FreshEd

Global citizenship education is an idea you’ve probably heard about.  It’s fairly straightforward as an abstract concept. Much attention on global citizenship education today is to ensure that certain values are taught in school despite the ever-growing demands on students from subjects like Science, Math, and Language. But how can global citizenship education be measured? What tools exist to incorporate global citizenship education across the curriculum? That’s much more difficult. The Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, UNESCO, and the UN Secretary General’s education first initiative youth advocacy group convened a working group of 88 people to catalog practices and tools in use around the world that measure global citizenship education. They found some innovative ways to measure the concept. With me today is Jasodhara Bhattacharya. She was one of the lead members of working group from Brookings, which resulted in a report entitled Measuring Global Citizenship Education: A Collection of Practices and Tools. www.freshedpodcast.com

Today we look at sexuality education. In some countries, scholars who advocate for a secular worldview have constructed a progressive sexuality education that embraces science at the exclusion of religion.  With me is Mary Lou Rasmussen. In her monograph, Progressive Sexuality Education: The Conceits of Secularism (Routledge, 2015), which was just released in paperback, Mary Lou carefully explores how progressive scholarship and practice might get in the way of meaningful conversations with students, teachers, and peers who think differently about the field of sexuality education. Mary Lou Rasmussen is a professor at the School of Sociology at The Australian National University. She is co-editor, with Louisa Allen, of the Handbook of Sexuality Education which will be published in October. www.freshedpodcast.com/rasmussen

Today we talk about war and children in Japan. My guest is Sabine Frühstück, a Professor of Modern Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she also directs the East Asia Center. She has published a new book called Playing War: Children and the Paradoxes of Modern Militarism in Japan. It is a cultural history of the naturalized connections between childhood and militarism. In the book, Sabine analyzes the rules and regularities of war play, from the hills and along the rivers of 19th century rural Japan to the killing fields of 21st century cyberspace. It is a timely book that addresses the red-hot debates in Japan over its imperial past, its imposed pacifism, and its creeping militarization today. www.freshedpodcast.com

The FreshEd team is on summer holidays. We’ll return with new shows next week. In the meantime, we are going to play re-runs of some of our favorite shows. Today, we hear from Monisha Bajaj. If you value the show as an educational resource, consider supporting the show with a monthly donation. www.freshedpodcast.com/support

The FreshEd team is on summer holidays. We’ll return with new shows starting September 11. In the meantime, we are going to play re-runs of some of our favorite shows. Today, we hear from Steve Klees. Before I head off, I want to ask for your help. Would you be able to support FreshEd with a donation of $5? Please consider donating by visiting www.freshedpodcast.com/support

The FreshEd team is on summer holidays. We’ll return with new shows starting September 11. In the meantime, we are going to play re-runs of some of our favorite shows. Today, we hear from Arathi Sriprakash. Before I head off, I want to ask for your help. Would you be able to support FreshEd with a donation of $5? Please consider donating by visiting www.freshedpodcast.com/support

The FreshEd team is going on summer holidays. We’ll return with new shows starting September 11. In the meantime, we are going to play re-runs of some of our favorite shows. Today, we hear from Raewyn Connell, a Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney. She has been an advisor to United Nations initiatives on gender equality and peacemaking, and, in 2010, the Australian Sociological Association established the Raewyn Connell Prize for the best book in Australian sociology. Before I head off, I want to ask for your help. Would you be able to support FreshEd with a donation of $5? Please consider donating by visiting www.freshedpodcast.com/support

Is America addicted to education reform? My guest today, John Merrow, says it’s time for America to enter a 12-step program to fix its K-12 public education system. John argues that the countless reforms he’s reported on for over four-decades have addressed the symptoms of the problems facing American education and not the root causes. John Merrow began his career in 1974 on National Public Radio before becoming an Education Correspondent for PBS NewsHour and the founding President of Learning Matters, Inc. Now retired, John is an active writer on TheMerrowReport.com. His new book is entitled Addicted to Reform: A 12-Step Program to Rescue Public Education, which will be published by The New Press on August 15. Be sure to check out the e-book which features videos from John’s illustrious career.

Today we look at entrepreneurship education in Tanzania. You might be asking yourself, “Hey, didn’t FreshEd recently discuss entrepreneurship education in Rwanda?” You’re right. We did. Obviously, the idea of entrepreneurship education is a global phenomenon, found in many different countries. As such, we need to understand what it is in each local context, who is promoting, how it is spreading, and what it means for education and society. My guest today is Joan DeJaeghere. She has a new book out called Educating Entrepreneurial Citizens: Neoliberalism and youth livelihoods in Tanzania. For Joan, entrepreneurship education cannot be separated from neoliberalism, the contemporary form of capitalism that emerged in the 1970s. Her book explores the multiple and contradictory purposes and effects of entrepreneurship education aimed at addressing youth unemployment and alleviating poverty in Tanzania. Joan DeJaeghere is a Professor of Comparative and International Development Education in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota.

How is education studied around the world? Are there different knowledge traditions to the study of education? Have there been changes over time? And what has been the impact of globalization? My guests today, John Furlong and Geoff Whitty, have embarked on a collaborative research project that sought to understand how the study of education was configured in different countries. The project has resulted in a co-edited volume entitled Knowledge and the Study of Education: an international exploration, which was published by Symposium Books in June. John Furlong is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Oxford and Geoff Whitty holds a Global Innovation Chair for Equity in Higher Education at the University of Newcastle in Australia and a Research Professorship in Education at Bath Spa University in the UK.