Jun 19
Sir Michael Wilshaw is rarely uncontroversial, and at times his talk on teacher recruitment at the Wellington College Festival of Education, true to form, ruffled more than a few feathers. However, it was hard to argue with his key message, namely that we need to recruit more great teachers, and we need to think creatively …
Jun 14
Part of me feels rather sorry for Sir Tim Hunt, the Nobel Prize winner whose recent comments to an audience of journalists in Seoul have landed him in hot water. Being hounded by the national and international press – not to mention the entire world online, it would seem – cannot be much fun. His …
Jun 07
In a recent conversation with a young female relative, I asked her about her experiences of online gaming, as I know that she is a devotee. She explained why she enjoyed it so much – the challenge, the camaraderie, and so on – but she went on to explain how difficult it was for girls …
Jun 02
Writing in an opinion piece on 1 June in Today’s Zaman, the English language version of one of Turkey’s most widely circulated newspapers, Ricardo Hausmann questions government policies around the world that point towards education as a growth strategy. Education, he says, has had mixed success in raising worker productivity, and it is worker productivity …
May 23
In the days and weeks preceding the recent UK General Election, there were moments when the frenzy of messages being communicated by the parties and the candidates led almost to overload on the part of the electorate. There were messages about what politicians and parties had done (or had not done), were doing (or were …
Apr 20
I am always slightly reluctant to make political comments, even in the run-up to one of the most hotly contested UK general elections in memory, but it was at the very least worrying (and probably far, far more frightening than that) to hear a child telling a politician last week that he would vote UKIP (The …
Apr 08
Election fever has gripped the country’s media in the UK; indeed, it is hard to avoid the glee of broadcasters and reporters who are revelling in the stories that the impending general election on 7th May is generating. Politicians are touring the country kissing babies – and feeding lambs – and the polls reveal that …
Mar 20
“When you’re smilin’ keep on smilin’ The whole world smiles with you” So wrote (and sang) Louis Armstrong, and who amongst us hasn’t experienced the power of sharing smiles and happiness with others? Since 2012, today (20 March) has been designated the UN International Day of Happiness, and this, the relevant Resolution explains, is why: …
Mar 03
I have so far resisted taking a stance on the phenomenon of selfies – those snaps of oneself, taken and posted on social media, despite the fact that they are ubiquitous, a recognised word in Oxford Dictionaries Online since 2013, and increasingly institutionalised, as is evident by the development of mainstream paraphernalia to ease the …
Feb 24
The IMF have spoken: in a staff discussion note published a few days ago, entitled ‘Fair Play: More Equal Laws Boost Female Labor Force participation’, the authors outline research which supports women’s involvement in the workplace in all countries of the world. Their main finding is that “less legal discrimination against women is strongly associated …