Rethinking Education Podcast Por Dr James Mannion arte de portada

Rethinking Education

Rethinking Education

De: Dr James Mannion
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"Civilisation is a race between education and catastrophe." (HG Wells) In this podcast, we take Wells at his word. Hosted by Dr James Mannion and David Cameron, Rethinking Education features long-form conversations with fascinating guests about how we might create a more diverse, intelligent, responsive educational ecosystem that works for *all* young people. If this sounds interesting to you, welcome to Rethinking Education: Education's Critical Friend: https://rethinking-ed.org/podcastAll rights reserved
Episodios
  • Learning to be, learning to live together: The missing pillars of education with Sue Roffey

    Learning to be, learning to live together: The missing pillars of education with Sue Roffey
    Mar 31 2026
    In this episode, James and David are joined by Sue Roffey – educational psychologist, researcher, and leading voice on wellbeing, social justice, and relational approaches to education. Sue traces her journey from working with young people facing emotional and behavioural challenges, through educational psychology and academia, to her current work developing the ASPIRE principles – a framework for reimagining education through agency, safety, positivity, inclusion, respect and equity. The conversation explores why wellbeing and learning are not competing priorities but deeply intertwined, and why many current approaches to behaviour and school improvement miss this fundamental point. Key themes include: - Why focusing on problems can limit progress – and the importance of vision-led change - The distinction between individual wellbeing and collective flourishing - The concept of ‘mattering’ – feeling valued and adding value - Why agency is essential for both students and teachers - How schools can create cultures of safety where mistakes support learning - The dangers of ‘exclusive belonging’ and the importance of inclusive communities - Practical examples from schools restoring pupils’ love of learning - The enduring relevance of UNESCO’s four pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together Sue also shares insights from her recent Love of Learning project, involving deep dives into schools across the UK that are successfully building cultures of connection, curiosity and care. This episode offers both a critique of current systems and a hopeful vision of what education could become when relationships, agency and shared humanity are placed at the centre. Links Sue’s website - Growing Great Schools Worldwide - https://www.growinggreatschoolsworldwide.com/who-we-are/sue-roffey/ The primary school where every day starts with dancing - https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/videos/cgqe0pv8vepo Support #repod This podcast is a labour of love, with the emphasis on both the labour and the love. If you’d like to support the podcast and convey your appreciation for these conversations, you can: Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/repod Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/repod The Rethinking Education podcast is sponsored by Crown House Publishing. It is hosted by Dr James Mannion and David Cameron, and produced by Sophie Dean.
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    1 h y 16 m
  • Education as expanding dialogue – Rethinking learning with Professor Rupert Wegerif

    Education as expanding dialogue – Rethinking learning with Professor Rupert Wegerif
    Mar 7 2026
    “It’s not about teacher-centred or student-centred. I would argue it’s dialogue-centred.” In this episode of the Rethinking Education podcast, Dr James Mannion and The Read David Cameron explore these questions with Professor Rupert Wegerif, author of Rethinking Educational Theory: Education as Expanding Dialogue. Rupert has spent decades researching how dialogue shapes thinking and learning. Drawing on work with Neil Mercer and the Thinking Together programme, he shows how teaching children to reason and talk together can improve thinking, deepen understanding across subjects, and even transform classroom culture. But this conversation goes far beyond classroom strategies. Rupert argues that dialogue is not just a teaching technique – it is a fundamental way of understanding knowledge, identity, and even reality itself. In this wide-ranging discussion we explore: - Why teaching children how to talk together can dramatically improve learning outcomes - The origins of the Thinking Together programme and what the research found in classrooms - Why group work often fails – and how simple ground rules for dialogue can transform it - The relationship between oracy, dialogue and thinking - The idea of culture as a “living tradition” that students must learn to participate in - How dialogue can bridge the long-running divide between traditional and progressive education - Rupert’s concept of “double dialogue” – learning through conversation with both peers and disciplinary traditions - Why education should be dialogue-centred, rather than teacher-centred or student-centred - The deeper philosophical idea that knowledge and meaning emerge through dialogic space - What generative AI means for education – and why dialogic thinking may matter more than ever Along the way, the conversation ranges from classroom practice to philosophy, drawing on thinkers such as Vygotsky, Bakhtin, Paulo Freire, Michael Oakeshott and Merleau-Ponty. The result is a fascinating exploration of education as something far richer than the transmission of information – a process of entering, expanding and contributing to the ongoing dialogue of human culture. About Rupert Wegerif Professor Rupert Wegerif is Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge. His work focuses on dialogic education, thinking and learning, and the role of dialogue in human development. He has worked extensively with Neil Mercer and others on the Thinking Together programme, exploring how structured dialogue can improve reasoning, understanding and collaboration in classrooms. Links Rupert’s Substack - https://rupertwegerif.substack.com Rupert’s website - https://www.rupertwegerif.com Support #repod The Rethinking Education podcast is brought to you by Crown House Publishing. It is hosted by Dr James Mannion and David Cameron, and produced by Sophie Dean. This podcast is a labour of love, with the emphasis on both the labour and the love. If you’d like to support the podcast and convey your appreciation for these conversations, you can: Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/repod Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/repod
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    1 h y 17 m
  • Teaching that grips: Hywel Roberts on the Pedagogy of Botheredness

    Teaching that grips: Hywel Roberts on the Pedagogy of Botheredness
    Mar 6 2026
    Why do so many lessons feel disconnected to students – even when the content is genuinely fascinating? In this episode, Dr James Mannion is joined by teacher and author Hywel Roberts to explore 'botheredness' – a way of teaching that draws students into learning through narrative, curiosity and shared imagination. They discuss why pupils often struggle to see the relevance of what they are learning, and how small shifts in pedagogy can transform a lesson from something students comply with into something they actively care about. As Hywel explains, the key is not entertainment or gimmicks, but creating context, tension and meaning around knowledge. The conversation explores practical techniques such as ‘let’s say’ narratives, teacher-in-role, and the use of story structures built around people, place and problem. These approaches help teachers bring abstract knowledge to life and ‘protect students into learning’ by making them feel safe, curious and invested in the lesson. James also reflects on the challenge many teachers face: delivering a knowledge-rich curriculum that can sometimes feel like a sequence of disconnected topics. Together they explore how storytelling and implementation thinking can help embed this approach into everyday classroom practice. They also introduce a new professional learning programme combining the pedagogy of botheredness with implementation science, designed to help teachers move from one-off inspiration to sustained classroom change. In this episode: - Why students often ask ‘Why are we learning this?’ - The difference between engagement and investment in learning - How stories create curiosity, tension and motivation - The power of ‘let’s say…’ as an invitation into learning - What it means to ‘protect children into learning’ - Using narrative as retrieval and assessment - The barriers that stop imaginative pedagogy becoming routine practice - How implementation thinking can help make botheredness stick Links and resources Hywel's website: https://botheredness.co.uk Implementing Botheredness 2026: https://www.makingchangestick.co/implementing-botheredness-2026 Book a free 20-minute call: https://calendly.com/rethinkingjames/implementing-botheredness-chat-with-james-hywel
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    50 m
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