaukko and Jane Wilkinson. Based on a chapter written with their colleague Nick Haswell, Jane and Mervi discuss a really interesting project that they embarked on to explore how children engage in free play at school in Australia and Finland and consider the insights this play might give into the double purpose of education. We learn about the importance of unstructured play and the intense and rich learnings that occur within play; and we also learn how crucial it is that adults in education make deliberate choices to put the arrangements in place so that there is time and space for such play.

For more, read Chapter 7: Exploring 'living well' through children's play by Mervi Kaukko, Nick Haswell and Jane Wilkinson.

In this episode, interviewer Sally Windsor speaks with Andi Salamon and Mandy Cooke who, along with Leanne Gibbs, contributed a chapter on how individual and collective agency can optimise pedagogy with and for very young children to live well and help create a world worth living in. They discuss some of the projects that the chapter focuses on - all exploring democratic, agentic early childhood education for birth to five-year-old children.

For more, read Chapter 6: Democratic practices with and for our youngest citizens: Early childhood education, agency and the education complex by Andi Salamon, Leanne Gibbs and Mandy Cooke

In this episode, interviewer Kristin Reimer talks with Fiona Longmuir about ensuring real spaces for student voice. In her research, Fiona listens to the experiences of students for whom mainstream schooling has not worked and in some cases, has been damaging. Fiona talks about the bigger urgency behind the work - how young people are dealing with a future that does not necessarily look promising, and how many of our schooling practices don’t orientate students to a hopeful future.

In the conversation, we learn about the importance of dealing honestly with power, relationality and dissent - to open questions of what a future world worth living in might look like.

For more, read Chapter 5: Potential of students' voices to contribute to education for a future world worth living in by Fiona Longmuir

In this episode, interviewer Sally Windsor joins in conversation with Katina Thelin and Anette Forssten Seiser. They discuss their research with Swedish principals, where they explored how living well in a world worth living in for all can be realised within Swedish schools and pre-schools. Their work provides examples of current ongoing, as well as imagined, future practices.

For more, read Chapter 4: Nurturing eco-thinking by leading and learning from the future as it emerges by Katina Thelin and Anette Forssten Seiser.