Category: Education

If the government is serious about tackling child poverty, it should extend free school meals

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol
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Will Baker, University of Bristol

The government has created a new ministerial taskforce for its child poverty strategy, led by Work and Pensions secretary Liz Kendall and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. It is urgently needed: 4.3 million children in the UK are living in poverty.

The government has already committed to making sure free breakfast clubs are available in all primary schools in England.

We know that having a good breakfast at school can help improve child behaviour and readiness to learn, and helps children achieve more at school. The introduction of breakfast clubs for all primary school children is welcome – but this cannot be the limit of the government’s ambitions if it is serious about tackling child poverty and dealing with its consequences. Extending free school meals in England would be a powerful step here. (more…)

International Women’s Day 2023: Digital rights are women’s rights- no ifs, no buts!

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International Women's Day 2023Blog by Chidinma Ibemere, M.Sc. Education Leadership and Policy, University of Bristol, UN Women UK Delegate for CSW67 for International Women’s Day 2023

At the core of the first official celebration of the International Women’s Day by the United Nations in 1975, was the quest and the mandate to advance women’s rights everywhere, at all times. It is unfortunate that 48 years down the line, the menace, gender inequality, still thrives in various forms and dimensions across the intersections of life.

As overwhelming as this situation may seem, it is important that all hands must be on deck to ensure gender equality becomes a reality in our time. (more…)

Anti-racism in education: promoting racial equity and building a global anti-racist movement

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Blog by Jáfia Naftali Câmara School of Education, University of Bristol

The Transformative and Anti-racist Educational System project (SETA) secured US$10 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to enable transformative long-term changes to Brazil’s systems and institutions that sustain racial inequities. ActionAid has developed SETA in collaboration with a coalition of civil society organisations: Ação Educativa, Brazil’s leading NGO working in education, culture and youth rights;  A Campanha Nacional pelo Direito à Educação, the widest educational collective in Brazil, including student and community groups; CONAQ, a national Quilombola movement advocating for their specific educational needs and challenging inequality and barriers to land access; Geledés-Black Woman Institute, focuses on defending Black women’s rights and challenging traditionally white and male-dominated education spaces; Makira-E’ta, a leading Indigenous Women’s Network supporting Indigenous women’s rights and UNEafro Brasil, which convenes young people, teachers, activists and researchers around themes of antiracism, the right to education, community leadership and the fight against all types of discrimination. The SETA project aims to spark an intergenerational dialogue on racism and education and mobilise a global network on racial justice in education.

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Global Dialogue: Reflections as a student participant

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Global dialogue reflections as a student participantBlog by Emily Hui Sein Yue (Elim), Master of Education (MEd)(Comparative and Global Studies in Education and Development)student, Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong.

I first participated in the Going Global Project in 2019, going on to be a facilitator. In this article, I share my experiences and thoughts about the value of the dialogue meetings that I have been involved in. (more…)

Cultural shocks and surprises as a UoB MSc Education international student

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

My name is Emmanuella Henshaw and I am a 2021 Commonwealth shared scholar at the University of Bristol. I am studying for an MSc in Education (Policy and International Development).

In September 2021, I began my studies at the School of Education. In this article I will be sharing my academic shocks I have experienced studying at University of Bristol. (more…)

The School of Education Climate Justice Challenge 2022: Get involved!

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The School of Education is launching the Climate Justice Challenge 2022 and we want you to get involved!

As part of the “Advocacy” element of the School’s Climate Action Plan, during the month of March 2022, the School of Education is undertaking a ‘Climate Justice Challenge: Learning from Change’, supported by cCHANGE, a team of experts in transformational change from Norway.

The aim is for the challenge to help us explore how we mobilise to make wider changes. In particular, it will help us work on how we can act, as individuals, in teams, in our School, and in the wider University community, in ways that are consistent with the University’s declaration of a climate emergency. The challenge focus was chosen to reflect the broad agenda and commitments of the School. (more…)

School of Education blog: 2021

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

As 2021 draws to a close, we reflect on another year living though a global pandemic, and the challenges faced across the world.

Throughout the last year, the School of Education blog has provided interesting and informative posts covering a range of topics; research, opinions, student voices and alumni reflections, and much more, from across the SoE community.

The School of Education warmly thanks all our contributors this year and looks forward to sharing more with you in 2022.

Contribute to the School of Education blog

If you wish to contribute to the School of Education blog in 2022, please visit our ‘How To’ Guide, and send your article to the SoE Comms and Marketing Mailbox:  soe-comms-marketing@bristol.ac.uk

The SoE blog wishes all our readers and contributors a wonderful and peaceful Christmas break, and a very happy and prosperous 2022.

 

Rent strikes and the continuing relevance of Paulo Freire at 100

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Blog post by Dr Lucy Wenham, School of Education, University of Bristol; and Dr Helen Young, London South Bank University

Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, student rent strikes took place in many universities in England. Lockdowns and moves to online learning meant that students were at times required to pay rent for accommodation they were unable to occupy, or which offered significantly reduced amenities. These students were largely first-year undergraduates, in accommodation owned, overseen or marketed by their universities. They often did not know other students even within their accommodation blocks, as the pandemic lowered occupancy levels and movement and mixing was frequently restricted. Nonetheless, these students joined together to resist, to act collectively and to refuse to pay their rent. Their action resulted in at least partial victory, in some places, for some moments. It also resulted in a growing critical consciousness among those involved. (more…)

Teacher motivation and student learning in India – which is the chicken, and which is the egg?

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Blog post by Rhiannon Moore (PhD student, School of Education, University of Bristol) and Anustup Nayak, (Project Director for Classroom Instruction and Practice, Central Square Foundation)

What do we know? Teacher motivation and student learning

Teacher motivation is a commonly discussed topic within policy and research in LMICs. Such discussions tend to have two main points of focus: firstly, that teacher motivation is worryingly low; and secondly, that this is having an impact on student learning. In this blog, we are particularly interested in exploring the latter of these two points. We largely focus our discussion on teachers in India, where our experience and research suggests that it may be helpful to consider this relationship as a two-way cycle instead of an input-output process. Thinking about teacher motivation in this way can change the way we think about both teachers and students, asking that we challenge the often over-simplified picture of a poorly motivated teacher whose behaviour inhibits their students’ learning, and instead start to consider teachers as dynamic agents whose own needs may not be being met. (more…)

Voices from Small Island Developing States: priorities for COP26 and beyond

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

This blog is written by Dame Pearlette Louisy; Dr Merle St Clair-Auguste; Dr Aminath Muna; Dr Aminath Shiyama; Dr Rosiana Lagi; and the ESSRG Leadership Team, and first published on the Cabot Institute for the Environment blog

The School of Education’s Education in Small States Research Group (ESSRG) in collaboration with the Cabot Institute for the Environment and the Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE), have produced a short (15 minute) video as a direct contribution to COP26 in Glasgow. This has been developed from the zoom recording of a joint online event titled ‘Voices from SIDS at the Sharp End of Environmental Uncertainty: Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Speak to COP26’ held on 5 October 2021. (more…)