FreshEd

Today Yanan Yu joins me to talk about her FreshEd Flux episode, which aired last week. Spoiler alert: we talk about her episode in depth in today’s show, so if you haven’t already listened to her episode, I recommend you do so right now. Really, hit pause, go back and listen to her flux episode, and then come back here to go behind the scenes. In our conversation today, Yanan details what it’s like to live in a vision centric world and the difficulty of making a podcast. She talks about moving to the United Kingdom and inclusive education. Yanan Yu completed her master’s degree at the University of Bristol and recently finished an internship at the BBC. She is currently looking to enrol in a PhD program where she can further her studies on inclusive education. freshedpodcast.com/yu -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

Today we start the second season of Flux, a FreshEd series where graduate students turn their research interests into narrative-based podcasts. To kick things off, Yanan Yu tells a story that raises some interesting questions about how ability should be defined. Is it enough that she has a level ten certification in piano? And a master’s degree? And now works at the BBC? Or does she need something else to be considered able? freshedpodcast.com/flux-yu -- Today’s episode was created, written, produced, and edited by Yanan Yu. Johannah Fahey was the executive producer and Brett Lashua and Will Brehm were the producers. Flux theme music by Joseph Minadeo of Pattern Based music. The piano pieces in this episode, listed below, are all played by Yanan Yu: Claude Debussy: Ballade L. 70 Frederic Chopin: Etudes Op. 10 No. 3 Franz Liszt : Un Sospiro, Trois Etudes de Concert S.144 Sergei Rachmaninoff: Elegy Op. 3 No. 1 Wanghua Chu, 春江舟影 Thanks to Haozhou Ding, Zeyu Wang, Yishuang Xu, Xiaotong Wang and other activists across the globe. Yanan would not have been able to express the complexities surrounding this issue without their support. Finally, Yanan hopes that her efforts may contribute to some changes, however small, in her peers’ lives. -- Learn more about Flux: freshedpodcast.com/flux/about/ Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Today we explore the meaning of regionalism in the South Pacific. With me is Seu’ula Johansson-Fua who uses the concept of Wansolwara to think about creating a regionalism from within the “sea of islands” that is the South Pacific. Seu’ula Johansson-Fua is the director of the institute of education at the University of the South Pacific. Her new article is Wansolwara: Sustainable Development, Education and Regional Collaboration in Oceania, which was published in the Comparative Education Review. freshedpodcast.com/johansson-fua -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

Today Kehaulani Vaughn joins me to discuss Trans-Indigenous education primarily on Turtle Island, the name used by Indigenous peoples for North America. Kēhaulani Vaughn (Kanaka Maoli) is an assistant professor in the Department of Education, Culture, and Society and the Pacific Islands Studies Initiative at the University of Utah. She has recently co-written, with Theresa Jean Ambo, an article entitled “Trans-Indigenous Education: Indigeneity, Relationships, and Higher Education” which was published in the Comparative Education Review. freshedpodcast.com/vaughn -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

Today You Yun joins me to talk about Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). She critiques the approach to SEL advocated by western organizations by showing how conceptions of the self, other, and emotions are not universal. By exploring these concepts from Confucian and Daoist philosophies, she begins to show alternative ways to think about SEL. You Yun is an Associate Professor in the department of Education at the East China Normal University. Her new article is "Learn to become a unique interrelated person: An alternative of social-emotional learning drawing on Confucianism and Daoism," which was published in Educational Philosophy and Theory. freshedpodcast.com/you -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

Today Mir Abdullah Miri joins me to talk about his escape from Afghanistan and takes me inside the production of “The Desert of Death,” an episode he made for the Intercepted podcast. Mir Abdullah Miri is an Afghanistan Observatory Scholar at New America. In Afghanistan, he served on the faculty of Herat University. In the fall of 2021, Miri was evacuated from Kabul to England, and now lives in Bath. freshedpodcast.com/miri -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

Today we explore higher education assessment for disabled students. My guest is Juuso Nieminen, an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Juuso argues that assessment adjustments are often technical processes that presuppose a medical logical. Juuso’s new article is “A spanner in the works: the portrayal of disabled students in assessment adjustment research” which was published in the journal International Studies in Sociology of Education. freshedpodcast.com/nienminen -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

It’s great to be back after an extended holiday. I’m recharged and ready to go. We have an exciting line-up for the rest of the year, including our FreshEd Flux episodes. Before we start today, I’d like say hello to all our new listeners who may be joining us for the first time as they start their degrees at universities across the Northern Hemisphere. I hope you find FreshEd useful in your studies and please be sure to get in touch! We love hearing from listeners. Over the past few weeks on holiday, I’ve been doing a lot of reading. It’s been really relaxing. Reading is a fundamental part of education. There’s no way around it. There’s even an idea called “foundational literacy” that is being championed – not without controversy -- within international development circles. But let’s put that to one side. I’m more interested in what people are reading. Have you ever wondered what some of your teachers or fellow peers are reading? Today we continue our mini-series called the FreshEd Questionnaire. Over the past eight months, I’ve asked FreshEd guests a set of standard questions after each interview. These questions ask guests how they approach writing, reading, research, and supervision. These are the day-to-day activities we do inside universities, but perhaps don’t talk too much about them. I want to talk about them. The first volume in this mini-series, which you should go back to listen to if you haven’t, explored research supervision. It offers great insight and tips for new university students. In today’s episode we explore books. I asked guests who are their favourite writers and why? What we learn is that academics read far and wide. Some stick to academic texts directly in the field of education. Others read non-fiction far beyond the field of education. And still others devour fiction, using it as a source of inspiration in their own academic work. My hope is by listening to this mash-up of voices you’ll think about your own reading habits and realize the value of reading in education. I hope you enjoy the show! freshedpodcast.com/291-questionnaire -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

Hi FreshEd Listeners. We’re on holiday for the month of August. We’ll be back in September with new episodes, including the next round of Flux. I’ve already listened to a few rough cuts and they’re going to be great. While we’re away, please send us your recommendations for future guests as well as consider donating to FreshEd to keep independent media alive. FreshEd is nothing without you. Thanks for all your support and I’ll be back in September! freshedpodcast.com/contact-2/ -- Today the journalist, author, and academic, Gary Younge, joins me to talk about race, identity, and education. Our conversation starts with his reflections on the UK Government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which published its report in March. We then touch on a range of issues from across his career. Gary Younge is a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester. He worked for the Guardian newspaper for two decades and has written five books. His book Who are We – and should it matter in the 21st century? was recently re-released with an updated introduction. In May, he released his latest BBC radio documentary called Thinking in Colour. freshedpodcast.com/younge/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

Hi FreshEd Listeners. We’re on holiday for the month of August. We’ll be back in September with new episodes, including the next round of Flux. I’ve already listened to a few rough cuts and they’re going to be great. While we’re away, please send us your recommendations for future guests as well as consider donating to FreshEd to keep independent media alive. FreshEd is nothing without you. Thanks for all your support and I’ll be back in September! https://freshedpodcast.com/contact-2/ -- Did you know that today there are more forcibly displaced people than at any time since World War II? The total number comes out to roughly 65 million, including internally displaced peoples, asylum seekers, and refugees. That’s roughly 1 out of every 113 people on Earth. Today I speak with three professors from Teachers College, Columbia University about their research project on refugees, which is being funded by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. At Teachers College, Mary Mendenhall is an Assistant Professor of Practice in International and Comparative Education; Garnett Russell is an Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Education; and Elizabeth Buckner is a Visiting Assistant Professor in International Comparative Education. https://freshedpodcast.com/marygarnettelizabeth/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/