Michele Schweisfurth

Have you read the Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell?

“Wisdom has very little, if anything, to do with data; in fact, the consensus among scholars is that wisdom is the skill of navigating situations wherein information is limited or imperfect… [It’s] the skill of making sound decisions in a world where good outcomes are uncertain + highly contextual.”

Will the Humanities Survive Artificial Intelligence? Maybe not as we’ve known them. But, in the ruins of the old curriculum, something vital is stirring.

Well worth a read. Much to ponder as Babel builds its skyscraper and hubris rules

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Open letter from UK university staff: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities More than 40 students currently trapped in Gaza with full scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come and study. We, the academic community hoping to welcome these scholars, ca...

An open letter has been launched today (27/7/25) for members of the UK academic community (academics and other university staff) to sign, to press the UK Home Office to facilitate safe passage out of Gaza for 40+ students with offers for UK universities.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

YouTube video by UofG Education Looking back on the GLACIER Network PGR Forum 2025

In April, we hosted our first ever Postgraduate Research Forum on the theme 'Context Matters'.

We were blown away by the engagement and warm responses. Watch below for a snapshot of the atmosphere on the day.

👏 Thanks to all who made it such a great day 👏

#GLACIERnetwork
#GLACIERpgrforum

📣 We have two PhD projects related to the mission and vision of #CenTCS, funded by @uofgsocsci.bsky.social Application information can be found on the links below and are due by June 6, 2025 for a starting date of October, 2025. Funded PhD projects are typically completed in three years 🧵 1/3

🎉 Our Handbook of METHOD in Comparative & International Education was officially launched last week at #CIES2025!

🙏 HUGE thanks to everyone in attendance and especially to authors who offered bite-sized insights on their chapters! #CIEMethod

@mschweisfurth.bsky.social @robinshields.bsky.social

This is our lively community of comparative & international education researchers at Glasgow with a packed room every week!

Thanks for.the endorsement @goodallannamary.bsky.social. These are certainly not the only or biggest polarisations at the moment, but important all the same...

a yellow sign that says we 're hiring ALT: a yellow sign that says we 're hiring

🚨 We're hiring! 🚨

Senior Lecturer/Professor in Social and Public Policy.

Lead cutting-edge research, deliver research-led teaching, and engage with external stakeholders.

📅 Apply by: 3rd March 2025

🔗 Apply here: tinyurl.com/4ew5xk2s

#AcademicJobs #SocialPolicy #HigherEdJobs

a sign that says we 're hiring in orange on a white background ALT: a sign that says we 're hiring in orange on a white background

📢 We're hiring!

Lecturer in Social and Public Policy.

Conduct world-class research, teach on leading programmes, and shape the future of social policy!

📅 Apply by: 3rd March 2025

🔗 Apply here: tinyurl.com/2p8rfxjb

#AcademicJobs #SocialPolicy #HigherEdJobs

a yellow sign that says we 're hiring ALT: a yellow sign that says we 're hiring

🚨 We're hiring! 🚨

Senior Lecturer/Professor in Planning.

Lead impactful research, teach in accredited planning programs, and engage with external stakeholders.

📅 Apply by: 3rd March 2025

🔗 Apply here: tinyurl.com/y9aac8zp

#AcademicJobs #Planning #HigherEdJobs

UKFIET Conference 2025 More information coming soon…

Details of the 2025 @ukfiet.bsky.social conference are out with some brilliant sounding sub-themes and great people on the committee. Take a look #educationalresearch and #comparativeeducation folk:

www.ukfiet.org/conference/u...

‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’ — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On #MLKDay, we honor his legacy by choosing love over hate, justice over injustice, and hope over fear.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Method in Comparative and International Education This handbook provides an overview of research concepts, methodologies, approaches, and methods used regularly in the field of comparative and international edu…

📣 Check it out! Pumped about our new book on METHOD in comparative and international education!

📆 Out in March(ish) 2025, it overviews research concepts, methodologies, approaches, and methods used in CIE - a companion to our THEORY book!

🔗 tinyurl.com/CIEMethod

#CIEMethod #GlasgowIntCompEd

🌍 GLACIER Seminar Series 2025 🌍
Difficult decisions in comparative & international educational research: Practices, dilemmas, & strategies

📅 Weds, 15:30–16:30
📍 St. Andrew's Bld., Rm 234
📢 In-person (sorry virtual friends!)
🔗 Details: tinyurl.com/4z48b6pw
#GLACIERSeminars2025 #GlasgowIntCompEd

Why policy is not just collective hallucination GLACIER international webinar series Glasgow Network for Comparative and International Education Research (GLACIER) presents: Professor Stephanie Allais, University of the Witswatersrand, will lead this webinar which reflects on three decades of work at the policy/research interface in various aspects of post-school education and training, mainly in South Africa but also in other African countries. The central conundrum, when looking at vocational education and youth unemployment, and in searching for solutions in skills training, is why governments, donors, and development agencies continue to push policies and interventions that have clearly failed, or, at best, have no evidence of success, and further, that can be pulled apart conceptually. Competence-based training and occupational standards as mechanisms for workplace-relevance; quality assurance regimes as ways to improve quality; qualifications frameworks as silver bullets for mobility, articulation, quality; are included in the policies under consideration, as well as many skills interventions for youth employment. To do things differently, we have to understand not just why the policy interventions fail, but why they continue to be pushed despite lack of evidence in their favour, and lack of clear conceptual rationale. Policy, like theory, is a simplification of the world, abstracted from the messiness of the real world. Policy makers operate in a complex world with so many moving points beyond their control. Perhaps this leads to operating as if policy IS the real world, or focusing only on developing policy and not thinking about what implementation means. Unfortunately, at this point it becomes a self-contained world and we can’t learn. This is not only a challenge for policy makers, but also for researchers. Many policy evaluations and academic studies remain at the level of collecting little pieces of data that don’t feed into a coherent view of the phenomenon under investigation, and their influence is therefore fragmented rather than developmental. The reverse is also true: many policy evaluations and academic studies fall into the reverse trap—remaining in love with themselves as an abstraction from the world, impervious to data. The challenge is improving the interface between theory, policy, and data, to learn and build robust knowledge about change. Biography: Stephanie Matseleng Allais is Research Chair of Skills Development and Professor of Education at the Centre for Researching Education and Labour, University of the Witwatersrand, where she researches international education and development, focused on education/ work relationships. Her books include Knowledge, Curriculum, and Preparation for Work (Brill/SENSE) with Yael Shalem, and Selling Education Out: National Qualifications Frameworks and the abandonment of Knowledge (Sense). She is an editor of the Journal of Vocational Education and Training, and on the editorial boards of various other journals. Previously, she was a fellow at the Centre for Educational Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and a researcher at the International Labour Organization.

Our GLACIER webinar series on the education research-policy relationship is now available on line at m.youtube.com/watch?v=V52M.... Great expert talks from Stephanie Allais, Gita Steiner-Khamsi and Kwame Akyeampong.

Created a starter pack in Comparative and International Education

go.bsky.app/QE2fRsn

It has only been two days but we already have 22 seconds more daylight that we had on the #WinterSolstice on Saturday. 💡

By Christmas Day it will be 84 seconds more.
By the end of December it will be more than 8 minutes.
By the end of January it will be almost 2 hours. ☀️

📣 The University of Glasgow has been selected to host Scotland’s new Centre for Teaching Excellence! Congratulations to all involved in the application process. This is wonderful news! 👏👏👏 @uofglasgow.bsky.social @uofgsocsci.bsky.social @uofgnews.bsky.social

What kind of society would willingly traumatise its children in the name of education? | John Harris As claims about practices in two flagship London academies are investigated, it’s time to stop and think about what schools are really for, says Guardian columnist John Harris

READING FOR PLEASURE is the most important lesson children can be taught. Reading is a master skill that unlocks so many other skills. So help them find the love of reading; it'll have a bigger positive impact on their life chances than any other factor! #literacy
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Teachers or Researchers: Whose Judgments about Classroom Practice Matter the Most? After many years teaching high school social studies and then university graduate students, I documented the history of teaching. In this research and writing, I have struggled with a dilemma pecul…

larrycuban.wordpress.com/2024/12/17/t...

Translating education research into policy – the Ghana Education Evidence and Data Lab at Online Tickets are now available for Translating education research into policy – the Ghana Education Evidence and Data Lab at Online, Online on Tue 10 Dec 2024. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!

Final reminder: join us for Kwame Akyeampong's webinar next week!

"Translating Educational Research into Policy: Prospects and Challenges"

Prof Kwame Akyeampong (Open University)

🗓️ Tuesday, 10 December, 3-4pm GMT

🔗 tinyurl.com/Akyeampong

#GlasgowIntCompEd

I admire people who post on politics but I am finding it all a bit overwhelming and depressing at the moment - I would need to post all day or not at all. I have been known to repost by accident though

...I expect to use Bluesky mainly professionally but I may also weigh in on music (especially Glasgow's great live music scene), films and real ale

KEYNOTE: BERA Keynote Lecture Pedagogy in International Perspective: what have we learnt?

I was never on Twitter and so I am still getting used to having followers who I don't know personally. Hello! If anyone wants to know my general perspective on pedagogy internationally, here is a link to a recent keynote at the British Educational Research Association: www.bera.ac.uk/media/keynot...

Translating education research into policy – the Ghana Education Evidence and Data Lab at Online Tickets are now available for Translating education research into policy – the Ghana Education Evidence and Data Lab at Online, Online on Tue 10 Dec 2024. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!

"Translating Educational Research into Policy: Prospects and Challenges" ...

Prof Kwame Akyeampong (Open University) will offer the final webinar in our 3-part 2024 UofG GLACIER Network International Webinar Series.

🗓️ Tuesday, 10 December, 3-4pm GMT

🔗 tinyurl.com/Akyeampong

#GlasgowIntCompEd

Tim Morris Award Education Development Trust's Tim Morris Award offers £2,000 financial support to a PhD student in the field of general education to support field research in a low- or low-middle income country.

Prestigious award for doctoral researchers working on education in LMICs - Deadline January 2025

www.edt.org/research-and...

Brexit makes no sense in a world dominated by Trump. Britain’s place is back in the EU | Jonathan Freedland From defence to trade, the incoming US president is upending the old order – and standing apart from our neighbours leaves us dangerously exposed, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

“The polls are saying it, the governor of the Bank of England is saying it. And when immigration levels are four times higher now than when we were in the EU, the issue that served as the Brexiters’ trump card lies in shreds”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Paper 4 from JustEd focuses on the Peruvian data. Maria Balarin and Mafer Rodriguez conceptualise 'shallow pedagogies' as a way to understand how justice is(n't) embedded in secondary education:

bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/gsc/view/jou...