Knowledge Symposium at UCL

 A UCL Symposium on knowledge looks like it might be a useful CPD opportunity. It is on the 26th of March 2025

This symposium aims to investigate: 

a) how knowledge in education in different countries is shaped by contemporary ideas about the relationship between the past, present and future, and 

b) epistemic growth in university disciplines and school subjects. 

We will discuss whether schools can and should do without ideas of epistemic growth and progress in education and how we should think about and revise the relation between knowledge, education and progress in different socio-political and educational contexts.

This symposium will bring together scholars and teachers interested in exploring the relationships between knowledge, education and progress. 

As John Hopkin (a former President of the GA) succinctly explains:

‘The idea of education is an idea of progress, an investment in the future of our young people and community’ (2011, 116). 

The suggestion that humanity is lifted through studying a planned curriculum of learning different disciplines dates to Peter Rasmus (1515-1567). 

Rasmus built a case for learning from a designated series of books (a curriculum), not just individual scholars, thus opening the potential for the democratisation of education. In 21^st century Europe, societies struggle to articulate a positive vision of the future and a vision for education. Ideas of social, economic, moral and political progress are problematised and contested. 

The idea of progress has been tainted with its past association with colonialism, exploitation and domination and is thus criticized as a genuinely `Western ideal´, a secularized `hollow replica of a Christian conception of history´ or even as a kind of `Prozac for intellectuals´ (Gray, 2004). 

Some academics now envisage Education After Progress, while others think schools must engage with the meaning of social progress. 

Find out more here.

The cost is £40 (£10 for unwaged/students)

Colouring London

Thanks to Steve Brace and Will Fry for the tipoff to this website.


I was due to be in London today at a GA committee meeting, but sadly had to wait in for the emergency plumber and drains person, so I'm doing a spot of colouring the city instead at Colouring London.
It's a map experiment, and another one created by the awesome folks at UCL CASA.

Colouring London is an open data platform being built and tested at University College London, and will launch formally in May 2019. It is designed to collect, collate, show and share statistical information about London's buildings, and become the first port of call for information on the city's fabric.

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Colouring London is also a citizen science project

collecting data for scientific use, a free educational resource schools, and an initiative that celebrates London and our collective knowledge about it, and promotes sustainability and diversity within the city.

Looks like someone has already coloured in an important geographical landmark: the building in the centre of the image below.

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