
FreshEd
FreshEd is a weekly podcast that makes complex ideas in educational research easily understood. Five shows. Three languages.
Airs Monday.
Visit us at www.FreshEdpodcast.com
Twitter: @FreshEdPodcast
All FreshEd Podcasts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Latest episodes

Apr 1, 2025 • 33min
FreshEd #217 – Technology, Education, and the Digital Generation (Halla B. Holmarsdottir)
While FreshEd is away, we are going to replay some of our favourite episodes about education in a digital society.
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Children are inundated with technology. Video games, smartphones, and computers are common in the lives of today’s digital generation. With school closures from the covid-19 pandemic, learning from home only added to the screen time overload for many children.
How do children and young people use and are affected by technological transformations in their everyday lives? How are schools and education systems adapting to these changes? And what might we learn from the coronavirus when it comes to technology and education?
With me is Halla Holmarsdottir a Professor in the Faculty of Education and International Studies at the Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway.
She is currently the coordinator of a large-scale European Research project funded by Horizon 2020 (grant agreement No 870548) entitled The Impact of Technological Transformations on the Digital Generation (DigiGen). The DigiGen project focuses on the impact of digital technology on the lives of children and young people primarily in Europe.
freshedpodcast.com/Holmarsdottir/
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Mar 23, 2025 • 41min
FreshEd #336 – Digital Humanitarianism (Fleur Johns)
FreshEd is at the CIES Annual Conference. While we are away, we are going to replay some of our favourite episodes about the theme of the conference: "Envisioning Education in a Digital Society." If you are in Chicago, please stop by the FreshEd table in the exhibition hall. And please consider becoming a member of FreshEd: freshedpodcast.com/support
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Today we look at digital humanitarianism and how digital interfaces are constructing new forms and modes of governance. My guest is Fleur Johns who has recently authored the new book #Help: Digital Humanitarianism and the Remaking of International Order.
Fleur Johns is a professor in the faculty of law and justice at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. She is currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow.
Correction: In the interview, Fleur Johns mentions the 1998 floods in Bangladesh when in fact she meant the 1988 floods.
Citation: Johns, Fleur, interview with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 336, podcast audio, November 13, 2023. https://freshedpodcast.com/johns/
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Mar 16, 2025 • 30min
FreshEd #385 – The Teaching Profession in a Globalizing World (Xavier Dumay, Tore Bernt Sorensen, Lynn Paine)
If you find FreshEd a valuable educational resource, please consider becoming a member. You can sign up at our website, Freshedpodcast.com.
Also, if you’re going to be at the comparative and international education society’s annual conference this week, stop by the FreshEd booth. Me and a few other FreshEd team members will be there!
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Today we explore the status of the teaching profession across the world. With me are Xavier Dumay, Tore Bernt Sorensen and Lynn Paine, the co-editors of the 2025 World Yearbook of Education. The volume explores teacher polices, teacher employment relations, and teacher education.
Xavier Dumay is a Professor of Education at UCLouvain in Belgium; Tore Bernt Sorensen is a Lecturer of Education at the School of Education, University of Glasgow in the UK; and Lynn Paine is an Emerita Professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University, in the USA. They co-edited the 2025 World year Book of Education entitled “The Teaching Profession in a Globalizing World: Governance, Career, Learning.”
freshedpodcast.com/dumay-sorensen-paine/
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Mar 9, 2025 • 33min
FreshEd #384 – Why did mass education rise and spread? (Agustina S. Paglayan)
Today we explore the history of modern mass schooling. My guest, Agustina Paglayan, argues in her new book that schooling was originally a strategy for state-building through indoctrination.
Agustina Paglayan is a political science and public policy professor at the University of California, San Diego, and a nonresident fellow at the Center for Global Development. Her new book is “Raised to Obey: The rise and spread of Mass Education," which was published by Princeton University Press.
freshedpodcast.com/Paglayan/
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Feb 28, 2025 • 27min
FreshEd #383 – How Schools Make Race (Laura Chávez-Moreno)
FreshEd will be holding its Annual General meeting soon. Everyone is welcome to join. You can find registration details on our website. Hope to see you there!
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Today we explore how schools make race. My guest is Laura Chávez-Moreno. Laura Chávez-Moreno is an assistant professor in the Departments of Chicana/o & Central American Studies and Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her new book is entitled: How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America (Harvard Education Press).
https://freshedpodcast.com/chavez-moreno/
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Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Feb 22, 2025 • 33min
FreshEd #382 – Redefining Education: Purpose and Possibility (Pasi Sahlberg & Glenn Savage)
Pasi Sahlberg and Glenn Savage, both professors at the University of Melbourne, delve into the evolving purpose of education, drawing from insights at a recent conference. They challenge conventional notions of effectiveness, advocating for inclusivity in educational discussions. The duo emphasizes the significance of context-based experimentation and collaborative approaches, urging a shift from mere reimagining to true reinvention in schools. Their conversation highlights a collective drive towards creating a more inclusive and innovative educational landscape.

Feb 16, 2025 • 25min
FreshEd #131 – Global cities, climate change, and academic frontiers (Saskia Sassen)
FreshEd is on holidays. We’ll be back with new episodes in February. In the meantime, we are replaying some of our favourite episodes from our archive, which now totals over 380 episodes. The best way for you to explore our archive is on our website, freshedpodcast.com. You’ll find hand-picked playlists, transcripts, and even accompanying educational resources. And while you're there, please consider becoming a member of FreshEd for as little as $10/month. Members receive exclusive benefits.
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Today marks the 3rd anniversary of FreshEd. To celebrate, we are going to air our first ever FreshEd Live event where Saskia Sassen joined me for a conversation about her life and work.
Saskia Sassen is a professor at Columbia University. In 1991, she published the now classic book called The Global City where she chronicled how New York, London, and Tokyo became the centers in the new digital economy. What she focused on was the rise of intermediary services that allowed corporations to operate globally. Instead of seeing place as no longer necessary in the digital economy, she saw certain cities as physical sites that became more important than ever in the global economy.
For Sassen, intermediaries concentrated in certain parts of the city and relied on high-level knowledge, like algorithmic mathematics. In New York City, financial services took over lower Manhattan. This left a peculiar reality for the physical buildings in the city.
As a result, many people who didn’t work in intermediary services were expelled from those parts of the city. And yet, despite this expulsion by intermediaries, new forms of inclusion were created.
Today’s show was recorded at Musashi University during the Third Japanese Political Economy Workshop organized by Nobuharu Yokokawa.
https://freshedpodcast.com/sassen/
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Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Feb 9, 2025 • 30min
FreshEd #172 – Fighting Against Propaganda In The Philippines (Maria Ressa)
FreshEd is on holidays. We’ll be back with new episodes in February. In the meantime, we are replaying some of our favourite episodes from our archive, which now totals over 380 episodes. The best way for you to explore our archive is on our website, freshedpodcast.com. You’ll find hand-picked playlists, transcripts, and even accompanying educational resources. And while you're there, please consider becoming a member of FreshEd for as little as $10/month. Members receive exclusive benefits.
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The past few shows have focused on climate change as being the biggest issue facing teacher unions globally. There are, of course, other big issues. One of them is propaganda. Misinformation campaigns have been on the rise partly due to the turn towards right-wing extremism in many parts of the world. Social media has created new ways to spread misinformation and propaganda, making education a powerful tool to combat the spread of lies and what we might call fake news.
My guest today is Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and author. Co-founder of online news site Rappler, she has been an investigative reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN and was included in the 2018 Time’s Person of the Year for her work combating fake news. She has been arrested for her reporting on Duterte, the Philippine president, and is currently on trial for cyberlibel.
This episode was put together in collaboration with Education International.
www.freshedpodcast.com/mariaressa/
Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast
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Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Feb 3, 2025 • 28min
FreshEd #138 – Education’s Financing Crisis (Keith Lewin)
FreshEd is on holidays. We’ll be back with new episodes in February. In the meantime, we are replaying some of our favourite episodes from our archive, which now totals over 380 episodes. The best way for you to explore our archive is on our website, freshedpodcast.com. You’ll find hand-picked playlists, transcripts, and even accompanying educational resources. And while you're there, please consider becoming a member of FreshEd for as little as $10/month. Members receive exclusive benefits.
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Is there a worldwide learning crisis today? My guest, Keith Lewin, argues that the real issue in much of international education development has to do with financing.
In our conversation, we discuss aid to education and the ways in which the Sustainable Development Goals don't take the idea of sustainability seriously.
Keith Lewin is an Emeritus Professor of International Education and Development at the University of Sussex.
www.freshedpodcast.com/keithlewin
twitter: @freshedpodcast
email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Jan 28, 2025 • 28min
FreshEd #274 - Transitional Justice and Education in South Africa (Natasha Robinson)
Natasha Robinson, a Postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University, dives into the critical themes of transitional justice and historical memory in South Africa. She discusses the significance of truth-telling in facilitating national reconciliation, particularly through the lens of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The conversation explores how educational narratives shape students' perceptions of past injustices, emphasizing the need for diverse perspectives in classrooms. Robinson highlights the challenges of teaching history in a post-apartheid society, grappling with emotional engagement and fostering unity.