Category: Education Technology

What is Neo-liberal Education? On Zuckerberg and Personalisation

April 20, 2018

In a piece for the Guardian the esteemed educationalist Sir Tim Brighouse writes: “Margaret Thatcher’s neoliberalism underpinned Baker’s 1988 reform bill, which meant a prescribed national curriculum and tougher accountability, along with diversity in school provision and autonomy.” This seems to uncover a contradiction at the heart of neoliberalism – on the one hand it … More What is Neo-liberal Education? On Zuckerberg and Personalisation

Lenin and Rand: Why the Need to Disrupt Our Schools?

November 18, 2017

When I was growing up a significant number of people on the left were intent on destroying capitalism. They loathed its focus on the individual and extolled the virtue of the collective. They were suspicious of new technology, worried that it would take away jobs. They were protective of their own and were intent on … More Lenin and Rand: Why the Need to Disrupt Our Schools?

Get Kids Cultured

October 30, 2016

To be cultured means to nail one’s colours to the mast, and those who fear what’s arbitrary in that (and run to theory for protection) fear culture itself. Howard Jacobson The importance of tradition, the great tradition, is not that it is the only possibility but it is the best one that we have. For … More Get Kids Cultured

Pokémon Go! Must We be Servants of the Present Moment?

July 20, 2016

Think how useless a teacher’s greatest labours are now, when he tries to lead one single student back to the infinitely distant and elusive Hellenic world, the true homeland of our culture, and an hour later that same student reaches for a newspaper or popular novel or one of those scholarly books whose style bears … More Pokémon Go! Must We be Servants of the Present Moment?

Remove Managerialism from the Classroom

July 10, 2016

Managerialism is the idea that quantifiable administrative approaches are the correct way to run institutions. Efficiency is all and it can sometimes be value free in that what works becomes more important than what’s right. Employees become pawns in the game of delivery and the idea of management as neutral and post-ideological holds sway. The sociologist Max … More Remove Managerialism from the Classroom