Dr Sue Grey

The final line of the article id the important one: ‘And in Norway’s system, where institutions are primarily publicly funded, the ‘university’ label might carry less weight than in more market-oriented systems.’

I have never understood the objections, which all seem to come down to the fact that 'we are BRITISH, and we don't do things like this.'

It’s another tool in the armoury controlling women while also taking a step towards eugenics. Big cuts in SEND provision also in the US. Oh and a nice little profit for the company peddling the ‘cure’. All terrifying.

Out of interest- you say uk is a massive outlier in access to vaccine booster. What are comparable countries doing? And can I pay for one?

Scary

There is a lot of very good critical literature about PISA (check the reference list for the 2 articles there). No desire to change your mind, but maybe make you challenge your thinking (isn't that what education is for?). In Norway where I now teach, PISA is received very differently from in UK.

Capturing the spark: PISA, twenty-first century skills and the reconstruction of creativity Creativity has fascinated scholars for generations, and its identification as one of the key ‘twenty-first century skills' necessary for economic growth has led to renewed interest. This creates tw...

doi.org/10.1080/1476...

Ah, there I will have to disagree respectfully with you, Mark. But I could be biased!

Grey, Sue, and Paul Morris. "Capturing the spark: PISA, twenty-first century skills and the reconstruction of creativity." Globalisation, Societies and Education 22.2 (2024): 156-171.

and doi.org/10.1080/0305...

The discourse of global education/international education is rooted in US economic policy + 'outcomes' in education closely linked to the ambitions of transnational actors eg World Bank and OECD. My point is more about western ideas of education dominating what is seen to be 'good'. (See PISA-D).

Absolutely the demand is there; but isn’t that problematic in itself? For me it feels somehow at odds with the idea of addressing our colonial past and seeing ‘other countries’ as somehow unable to govern themselves without ‘our’ help.

Anyone asking about the soft power implications of British curricula being sold overseas? Why not a Lao curriculum in Laos? I’ve been an external examiner on a U.K. international education master programme and it raised a lot of questions for me.

Thinking of you all at this very difficult time.

A peek over there last night was like a glimpse into another universe.

🫶

Our best back to school day was when we decided not to do it, and took the children travelling for a year instead.We went to buy school shoes: little coloured Timberland boots- and then caught the ferry.Yes, we were v lucky to be able to do it, but I"d definitely recommend avoiding infant school!

I find myself thinking of you, Alexander and Isabelle this evening, and I send love to you and your family ahead of the madness of a UK bank holiday. x

Well, what an outrage! Take to the streets, everyone - this is the most important issue of our times!

Well you can bet that here it would be outsourced to at least one private company owned by a former Tory front bencher, who would make a tidy profit at the same time as managing to leak data, embroil themselves in scandal and then get taken over by a Chinese corporation.

For reasons I’ve never understood, identity cards are considered to be something distasteful to ‘us British’ despite, or maybe because of, the fact that almost the entire rest of the world has them.

Hope things are improving today.

I’ve just finished it too and was absolutely blown away by it. An absolute masterpiece and I was sad when it ended.

I learned Norwegian at 58. Not a problem. But Arabic at 57 definitely was!

Brain tumour statistics are not covered, but I think those would be even worse, with very little of the research funding going there either.

I will be interested to hear how noisy it is - I am local(ish) to you but hate the low hum of anything electrical, especially since having terrible tinnitus post-surgery a few years ago.

My attempts to learn Arabic overturned all my previous theories. Maybe too old, but my vocal cords just couldn’t get those deep notes - even hearing the difference was hard at times.

I’ve often been told my pronunciation is good and I’m even occasionally taken to be native in other languages. I think it’s the willingness to let go of your mother tongue and think in the other language- and not fear sounding silly. I had no early exposure.

Though I don’t share your faith, I enjoyed your words on X; but stopped looking there ages ago. Nice to see you here!

Being able to speak another language is seen by many English people as some kind of gift or talent, inaccessible to mere mortals. Because of the dominance of English they don’t need to try. Other countries don’t have this luxury and being bi or multilingual is the norm worldwide.

If we listened to research, children wouldn’t even *be* in primary school until they were 7, let alone focusing on learning goals and assessments.

To be fair it looks like the watch may have taken a bit of a bump.