FreshEd

Today we air the first ever FreshEd Live event, which was recorded last night in San Francisco. Gita Steiner-Khamsi joined me to discuss the ways in which the global education industry has altered the State and notions of free public education. We touched on a range of topics, from Bridge International to the International Baccalaureate and from network governance to system theory. Gita theorized why the State has taken on the logic of business and how a quantum leap in privatization has radically altered education. Gita Steiner-Khamsi is permanent faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition, she has been seconded by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva as a faculty member and by NORRAG as the director. This FreshEd Live event was sponsored by NORRAG. www.freshedpodcast.com/gitalive email: info@freshedpodcast.com twitter: @freshedpodcast facebook: FreshEd

Today we kick off a mini-series on education and law. Intermittently, overly the next 8 months or so, we’ll be airing a collection of conversations with scholars affiliated with the Education Law Association. These shows will touch on timely legal and policy issues affecting education. For our first show in the education and law mini-series, I speak with Julie Mead about her new co-written report with Suzanne Eckes for the National Education Policy Center entitled: How school privatization opens the door for discrimination. In our conversation, we touch on a range of issues related to voucher programs and charter schools. Julie reminds listeners that the dictionary definition of discrimination is not the same as the legal definition. Julie Mead is the Associate Dean for Education and Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is a member of the Education Law Association. Julie Mead is the Associate Dean for Education and Professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Her latest report is How school privatization opens the door for discrimination. www.freshedpodcast.com/juliemead/ email: info@freshedpodcast.com twitter: @freshedpodcast

Today we look at US imperialism in Venezuela. For the past 20 years, since Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998 in what is known as the Bolivarian revolution, the US has attempted to overthrow a democratically elected government. The US has wanted to install a leader who supported its political and business interests. In January, the US tried again, thus time putting its full support behind Juan Guaido, a little known politician who became the self-described interim-president. But who is Juan Guaido and why was his rise nearly as fast as his fall? My guest today is Jorge Martin, the secretary of the Hands off Venezuela campaign and a leading member of the International Marxist Tendency. He has followed the Bolivarian revolution for nearly twenty years, visiting the country often where he has been involved in the revolutionary movement, particularly the workers' control and occupied factories experiences. In our conversation today, Jorge focuses on the many connections Juan Guaido has to various US institutions, from think tanks to philanthropic organizations, and to universities. Jorge makes clear that Juan Guaido was groomed through his education to take a leading role in the right-wing fight against the Bolivarian revolution. Guaido, in other words, is the latest figurehead in a class struggle supported by elite education in Venezuela and the USA. www.freshedpodcast.com/martin email: info@freshedpodcast.com twitter: @FreshEdPodcast

The UK is set to leave the EU on March 29, 2019. Will there be a delay? A hard exit? A people’s vote? With four days before the deadline, it is too unpredictable to tell with any certainty. In an effort to reflect on the Brexit process, today we re-air Will’s conversation with Susan Robertson about Brexit, which took place mere days after the vote on June 23, 2016. As we await the conclusion of the chaotic exit process, it is valuable to remember just what the discussion sounded like immediately after the UK voted to leave the EU. Susan Robertson is a Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge. When I spoke with her in 2016, she worked for the University of Bristol. http://www.freshedpodcast.com/susanrobertson-brexit/ email: info@freshedpodcast.com twitter: @freshedpodcast

Today we dive into the nightmare that is the growing tide of fascism worldwide and the prospects and perils this nightmare holds for public education. My guest today is the renowned scholar, Henry Giroux. He has a new book entitled American Nightmare: Facing the challenge of Fascism, which will be published in May. Henry Giroux is the McMaster University Professor for Scholarship in the Public Interest and the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. He has written over 60 books and is considered one of the top educational thinkers today.

Last week, the Trump administration invited university, higher education association, and private company officials to the White House to discuss international students and post-college work. At the time of this recording, we aren’t sure what exactly was said or decided. But in an effort to provide some background on international student experiences in American Higher Education, Jenny Lee is with me today to discuss the underlying U.S. political climate for international students and scholars. In our talk, Jenny discusses the rise in discrimination and hate crimes since Trump’s election and the presence of neo-racism on campuses. Jenny J. Lee is a Professor at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. She is currently a NAFSA Senior Fellow, Associate Editor of the Review of Higher Education, and Co-editor of the book series, Studies in Global Higher Education. Her latest piece can be found in the NAFSA newsletter, Trends and Insights. www.freshedpodcast.com/Lee email: info@freshedpodcast.com twitter: @freshedpodcast

The University of Sussex was ranked the world’s best for development studies in the 2019 QS World University Rankings by subject. To celebrate, we re-air Mario Novelli's 2016 FreshEd interview. In that interview, Mario talked about the role of schools in the production of inequality. Mario not only details how modernity, capitalism, and colonialism combine to create systems of inequality inside school systems but also publicly struggles with his role in the production of inequality through his work in international educational development. Mario Novelli is Professor of the Political Economy of Education and Director of the Centre for International Education (CIE) at the University of Sussex. His latest article discussed in this podcast can be found in the most recent issue of the British Journal of the Sociology of Education. Citation: Novelli, Mario, Interview with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 41, September 12, 2016. Transcript, translation, and resources: http://www.freshedpodcast.com/marionovelli/

My guest today is Iveta Silova, Director of the Center for the Advanced Studies in Global Education at Arizona State University. Professor Silova has spent her career studying post-socialist education transformation processes. In today’s show she discusses some of her new work comparing Latvian textbooks before, during, and after Soviet occupation. http://www.freshedpodcast.com/ivetasilova/ Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Twitter: @freshedpodcast

Last week, Linda Darling-Hammond was named the head of California’s State Board of Education, the governing and policy-making body of the California Department of Education. With over six million students and nearly 300,000 teachers in California, this is a powerful position. Last year, Linda Darling-Hammond joined me to talk about her co-authored book Empowered Educators: How high-performing systems shape teaching quality around the world. The book explores how several countries and jurisdictions have developed comprehensive teaching and learning systems that produce a range of positive outcomes, from student achievement to equity and from a professionalized teaching workforce to the integration of research and practice. Linda Darling-Hammond is the president of the Learning Policy Institute and a Professor of Education Emeritus at Standard University. http://www.freshedpodcast.com/lindadarlinghammond/ Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Twitter: @freshedpodcast

How did vouchers and charter schools become key elements in the education reform agenda in the United States? My guest today, Professor of Education Policy at the University of Illinois, Chris Lubienski, speaks about the rise of policy orchestration among a network of private and non-profit actors and what this means for democratic decision making. His research shows how Philanthropic Foundations, such as the Gates and Walton Family Foundations, and think tanks, such as the Brookings Institute and RAND Corporation, have come to promote a common agenda that has helped propel vouchers and charters into the national spotlight. Professor Lubienski explores the changing structures of educational policy making in the United States, and argues that the contracting out of policy making to actors such as Gates, Brookings, and RAND has resulted in the privatization of public policy making. http://www.freshedpodcast.com/chrislubienski/ Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Twitter: @freshedpodcast