Blog

Catchy title, hey? I’m one of those people who likes to have little projects going on all the time – at the current moment, I’m tinkering with Raspberry Pis, learning to code in Swift, mucking around with Python scripts, growing vegetables, building things out of wood, learning Spanish through Duolingo and trying to teach myself…

I’ve been revising my methodology chapter recently, which was a process that filled me with dread when I considered it. Much to my surprise, I’ve found that I’ve actually enjoyed it. When I originally wrote the chapter, I must admit that I was, like many other doctoral students, a little bit hazy on the differences…

There’s been a lot of discussion in the media and amongst unions lately about declining membership rates. On the face of it, the situation for unions in Australia looks pretty grim – membership is heading towards single figure percentages, and without the big institutions like nursing and teaching, I think that it would be probably…

You might have guessed that I find the political process deeply interesting. The politicians themselves, probably less so (do we really need another profile on Truffles Turnbull and his wife?) But the ins and outs of the electoral  process, and the way different parties and organisations try to modulate these to their respective advantages is…

I’ve been aware of educational resource sites for a while now – they’ve gradually been growing in appeal, I guess, as more and more people start to have access to the internet and it becomes easier to manage transactions across the web. You could call it the ‘Amazonisation’ of teaching, I guess. For the most…

Last week I published a few thoughts about the way that I see various forces are coordinating an attack on education, and in most cases, the public system of education. Of course, none of this is particularly revelatory – it is the modus operandi for neoliberalism. It is part of a concerted attack on the…

As I sat in traffic on the M4 this morning, I listened to the Chairperson of the Australia Industry Group explain how Australian schools are just not doing enough to ensure that young Australians are job-ready, and it’s symptomatic of the grave concerns that employers have about education systems and why there should be greater…

So I was in Tempe presenting at a conference hosted by ASU. Of all the places that I wanted to visit in the USA, I have to say that Tempe didn’t even make the list – which, now that I’ve been there, might have been something of an oversight. There was much to like about…

I first met my daughter on a long haul flight from Sydney to San Francisco. She was four months old at the time, and the cabin was dark and silent except for the rushing wind and creaking of the airframe. My wife was sleeping, and it seemed that, despite the hundreds of people within metres…

This is another episode in my series about organising and what I’ve learnt during my time working with the union. I’ve forgotten what number we’re up to, but this is the first one I’ve written in more than three months, I think. We’re approaching the end of the school year which will also be the…