In this episode, interviewer Mervi Kaukko speaks with Rauno Huttunen and Hannu L. T. Heikkinen about the importance of seeing 'living well in a world worth living in for all' as crucial for the full community of life, not just for humans.

They discuss praxis as planetary wisdom and position human well-being as being intertwined with planetary well-being, including the well-being of present humans, future humans, and nonhuman nature.

For more, read Chapter 3: Whose well-being? Deep-ecological and posthuman perspectives on 'world worth living in' by Rauno Huttunen and Hannu L. T. Heikkinen

Welcome to Season 2 of the World Worth Living In podcast! We are so glad you are joining us for another season of conversations about education's two main purposes: #1 to help us to live well and #2 to create a world worth living in for all.

In this season we hear about global projects that are imagining - and bringing into being - transformed futures. All of the projects are featured in Volume 2 of the book series.

In this first episode, Sally Windsor joins in conversation with Kristin Reimer and Kathleen Mahon - they are three of the editors of the Education for a World Worth Living In book series. They provide an overview of Volume 2, discuss how it's connected to Volume 1 and explore its unique focus on the future.

For more, read Chapter 2: Drawing the future into the present by Stephen Kemmis, Kristin Reimer and Kathleen Mahon.

A sneak peek at the amazing folks featured in Season 2 of the World Worth Living In podcast!

Join us for another season of conversations about education's two main purposes: #1 to help us to live well and #2 to create a world worth living in for all.

In this episode - the last episode of the project, Kristin Reimer reflects on the project with co-editors, Stephen Kemmis, Mervi Kaukko and Sally Windsor.

We reflect on the origins of the phrase - to live well in a world worth living in for all - and the power of it to focus us in on the critique and hope of education. We discuss how the world worth living in project has changed and is changing us, our ideas, our practices and the future.

We are so grateful for the time and space to engage with one another and with you. 

For more, read Chapter 16: Conclusion: Forging future words worth living in for all by Sally Windsor, Mervi Kaukko and Stephen Kemmis

In this episode, interviewer Sally Windsor speaks with Susanne Francisco and Ela Sjølie about experiences of academics during the COVID-19 pandemic. In their research, they explored how academics in both Norway and Australia tried to make the most of the changes that occurred because of the pandemic, and how they thought through other changes they might create going forward. They also looked at how practice architectures might support the changes that the academics envisaged.

For more, read Chapter 15: Learning through change: What the pandemic has taught us about living well in a world worth living in by Susanne Francisco and Ela Sjølie.

In this episode, interviewer Mervi Kaukko speaks with Stephanie Garoni about the Nexus program, a social-justice oriented, alternative pathway into secondary teaching for historically hard-to-staff secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. Stephanie reports on research that she conducted, along with co-authors Jo Lampert and Lutz Hoff, that explores how beginning teachers balance their commitment to creating socially just and equitable spaces for learning with the realities of contemporary schooling.

For more, read Chapter 14: 'Living well and teaching well': Exploring how beginning teachers enact good pedagogical praxis in their everyday practices in historically hard-to-staff schools by Stephanie Garoni, Jo Lampert and Lutz Hoff.

In this episode, Sally Windsor speaks to Susan Groundwater-Smith about 3 distinct projects she has been engaged in where student voice is not only sought but privileged. She reminds us that young people are the consequential stakeholders in education and it is relatively rare that they are asked what they want, and need, from the school system. She shows how important it is for those in decision making positions to willingly listen to young people. Susan’s chapter warns us that a world worth living in not one based on measurement, competition and international ranking, but rather one that recognises the importance of the arts and has an education system that does not marginalise creative pursuits.

Read Chapter 3: Why Listen? Student Voice Work Defended: Students as ‘Expert Witnesses’ to Their Experiences in Schools and Other Sites of Learning

This episode focuses on a chapter Finnish youth researchers Tomi Kiilakoski and Mikko Piispa wrote about democratic practices of young climate activists in Finland. The chapter and this podcast are based on a multi-site ethnographic research “Nutopia”, which explored Finnish youngsters' utopias and views of good futures in an era of climate emergency. 

In the podcast Tomi talks about the project, but also about the ideas of utopia and democracy more broadly. Did you know what the concept of utopia has to do with the philosophies of Ernes Bloch, Emmanuel Levinas or what a Nutopian International Anthem by John Lennon sounds like? Or are you interested in learning how democracy should be changed according to young people in Finland? Listen to this chat to find out!

Read Chapter 12  Facing the Climate Crisis, Acting Together: Young Climate Activists on Building a Sustainable Future by Tomi Kiilakoski and Mikko Piispa.

In this episode, Dr Virginia Moller shares about education that matters. Virginia has had over 45 years of experience in education, with 30 of those years in Steiner education. In the podcast, Virginia and interviewer Kristin Reimer discuss what it means to live life purposely and how Steiner schools can focus us in on the parts of this world that really matter: love, life, wisdom and voice. In the chapter that Virginia has written for the World Worth Living In book, Virginia brings together two stories: 1) the story of Steiner education; and 2) the story of her own experience of leading practices in a Steiner school. Surfacing some of the tensions that emerged between Steiner practices of collective decision-making and her role as principal, allowed Virginia to let go of ‘what ought to be’ and focus in on ‘what is’. We learn that a world worth living in for all involves understanding collectively our conditions - in order to transform them. 

Read Chapter 5: Leading for Love, Life, Wisdom, and Voice in Steiner Schools: Constraints and Conditions of Possibility by Virginia Moller

In this episode, interviewer Mervi Kaukko speaks with Gunilla Karlberg-Granlund from Åbo Akademi University, Finland, about Gunilla’s years of work in small rural schools of Finland’s Swedish-speaking part. The podcast is timely, as small schools are at risk of being closed not only in rural Finland but in other parts of the world too. Gunilla talks about the special nature of small village schools with a candle metaphor, where the heart represents the connection that links the pupils’ home cultures, learning and the support of the village school, and where the candle holder is the teacher with their educational aims. Gunilla’s research has shown that small rural schools can offer students unique experiences of freedom, safety and proximity and that their contribution to society is that they maintain rural culture and ensure continuity in areas that are at risk of being deserted.  

Read Chapter 4: The Heart of the Small Finnish Rural School: Supporting Roots and Wings, Solidarity and Autonomy