I was recently interviewed about my essay The Liberating Power of Education for a future episode of Dr James Mannion’s excellent long-form podcast, Rethinking Education. In the often intolerant and tribal world of educational theory and policy, James is to be commended for his willingness to explore differences of opinion in a generous and civil fashion. And we disagreed, civilly, […]
Tag: liberal education
The Liberating Power of Education
I’m very proud to have contributed to the Academy of Ideas’ Letters on Liberty series of pamphlets, which has been doing a great job of showing what the much-devalued idea of ‘freedom’ can mean to us today. My Letter is a mini-history of education, which explores the tension between the recognition that knowledge is important and the fear of where […]
Reimagining schools at the Battle of Ideas
I spoke on the Reimagining schools panel at the Battle of Ideas festival, which took place in Westminster on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th October. My introductory comments are reproduced below: Pandemic or no pandemic, I think it’s always worth asking could schools be done differently? Could be they be done better? There’s still plenty of scope to experiment – […]
Reimagining schools
Lockdown has thrown many aspects of school life into question, from classroom-based teaching to formal exams. Education and technology expert Joysy John spoke for many when she said: ‘Covid-19 has exposed these fault lines in our education system, but perhaps now we have an opportunity to reimagine what education might look like as we rebuild after the pandemic.’ What should […]
Head Hand Heart
Santa has brought us some unexpected history of education content this Christmas, hidden between the covers of David Goodhart’s latest book. Goodhart is a journalist, commentator and former director of the think tank Demos. His previous book, The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics (2017), introduced the categories ‘Anywheres’ and ‘Somewheres’ to the political lexicon […]
What is a liberal education?
This week I was delighted to give Derby University’s 4th Annual Education Studies Lecture and help launch their new history of education module. History was dropped from many degree courses in the 1980s, so it’s great to see it making a comeback at Derby. It was an honour to talk to first year students at the beginning of their studies, […]
Alcuin of York
In my view, this little known media scholar is one of the most important figures in the history of education in England, and actually in Europe. To find out why, read my tribute in Teach Secondary magazine. If that piques your curiosity, you can find out more in an edition of Radio 4’s In Our Time dedicated to the man. […]