1. The British Council is celebrating World Teachers’ Day 2024 in style over three days at the end of this week – Thursday 4th, Friday 5^th and Saturday 6^th October – with a plenary talk and five interactive webinars each day. More info and registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/world-teachers-day-2024

There’s a list of all British Council ‘central’ events for October and November here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/community/top-stories/october-and-november-2024-knowing-subject

2. This one from Jason Anderson covers a lot of interesting territory and (therefore, probably) needs the accompaniment of a strong cup of coffee, Metasummary: examining the potential of a methodologically inclusive approach for conducting systematic reviews of educational research https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131911.2024.2401079 PDF below and here’s the abstract so you can decide whether to take the plunge:

This article critically examines metasummary as a methodology for systematic review that has, to date, been underused in the field of educational research. Because of its ability to combine and report on qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies in an integrated fashion, metasummary is potentially able to bridge the often-perceived paradigm divide between these different schools of data collection and analysis. The article begins by identifying key features of systematic review and identifying two broad schools of systematic review procedure in the social science literature. It then discusses more recent developments in mixed methods systematic reviews, focusing in on metasummary as the approach of interest and its potential for use in education. It reviews critically the limited number of metasummaries conducted in educational research to date relative to their adherence to recommended metasummary procedure. The final section of the article offers epistemological justification for more widespread use of metasummary before discussing the potential benefits and shortcomings of the approach. It concludes with methodological guidelines for researchers interested in using the approach in education.

3. I’m halfway through listening to the splendid Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall. Here’s a short piece by him for Engelsberg Ideas on J F Kennedy’s abiding legacy https://audioboom.com/posts/8578249-ei-weekly-listen-fredrik-logevall-on-jfk-s-abiding-legacy

4. I’ve just discovered Arji’s Poetry Pickle Jar https://open.spotify.com/show/4pmBBTKsGcENroj5ERYtIP?si=64c06ea38b6c4f92

Arji’s Poetry Pickle Jar is a place where we pickle the poems you’ll love. Each week we invite a published poet into the studio to share a poem they love. We dismantle and dissect it, we open it up so you the listener can see it in a completely new way. This podcast is for newcomers and professionals, for teachers, young people and for everyone in between.

Here’s the latest episode, with Raymond Antrobus https://open.spotify.com/episode/6xnY86TiX7HamKqzg0Vb5Q?si=e3a40ff574ac4ef4

Raymond Antrobus is one of the poets on this year’s T S Eliot Prize shortlist, which has just been announced. Info on all the poets shortlisted here https://tseliot.com/prize/the-t-s-eliot-prize-2024/shortlist-2/ with videos and readings to come from each of them over the next few weeks.

5. And, finally, a gift article from The New York Times, How to Make Typing Easier on the Phone (and Leave the Laptop at Home) https://tinyurl.com/2mwmskpj