Today I am speaking with John Higgs, the cultural historian and author of many excellent books, several of which we draw on in this conversation - especially:

Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century

The Future Starts Here: An Optimistic Guide to What Comes Next

William Blake versus The World

So this conversation draws together ideas from a number of John’s books, in an attempt to weave a positive narrative about the future and where we might be heading. We also spoke at length about private schools, and how - as John puts it - when you look at what goes on in the House of Commons, it’s hard not to conclude that there is something very wrong with private education.

Ultimately, this conversation builds into an optimistic, hopeful and yet realistic vision of the future.

LINKS:

John Higgs website: https://johnhiggs.com/

Future Crunch: https://futurecrunch.com/

John discussing the Beatles singles on I am the Eggpod: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-beatles-singles-john-higgs/id1335120302?i=1000540565032

RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - TICKETS: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-rethinki…s-226415834857

RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - SPEAKER APPLICATIONS: rethinking-ed.org/conference/

RETHINKING EDUCATION MIGHTY NETWORK: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

BECOME A PATRON: www.patreon.com/repod

BUY ME A COFFEE: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.

Today I am speaking with Jay McTighe about Leading Modern Learning: A blueprint for vision-driven schools, the 2015 book that Jay co-authored with Greg Curtis.

Leading modern learning builds on Jay’s previous work on Understanding by Design, to guide the reader through the process of taking vision statements really seriously, and then backwards planning your school in such a way that you WILL produce the kinds of young people who will be able to thrive and flourish in this bewildering and rapidly changing world of ours.

LINKS:

BOOK: Leading Modern Learning - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leading-Modern-Learning-Blueprint-Vision-Driven-ebook/dp/B012ETMIUE

RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - TICKETS: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-rethinki…s-226415834857

RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - SPEAKER APPLICATIONS: rethinking-ed.org/conference/

RETHINKING EDUCATION MIGHTY NETWORK: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

BECOME A PATRON: www.patreon.com/repod

BUY ME A COFFEE: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.

Warwick Mansell is a long-time contributor to the Guardian and the Observer, and worked for many years at the TES - the Times Education Supplement. He writes blogs for Prospect union, and the National Education Union teacher magazine, among others. A few years ago, he was shortlisted for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Education Journalist of the Year.

Warwick runs a subscription-based education news website, Education Uncovered, which has the strap-line "digging around in the undergrowth of schools reform in England". And what a murky, tangled subterranean web it is.

Warwick aims to hold the microscope the endless waves of reform which have hit England’s schools in recent years, and to hold policymakers and those with power to account for goings-on at ground level. Warwick is especially keen to engage with one potential strand of reporting which is not covered in any systematic way by national education media: the way education reform impacts on parents, teachers and communities, and the campaigns which spring up against it.

Warwick is also the author of a brilliant book about assessment in education, called ‘Education by Numbers: The Tyranny of Testing’. Although it was written in 2007. It remains highly relevant today - 15 years later. Here are some of the nice things people have said about the book:

"Unputdownable. I think the book should be required reading for everybody running a school." -- Mike Kent, head of Comber Grove primary school

"Warwick Mansell's meticulously researched analysis of the damage wrought by 'hyperaccountability' in the education system should be compulsory reading for all politicians. It shows how this government's obsession with tests, targets and league tables has perverted educational practice, dumbed down our public examinations, deskilled the teaching profession and damaged the education of a generation of children." -- Sue Palmer (author, Toxic Childhood)

If you want to understand the impact that the recent tsunami of school reforms have had in a number of areas - from free schools to financial irregularities, from to transparency to accountability, and from deregulation to the role of evidence (or indeed the lack of it) in policymaking - then strap yourself in.

LINKS:

EDUCATION UNCOVERED: https://www.educationuncovered.co.uk/

GOV.UK ARTICLE - 10 facts you need to know about academies: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/10-facts-you-need-to-know-about-academies

RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - TICKETS: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-rethinki…s-226415834857

RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - SPEAKER APPLICATIONS: rethinking-ed.org/conference/

THE RETHINKING EDUCATION MIGHTY NETWORK: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

MIGHTY NETWORK WELCOME VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs

RETHINKING EDUCATION CAMPFIRE CONVERSATIONS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ6mCUmebHJNC-qrWX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2

BECOME A PATRON: www.patreon.com/repod

BUY ME A COFFEE: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.

Geraldine Rowe is an educational psychologist and former teacher, and a specialist in Parent Partnership and Behaviour and Attendance. She has taught in Primary and Middle Schools and been a member of the Senior Leadership Team of an alternative provision secondary school. Her 30-year career has taken her into 100 schools, and Geraldine is a really good example of someone who is outside the teaching profession, but who has immense experience and insight to share.

Geraldine recently published an absolutely fascinating book called It’s Out School, It’s Our Time: A Companion Guide to Whole-School Collaborative Decision-Making. The book is a highly readable account of Geraldine’s doctoral study, which features three case studies of teachers in mainstream schools who make decisions with their pupils, rather than for them.

The importance of choice and agency and autonomy in human development has come up again and again in this podcast, and it is often a key feature of teaching and learning in alternative schools and in international schools. But this book looks at what collaborative decision-making (CDM) can look like within mainstream settings - and there is no shortage of ways in which we can include children in making the decisions that affect their lives.

This is a conversation that goes right to the heart of the what I see as the main problem with the mainstream model of education - coercion isn’t good for kids, even if it gets results in the short term - and Geraldine offers lots of practical advice for teachers who want to move in a more collaborative, consent-based direction.

LINKS

BOOK: It’s Our School, It’s Our Time, by Geraldine Rowe: https://www.routledge.com/Its-Our-School-Its-Our-Time-A-Companion-Guide-to-Whole-School-Collaborative/Rowe/p/book/9780367859381

WEBSITE: Geraldine’s list of further reading for teachers: https://pupilparticipation.co.uk/teachers/

RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-rethinking-education-conference-2022-tickets-226415834857

RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - SPEAKER APPLICATIONS: https://rethinking-ed.org/conference/

THE RETHINKING EDUCATION MIGHTY NETWORK: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

MIGHTY NETWORK WELCOME VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs

RETHINKING EDUCATION CAMPFIRE CONVERSATIONS: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ…WX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2

BECOME A PATRON: www.patreon.com/repod

BUY ME A COFFEE: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.

Donald Clark is a man of many hats. He’s an EdTech entrepreneur who was formerly the CEO and one of the original founders of Epic Group, a pioneering company in online learning, and he is now the CEO of Wildfire Learning, an AI company. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Derby. And he is the author of at least two books - Artificial Intelligence for Learning, and Learning Experience Design.

But today I am speaking with Donald about a different writing project. Over the last 20 years or so - and gathering pace in recent months - Donald has been collecting learning theorists. He has written an incredible series of blogs on 2500 years of learning theory - from the Greeks to the Geeks.

When we recorded this conversation a few short weeks ago, there were 160 blogs in the series. At the time of publication, he is now up to 200. Helpfully, Donald has created an index, where you can see a list of all 200 learning theorists grouped under different headings - the behaviourists, the assessors, the vocationalists and so on. There’s a link to this index below - you may find it useful to refer to it now and then as you listen to our conversation.

This was a conversation from which I learned a huge amount. It is also an episode that made me think harder than I’ve had to do in a long time. And it’s also one of the most political discussions I’ve had on the podcast to date. I’ll try not to make a habit of it.

LINKS

The index to Donald’s series of blogs on 2500 years of learning theorists: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html

The Rethinking Education conference 2022 - tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-rethinking-education-conference-2022-tickets-226415834857

The Rethinking Education conference 2022 - speaker application form:

https://rethinking-ed.org/conference/

The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

Mighty Network Welcome Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs

Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ…WX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2

Become a Patron of the Rethinking Education project: www.patreon.com/repod

Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at rethinking-ed.org/contact, or twitter.com/RethinkingJames.

Today I am speaking with behaviour specialist and volcano of positivity Adele Bates. As you will hear at the start of our conversation, I worked with Adele for a short period, and so I speak with experience when I say that the second you meet her, you immediately realise that you are dealing with an incredibly compassionate, thoughtful, unique human being.

Adele has recently written a fascinating, down to earth, warts-and-all book called 'Miss I don’t give a Sh*t: Engaging with Challenging Behaviour in Schools.'

Here are some of the lovely things people have said about the book:

“Looking for a breath of fresh air when it comes to behaviour management? Look no further. With wit and wisdom, passion and compassion, Adele Bates not only puts the relationships between teacher and young person at the heart of the educational endeavour, but also gives that young person a voice.” (Ian Gilbert)

“Adele Bates has written a highly readable book brimming with practical ideas, exuberant optimism and encouragement of experimentation. She urges practitioners to see beyond the so-called bad behaviour to the human being in context. This is a book that celebrates the importance of reflection, empathy and care, including the all vital task of self-care.” (Melissa Benn)

‘This book offers an in-depth, detailed and nuanced overview of the subject of behaviour, with a particular focus on building relationships, helping pupils to feel safe and on teacher self-care. It is a must read book for all teachers, and will be particularly helpful for those working in the most challenging contexts, staff in alternative provision and those working with children who have SEND and SEMH.’ (Sue Cowley)

At just over an hour, this is a shorter episode than usual. But there is loads packed into this conversation and you will come away with practical ideas for how to work with young people who present with challenging behaviour in schools. As someone who has worked in schools in which dealing with behaviour was a daily challenge, I really wish Adele’s book had been around when I entered the profession.

LINKS

Adele’s website: https://adelebateseducation.co.uk/

Adele’s book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/miss-i-dont-give-a-sh-t/adele-bates/9781529731569

Mighty Network Welcome Video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs

Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ6mCUmebHJNC-qrWX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2

The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: https://rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

Become a Patron of the Rethinking Education project: www.patreon.com/repod

Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.

This episode features a conversation with Harry Fletcher-Wood, who has written an absolutely fascinating book called Habits of Success: Getting every student learning.

Ground-breaking books about education don’t come around too often, but Habits of Success is truly pioneering. We’ve heard a lot about cognitive science in recent years - often a quite narrow interpretation of cognitive science which focuses largely on memorising stuff. But there has been another area of social science bubbling away in the background in recent years, slowly coming to the boil - the field of behavioural science.

A few years ago the UK government set up something called the Behavioural Insights Team - also known as the Nudge Unit - which focuses on how to change people’s behaviour not by telling them what to do (like ‘eat 5 fruit and veg a day’), but by nudging them in the right direction (like by putting attractive displays of fruit next to the checkout in a school canteen).

In Habits of Success, Harry applies insights from the world of Behavioural Science to the problem of how to help students build helpful habits for learning effectively, while breaking one or two unhealthy habits along the way.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Harry. About half-way through the podcast there’s a section where I ask him some taxing questions about the book, and his responses were really impressive. Harry has an enviable gift for expressing complex ideas in a really engaging, accessible way.

As always, this was a fascinating conversation which left me with many more questions than answers, which is always a good sign that you’ve hit a rich seam.

Link to the Fiorella paper on the Science of Habits Harry mentions paywalled unfortunately): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-020-09525-1

Mighty Network Welcome Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs

Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ…WX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2

The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: https://www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

Become a Patron of the Rethinking Education project: https://www.patreon.com/repod

Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at https://rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.

Today I am speaking with Michael FD Young, Emeritus Professor of Sociology of Curriculum at the UCL Institute of Education. Michael has been a towering figure in the field of Sociology of Education for over five decades. He has written and edited many books throughout his career, including Knowledge and Control (1971), Bringing Knowledge Back In (20080) and Knowledge and the Future School (2014) - to name just a few. You may have noticed a theme in those book titles - Michael writes about knowledge a lot. Hence the title of the podcast.

A few weeks ago I met Michael for an enjoyable lunch in Russell Square, sitting under the trees with a lasagne and a beer and discussing life, the universe and everything. To my delight, Michael agreed that it would be a good idea to join me for an extended conversation about his remarkable career to date.

As always, this was an absolutely fascinating conversation. It’s also a conversation that I think many people will find surprising - both the hard-line traditionalists and the hard-core progressives among you. You know who you are. I look forward to hearing what people make of it - please do let me know what you think.

LINKS:

MIchael’s 2018 article in Impact: A knowledge-led curriculum: Pitfalls and Possibilities:

https://impact.chartered.college/article/a-knowledge-led-curriculum-pitfalls-possibilities/

The Nature article MIchael mentions, by Paul Nurse - ‘Biology must generate ideas as well as data’: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02480-z

Mighty Network Welcome Video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs&t=3s

Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ…WX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2

The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

Become a Patron of the Rethinking Education project: www.patreon.com/repod

Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

Earlier this year, through connecting with people in the Mighty Network, I hosted a series of six "campfire conversations". In contrast to the podcast, which features long-form, pre planned, recorded conversations with individuals, the campfire conversations were an attempt to bring more people into the conversation. These were live-streamed, shorter, more spontaneous conversations that usually included between 6 and 12 people at a time - always including young people, as well as parents and carers, psychologists and so on.

If you haven't seen any campfire conversations, they're all archived on YouTube, along with one or two juicy clips - there’s a link below. The fact that those campfire conversations included the voices of young people was absolutely wonderful, and kind of rare. The idea that we should include young people in discussions about education shouldn't really be a radical thing, should it. But, we are where we are.

Anyway, I am delighted to be able to say that in this episode, I speak with Yumna Hussen and Lottie Cooke from Pupil Power, an absolutely brilliant youth organisation dedicated to:

* raising awareness of young people’s perspectives on education;

* educating young people on how funding cuts have affected education provision in recent years; and

* campaigning for changes to educational policy and practice that take account of the experiences, views and desires of young people.

The very thought, listeners! Whatever next!

Yumna Hussen is currently studying A levels in Biology, Chemistry and Politics. in the lower sixth. She is the Youth MP for Birmingham, and the author of a wonderful book called Struggles of War, which she wrote when she was in Year 8. Like you do. She's also done a fabulous TEDx talk entitled 'Re-Imagining Education To Create An Impact In The World'.(Links below)

Lottie Cooke is currently a first year undergraduate at the University of Warwick. She is a young journalist and has published some brilliant articles and appeared on many a podcast setting out her vision for the future of education (link to article below).

It was an absolute joy and privilege to be able to spend a few hours in the company of Lottie and Yumna. There is so much wisdom and insight packed into this conversation that I had to keep pausing it and re-listening to whole sections. I think it will take me a couple more listens at least before I can take it all in properly. And although many of the issues we spoke about are deeply concerning and challenging, when you speak with young people like Lottie and Yumna you come away feeling like the future is in safe hands.

LINKS:

Mighty Network Welcome Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs&t=3s

Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ6mCUmebHJNC-qrWX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2

James’s secret teacher article: https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/sep/08/secret-teacher-political-control-education-innovation-fatigue

The secret teacher archive:

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/the-secret-teacher

Yumna’s book, Struggles of War:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Struggles-War-Yumna-Hussen-ebook/dp/B07FPS2PGF

Yumna's TEDs talk, 'Re-Imagining Education To Create An Impact In The World': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkpeN64AuLU&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Article by Lottie Cooke setting out her vision for the future of education: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/innovatejournal/issues/innovate-journal-issue-2-485387?utm_campaign=Issue&utm_content=view_in_browser&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Innovate+Journal

The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

Become a Patron of the Rethinking Education project: www.patreon.com/repod

Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

Today I’m speaking with Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, whose work is, I honestly think, the most important I’ve yet come across in all my years of dabbling in education research and trying to understand how young people learn and develop, what we should be doing in schools to help them, and what we should maybe stop doing as soon as is humanly possible.

Mary Helen is a Professor of Education, Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Southern California and the Director of Candle: the Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education, which, among many notable achievements, is surely the most successful academic acronym of all time.

Mary Helen and her team study the psychological and neurobiological development of emotion and self-awareness. In particular, her work highlights the importance of emotions, sociality and culture in young people’s social, cognitive and moral development. She uses cross-cultural, interdisciplinary studies of stories and the feelings they induce to shine a light on the neural networks that underpin identity, intrinsic motivation, and deep, meaningful learning. Mary Helen’s work often features children and adolescents from disadvantaged communities, and she often involves young people from these communities as junior scientists who are participants, as well as subjects, in her research.

A former public high-school science teacher, Mary Helen has a doctorate in human development and psychology from Harvard University, and she completed her postdoctoral training in social-affective neuroscience with Antonio Damasio, whose research has been incredibly important in shaping Mary Helen’s work.

In 2016, Mary Helen published a book, Emotions, Learning and the Brain, which summarises the key findings from the previous decade of her work. I can’t recommend this book highly enough to anyone with an interest in how children and adolescents learn. I really think it’s an incredibly important read, as is the work Mary Helen has done in the 5 years since the book was published.

Mary Helen has received numerous awards for her research and impact on education and society, including an Honor Coin from the U.S. Army, a Commendation from the County of Los Angeles, a Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a host of early career achievement awards too numerous to mention.

Toward the end of the conversation, we talk about three networks of the brain - the default mode network, the salience network and the executive control network. Understanding what these three networks do, and how they interact, is absolutely central to understanding the importance of Mary Helen’s work. I was hoping that we would have time to discuss these three networks in the conversation, but unfortunately we ran out of time toward the end of the conversation.

Fortunately however, Mary Helen recently co-authored a paper with her colleague Doug Knecht, which explains these three brain networks and how they work and interact in lay terms. The paper is called ‘Building Meaning Builds Teens' Brains’, and it’s well worth a read.

Links:

Building meaning builds teens’ brains: https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/building-meaning-builds-teens-brains

CANDLE (The Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education): https://candle.usc.edu/

The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: https://rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

Contribute to the Rethinking Education project: https://www.patreon.com/repod

Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/repod