Author Archives: drseanphd

NAIDOC 2021 Heal Country As a history teacher and an immigrant to and proud citizen of Australia, I have been baffled by the way that history is approached and what children and adolescents are taught about our own history. Yes, OUR own history. As residents or citizens of this great nation, we should all holdContinue reading “Real History: It’s About Time”

Up again rears the head of the dreaded teacher shortage, nation-wide, but also, more specifically in NSW. The shortage, as it is described, is worse in regional and remote schools; in hard-to-staff schools, in the lower SES outskirts of major metropolitan centres; and, in those hard-to-staff STEM disciplines. This is not a new problem. ThisContinue reading “The teacher shortage and the ‘two-tier’ system”

Let me start with a disclaimer – I’m not an expert in mathematics, mathematics curriculum or the jobs that require mathematics. I am however, an educator, a teacher educator, a parent, and, I like to consider myself someone who might have a relevant opinion on mathematics education, so here it is. I was a goodContinue reading “The ‘new’ mathematics”

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post entitled: What are schools for, anyway? where I outlined that schools lacked a specific purpose and goal and in the same vein I want to revisit the notion that schools are doing something right, but that it may not be the appropriate course of action for mostContinue reading “Who does school cater for?”

This week I’ve decided to postpone the continuation of my previous post on what and who is school for, in light of a recent article in the SMH regarding the gender-based school argument. The article in question begins with a story of a family who desperately want to send their three girls to a co-edContinue reading “The Gender-Based School Debate”

So here we are – the last post in the Why School Sucks series. In this culminating post, I will reveal the crux of the argument about why school sucks and what we can do, or at least what the first step could be, to fix the suckiness of schools, but first a quick recap.Continue reading “Why School Sucks – Part 3”

Let me start with a quick answer to the question posed: No, this post is not going to suggest that school is superfluous – there are already plenty of commentaries and opinions on the superfluousness of school as we know it. Despite the failure of distance education during the pandemic, however, some have suggested thatContinue reading “What are schools for, anyway?”

Welcome to the second post in the Why School Sucks series. No preface this time, if you read the first post then you understand the context, if you haven’t read it, you can access it here. This second post is going to focus on the student and teacher experience and why, both students and teachersContinue reading “Why School Sucks – Part 2”

For anyone who knows me and my research, this post might come as a bit of a surprise. If you’re not familiar with my research you can check it out here.  A quick glance down the list of my publications would tell you that I’ve been writing about assessment for over ten years and IContinue reading “Assessment Drives Learning… But should it?”

Welcome to my first post in the Why School Sucks series. This series will be what I’m calling short reads: posts that are about 500-1000 words or about ¼ – ½ as long as what I would normally write. Intermittently, I will throw in some short reads, the first three of which will be theContinue reading “Why School Sucks – Part 1”