FreshEd

As we near the end of 2025, it’s time to take stock of the year. What were the big events this year and how might they impact the field of comparative education? What new ideas emerged? And where is our field headed in 2026? Continuing this FreshEd tradition, Susan Robertson and Mario Novelli join me for the last episode of the year. Mario Novelli is professor in the political economy of education at the University of Sussex. Susan Robertson is a professor of education at Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge as well as at the University of Manchester. They co-edit the journal Globalisation, Societies and Education. freshedpodcast.com/2025inreview -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we unpack the Chinese term minjian and conceptualize it for the field of comparative education. My guest is Baiwen Peng. Baiwen Peng is a doctoral student in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. His new article is “Minjian: exploring education ‘among the people’ in China,” which was published in Comparative Education. freshedpodcast.com/peng/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we unpack the education experiences of students from the former Soviet Union who have migrated to Canada. My guests are Sarfaroz Niyozov, Stephen Bahry and Max Antony-Newman. For the past few years, they have been working on a research project that has explored the experiences of the high school children with post-Soviet backgrounds in the Greater Toronto Area. The research project strives to improve the education experiences of this under-researched, often misunderstood group of Canadian youth, their parents, and communities who come from the countries of the former Soviet Union. Sarfaroz Niyozov is an Associate Professor in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, where Stephen Bahry is a sessional lecturer. Max Antony-Newman is a lecturer in education at the university of Glasgow. Various articles from their research project will soon published. You can follow the link to their project website to find them. -- freshedpodcast.com/niyozov-bahry-antony-newman/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Join Frank Adamson, an education policy expert, and Carol Anne Spreen, an international education professor, as they discuss transformative educational alternatives. They critique neoliberalism's effects on schools and emphasize the need for participatory, solidarity-driven approaches. The conversation highlights the urgency of rethinking education in the face of global crises like climate change and authoritarianism. They advocate for grassroots movements, radical dreaming, and the importance of education in shaping just societies.

Today we explore the production of global learning metrics inside the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. My guest is Clara Fontdevila, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Clara’s newest article is entitled “The politics of good enough data. Developments, dilemmas, and deadlocks in the production of global learning metrics,” which was published in the International Journal of Educational Development. Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Thanks to Matthew Thomas for organizing the event. Citation: Fontdevila, Clara, interview with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 318, podcast audio, April 24, 2023.https://freshedpodcast.com/fontdevila/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Thanks for listening to FreshEd. It’s rewarding to produce for the thousands of listeners around the world. But it takes a lot of work to make regular episodes. What sustains our effort are voluntary memberships from paying supporters. If you are enjoying FreshEd and would like to join our membership community, please sign up at www.freshedpodcast.com. -- Today we take stock of climate education, its past and its future. With me are Christina Kwauk and Radhika Iyengar, who have recently co-edited the book, Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action: Toward an SDG 4.7 Roadmap for Systems Change. They argue that COP26 has been disappointing in terms of education and climate action, and encourage everyone to focus on local action and change. Christina Kwauk is the Research Director at Unbounded Associates and a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institute. Radhika Iyengar is Director of Education at the Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia University. Citation: Kwauk, Christina, and Iyengar, Radhika interview with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 262, podcast audio, November 15, 2021. https://freshedpodcast.com/kwauk-iyengar/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we explore foundational learning in low and middle income countries. My guest is Michelle Kaffenberger. Michelle Kaffenberger is the Director of evidence translation at the What Works Hub for Global Education the University of Oxford. I Spoke with her on the sidelines of the Development and Education Conference (DevEd) held in Melbourne, Australia last week. https://freshedpodcast.com/kaffenberger/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Jess Oddy, a researcher from the University of Bristol, delves into the complexities of education in emergencies, exploring its colonial legacies and ties to racial capitalism. She critiques how organizations often carry imperial baggage, perpetuating white supremacy despite recent anti-racism statements. Oddy emphasizes the inequities in pay and visibility between global north and local educators. Highlighting grassroots movements, she showcases community-led education in South Sudan as vital alternatives to traditional aid-based models.

Ten years ago, on October 26, 2015, something special began in Japan. While working at the University of Tokyo, I launched the first episode of the FreshEd podcast, marking the start of what would become a cornerstone of conversations in comparative and international education. Over the past decade, FreshEd has grown into a global platform – far larger than I ever imaged -- connecting listeners interested in education, equity, and social change. We’ve made over 400 episodes in that time. We’ve counted 200 universities that use our content and we have listeners, like you, in over 180 countries. To celebrate our anniversary, we held a live event at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan as part of the 2025 International Education Development Forum. I’ve like to thank Dr. Jing Liu for co-organizing this event. Joining me on stage were Professors Iveta Silova and Yuto Kitamura, who are both board members of FreshEd. In our conversation, we take you behind the scenes of FreshEd’s development and reflect on what the podcast means for the wider field specifically and higher education generally. On a personal note, Iveta and Yuto are both mentors who have shaped my own career as an academic. So today we’ll air the conversation we had in Tohoku on October 18. I hope you enjoy the show and here’s to the second decade of FreshEd. https://freshedpodcast.com/10years/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we unpack the trend of micro-credentials in universities. My guest is Leesa Wheelahan who connects micro-credentials to the gig economy and discusses their implications for higher education credentials and qualifications. Leesa Wheelahan is professor emerita at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She is also an honorary research fellow at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford and a Honorary Senior Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne. She’s recently co-written with Gavin Moodie two articles: Gig Qualifications for the Gig Economy: Micro-credentials and the hungry mile and Revisiting Credentialism – Why qualifications matter: A theoretical exploration. https://freshedpodcast.com/leesa-wheelahan/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com