Image: The timeless classroom – created by AI, 11:09 24.09.2024
News items:
A short article, surveying the landscape, for AI in education.
See our new AI and Education page here… (Our Guardian Education news feed is back too, many apologies to our readers…20th July 2023)
We have been revisiting the wisdom of Sir Ken Robinson recently. Listening to the long echoes of his originating Ted Talk, in Monterey, all about education and creativity.
Well worth a look. It is fun too, as well as telling…we thought. See more on our The Debate Filmed page here: https://www.inequalityineducation.org/the-debate-filmed/
We have just refreshed our Useful Links page.
Now with added @TeacherToolkit goodness. See more here…
‘Nominally egalitarian education systems, Kate Pickett writes, can in reality reproduce deep social inequalities’.
From the pages of Social Europe: Reading Thomas Piketty’s most recent book, A Brief History of Equality, Kate Pickett opines ‘…I came to a section which brought me up short, entitled ‘Educational equality: always proclaimed, never realised’. Here, Piketty draws attention to the ‘monumental gap between official statements regarding equality of opportunity and the reality of the educational inequalities that the disadvantaged classes face…’
Read this challenging article here: https://socialeurope.eu/class-in-the-classroom
Education and Social Mobility: Understanding earnings outcomes for free school meals students
The link below will take you to a page from the Office of National Statistics. Just published, it details early findings from new research – examining earning outcomes at age 25, relative to the living wage, for people who had free school meals (FSM) and those who did not.
”Being in receipt of FSM is commonly used as a proxy measure for socio-economic disadvantage (including household income deprivation) during childhood. So looking at the relative earnings of young people in relation to having been in receipt or not of FSM is a useful way of exploring social mobility in early adulthood.”
Twenty image editing apps for learners!
Getting creative in any classroom. A great list of resources.
‘The rise of Facebook, Instagram and other image-driven social media has made today’s students hyper-aware of the power of the digital image – but at the same time, most kids and teens are less savvy about design and communication principles as well as the basic how-to’s of image manipulation. This is where educators can step in and capitalise on our society’s ever-growing fascination with digital imagery.’
Source: https://www.teachthought.com/technology/best-photo-editing-apps-students/
A featured web page: The five best public libraries in the world for 2021.
In an atmosphere of restriction and ever dwindling resources, here is a triumphant list of five amazing buildings. All dedicated to the book, knowledge, learning and public access. Article courtesy of designboom.com.
Wonderful, uplifting stuff, we thought. See: https://www.designboom.com/architecture/the-5-best-public-libraries-from-around-the-world-in-2021-07-07-2021/
A featured web page: How to deliver a balanced approach to remote learning. A useful and timely article from Microsoft Education and the Head of Exeter Cathedral School.
Update: January 2021: https://blog.zoom.us/tips-for-teaching-in-a-hybrid-classroom/
A featured web page: School, community and horticulture from designboom architecture.
‘…principles of self-sustenance and learning through play lie at the heart of this school proposal by indian architect, T R radhakrishnan. designed as part of an international competition launched by c-re-aid, the finalist-winning scheme blends with the rural landscape of tanzania‘s moshi district to create a learning environment that embraces the surrounding nature and enriches early childhood development.’
See: https://www.designboom.com/architecture/tr-radhakrishnan-school-proposal-rural-tanzania-11-23-2020/
A featured web page: Pioneers Post and educational control?
The debate will continue to rumble, we are sure, but this article from a recent edition of Pioneers Post, Capitalism rules: is the UK government controlling our classrooms?, neatly sums up some of the tensions in a seeming bid to protect and preserve the current model of capitalism.
A wonderful divertissement from Covid, meetings on-line and the home office?
This is a gentle, refreshing and inspiring point of focus for the mind in troubled times. Graham Shaw, at a University of Hull TEDx event, applies some simple drawing techniques that can be quickly taken up to refresh the mind and the spirit…and a great bit of teaching too?
High fidelity, professional grade audio is now available on Zoom. Follow this link, discover how to activate it! https://blog.zoom.us/high-fidelity-music-mode-professional-audio-on-zoom/
A featured web site: EDUCATION CANNOT WAIT
Responding to Covid 19, inequality, imperatives in a crisis and neglected priorities – it is all here. ECW is a global fund, dedicated to education.
‘The truth of the matter is that education is an imperative for crisis-hit families as they are struggling to keep their children safe and rebuild their lives, and is paramount to peace and development’. (Source: https://www.educationcannotwait.org )
Get information about schools: This is a new, on-line register of schools and colleges in England. You can search for and download information on establishments, establishment groups (such as a local authority, trust or federation) or governors. See more here…
A new novel by Lynda Haddock. Ellen Lives On – loss, sadness, 
identity and education explored with compassion and insight. See our Monographia for more information and to buy the book.
Don’t forget to check out our education news page – continually updated, everything from the Office for Students, Ofsted and Children and Young People Now – see more here.
PISA-envy, Pearson and Starbucks-style schools – a reflection from the New Internationalist on the market for ‘out of the box’ education. Read more…
Inequality in education and the workplace. A brief reflection and a long report on contemporary Australian experience. See more here…
In England inequality is a key social and political issue. Education has a vital role to play in abolishing inequality in society. Young people’s destiny is still determined largely by their social position at birth.
“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”
Thomas Jefferson writing to William C. Jarvis, 1820
“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
Robert Lee Frost (March 26th, 1874 – January 29th, 1963) Poet
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn”.
Terence Hanbury “Tim” White (29th May 1906 – 17th January 1964) Author
“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”
Plato – Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece
“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.”
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18th July 1918 – 5th December 2013) – anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist
‘Education must have two foundations –morality as a support for virtue, prudence as a defence for self against the vices of others. By letting the balance incline to the side of morality, you only make dupes or martyrs; by letting it incline to the other, you make calculating egoists’.
Sebastian Roch Nicolas Chamfort – writer, Jacobin, revolutionary (1741 – 1794)
We believe that:
- The education system in England should allow every child to realise his or her potential.
- Schools should have the opportunity and obligation to hold the highest aspirations for every child
- Parents, carers, nurseries and schools should be provided with the resources to accomplish this aim.
- Support should be personalised for every child and young person.
We aim to create a network that supports all those individuals groups and organisations that work to promote equality of educational outcome by the widest range of activities possible. Currently these include:
- Organising informational conferences
- Disseminating research
- Building discussion and engagement networks
- Supporting and working with activities that promote similar aims
- Endorsing progressive initiatives.
We aim to…
assist in building a movement that would seek to engage with the widest group of people we can and to support all those initiatives, small and large, that work towards building more equal outcomes in the education system.
One possible idea arising from this is to inaugurate and then promote a kitemark to recognise initiatives taken by individuals and organisations to promote improved equality of outcomes in education.
Follow our news and journal entries, attend one of our events or email us from Contact Us page to join the debate.
The Turning the Tide Team.
