FreshEd

FreshEd will return with new episodes next week. While we are away, we thought it would be good to showcase one of our first "non-interview" shows. Although made over 6 years ago, the ideas, themes, and urgency of the climate crisis continue to resonate today. If you're keen to partner with FreshEd to turn your work into a narrative style podcast, please get in touch. -- School students all over the globe have declared a “Climate Emergency.” For some time now, youth have been striking for immediate and effective action to stop global warming and secure the habitability of our planet. Greta Thunberg is perhaps the most recognizable student protesting. You’ve probably seen her moving speech at the United Nations last month. In the context where students skip school to protest, what role do teachers play? More broadly, what is the role of education in times of climate crisis? One group of university professors and activists have thought deeply about these questions. They have recently launched a “Call to Action” for educators, asking signatories to transform their pedagogies and curricula, realign research agendas, and reformulate policy frameworks – all in line with the climate crisis and other environmental challenges. In short, signatories are asked to voice their concerns any way they can in their professional work in and outside the classroom. Today’s show takes you behind the scenes of this Call to Action, connecting the student protests and the climate crisis to the Sustainable Development Goals and Global Learning Metrics. Photo credit: unsplash.com/s/photos/climate-change -- www.FreshEdpodcast.com/climateaction Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we try to imagine alternatives to the traditional ways of understanding sustainability in higher education. My guest is Olga Mun. Olga Mun is an early-career researcher and co-convenor of the Climate Change Education Reading Group at the Department of Education, University of Oxford. She’s recently co-written with Gulzhanat Gafu and Aizuddin Mohamed Anuar a piece for the Comparative Education Review entitled “Obal and Budi Philosophies as Reparative Visions of Sustainability in Higher Education: A Creative Manifesto.” freshedpodcast.com/mun/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we explore UNESCO’s roadmap for the future of higher education. My guest is Noah Sobe. Noah Sobe is the Chief of Section for Higher Education at UNESCO. The new report we discuss is entitled Transforming Higher Education: Global Collaboration on Visioning and Action. freshedpodcast.com/sobe/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we explore the meaning of comparison from a theoretical approach that combines Policy Mobilities and Assemblage theory. My guests are Steven Lewis and Rebecca Spratt. Steven Lewis is an Associate Professor of Comparative Education at Australian Catholic University where Rebecca Spratt is a PhD candidate. Their new book is Assembling Comparison: Understanding Education Policy through Mobilities and Assemblage (Bristol University Press, 2024). freshedpodcast.com/lewis-spratt/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

Today we unpack the term “safey”, which pervades education debates world wide. My guest is Marta Estellés. Marta Estellés is a senior lecturer in the school of education at the University of Waikato. Her new, open access book is entitled The Safetyfication of Education: Neoliberalism, Psychopolitics and the End of Critical Education. freshedpodcast.com/estelles/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

I’d like to welcome our newest member Susan Winton. I’d also like to say thank you to Kathryn Anderson Levitt and Beth Chapman for upping their membership level to UltraFresh. We couldn’t run this show without our members. And if you’d like to join our growing membership community, head over to freshedpodcast.com/support -- I was recently interviewed on the Continuing Studies Podcast, which is hosted by Neil McPherdran and Jennifer-Lee Gunson. Today I’m going to play that episode as it explores what FreshEd has been working on for the past decade. That is, trying to make academic knowledge more accessible, value the power of storytelling, and reimagine higher education institutions from the inside out. I hope you enjoy the show. And if you like it, be sure to subscribe to the Continuing Studies Podcast. They produce some great content at the intersection of higher education and podcasting. https://www.continuingstudiespodcast.com -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Paid message: Sign up for the University of Zurich International Summer School: freshedpodcast.com/summerschool -- Today we explore keywords across two centuries of schooling. My guest is Johannes Westberg. Johannes Westberg is full professor of Theory and History of Education, and chair of the unit of Pedagogy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. His new book is Conceptualizing Two Centuries of Schooling: Key Developments in the History of European Educational Systems, which will be published in May. freshedpodcast.com/westberg/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we explore how time can be inherited like status or wealth and what that means for higher education mobility and inequality. My guest is Cora Lingling Xu. Dr Cora Lingling Xu is Associate Professor in Sociology of Education at Durham University. Her new book is called The Time Inheritors: How Time Inequalities Shape Higher Education Mobility in China (SUNY Press, 2025) -- freshedpodcast.com/xu/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Join our 2026 Annual General Meeting on March 11: zoom.us/meeting/register/6aweHqYJRhKE8oSyrAnPLA -- Paid message: Sign up for the University of Zurich International Summer School: freshedpodcast.com/summerschool -- Today we explore higher education in conflict. My guests are Savo Heleta and Mario Novelli. We focus our conversation on the new special issue of the journal Globalization, Societies and Education entitled: Supporting and learning from universities in times of conflict: towards resilience and resistance in higher education, which was co-edited by Helen Murray, Birgul Kutan, Samia Al-Botmeh, Savo Heleta, Sardar Saadi, and Mario Novelli. Savo Heleta is a research associate with the Chair for critical studies in higher education transformation at Nelson Mandela University. Mario Novelli is professor in the political economy of education at the University of Sussex. freshedpodcast.com/heleta-novelli/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

FreshEd will return with new episodes soon! Join our 2026 Annual General Meeting on March 11: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/6aweHqYJRhKE8oSyrAnPLA -- Today we explore the interconnections between the fields of peace education and human rights education. With me are Maria Hantzopoulos and Monisha Bajaj, authors of the new book Education for Peace and Human Rights: An Introduction (Bloomsbury, 2021). Their book launches a new book series by Bloomsbury Academic on Peace and Human Rights Education, which brings together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars and practitioners in the field. It will provide a cross-section of scholarly research as well as conceptual perspectives on the challenges and possibilities of implementing both peace and human rights education in diverse global sites. Maria Hantzopoulos is an Associate Professor of Education at Vassar College and Monisha Bajaj is Professor of International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco. freshedpodcast.com/Hantzopoulos-Bajaj -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support

Paid message: Sign up for the University of Zurich International Summer School: freshedpodcast.com/summerschool -- Today we conduct a premortem of Generative Artificial Intelligence in education. My guest is Mary Burns. Mary Burns is an internationally recognized expert in teacher professional development, online learning, and educational technology. She is the lead author of the new Brookings Institution’s study entitled “A new direction for students in an AI world: Prosper, prepare, protect.” freshedpodcast.com/burns/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we unpack the past, present and future global education landscape, looking at various international organizations. My guest is Christian Ydesen, Professor in History of Education and Education Policy Analysis at the University of Zurich. He has written extensively on global education governance and will be running an international summer school this July that will unpack the theories, histories, and actors within the global education landscape. You can find more details about the summer school he is organizing at freshedpodcast.com/summerschool. freshedpodcast.com/ydesen/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

If you find FreshEd a valuable education resource, please consider becoming a member by visiting freshedpodcast.com/support. -- Today we explore some of the big issues teachers are facing around the world, particularly in conflict areas. My guest is David Edwards, the general secretary of Education International, the global federation of teacher unions representing more than 33 million teachers. David is also a board member of FreshEd. https://freshedpodcast.com/edwards-2/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

If you find FreshEd a valuable education resource, please consider becoming a member by visiting freshedpodcast.com/support. -- Today we explore peace education as a form of global citizenship education in universities in divided settings. My guest, Kevin Kester, travelled to China/Taiwan, Cyprus, Korea, and Somalia/Somaliland to understand if peace as a form of global citizenship can be taught in universities where legacies of war, division, and colonialism remain deeply rooted. Kevin Kester is an Associate Professor of Comparative International Education and Peace/Development Studies at Seoul National University (서울대학교) and director of the Education, Conflict and Peace Lab. His latest article is entitled “Peace education as a form of global citizenship education in universities in divided settings: challenges and prospects” which was published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. freshedpodcast.com/kester/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

If you value what we do, now is the time to join at FreshEdPodcast.com. If you represent an organization interested in partnership, please reach out there as well. We’re always looking for new partners. -- To kick off the year, Stefania Giannini joins me to talk about the past, present and future of international education. We discuss the challenges facing the rule-based international order and what that means for education. We unpack the global teacher shortage and the reality of some countries spending more on debt servicing than on education. Stefania Giannini is the Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO and served as the Italian Minister of Education, Universities and Research between 2014 and 2016. We spoke just before the International Day of Education on January 24 and focused our conversation on UNESCO’s new report “The Right To Education: Past, Present, and Future Directions”. https://freshedpodcast.com/giannini/ -- Get in touch! LinkedIn: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

FreshEd is on holidays. We'll be back soon with new episodes. -- Today we explore the idea of degrowth. With me is Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist, author, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the United Kingdom. He is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics, and Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. He recently published a book entitled Less is More: How Degrowth will Save the World. The book is a must read for anyone who wants to know how we can stop ecological break down and enable human flourishing. freshedpodcast.com/jasonhickel/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support/

FreshEd is on holidays. We'll be back in February. -- Today we explore aboriginal voices in education research in Australia. Australians will soon vote in a referendum about whether to change their Constitution to allow for the creation of an advisory body made up of First Nations peoples. This body would to provide advice to the Parliament and the government on matters that impact indigenous communities. This is called The Voice. Nikki Moodie is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity at the University of Melbourne. Together with Kevin Lowe, Roselyn Dixon, and Karen Trimmer, she has recently co-edited the volume Assessing the Evidence in Indigenous Education Research: Implications for Policy and Practice. freshedpodcast.com/moodie -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/donate

FreshEd is on holidays. We'll be back in February. -- Today Fazal Rizvi joins me to talk about his forthcoming book entitled Globalization and Educational Futures. Fazal revisits the rise of the popular discourses of globalization, examines many its discontents, and suggests nonetheless that it is too hasty to imagine its total demise. Fazal Rizvi is Emeritus Professor in Global Studies of Education at the University of Melbourne, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Citation: Rizvi, Fazal with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 378, podcast audio, December 2, 2024. https://freshedpodcast.com/378-rizvi/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

As we near the end of 2025, it’s time to take stock of the year. What were the big events this year and how might they impact the field of comparative education? What new ideas emerged? And where is our field headed in 2026? Continuing this FreshEd tradition, Susan Robertson and Mario Novelli join me for the last episode of the year. Mario Novelli is professor in the political economy of education at the University of Sussex. Susan Robertson is a professor of education at Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge as well as at the University of Manchester. They co-edit the journal Globalisation, Societies and Education. freshedpodcast.com/2025inreview -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com

Today we unpack the Chinese term minjian and conceptualize it for the field of comparative education. My guest is Baiwen Peng. Baiwen Peng is a doctoral student in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. His new article is “Minjian: exploring education ‘among the people’ in China,” which was published in Comparative Education. freshedpodcast.com/peng/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com