This ‘Free Resources’ message has been sent out earlier than usual in the hope it gives you a little more time to sign up for #1 below.

1. Short notice of this one, for which I apologise: Dyslexia in Language Learning with Boelo Van der Pool is the fifth in the IH World series of talks celebrating diversity, Global voices on nurturing inclusive practice, and it’s at 13:00 UK time tomorrow, Friday 26^th April. More info and registration here https://ihworld.com/events/events/ih-celebration-of-diversity-webinar-5/

I’ll post links to the other talks in the series next week.

2. Bit of a shame about the less-than-welcoming title of this thought-provoking piece by Margit van Wessel from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Reimagining Transcalar Civil Society Advocacy Collaborations: Starting from the Global South https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12116-024-09426-2.pdf PDF below.

“Based on 29 interviews with staff of civil society organizations, the article shows that country-based actors see collective process, centered at country level, as the foundation for effective collaboration in advocacy, centering on facilitation and support. This turns collaborations with the international NGO that is involved upside down (my emphasis). It also highlights the limited scope for international advocacy from such understandings, while underlining the role of international NGOs in expanding this scope.”

3. Two diametrically-opposed accounts of the same session of Prime Minister’s Questions last week – for an advanced class to compare and contrast?

The first from The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/17/tory-mps-limp-into-pmqs-after-finally-accepting-their-fate

and the second from The Spectator https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/rishi-gets-witty-at-pmqs/ 

Hard to believe the two writers were at the same session!

4. Here’s a dissenting review from Tiffany Jenkins of Jonathan Haidt’s recent book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewriting of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, in which she says that The smart phone is not to blame for the ‘epidemic’ of anxiety in young people https://tiffanyjenkins.substack.com/p/the-smart-phone-is-not-to-blame-for “Haidt’s brilliant insight is that kids are over protected offline but under protected online.”

This report from Ofcom, the UK media regulator, has just popped up again a year after its first publication, almost certainly because of the discussion (all over the media here in UK recently) Tiffany refers to in her piece, Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2023 https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/media-literacy-research/childrens/children-and-parents-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2023 87% of children aged 3-4 went online in 2022, as did a whole lot of two-year-olds. PDF below.

5. And, finally, beer is a subject close to my heart stomach. Here’s an account from The Conversation of Trinity College Dublin’s research into medieval brewing, Five things our research uncovered when we recreated 16th century beer (and barrels) https://theconversation.com/five-things-our-research-uncovered-when-we-recreated-16th-century-beer-and-barrels-223599

It’s accompanied by a rather good virtual exhibition https://foodcult.eu/exhibition/brewing-historical-beer/