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Recent Posts
- Zola : a political reading. August 13, 2023
- Hotter than July? August 5, 2023
- Rethinking work July 30, 2023
- Educating for political literacy in an age of crisis. July 21, 2023
- Savoirs et valeurs : pratiquer et conjuguer July 21, 2023
- ‘Transformative Teaching and Learning in Further Education – Pedagogies of Hope and Social Justice’ July 18, 2023
- Dilemmas of Growth June 14, 2023
- A broader view of skills? June 7, 2023
- In praise of ‘low value’ subjects. February 27, 2023
- Frigga Haug and the mystery of learning December 6, 2022
- Debating Growth. November 29, 2022
- Code red for human survival November 8, 2022
- The politics of silence. September 4, 2022
- Posts on Corsican themes. August 10, 2022
- When Corsica welcomed thousands of Serb refugees (1916) August 9, 2022
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Author Archives: Eddie Playfair
A sixth form college manifesto for 2015
The Sixth Form College Association has published its manifesto for the 2015 general election. It will join the manifestos of many other organisations in politicians’ in-trays, no doubt prompting many warm words but few cast-iron promises. This was evident in … Continue reading
The fruits of democracy
Reclaiming Education (Nov 15th 2014) The theme of the excellent Reclaiming Education meeting in Birmingham on 15th November was ‘priorities for the next government’ and one of the key questions raised was: how do we ensure that our education system responds to … Continue reading
The bitter fruits of autonomy
In his speech on 12th November, schools reform minister Nick Gibb restated some of the key themes of this government’s education strategy and expressed his delight at seeing the ‘full fruits of autonomy in all their vivid abundance.’ To those … Continue reading
Posted in Education policy, NewVIc
Tagged autonomy, Democracy, Education, marketisation, selection, university progression
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The germ theory of disease. Science in Society 6
Many diseases of humans, other animals and plants are caused by small organisms; microbes, such as bacteria, fungi and viruses which are present in the environment and can be passed on from already infected individuals. Bacteria or fungi may enter … Continue reading
Posted in Learning resources, Science in Society
Tagged germ theory, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Roy Porter, Science, Science in Society
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What’s wrong with bite-sized learning?
The phrase ‘bite-sized learning’ suggests that a substantial, chunky educational programme has been chopped up into smaller pieces which are easy to take in but have lost any sense of overall meaning; little gobbets of knowledge of no real use. … Continue reading
Education and skills coming together?
The appointment of Peter Lauener as the chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) while remaining as chief executive of the Education Funding Agency (EFA) has prompted speculation that the two agencies could soon be merged, although this has … Continue reading
Learning and xenophilia.
Xenophobia is the fear of difference or the dislike of foreigners. Across Europe we have seen the rise in support for parties espousing xenophobic views. In difficult times, these parties play the blame game and tap into people’s suspicion and … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Politics, Teaching and learning
Tagged Education, Equality, learning, Solidarity, xenophilia, xenophobia
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Le numérique en questions : une perspective anglaise
Mon intervention au colloque e-éducation: ‘le numérique en questions’ à l’ESEN-ESR, Poitiers le 15 Octobre 2014. Je vous propose à la fois une perspective personnelle et une perspective de mon établissement dans un contexte anglais. Nous ne sommes qu’au début … Continue reading
Mastering my Zenit
For my 12th birthday my dad gave me a Zenit-E single lens reflex camera. This summer, over 40 years later, I came across it while sorting through some boxes, and it all came flooding back. At the time I was … Continue reading
Debating the Liberal Arts
The Future of Liberal Arts conference: The Liberal Arts and Schools I was delighted to be asked to contribute to the panel on ‘The Liberal Arts and Schools’ at the ‘Future of Liberal Arts’ conference organised by Martin Robinson (author … Continue reading
Learning to love liberal education
Talk given at the The Future of Liberal Arts conference at King’s College London on 14th October 2014. A video of this talk is available here: http://www.newvic.ac.uk/futureliberalarts/ (select ‘Liberal Arts in Schools’ starting at 3:33) I want to start by saying that … Continue reading
The oath and the compass
It sounds like the title of a medieval thriller; the brotherhood of educators send their top monks out to roam the world having sworn to serve learning and they solve all sorts of intractable problems with the help of a … Continue reading
Eddie Playfair 