We are approaching another decade with much confusion, insecurity, hostility and violence. Let’s reimagine the world that we could have. For me, that world is a coming together of three things: love, respect and reason. Love I am talking about benevolent love. It requires a cultivation of kindness and compassion as a practice of everything … More Love, respect, reason: The world I want
In the Australian educational system, there is the idea of gifted and talented students. According to the NSW Education Department, gifted students are those whose potential is distinctly above average in intellectual, creative, social and physical performance. Talented students are those whose skills are distinctly above average in one or more areas of human performance. … More The arbitrariness of educational advantage and disadvantage
International education (IE) is an old idea – a phenomenon that emerged in the 19th century to today. I argued in my book that the evolution of IE has shifted from government to institutions as provider of IE, but the intention for IE has always been political and political economy underpinned by sovereign or institutional … More Three waves of international education: political, political economy, politicisation
In my previous blog, I wrote about fiction writers and the issue of language as experience versus language as representation. These are just different perspectives about the status of language and its function. If we view language as experience, then there’s something to be said about the need to have certain experiences as a writer; … More Is authorship worth the candle it lights?
I listened to a very interesting talk on the ABC podcast “The Minefield” about literary fiction, non- fiction and which format is more conducive to truth telling. Given that my work is in academic research, which centres on truth and justification through evidence and rational reasoning, I was very surprised when the guest Christos Tsiolkas, … More Is there truth within fiction?
Lien Pham 