Reflecting on running the Lanzarote Half Marathon (slowly!) 🌍🏃‍♂️ last weekend, amidst some thoughts about the state of Adult Education across these islands and the need to keep running up the down escalator.

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

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

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,

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