Emma & Tom Talk Teaching

Today we look at our own initial teacher education (ITE) provision here at Cardiff Met, and question how effective the concept of Research and Enquiry has been for our student teachers. Working in a policy environment where teachers are expected to be capable of creating and consuming knowledge about teaching, and bringing to to bear on their own contexts, we provide time and space for our student teachers to learn how to do that. The idea is that this will make them into better teachers - but how successful has this new idea been and what does our idea look like in reality, on the ground? Emma and Tom are joined by fellow researcher Sioned Dafydd to discuss what we found when we carried out some research that was close to home, and found out some interesting things about how things are going on!———————————Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 23rd July 2025

This week we welcome two academics from the University of the West of England - Joe Brown and Dr Tim Clark - to the studio. They’re here to discuss their recently published book Debating Childhoods, which gives Tom and Sian the chance to have an in-depth discussion about how we think of childhood and how society’s values influence the things we prioritise and consider when providing education and experiences for children. There’s lots to think about in this extended episode, and if you’re interested in doing some more deep thinking on this topic, Debating Childhoods is published by Sage and available wherever you get your books!——————————————Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 10th February 2026

Podcasting solo today, Tom is relieved to have not one but two remote guests to keep him company!Donald Mbeutcha and Sara Gattward are from Every Future Foundation, an organisation that aims to support schools with anti-racist education, mainly in London and the surrounding area. Whilst the Welsh government have made a commitment to an anti-racist Wales by 2030, and we have organisations like DARPL (founded by colleagues here at Cardiff Met) doing great work to make this vision a reality, we thought it would be interesting to find out how things look over in England, in a city seen as more multicultural than most of Wales, and where there is not a specific, time-bound commitment in relation to anti racism. Thanks to Donald and Sara for coming on for what turned out to be a really interesting discussion! You can find them and their work at everyfuturefoundation.co.uk———————————Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 24th October 2025

In this Senedd Election Special, we tried very hard to interview someone from Reform UK about the party's education policy offerings for the upcoming Senedd elections. As you'll hear, we weren't successful in getting anyone to come on, so we discussed the education content of their manifesto document without them.As always, here on Emma and Tom Talk Teaching we then turn to analysis from Dr Gareth Evans from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.The manifesto discussion was recorded on 6th March 2026, and is a collaboration between Emma and Tom Talk Teaching and The Impact Podcast. You can also hear it, together with Jane and Finola's thoughts, over on their podcast feed. Each of the six main parties contesting the Senedd elections in May has a broadcast slot for their interview:16th March - Conservative17th March - Green19th March - Labour23rd March - Liberal Democrats24th March - Plaid Cymru26th March - Reform UKThen, on 22nd April we'll bring you a special episode analysing everything we've found out from the discussions. Enjoy!--------------------------------------Presented by Tom Breeze, Gareth Evans, Jane Miller and Finola WilsonMusic: Cameron StewartProducer: Darren EvansStudio Manager: Adrian RappsAny opinions expressed by the presenters are their independent views and not those of their respective employers.

In this Senedd Election Special, we interview Jane Dodds from the Liberal Democrats about the party's education policy offerings for the upcoming Senedd elections. As ever, here on Emma and Tom Talk Teaching we have post-interview analysis from Dr Gareth Evans from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.The interview was recorded on 25th February 2026, and is a collaboration between Emma and Tom Talk Teaching and The Impact Podcast. You can also hear this interview, together with Jane and Finola's thoughts, over on their podcast feed. Each of the six main parties contesting the Senedd elections in May has a broadcast slot for their interview:16th March - Conservative17th March - Green19th March - Labour23rd March - Liberal Democrats24th March - Plaid Cymru26th March - Reform UKThen, on 22nd April we'll bring you a special episode analysing everything we've found out from the interviews. Enjoy!--------------------------------------Presented by Tom Breeze, Gareth Evans, Jane Miller and Finola WilsonMusic: Cameron StewartProducer: Darren EvansStudio Manager: Adrian RappsAny opinions expressed by the presenters are their independent views and not those of their respective employers.

In this Senedd Election Special, we interview Lynne Neagle from the Labour Party (and the current Cabinet Secretary for Education) about the party's education policy offerings for the upcoming Senedd elections. As ever, here on Emma and Tom Talk Teaching we have post-interview analysis from Dr Gareth Evans from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.The interview was recorded on 5th March 2026, and is a collaboration between Emma and Tom Talk Teaching and The Impact Podcast. You can also hear this interview, together with Jane and Finola's thoughts, over on their podcast feed. Each of the six main parties contesting the Senedd elections in May has a broadcast slot for their interview:16th March - Conservative17th March - Green19th March - Labour23rd March - Liberal Democrats24th March - Plaid Cymru26th March - Reform UKThen, on 22nd April we'll bring you a special episode analysing everything we've found out from the interviews. Enjoy!--------------------------------------Presented by Tom Breeze, Gareth Evans, Jane Miller and Finola WilsonMusic: Cameron StewartProducer: Darren EvansStudio Manager: Adrian RappsAny opinions expressed by the presenters are their independent views and not those of their respective employers.

In this Senedd Election Special, we interview Natasha Asghar from the Conservative Party about their education policy offerings for the upcoming Senedd elections. As ever, here on Emma and Tom Talk Teaching we have post-interview analysis from Dr Gareth Evans from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.The interview was recorded on 25th February 2026, and is a collaboration between Emma and Tom Talk Teaching and The Impact Podcast. You can also hear this interview, together with Jane and Finola's thoughts, over on their podcast feed. Each of the six main parties contesting the Senedd elections in May has a broadcast slot for their interview:16th March - Conservative17th March - Green19th March - Labour23rd March - Liberal Democrats24th March - Plaid Cymru26th March - Reform UKThen, on 22nd April we'll bring you a special episode analysing everything we've found out from the interviews. Enjoy!--------------------------------------Presented by Tom Breeze, Gareth Evans, Jane Miller and Finola WilsonMusic: Cameron StewartProducer: Darren EvansStudio Manager: Adrian RappsAny opinions expressed by the presenters are their independent views and not those of their respective employers.

As Wales's elections to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) draw nearer, the polls continue to suggest that we might see a major redrawing of the political landscape here.Since devolution in 1999, Labour has always held power. That's a quarter of a century of government, with education one of the policy areas that was devolved from Westminster by the Blair government.So we thought it was worth finding out what the six major parties contesting the election here had to offer in terms of education policy. After all, with other big issues dominating the news, there's always a danger of education being overshadowed in mainstream news coverage.We've joined forces with Jane Miller and Finola Wilson from Impact Wales, and will release our interviews with all six parties simultaneously on our podcast feeds during the next two weeks. Here's the schedule:16th March - Conservative17th March - Green19th March - Labour23rd March - Liberal Democrats24th March - Plaid Cymru26th March - Reform UKThen, on 22nd April we'll bring you a special episode analysing everything we've found out from the interviews.Here on Emma and Tom Talk Teaching you'll hear each interview unpacked and analysed by Tom and Dr Gareth Evans, Director of Education Policy at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. We'll aim to bring an impartial view of each party's offerings, expressing our own independent, hopefully non-partisan opinions which don't represent those of our respective universities.Over on the Impact Podcast, you'll hear Jane and Finola's thoughts after each interview.Remember you can watch the episodes over on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@talkteachingpod

Wales and England have had different education systems for more than 25 years now, so it’s a weird coincidence that both countries published a ‘National Plan for Music Education’ in the same year - 2022. This was an opportunity that Tom and friends of the podcast Dr Elizabeth MacGregor and Dr Viv John, all being music education specialists, couldn’t pass up. They’ve published, and presented in various events, an analysis of the two plans. The analysis aims to spotlight the presumptions, values and hidden agendas underlying the documents from both governments, and there are some interesting conclusions to be had. If you’re not a music education person, there’s still something in this for you because the analysis uses a framework called What’s the Problem Represented to Be, which is a great way of digging into, and uncovering the motivations behind, what might seem at first to be relatively uncontroversial policies and plans. Thanks to Dr Viv for joining Tom in the studio, and to Dr Elizabeth for appearing down-the-line, complete with honorary research team member, Walnut the Dog. If you haven’t dipped a toe into the YouTube versions of the podcast, this might be the ideal moment to take a look!Finally, if you’re someone with an interest in music education research, whether that’s as an academic, research student or practitioner with an interest in research anywhere in the world, you may want to know about GRiME. Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Group for Research in Music Education is a collective of academics at all stages of their research careers, and from several universities, who meet regularly to get things done in what can feel a very niche field. Why not get in touch with us via Tom: tbreeze@cardiffmet.ac.uk?————————————————————————Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 6th and 20th November 2025

Most of the guests who pass through our studio are teachers of some kind, so it’s a rare treat to welcome some people who are from a slightly different world, but who have taken a real interest in helping out the profession with their specialist insights!Chris and Suzy Peach are both doctors, and decided that they wanted to make something that could help young people with their health and wellbeing. Their creation is the Peach Wellness Academy, which is now available for schools and has a wealth of resources aimed at helping young people help themselves. Chris and Suzy tell us some amazing (and quite worrying) things about what’s going on with the health and wellbeing of young people, we try to dig into why some of it is happening, and what we need to be aware of in order to address some worrying trends. Thanks to Chris and Suzy for coming all the way from Scotland to join us in the studio!You can find out all about Peach Wellness Academy at peachwellnessacademy.com—————————————Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 2nd October 2025

It's time for our notoriously long and self-indulgent Christmas special, in which we bring in strange, interesting and (sometimes) festive things we've found, to see what others make of them. This year we also welcome Emma's stunt-double, Sian Wickersham, who's standing in for some episodes this season, to join in the fun. We've got everything from poems to articles, festive food and unsung heroes of music (of course), and we hope it whiles away a bit of washing up or a long walk for you over the break. We'll be back in 2026 with our normal service. Merry Christmas from all of us at the podcast!-----------------------------------------Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 23rd July 2025 (yes, really...)

One of the principles underlying the Curriculum for Wales is that we should situate learning within authentic contexts in order to make it more meaningful. We thought it was worth digging a little more into what that might actually look like, so we convened a panel discussion for our PGCE Secondary student teachers, bringing in guests with experience of doing this from different perspectives. While logistical pressures on the day meant we weren't able to record the panel discussion live, two of our guests kindly agreed to come in front of the microphones afterwards for a chat about what we'd discussed. Katie Berrisford works for Money Ready, a charity providing financial education to young people in schools, and Elizabeth Berry is a headteacher working in a primary school in a socio-economically deprived area on the outskirts of Cardiff. Their different perspectives were really helpful to get our secondary student teachers thinking about what's possible, the benefits and the challenges of making learning authentic. Thanks to both for taking part!---------------------------------------------------------------------Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus in studio B2.15 on 15th April 2025 (Katie Berrisford discussion), studio B2.10A on 11th July 2025 (final section) and at Bryn Celyn Primary School on 3rd July 2025 (Elizabeth Berry discussion).

The autumn term is a long one, and to mark half-time in the long march to the Christmas break, we like to kick back with one of our 'light' episodes (though to be fair they're not always entirely light!) in which we bring some randomly-selected pieces of content with which to surprise, delight and horrify one another. Regular listeners may remember that we will be hearing less of Emma during season 8, so this is an ideal opportunity to soft-launch her 'stunt double', Sian Wickersham into a low(ish) stakes environment, so this is our first three-presenter episode. We've got a mix of hardcore educational content, musings on the personal qualities of teachers and thoughts on AI amongst other things. We hope you find something interesting in there to pass some time during the half term break. We'll be back with our normal service in two weeks' time. --------------------------------------Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 22nd July 2025