Current educational issue/topic

Hi everyone,

I have an interview for UEL next wednesday and I am wondering if any of you would have suggestions on a recent education topic or where I could get them from. What are the most popular issues that arrise often?

I understand the guardian is a good place to start.

Thank you in advance

I'm wondering whether the death of Nelson Mandela is going to be brought up in current education issues.

Oh come on people, you claim you want to be teachers but haven't read widely about the topic of education?

Here's some stuff that's come up in the news in the last months alone, off the top of my head:

Failing Free Schools- see Al-Madinah and Discovery schools.
Teacher qualifications and training routes- is a PGCE necessary? Is training necessary?
PISA rankings- we're far from the best, but are we getting worse or are other countries getting better?
Curriculum changes and opt-outs- Gove's NC seems oddly prescriptive for some subjects (History in particular) but Academies and Free Schools can opt out of the curriculum, so what's the point?
Safeguarding and child protection- after the case of that creepy sod who ran off to France with a fifteen-year-old, and various Free Schools including the Al-Madinah and Discovery schools mentioned above not having DBS/CRB checks for their staff, should this be a higher priority?

Really though it should be something that you have found and that you are interested in. If you can't demonstrate an interest in the issues affecting education in this country, I'd question your desire to train as a teacher. It'd be like training as a doctor without giving a monkey's about the latest issues in medicine.

Really though it should be something that you have found and that you are interested in. If you can't demonstrate an interest in the issues affecting education in this country, I'd question your desire to train as a teacher. It'd be like training as a doctor without giving a monkey's about the latest issues in medicine.

...

I disagree. I think that any would-be teacher should be interested in 'how children learn', 'how teachers teach' and things like the national curriculum. But the wider political issues - though they obviously affect teachers - aren't necessarily going to interest keen teachers unless they have an interest in politics.

Personally I've never had much interest in politics. I understand how it affects almost every aspect of my life, I understand its importance and significance - but I can't just force myself to find the topic 'interesting', because I don't. Some people don't find philosophy interesting. Some people don't find psychology interesting. Well, I don't find politics interesting. Just because it governs every aspect of the many things I do find interesting, doesn't mean I automatically find it interesting.

I'm not arguing that people should be oblivious to the politics of education in the UK, or that it isn't important to be aware of politics. I'm just pointing out that - as with literally any other aspect of society - you can have an interest in the 'thing' itself without having an interest in the politics behind the thing.