The Harvard EdCast
In the complex world of education, the Harvard EdCast keeps the focus simple: what makes a difference for learners, educators, parents, and our communities. The EdCast is a weekly podcast about the ideas that shape education, from early learning through college and career. We talk to teachers, researchers, policymakers, and leaders of schools and systems in the US and around the world — looking for positive approaches to the challenges and inequities in education. Through authentic conversation, we work to lower the barriers of education’s complexities so that everyone can understand.
The Harvard EdCast is produced by the Harvard Graduate School of Education and hosted by Jill Anderson. The opinions expressed are those of the guest alone, and not the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 16 minutes
- Episodes
- 464
- Years Active
- 2013 - 2025
The COVID Catch-up Challenge
Many school districts are beginning to see pandemic learning losses greater than they imagined. It’s time to figure out what to next, says Harvard Professor Tom Kane, an economist studying catch-up e…
Why We Need Asian American History in Schools
Stewart Kwoh believes education is the best tool to fight back against ongoing anti-Asian American violence and damaging stereotypes. As co-executive director of the Asian American Education Project,…
How We Can Better Support Refugees in Education
Harvard Professor Sarah Dryden-Peterson knows that we can do a lot better for the nearly 30 million refugees in the world. As an expert on refugee education, she says education needs to create better…
What Global Innovations Changed Education During the Pandemic
A silver lining of the pandemic, says Harvard Professor Fernando Reimers, was the push for education to innovate. Through the pandemic, Reimers set out to study how education systems around the world…
Creating Educational Spaces Full of Joy and Justice
Juliana Urtubey, the 2021 National Teacher of the Year recipient, knows firsthand the importance of valuing all parts of a student’s identity. As a first generation, bilingual immigrant, Urtubey brin…
What it Takes to Be a Great University
Harvard Professor Dick Light has visited 260 college campuses talking to administrators, faculty, and students to figure out what sets a great university apart from an okay one. It turns out there ar…
Will Teachers Stay or Will They Go?
Since the start of the pandemic, education has grappled with a looming threat of teacher shortages and a mass exodus of teachers. Elizabeth Steiner, a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, has r…
Is the College Enrollment Decline Really a Crisis?
For the past decade, college enrollments have steadily been on the decline. The pandemic appears to have accelerated such drops with reports of more than a million fewer students attending college to…
What is Happening with Critical Race Theory in Education?
When Gloria Ladson-Billings set out in the 1990s to adapt critical race theory from law to education, she couldn’t have predicted that it would become the focus of heated school debates today.
In rece…
How Remote Learning Negatively Affected Children and Why it Matters
Before the pandemic hit, Harvard Professor Stephanie Jones and Lecturer Emily Hanno were already tracking young children's development as part of the Early Learning Study at Harvard. As the pandemic…
How to Be a Social Justice Parent and Raise Compassionate Kids
Many parents want to raise kind and compassionate children, but in today's world it can be difficult to figure out how. Traci Baxley, an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University, is a mothe…
Why Have College Completion Rates Increased
What is driving an increase in college completion rates? It's not student characteristics or higher student enrollments, says Jeff Denning, an associate professor at Brigham Young University. Denning…
Getting Back to Education in Developing Countries
COVID has challenged many education systems worldwide. This is especially true for developing countries that faced significant learning issues prior to COVID. How far did COVID set these education sy…
Giving Thanks in the Classroom
Math class doesn't seem the likely place to practice gratitude, but Michael Fauteux discovered that it had the power to change it. While teaching a 9th grade math class, Fauteux begin implementing mo…
Embracing the Whole Student, Being Ratchetdemic
Christopher Emdin wants schools to embraces a whole student's identity. For far too long, public education has been stuck where it was not designed for all students, especially students of color, he …
How Climate Change is Taught in America
What are children learning about climate change in American schools? That question set award winning journalist Katie Worth to uncover how climate change education is being taught. As part of her res…
Learning from Mistakes in Kindergarten
Mistakes are supposed to be part of learning. However, Maleka Donaldson knows how we convey mistakes and respond to them as educators can significantly impact a child's learning experience. Donaldson…
Reclaiming Higher Ed for All Students
Higher education needs major change and reinvention to provide more opportunity and social mobility for everyone. This is what Paul LeBlanc hopes to see in the future. As the president of Southern Ne…
The Need for School Nurses
The school nurse's job encompasses much more than you'd think. Even before COVID, the school nurse was the "health hub" of the school. Yet 25.2% of schools don't even have a nurse. Linda Mendonca, th…
The State of School Boards
It's a contentious time to be a school board member in America. Michael Casserly, a strategic adviser for the Council of the Great City Schools, reflects on the current state of school board meetings…