1. There’s a MenTRnet panel discussion at 13:00 UK time this coming Saturday, 22^nd February, Integrating teacher-research into pre-service teacher education. More info and registration here https://mentrnet.net/integrating-teacher-research-into-pre-service-teacher-education-festival-event/

Mentoring teacher-research is often conceived of as an activity to engage in with in-service teachers, but there are some inspiring initiatives around the world to introduce student-teachers to action research at the earliest stage in their careers. Each speaker in this panel discussion will talk about the particular context where they have introduced (exploratory) action research into pre-service teacher education, how they have done so, and the challenges they have faced as well as successes achieved. There will be time for panel participants to comment on one another’s experience, and then for comments and questions from the audience.

2. Exceptionally, a non-free event, the final ceremony of Voices Across Worlds, face-to-face in London or online this coming Saturday at 16:00 UK time. The event will showcase performances that have been created by young learners from Palestine, Cameroon, Greece, Malaysia and the UK and will also contain a live Q and A with the teachers and the performers and a launch of the project publication. More info and registration here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/voices-across-worlds-ceremony-tickets-1217908770919 If you’re lucky enough to be able to join face to face in London, you can enjoy Palestinian kunafah and coffee.

More about kunafah/knafeh here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knafeh

3. Peter Kellner gave a lecture recently in which he sought to answer ‘two big questions’: “First, is democracy fundamentally a moral or an instrumental project? Second, is populism essentially driven by culture or economics?”

Here it is, written up in Prospect, How to defeat populism: the core message should be that populist policies are stupid and won’t work. But that argument is only credible from people voters respect https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/populism/69237/how-to-defeat-populism

4. Peter’s lecture was preceded by a striking, clear presentation by Kelly Beaver from Ipsos UK, 2024: what just happened? and why? https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/publication/documents/2025-02/2024-what%20happened_Kelly%20Beaver_v3.pdf

Despite local nuance, says Kelly, the drivers are global

5. And, finally, a piece by James Graham Wilson for Engelsberg Ideas, The deep history behind America’s Greenland gambit https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-deep-history-behind-americas-greenland-gambit/

In the long history of the United States’ interest in Greenland, the pursuit of patient negotiations with allies has often fulfilled Washington’s strategic requirements. This may not be the case in 2025.