This has been a rough year. 2020 was unimaginably hard for so many people. I feel that I am writing exactly the same words that I have read everywhere else, but I can’t stop myself. I am so incredibly lucky to have kept my job, my income and my way of life without losing anyone…
There is some interesting news out of the UAE this week; the teacher licensing exams in Dubai have been piloted and are ready for large scale testing of teachers in the country. There are a huge number of issues related to this that cannot possibly be covered in one post. There are measurement issues…
Experiment: Connecting three books that I coincidentally read back-to-back-to-back I recently read three books completely disconnected in time, topic, and nature but I found a huge connection. The books are The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader edited by Sandra Harding, The Twilight of Equality: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics and the Attack on Democracy by Lisa Duggan and Politics, Markets, and…
Experiment: Explain something that not everyone believes. A little personal story to start. When I was in high school, it was required that I meet with my guidance counselor. I only remember two interactions with him; the time he recommended that I take “regular” geometry instead of “honors” geometry and when he asked me what kind…
Experiment: Deconstructing a word like a radical feminist. The word “girl” seems to be following me. NPR recently published this article highlighting how the term is being used to sell suspense and mystery books about women. One of the authors interviewed, Sarah Weinman, explains the usage that “the girl insignia is trying to tie it into this…
Experiment: Connect the media discourse to current events. About three years ago, I read this article from the Atlantic about how Hollywood movies are actually very right-wing leaning although it is usually assumed that Hollywood is fiercely left-wing. The movie industry is heavily controlled by unions, movies push the envelope in socially liberal ways, and Hollywood…
Experiment: Tell the story behind the story. So, long story short, my son has a school to go to now. In Nottingham, the system for schools allows parents to choose which school their child goes to. It is not a completely free market but generally, schools that are popular and in good, child-friendly neighborhoods fill up.…
Experiment: Now connect it to the literature. I wrote earlier about my opinion about a student’s end of year speech critical of her school. There are a few elements of this story that connect to the literature I’ve been reading. Just a quick wrap up of the original story. The student spoke up against what…
Experiment: Finding the message behind the words. My PhD supervisor makes a very funny gesture when describing the word “discourse”. He sort of moves is fingers around like he is able to touch the individual molecules in the air. Discourse is not the same as truth, it is just the different messages around a topic…
Experiment: Figuring out why the statistics don’t seem to tell the whole story. Here are two charts of the same question showing the responses according to political party affiliation. These come from the PDK/Gallup Survey of Education. I’ll admit some confirmation bias that I expected the results to be bad, but I did not guess the difference in responses…
Emily Winchip 