May 2017

  • Can we think like 21st century economists?

    I wrote the other day about Kate Haworth's Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21st Century Economist.  These are Raworth's seven ways in which she believes we can all start to think like 21st century economists: 1. Change the goal:...

  • Ofsted confirms that deep means depth

    I have had a response from Ofsted to my query about a curriculum that was balanced / rich / deep.  It was from Sean Hartford HMI, National Director for Education. He confirmed that a balanced curriculum is still a necessity, even...

  • Online Anarchy Optional

    This is part of an editorial in Thursday's Times. Online Anarchy Optional YouTube added a black ribbon to its logo this week as a mark of respect to those killed and maimed in Monday’s gruesome attack.  Yet as the site...

  • The problem with Doughnut Economics

    Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21st Century Economist, by Kate Raworth, was published earlier this month.  This is a development of her paper for Oxfam in 2012 which I commented on a while back.  You can find details here –...

  • All those manifestos

    I've been reading the election manifestos – well, three of them (and a sort of manifesto from the Greens).  I did some searches for the number of times the following came up: education for sustainable development / sustainability education for...

  • Ofsted on Rich and Deep – a promise made

    Still not having had a response from Ofsted to my March 2017 enquiry, I wrote again: Earlier this year, I listened with great interest to the Chief Inspector’s first interview on Radio 4, and I then read her speech to the...

  • Encounters on empty classroom day

    I was on the Shropshire hills for empty classroom day [ECD] this year, and stumbled across a year happy-looking 6 group from Hertfordshire.  Rather splendidly, they were having nothing to do with ECD as they were enjoying ECW: empty classroom week...

  • America First: education for sustainability benchmarks

    The eponymous Jaimie Cloud, President of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, sent this message out the other day to her ESD/ EfS / LSD / SDE / etc collaborators on a Benchmarking project.  She wrote: Dear Authors and Reviewers, I am...

  • A coal-free day

    I was pleased to see that the UK didn't use coal to generate electricity for a full day last month – April 21st.  Climate Action said that this was "the first time since the Industrial Revolution" which is hardly the case, although...

  • Higher Education for Sustainable Development – a review

    Another paper!  Is this a trend? This time it's my review for EER of Kerry Shephard's Higher Education for Sustainable Development [Palgrave Macmillan, 2015; ISBN: 978-1-137-54840-5].  You will find it here. This is how it starts – and ends. When I...