EXAMS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED – HERE’S WHY

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged A-levels, assessment, campaigning, capitalism, casual employment, ChildLine, commodification, consumerism, counselling, education, employment, exam abolition, exams, featured, further education, GCSEs, higher education, hourly-paid tutors, knowledge, marketisation, May '68, mental health, mental health services, national curriculum, NSPCC, Paris '68, phD, postgraduate, postgraduate tutors, revision, schools, skills, stress, student activism, student mental health, teachers, UCL, UCU, undergraduate, universities, university drop outs, workforce, zero hours contracts.

By Dan Davison

Examinations are woven into the fabric of student life. From the ‘Key Stage’ National Curriculum assessments I sat in childhood through to the tests I took as a Master’s student, every stage of my education has known the familiar cycle of revision, testing, marking and grading. It was not until I became a precariously employed university tutor that I realised how dangerously uncritical we are of that cycle. By this point it seems so natural to make people sit exams at various points in their lives that it scarcely occurs to the public consciousness that students and teachers might be better off without such a regimented approach to learning.

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YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH

Posted on January 20, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged comedy, depression, eds, endorphin, featured, happy, joke, knowledge, laugh, laughter, medication, mental health, mental illness, news, parody, process, propaganda, satire, self care, spoof, wellbeing.

by Alice Thomson

Life is hard. For everyone. We’re all trying to find some meaning to our lives, trying to figure out where we belong and what our purpose is. Amongst that, we see what is going on the world, either connected to us or globally. Our environment can be tough to digest.

My last article was about the cuts the government is in the process of implementing to benefits for disabled people. I spent a lot of time researching the article and it really brought me down. I already knew it was a problem and needed to be spoken about, bknowledge,ut to learn the extent of the issue and read personal experiences, made me feel hopeless. The news can easily do that. Making it difficult, not only to take control and make positive changes to our environment, but to make those changes for ourselves. It’s a trick that’s as old as the book. Since the time people were able to establish a hierarchy, those on top kept everyone else in the dark to keep them in their place. Knowledge is power. Muddy the water of knowledge, and we disengage and disenfranchise the masses.Continue Reading

ALTERNATIVE ARTS EDUCATION – A BRIEF HISTORY

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Student and tagged access, Alexandre Gurita, alternative, Alternative Art College, alternative art school fair, art, artists, arts education, Black Mountain College, Catherine Despont, communal, creativity, culture, curricula, Dylan Gauthier, education, empowerment, Free Education, freedom of expression, government, history, informal teaching, John Rice, knowledge, neoliberalism, New York, passion, Pioneer Works, policy, schools, social change, teaching, tuition fees.

Education is amazing. It encourages the growth of passion for any number of subjects, and opens doors for many to enter into the field that that passion leads them towards, where their research work is often vital to the discovery of all sorts of new and exciting things.

However, the modern system that has emerged as society has ‘advanced’ does not always prioritise the curiosity and growth that education cultivates over more material concerns such as financial gain. The increases in the various fees and costs associated with higher educational institutions and the shrinking of the creative curriculum at earlier levels often means that a passion for a subject is no longer enough. But as with any monolithic trend, alternatives have sprung up down the years.

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NO, YOU’RE NOT A FRAUD – IMPOSTER SYNDROME IN HE

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic staff, academics, acceptance, confidence, expectations, higher education, honesty, imperfection, imposter syndrome, job roles, knowledge, learning, lecturers, lessons, media, mental health, money, phD, psychology, reputation, students, teaching, undergraduate, universities.

Recently I’ve started teaching as part of my PhD, and through doing so I‘ve been learning a few things myself. The most striking thing I have noticed is how skewed and extreme expectations are for people in various academic roles. Why do we assume that a lecturer in any given subject should know everything there is to know about that subject off the top of their head?

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SELF EDUCATION, NEW SOLUTIONS

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged adulthood, books, Brexit, capitalism, ChildLine, collective action, connectivity, consumerism, conversation, coping, corporations, democracy, disaster, education, environment, environmentalism, events, facts, free thought, globalisation, government, hope, ideology, individualism, information, information overload, knowledge, knowledge is power, learning, local groups, mental health, Naomi Klein, news, No Is Not Enough: Resisting The New Shock Politics, politicians, politics, power, reading, resistance, schools, security, self education, social consciousness, society, sociopolitical situation, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate, Trump, truth, voters, voting, young people.

Schools stand as institutions of education, aiming to enhance and aid growth in various forms. Children growing through the school system will eventually leave as adults. However, in my generation, there is a trend away from exploring a key part of adulthood: continued self education.

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POLITICS & CULTURE – THE AMIEL & MELBURN SEMINAR 2017

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Inter|national and tagged 7 Days, academia, access, activism, alpha male, alt-right, alternative media, Annie Kelly, anti-feminism, art, Athina Karatzogianni, Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust, Chardine Taylor-Stone, class, corruption, critique, culture, culture war, curricula, digital culture, direct action, disillusionment, economics, education, fake news, far right, fascism, feminism, feminist allies, future generations, GE17, higher education, history, holding power to account, ideology, inequality, inheritance, Jo Littler, Judies, knowledge, language, mainstream media, male psyche, marxism, media representation, meritocracy, Michael Rustin, Milo Yiannopolous, Mod, Mod women, modernity, music, neo nazi, neoliberalism, peer-pressure, politics, Politics & Culture Seminar, politics of difference, progress, progress narrative, progressive media, public education, punk, Punk women, representation, Rhian E Jones, right wing, Rosalind Delmar, Roshi Naidoo, Skinhead, Skinhead women, social exclusion, social media, social mobility, socialism, society, strike action, subcultures, talent, Teddy Girls, tenant strike, trust, universities, working class movement, young people, Zahra Dalilah.

by Gunnar Eigener and Rowan Gavin

CW: mentions misogyny, anti-feminism, neo-nazism

Earlier this month, a writer and an editor from the Radical took part in the Amiel & Melburn Trust’s annual residential seminar. The Trust’s aims are “to advance public education, learning and knowledge in all aspects of the philosophy of Marxism, the history of socialism, and the working-class movement’. This year, the topic of the seminar was ‘Politics & Culture’, and the various intertwinings and intersections thereof. What follows are thoughts and reactions about the seminar from our contributors.

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FROM UNDERSTANDING TO INTERVENTION – UEA’S NEW MODULE IN ACTIVIST CAMPAIGNING

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, activism, Barnet, campaigning, civil society, climate camp, creativity, deliberative decision making, Dr Benjamin Little, education, environment, fossil free, friends of the earth, gender, grassroots, higher education, Intern Aware, knowledge, NGOs, non-hierarchical, non-party politics, norwich, occupy, party politics, politics, research, responsibility, skills, Soundings, Stuart Hall, student activism, students, teamwork, training, UEA, UK Uncut, understanding.

I was recently excited to hear of a new module being run in the Politics department at UEA next academic year entitled ‘Activist Campaigning’. Module convenor Dr Ben Little was good enough to let me interview him about the course, its history, and his hopes for its future at UEA.

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