Some personal thoughts on Scottish independence and Irish unity, made in the context of the Holywell Trust's Forward Thinking programme.

Some thoughts on the British government's Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, and how adult learning is perceived within England.

Some thoughts about adult and community education across the island of Ireland

With results day looming, I've been reflecting on England's GCSE resits policy and why - despite its apparent 'success' - I've always been sceptical about whether it misses the point

First day at conference - just after grabbing credential and (overpriced) coffee! One week on from attending this year's IATEFL Conference in Edinburgh, I'm still processing the various conversations I engaged in and insights I picked up. It's both a massive conference (nearly 3,000 people this year) and a very intense few days. ESOL is just one of many English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts, and one of the (mini) frustrations at IATEFL is how frequently it becomes necessa

I had an article published in FE News a few days ago, lambasting the British government for attempting to slice a further 2-3% off the Adult Skills Fund in England for 2025-26. I was commenting particularly on the impact for ESOL provision, and lamenting how English language acquisition is one of the aspects of adult education that has been hit hardest by a decade and a half of budget freezes and cuts. ESOL enrolments in England dropped by more than a third during the 2010s,

To be honest, I've always felt a bit conflicted about PIAAC - the OECD's 'Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies' , or survey of literacy, numeracy and critical problem solving capabilities amongst participating countries' adult populations. OECD Survey of Adult Skills 2023 On the one hand the idea of a large-scale 'once a decade' international snapshot of adult literacies seems attractive: let's shine a light on educational and social inequalities,

There's a nice, if slightly nervy/surreal, feeling about seeing your name in print. Not just online, in actual printed print. And in Ireland's only peer-reviewed journal dedicated entirely to adult and community education. In the midst of rushing to finish writing up my Masters thesis in the summer of 2023, I had a brief conversation with my supervisor about the potential to share my research findings with a wider audience. I'd been struck by the limited volume of ESOL-relat

Frankly, the last couple of months have been crazy. I've built up an extensive list of things to update and opine (rant...) about - which I will try to drip-feed when I get a chance over the festive break. In the meantime, a few highlights: My research project exploring ESOL in Ireland during the pandemic has an extensive airing in the latest edition of AONTAS's The Adult Learner Journal (see publications for a link to the journal and article). I attended the launch of a gr

I went back to Maynooth University last week, for the first time since graduating from my Masters almost a year ago. The occasion was the Department of Adult and Community Education 's autumn event, for which they'd persuaded the renowned educationalist Professor Stephen Brookfield to make a trip to Ireland from his adopted home in Minneapolis. The theme of the event was critical conversations , and talking points ranged from the ubiquity/suitability of exam-type assessment

You may have noticed the phonetic spelling of my name at the top of each page on this website. It's something I was introduced to a few years ago by the Race Equality Matters #MyNameIs phonetic name-spelling campaign. My first name doesn't seem to present too many difficulties for most of the people I interact with, but I've lost count of the number of times my surname has been mangled into variations of Skee-ney , Screen-ey , Swee-ney , etc. And then there's the mild micro-

A lot has happened in the last few months. I've become Co-Chair of NATECLA , joined the staff team at North West Migrants Forum (whilst its CEO is breaking new ground as the first Black Mayor in the north of Ireland); all whilst continuing to do bits of consultancy. Life's not as stable or as predictable as it was before I left City & Guilds, but it's mostly enjoyable and increasingly feels productive. Like many of us, I was caught out by Rishi Sunak's 'rain-dance' on 22 May

I'd like to wish all my followers and contacts a wonderful festive break and a successful 2024. Enjoy whatever downtime you're able to grab. xx

I attended the graduation ceremony for my Masters last week, drawing a line under my year-long career break and self-imposed period of 'thinking space'. It's more than 28 years since I last attended a graduation ceremony (Hull Guildhall in the summer of 1995, in case you were wondering...), and as well as the sense of occasion it was nice to catch up others from the MEd programme at Maynooth. I received my result a couple of months ago and was aware I'd achieved a First, alth

Discussion, collaboration and praxis aren't optional extras for educators and education professionals. We ALL need thinking and sharing space. Last week I spent a few days away in Wales and England, working with two organisations close to my heart - North West Migrants Forum (NWMF) and Research and Practice in Adult Literacies (RaPAL) . Since leaving the Technical Advisor role a year ago, I've spent less time travelling than I used to and (Masters aside) less face-to-face ti

Yesterday, shortly after offering my customary congratulations to everyone receiving their Level 3 qualification results across England, NI and Wales, I got drawn into a Twitter discussion about the efficacy and fairness of exams versus other forms of assessment. It stemmed from these comments by Gary Neville: Professor Rachel Lofthouse QT'd her support for Gary's comments, but had received quite an aggressive reply from one teacher complaining that "Coursework [was] less fa

Every so often, I'm going to use this space to share a few thoughts about the adult and community landscape across these islands - and crucially some of the differences in policy discourse and culture between nations/regions/jurisdictions. In my time with City & Guilds, I was always conscious of the organisation struggling to reconcile its desire to help learners wherever they are with the reality that the vast majority of its activity (and income!) is focused on England - wi