The Principal; Power and Professionalism in FE: Measuring Up To The Mean – Beggars Belief

On Saturday 25th November I attended and presented at the ‘Power and Professionalism in FE Conference’ which was held at University of Huddersfield (Twitter hashtag: #hudpowerfe). This conference was brought together to coincide with, and reflect the themes, ideas and work of a host of contributors to the launch of the book ‘The Principal; Power and Professionalism in FE‘ published by University College London Institute of Education Press. Read more…

Education, Utopia, Necessity, and Existential Poverty

This paper explores a perspective emerging from a community education project called Ragged University. The philosophical underpinnings of the project came as a response to necessity brought about by the existential poverty being created as a result of the process of enclosing the commons of the intellect. Read more…

Education: Power Differentials and Problems of Scale

This presentation was given to the Knowledge, Power and Identity research group at the University of Manchester Institute of Education, on the 29th February 2016. The research group explores understandings that educational theories, practices and policies work to constitute categories of identity and subjectivity that reflect knowledge and power relations.

24th Sept 2015: Power, People and Process; How We Make Decisions About What We Want For The City And Its Communities by Ewan Aitken

Come along to The Counting House at 7pm to listen to Ewan, share a crust of bread, and hear his thoughts on power and people…

Title of talk:

Power, people and process – how we make deacons about what we want for the city and its communities

Bullet points of what you would like to talk about:

These days, there is a great deal of talk about collaboration, co production, devolution and communities leading their change; but is these really possible without a kind of revolutionary change in how we see power and accountability, process and transparency. Who gets to decide what, why is them that get to decide, what is it that they are deciding and who did they talk to before they reached their decisions….
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Widening Participation: Power, Knowledge and Silence; A Digest

Critical theoretical frameworks are particularly helpful in developing a conceptual framework of widening participation which is capable of addressing the complexities, misrecognitions and exclusions that play out in educational fields such as colleges and universities. Continuities in wider participation have included struggles over access for particular social and cultural groups, notions of meritocracy and liberalism, concerns with fairness and social justice and attention to patterns of social exclusion and mobility. Read more…