S2E8: Warwick Mansell on academies, accountability and the absence of evidence in policymaking

Warwick Mansell is a long-time contributor to the Guardian and the Observer, and worked for many years at the TES - the Times Education Supplement. He writes blogs for Prospect union, and the National Education Union teacher magazine, among others. A few years ago, he was shortlisted for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Education Journalist of the Year. Warwick runs a subscription-based education news website, Education Uncovered, which has the strap-line "digging around in the undergrowth of schools reform in England". And what a murky, tangled subterranean web it is. Warwick aims to hold the microscope the endless waves of reform which have hit England’s schools in recent years, and to hold policymakers and those with power to account for goings-on at ground level. Warwick is especially keen to engage with one potential strand of reporting which is not covered in any systematic way by national education media: the way education reform impacts on parents, teachers and communities, and the campaigns which spring up against it. Warwick is also the author of a brilliant book about assessment in education, called ‘Education by Numbers: The Tyranny of Testing’. Although it was written in 2007. It remains highly relevant today - 15 years later. Here are some of the nice things people have said about the book: "Unputdownable. I think the book should be required reading for everybody running a school." -- Mike Kent, head of Comber Grove primary school "Warwick Mansell's meticulously researched analysis of the damage wrought by 'hyperaccountability' in the education system should be compulsory reading for all politicians. It shows how this government's obsession with tests, targets and league tables has perverted educational practice, dumbed down our public examinations, deskilled the teaching profession and damaged the education of a generation of children." -- Sue Palmer (author, Toxic Childhood) If you want to understand the impact that the recent tsunami of school reforms have had in a number of areas - from free schools to financial irregularities, from to transparency to accountability, and from deregulation to the role of evidence (or indeed the lack of it) in policymaking - then strap yourself in. LINKS: EDUCATION UNCOVERED: https://www.educationuncovered.co.uk/ GOV.UK ARTICLE - 10 facts you need to know about academies: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/10-facts-you-need-to-know-about-academies RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - TICKETS: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-rethinki…s-226415834857 RETHINKING EDUCATION CONFERENCE - SPEAKER APPLICATIONS: rethinking-ed.org/conference/ THE RETHINKING EDUCATION MIGHTY NETWORK: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed MIGHTY NETWORK WELCOME VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs RETHINKING EDUCATION CAMPFIRE CONVERSATIONS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ6mCUmebHJNC-qrWX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2 BECOME A PATRON: www.patreon.com/repod BUY ME A COFFEE: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.