Articles
Let’s Journey the Wilderness Together, by Dr Jo Sweetland
Watching our oldest child’s interest in learning slowly disappear and their curiosity and creativity dwindle became the motivator to us choosing to take all three […]
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Response to UNESCO’s ‘Education in a Post-Covid World’ Report
In UNESCO’s Progress Update on the Futures of Education, published in March 2021, UNESCO denied the value of Self-Directed Education and autonomous learning, despite much significant scientific evidence […]
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Why I Started a Small School, by Rosalyn Spencer
Dan’s personality had begun to change after he’d started school. He had often been tired and down-hearted when I’d collected him. I had to take […]
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IDECs at Summerhill from 1999 to 2021 – What’s Changed and What Hasn’t? What Needs to Change for United Nations ‘Sustainable Development Goal 4’ to be Realised by 2030?
Transcript from Derry Hannam’s talk at the online Summerhill Festival of Childhood, October 3rd 2021: My 1999 IDEC [International Democratic Education Conference] talk was given […]
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Learning: Lost and Found, by Patrick Farenga
Learning that’s lost in school can be found in many ways, if it needs to be found at all. As a homeschooler and author, I […]
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Becoming a Learner, by Sean Bellamy
When I first went up to Cambridge University, I didn’t find Europe’s largest library for over six weeks. I never went to a single History […]
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Rethinking Education: Launch of Podcast Season 2, by James Mannion
[A link to the audio version of this article is found at the end.] If you follow the mainstream education debate as avidly as I […]
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Learning Through the Lens of Nature and Natural History is Child’s Play, by Lisa Carne
Lisa Carne shares with us a flavour of her book, Natural Curiosity, which is a warm and contemplative insight into her family’s experience of moving […]
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Diverse Educators Call to Action
Context: Since July 2020, Diverse Educators have held a quarterly Diversity Roundtable with national stakeholders invested in, and committed to, a system-wide strategy for collaborating […]
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Books about Self-Directed Learning and Democratic Education are like London Buses, by Derry Hannam
…None appear for ages, then they all come at once! Does this mean that we are looking at a Post-Pandemic Overton Window for our ideas? […]
Read MoreResearch
Journal of Pedagogy: Home-Based Education
Volume 12 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021), Special Issue: Home-Based Education Volume 12 of the Journal of Pedagogy ran a special on home education. It […]
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Evidence Base for Self-Directed Education
By Rose Arnold, Suitable-Education.uk, first published October 2021 “Self-directed education is a pedagogy grounded in biology, anthropology, cognitive science, psychology and child development. It is not claimed […]
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The Student Experience of Self Managed Learning (SML): Evidence From Research
By Nicola Sankey, March 2008 (with Introduction by Dr. Graham Dawes) [At the time what is now Self Managed Learning College was Called ‘South Downs […]
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Home Education Trends, Preliminary Report
By Wendy Charles-Warner, EducationOtherwise.org December 2020 This report examines trends in numbers of home educating families in England. The data was obtained by sending freedom […]
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Home-Education: Aims, Practices and Outcomes
By Paula Rothermel, University of Durham, 2002 Abstract This research explores the aims and practices of home-educating families from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The methodology involves […]
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Preventing school exclusion: a case study of a primary aged autistic child with ADHD and a PDA profile
By Catrina Lyle and Heather Leatherland Catrina Lyle is an advisory teacher within the Communication and Interaction team and Heather Leatherland is a mainstream primary […]
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A Summary of Research on Self Managed Learning
The material in this document is just a small snapshot of the extensive evaluations carried out on Self Managed Learning with young people. It includes […]
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Learning from the COVID-19 home-schooling experience: Listening to pupils, parents/carers and teachers
A report by Mari-Ana Jones (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and Sara Bubb (University College London Institute of Education): “In Spring 2020, schools in […]
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Staff of 2030: Future-Ready Teaching
In the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Staff of 2030: Future-Ready Teaching report Esther Wojcicki advocates “20% time” to introduce self-directed learning into the schedule: “This should […]
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I was a Teenage Governor
These papers are the reports of the first and second stages in the ‘I was a teenage governor’ project, organised by the Institute for Public […]
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Response to UNESCO’s ‘Education in a Post-Covid World’ Report
In UNESCO’s Progress Update on the Futures of Education, published in March 2021, UNESCO denied the value of Self-Directed Education and autonomous learning, despite much significant scientific evidence […]
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Right to Education and the French Authoritarian Context
Three European organisations advocating human rights and freedom in education – ALLI asbl (Luxemboug), Les Enfants d’Abord (France), and Full Human Rights-Experience Education – as […]
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What Are Your Training Needs?
Courses/workshops on progressive education coming soon: Please feed back as to what content and format you require. Progressive Education is collaborating with Holistic Learning and […]
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Do Students Need to “Catch Up?”
There is much talk in the news at the moment about students needing to “catch up” post Covid-19, but is this extra pressure on parents, […]
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‘Drill and kill’ for England’s state schools while private sector goes progressive
“As ministers persist with traditional teaching, including children sitting in rows, independent schools have switched to team and project-based learning. There’s been a huge change […]
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The Long, Insidious Shadows of Colonialism
“There’s a virus going around. You may have heard of it. It’s highly infectious and can infect whole swathes of the population at any given […]
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The Black British History You May Not Know About
This article points out that the transatlantic slave trade and the US civil rights movement are largely the only black history taught in UK schools, […]
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Coronavirus shows us it’s time to rethink everything. Let’s start with education.
Guardian columnist, George Monbiot says that now is the time for a Great Reset. “I believe that education should work outwards from our principal challenges […]
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Headteachers Call for a Kinder School System
Ten years since Michael Gove’s reforms began, coronavirus shows up their failings, says the Headteachers’ Roundtable – and offers a chance for change. Ros McMullen, […]
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School’s Really Out…
Clinical psychologist, Dr Naomi Fisher with an update to her recent article, as children learn at home during the coronavirus pandemic. “On a global scale, […]
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