Education, Academia & the Absurdities in Between
Welcome to my blog!
Here you’ll find my rants, raves and provocations
about schools, universities and academic life.
These are my personal views, informed by experience and research — and occasionally designed to make us uncomfortable.
Start with these articles
A few places to begin if you’re new here — on universities, research, teaching, and what educational institutions sometimes get wrong.
Academia: Hard to Enter, Harder to Defend, Still Worth It!
Why academia remains worth defending, even when universities make it difficult.
The Publish or Perish Paradox
What publication pressure does to the purpose of scholarly work.
AI Is Not the Problem. Avoiding Effort Just Got Easier
Why easy performance and genuine learning are not the same thing.
Stop Acting Surprised: Teachers Don’t Have Time for Your Research
On the distance between research production and professional realities.
Latest from the Blog
Qualified, Deemed Suitable and Given a Number: Just What Every Parent Wants for Their Child
A few years ago, I was invited to a teacher-workforce symposium commissioned by the NSW Department of Education and run, as these things inevitably are, by a large management-consulting firm. Academics involved in teacher education had been assembled to help solve the persistent problem of attracting and retaining teachers. There was the usual discussion of…
The Trouble with ‘Useful’ Degrees
In a recent post, I argued that universities do not owe every doctoral graduate an academic job. Completing a PhD gives you the opportunity to compete for academic employment; it does not create an entitlement. Universities should be honest about the prospects, particularly when they train many more doctoral graduates than they will ever employ themselves.…
Ignore the Naysayers (2026 Update): Why Australia’s Education System is Stronger Than You Think
I wrote the first version of this in 2024, back when the doom was slightly quieter and nobody had yet stood at a podium to announce that the reading wars were over. Two years on, the catastrophe headlines have multiplied, the NAPLAN numbers have moved in genuinely mixed directions, and the overclaiming now comes from both…
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