Education Passport

In this episode we're discussing how students and teachers are using their voices through actions such as the global climate change protests #Fridaysforfuture, teachers striking in Zimbabwe and the USA and head teachers in England writing to parents about devastating cuts to education.

We recorded this two weeks ago so our date reference is slightly off, but nevertheless we hope you enjoy the discussion!

Our favourite strike slogan from marches around the world: "Teachers deserve fair pay, because students deserve teachers who stay".

We also recommend some great books following World Book Day that we think you should check out:

- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

- The Burning by Laura Bates

- Brave, not Perfect by Reshma Saujani

- 10% Braver: Inspiring Women to Lead Education by the #WomenEd community, edited by Vivienne Porritt and Keziah Featherstone.

We also learn that Alice like to listen to Taylor's Swift's song 'Fifteen' to get herself into the teenage psyche on the first day of every term!

Follow @gretathunberg on Instagram.

Zimbabwe teacher strikes: https://tinyurl.com/y4ahq7zv

Headteachers in England write to parents about education cuts: https://tinyurl.com/yxbu9n7y

Four day working week increases productivity: https://tinyurl.com/y6yavrmg

Get in touch: Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @EdPassport

Instagram: @educationpassport

Hello, and welcome to our round up of some of the global educations news from the past month.

This month we discuss:

Replacing joyful snow days with e-learning activities in the USA.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46871555

Followed by a study into the impact of snow days on pupils' education (none!)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25912445

Greta Thunberg the Swedish student skipping school to protest climate change. Here is a link to her TedTalk on the need to act on climate change:

https://www.ted.com/talks/greta_thunberg_the_disarming_case_to_act_right_now_on_climate

Global megatrends facing education. You can read the full OECD report here:

http://www.oecd.org/education/trends-shaping-education-22187049.htm

The Global Teacher Prize 2019. See the full list of nominees and their extraordinary accomplishments here:

https://www.globalteacherprize.org/

 

Please rate and review us on iTunes, and get in touch - we love to hear what you think.

Twitter: @EdPassport

Instagram: @EducationPassport

Email: [email protected]

In this interview Emma speaks to Dace who lives and works in Riga, Latvia.

Dace was working as a scientist but couldn’t find her place - she loved science but hated working alone and in a laboratory and thought that she could use her outgoing personality and her love of working with young people as a teacher.

She describes the jobs of “seeing the sparkle in their eyes when they finally understand”, but also the challenges of conservative attitudes across the country.

The challenges facing Latvia are interesting and very relevant to a lot of other places around the world. Having been occupied by Russia until 1991, there are division within society that still exist today, and the scars of the experiences of older generations still manifest themselves in children’s behaviour. There are also big differences between the schools in the countryside and those in Riga, and the government has to make decisions for their education system which support all of these different types of schools.

We always love to receive your feedback so please get in touch:

Twitter: @EdPassport

Instagram: @EducationPassport

Email: [email protected]

In this episode we talk about the national exam that takes over the whole of South Korea as the nation stands still to support its students, the Finnish schools that have moved to open plan learning (we like the idea of cooperative teaching but maybe not the noise and chaos that might ensue from having no walls..) and In this episode we talk about the national exam that takes over the whole of South Korea as the nation stands still to support its students, the Finnish schools that have moved to open plan learning (we like the idea of cooperative teaching but maybe not the noise and chaos that might ensue from having no walls..) and research that suggests where in the world teachers are the most respected.

Please rate and review us on iTunes, and get in touch - we love to hear what you think.

Twitter: @EdPassport

Instagram: @EducationPassport

Email: [email protected]

Links to articles mentioned in this episode:

South Korea national exams:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-46181240

The school with no classrooms in Finland:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/education-45727843/finland-s-schools-ditch-traditional-classrooms-for-open-plan-learning

Where teachers get the most respect:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46063947

In this episode, Alice talks to Chemistry and Biology teacher Dr Lindsay Robertson about her work in the classroom, and how her school is working to improve the mental health of staff and students.

Our latest interview episode features a hopeful and inspiring conversation with Ada McKim, founder of the #TeachSDGs movement.

The UN sustainable development goals are a collection of 17 global goals to address challenges that the world faces, with the target of achieving all of these by 2030.

In this discussion, Ada shares more about the SDGs and how to get involved in bringing these into your classrooms.

We also discuss her experiences as a teacher and her views on education, both in Canada and more broadly around the world.

For more information you can go to the website www.teachsdgs.org and get involved on Twitter through the account @TeachSDGs and #TeachSDGs.

You can get in touch with us in many ways:

Twitter: @EdPassport

Instagram: @EducationPassport

Email: [email protected]

We’re back with our round up of education news from around the world in October!

In this episode we discuss parents protesting large class sizes in China, returning to school in a post-conflict zone, the International Maths Olympiad and facial recognition technology in schools.

Hosted by Emma Russo & Alice Roots.

Links to article referenced in this episode:

1. Parents protesting large class sizes in China

https://www.economist.com/china/2018/09/13/anger-grows-in-china-over-school-crowding

2. Headteachers’ polite protest in England

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-45665122

3. Going back to school in a warzone

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45355532

4. International Maths Olympiad website

https://www.imo-official.org/

5. Facial recognition technology in schools

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/17/chinese-school-uses-facial-recognition-monitor-student-attention/

We have had a few technical difficulties getting this episode to you (and we've been out and about enjoying our summer holidays!) but we hope that you enjoy hearing us discuss some education news stories from around the world.

In this episode we cover how higher temperatures negatively impact exam results, Algeria's extreme response to cheating on national school exams, sexual harassment in schools, the teacher recruitment and retention crisis in schools in England and Australia's idea to put death on the curriculum.

Articles discussed:

American university report shows temperature is a negative factor in exam results:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44288982

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/joshuagoodman/files/w24639.pdf

Algeria's extreme response to cheating on national school exams:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-44557028

The sexual harassment of female teachers in schools:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/may/29/lewd-comments-upskirting-women-teachers-sexual-harassment

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44589347

England teacher recruitment and retention crisis:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-44648438

Death being put on the curriculum in Australia:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44689506

There are so many teachers across the world who are doing amazing and inspiring things that are relevant to so many others around the world. Our aim is to connect teachers from different countries with these ideas and experiences.

In this episode, Emma speaks to Alisha who lives and works in India.

Like a lot of people, Alisha didn't know that she wanted to work in education, but when she finished her degree she knew that she wanted to explore the social sector and she is now in her fourth year of working in education. She describes her initial move into teaching as a “leap of faith”.

After teaching mathematics in the classroom for 3 years, she has recently moved into education leadership as an Assistant Principle in a new school.

Throughout the interview, Alisha talks about her professional journey so far, the steep learning curve that she is currently undergoing as a new school leader and what she loves about teaching. She also shares how if she were education minister, she would keep a lot of the great education policies that the Indian government has in place, but work on national accountability and the systems that implement them in schools.

We hope that you enjoy this episode and would love it if you would rate us on iTunes as it helps other people to find us.

We’d also love for you to get in touch and share your thoughts on anything that we have discussed, or if you’d like to be interviewed and have your teaching experiences shared with our audience then we’d love to hear from you.

Twitter: @EdPassport

Instagram: @EducationPassport

Email: [email protected]

In this informal chat about education and news from around the world, Emma and Alice discuss exam protests in Germany, advertising exam cheating on YouTube, Vietnamese parents spending over 10 hours a week on their child's homework, pupils missing out on their education while Venezuela is in crisis and an idea from the UK government to improve teacher retention.

Get in touch: 

- Twitter: @EdPassport

- Instagram: @EducationPassport

References:

1. Pupils in Berlin protest unfair English exam

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/05/world/europe/germany-english-test-abitur.html

2. The YouTube stars being paid to sell cheating 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43956001

3. Vietnamese parents spend over 10 hours weekly with child's homework

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/data-speaks/vietnamese-parents-spend-over-10-hours-weekly-with-child-s-homework-survey-3743005.html

4. Venezuela's education crisis

https://reliefweb.int/report/venezuela-bolivarian-republic/millions-children-missing-school-venezuelas-hunger-crisis

5. Teachers in England to be offered a year's paid sabbatical to improve retention https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/04/teachers-to-be-offered-years-paid-sabbatical-to-improve-retention