Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
@DrSueOosthuizen
Aug 31, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Brilliant evisceration by #Stefan #Collini of consumerism in higher education & analysis of what’s needed so that #universities can properly play their part (& it’s only a part) in supporting a drive to social equity & justice
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
‘One of the most obvious is between our de facto endorsement of a bitterly class-divided society and our fantasy that universities can not only escape the consequences of this but can positively correct it. We seem, for example, to be willing to allow wealthy parents to buy...
educational advantage for their children up to the age of 18, but then we believe that this advantage can somehow be made to have no consequences for their educational trajectory thereafter....’
‘The truth is that if you say you want more children from deprived areas to be able to go to university, then don’t faff around with entry tariffs: invest in Sure Start centres, preschool groups, subsidised childcare & properly resourced primary schools. Make benefits ....
‘ ...genuinely accessible and life-supporting. Better still, stop whole sections of society being condemned to underpaid, vulnerable, soul-destroying labour while others cream off inordinate wealth from the profits of that labour. ...
‘ ...But don’t kid yourself that the odd bit of “widening access” will in itself provide a magic bullet and thereby allow you, the beneficiary of a rigged competition, to sleep soundly at night.’
‘Then there is the .. less obvious contradiction between consumerism & education. Our HE system is at present structurally consumerist ... The Office for Students is explicitly a “consumer watchdog”’ based on the premise that, ..
... ‘in exchange for payment [consumers] are “entitled” to get what they ask for’.
‘The core experience of life-changing education is almost the exact opposite of this. It involves engaging with what is not us.’

Do read the whole piece - these are just a few extracts. END.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Prof Susan Oosthuizen

Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @DrSueOosthuizen

Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
May 8, 2022
Short🧵. As many people know, Laxton, in Nottinghamshire, is one of the few places in England where large-scale #medieval open #fields survive, still collectively organised & managed in the same way that they were 6 and more centuries ago. … /1
The term ‘open fields’ has become shorthand for large (often huge) areas of arable, subdivided into unhedged blocks (‘furlongs’), subdivided in turn into narrow strips (‘selions’). #medieval #landscape. /2
And the strips (selions) in each furlong were shared out, one by one in repetitive order, between the village’s farmers. This 1617 map from Balsham, Cambs., names of the farmer of each strip. By 1617 some had acquired & merged neighbouring strips, others had subdivided theirs. /3
Read 9 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Sep 9, 2021
Pollard willows along a river bank are such a vivid reminder of centuries of unremembered famers’ labour in supporting the present with hope for a sustainable future. Here’s the story they tell… THREAD
2. Most obviously, willows are trees that prefer damp conditions so they’re often planted along rivers, streams & canals so that their root systems will help to keep the banks stable in times of flood (photo: John Sutton). But that’s the least interesting part of their story.
3. More interesting - at least to me - is their use for millennia as a crop, for making all sorts of things. Here are a few examples. Friends, I give you a reconstructed willow hurdle from fish weir c3934-2681 BC (exarc.net/issue-2018-4/e…).
Read 23 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Sep 1, 2021
Every walk has a puzzle or more that might tell the story of how that landscape evolved. That’s what makes for so much fun. So here’s a 🧵about a recent amble in case you might enjoy it too.
2. We walked past this pair of houses, one set closely behind the other. Which was the earlier? How might one tell?
3. Well, there’s a rule of thumb in Cambs. that chimney location, shapes and materials are a good place to start:
(a) the earliest chimneys in ordinary houses were set along the roof line - not on the end walls. They mostly tend to date from the 17thC though they can be earlier
Read 20 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Jun 6, 2021
The great historian G. M. Trevelyan on the enchantment of history:

‘The appeal of History to us all is in the last analysis poetic. But the poetry of History does not consist of imagination roaming at large, but of imagination pursuing the fact & fastening upon it. (1/n)
2. That which compels the historian to ‘scorn delights and live laborious days’ is the ardor of his own curiosity to know what really happened long ago in that land of mystery which we call the past. To peer into that magic mirror and see fresh figures there every day ... (2/n)
3. ... is a burning desire that consumes and satisfies him all his life, that carries him each morning, eager as a lover, to the library and muniment room. It haunts him like a passion of almost terrible potency, because it is poetic.
Read 8 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Feb 4, 2021
THREAD. There’s so much water in the fields at present - fields are floating in water. Here in the east of England it’s a practical lesson explaining so much about land use before under-field drainage began in the 17thC.
2. Seasonal springs are suddenly bubbling with water ...
3. and everything is sodden underfoot.
Read 17 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Dec 22, 2020
THREAD. A seriously muddy walk across one of the high, flat, clay plateaux of S Cambs. today, was full of reminders that this land, too heavy for ox-drawn ploughs, was medieval common pasture studded with managed woodland..
2. The fields were full of water despite being at the top of the hills - too flat to drain well, studded with small pockets of low land that made temporary ponds..
3. Coming across Eversden Wood in this waterlogged landscape reminded me of the great Oliver Rackham’s truism that #medieval #woods are not found on land that’s good for woods, but on land that’s no good for anything else - and of his advice on how to recognise them..
Read 17 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(