Chair of The Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England, Geoff Barton, speaks to commission member speaks to Stephen Coleman about the ways young people engage and participate in the democratic process, the role of oracy in all of this, and the potential outcomes of the Commission itself.

Stephen Coleman is Professor of Political Communication at the University of Leeds and was co-investigator on the UKRI-funded Speaking Citizens research project. He presents the ‘Sound of Politics’ podcast and is author of several books, including ‘How People Talk About Politics: Brexit and After’ (Bloomsbury, 2020). For the past fifteen years he has taught modules on confident self-expression to University undergraduates.

You can learn more about The Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England and its members here.

Chair of The Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England, Geoff Barton, speaks to commission member Professor Rob Drummond about challenging accentism and the deficit model of language, his work in The Manchester Voices Project and how the field of sociolinguistics is so closely tied to the work of the commission.

Rob Drummond is Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he researches, teaches and writes about the relationship between spoken language and identity. He recently led the community-focused Manchester Voices project, exploring the accents, dialects and identities of people in Greater Manchester, and he co-leads The Accentism Project, which strives to challenge and raise awareness of language-based prejudice. Rob does a lot of public-facing academic work, and is the author of 'You’re All Talk: Why We Are What We Speak.

You can learn more about The Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England and its members here

Chair of The Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England, Geoff Barton, speaks to commission member Christine Counsell about her interest in oracy and the importance of exploring voices and learning through narrative across the curriculum, from the sciences to the humanities.

Christine Counsell started her career as a history teacher and transitioned into leadership roles at John Cabot City Technology College, Bristol, and as local authority adviser for Gloucestershire, before leading the Secondary History PGCE at The University of Cambridge and later becoming the Director of Education at Inspiration Trust. A renowned expert in curriculum design, she now runs Opening Worlds, a knowledge-rich programme for teaching history, geography and religion in primary schools

You can learn more about The Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England and its members here