In this 'Commission Conversation' Geoff Barton, Chair of the Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England talks to Ian Cushing about the defecit foundations of oracy education, including why a focus on improving children's 'oracy skills' draws attention away from wider structural inequalities, locating the problem in the child rather than the system, as well as research he has conducted on the listening practices of Ofsted. 

Ian Cushing is a Senior Lecturer in Critical Applied Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University. Following a career as a school teacher in inner London,  he completed a PhD in Educational Linguistics in 2019 and has since worked in Higher Education across linguistics, education studies, and teacher education. He maintains close links with schools, where the majority of his current research is focused.