FreshEd

Today we take a broad definition of education and explore the process of released prisoners re-integrating into American society. My guest is CalvinJohn Smiley, an assistant professor at Hunter College, City University of New York. Calvin is currently co-editing a book with Keesha Middlemass entitled Prisoner Reentry in the 21st Century: Critical Perspectives of Returning Home, which will be published by Routledge. In our conversation, Calvin puts prisoner reentry in a historical context and argues that the American prison system should not simply be reformed but must be abolished altogether.

Are we heading towards another economic crisis? The stock market plunged last week; private debt is at an all-time high; speculative markets are on the rise; wealth remains concentrated at the top; and workers are stuck in precarious low-wage jobs. My guest today, William I. Robinson, says that the Transnational Capitalist Class is facing a crisis of over-accumulation. But what is to be done? Professor Robinson details the social movements that will be necessary to escape the rise of a global fascism. He sees the role of intellectuals as an important part of these broad social movements. William I. Robinson is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has written extensively on globalization, capitalism, and the transnational capitalist class. His latest opinion piece is entitled "The Next Economic Crisis? Digital Capitalism and Global Police State," which was published on teleSUR, an alternative representation for world news. www.freshedpodcast.com

To kick off the new year, we have a special show for you. Today, Linda Darling-Hammond joins me to talk about her new 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 Stanford University.

This is our last re-run before we air new shows. Today I'm going to play my 2016 conversation with Jane Kenway where she explains multi-sited global ethnography, which she and her team used to study elite schooling in former British colonies. The groups' latest book, Class Choreographies, was just released in paperback. If you want receive 20 percent off the book, please go to FreshEdpodcast.com/classchoreographies where you will find the special offer code. Enjoy the show and please remember to take out listener survey at www.freshedpodcast.com/survey

Happy 2018. The FreshEd team is on break. We'll return in February. Please take our audience survey: http://www.FreshEdpodcast.com/survey On Sunday, Germany's social democratic party voted to enter formal talks with Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union to form a new government. It's been nearly 4 months since the Germans' voted in September. One reason Germany has had difficulty forming a governing coalition is because of the rise of extremist parties. The Alternative for Germany, a right-wing extremist party, is the third largest party in government. I thought it would be timely to replay my conversation with Cynthia Miller-Idriss. Our conversation focused on her book, The Extreme Gone Mainstream, which looks at far right youth subculture in Germany. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is Associate Professor of Education and Sociology at American University. Her book "Extreme goes Mainstream?: the Commercialization of Far Right Youth Subculture in Germany will be published by Princeton University Press in February.

The FreshEd team is on break. We'll return in February. Please take our audience survey: http://www.FreshEdpodcast.com/survey Lobbyists are paid to influence government officials. They often operate behind closed doors, hidden from public view. In the education sector, for-profit companies rely on the work of lobbyists to promote commercial interests in public policy, from privately operated public schools to the use of education technology inside classrooms. My guest today author, lobbyist, and activist, Tamasin Cave, shines a light on commercial lobbyists in Britain’s education sector. A director of SpinWatch and leader of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency, Cave talks about her book, co-authored with Andy Rowell, entitled: A Quiet Word: Lobbying, Crony Capitalism and Broken Politics in Britain, which was published in 2014 by Random House. Cave reveals the techniques used by successful lobbyists and discusses the revolving door among government office, lobby firms, and the media. She calls for transparency in lobbying and reveals how she thinks like a lobbyist.

Happy 2018. The FreshEd team is on break. We'll return in February. Please take our audience survey: http://www.FreshEdpodcast.com/survey Today on the show: social networks analysis in educational research. My guest is Robin Shields. Robin is an Associate Professor at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. His research broadly investigates the globalization of education, examining patterns of convergence and differentiation in educational policy and practice. He particularly focuses on the innovative application of research methods such as social network analysis and multilevel modeling to address key theoretical debates in the field. He has applied these methods to the study of international higher education and international development education. On today’s show we discuss some of his work looking at twitter feeds of world class universities.

What a year! 2017 was a year of massive growth for FreshEd. We put out 44 shows that received over 25,000 listens. We covered a range of topics, including – but certainly not limited to –educational privatization, student unions, intercultural competencies, the militarization of childhood in Japan, and, of course, PISA. We spoke to professors, students, politicians, and development practitioners from around the world. All of this is huge for a show that is basically a hobby for a group of education enthusiasts.  There are some changes in the works for next year, but I’ll announce those details once everything is finalized.  For now, let’s take stock of the year. What were the big ideas in educational research in 2017? What was missing? And where are we going in 2018? For the final show of the year, I’ve invited Susan Robertson and Roger Dale to reflect on the year in research and point to future directions. They are co-editors of the journal Globalisation, Societies, and Education, which — like FreshEd — has a relatively broad remit. In our conversation, we look back at the diverse range of topics covered in educational research this year. We also ponder why certain topics, like austerity and meritocracy, remain unexamined and why many scholars don’t fully engage theory.  Susan Robertson is a Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge  and Roger Dale is a Professor of Education at the University of Bristol.

To celebrate the 100th episode of FreshEd, I’ve saved an interview with a very special guest. Back in October, I had the privilege of sitting down with Professor David Harvey during his visit to Tokyo. For those who don’t know him, David Harvey is considered “one of the most influential geographers of the later twentieth century.” He is one of the most cited academics in the humanities and social sciences and is perhaps the most prominent Marxist scholars in the past half century. He has taught a course on Marx’s Capital for nearly 40 years. It is freely available online, and I highly recommend it. You can go online and find all sorts of interviews with David Harvey where he explains his work and understanding of Marx in depth. For our conversation today, I thought it would be best to talk about higher education, a system David Harvey has experienced for over 50 years. Who better to give a Marxist critique of higher education than David Harvey himself? David Harvey is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York. His newest book is entitled Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason, which was published last month.

Many students move across national borders to attend university.  Although the number of these globally mobile students is small compared to the total number of students enrolled in higher education, there numbers are increasing.   But the patterns are changing, with more regional and south-south mobility. The role of scholarships in promoting these new patterns of student mobility is gaining attention by researchers and development aid alike. My guests today, Joan Dassin and Aryn Baxter, have recently contributed to a new edited collection entitled International Scholarships in Higher Education: Pathways to Social Change, which was edited by Joan Dassin, Robin March, and Matt Mawer. Joan Dassin is a Professor of International Education and Development and Director of the Masters Program in Sustainable International Development at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Aryn Baxter is an Assistant Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and Director of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Arizona State University (ASU).