003// Teaching in the Refugee Crisis and the Experiences of an NQT ft. Dr Alex Collins

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003// Teaching in the Refugee Crisis, Green New Deal, Diversity, Experiences of an NQT In this third episode of RI, with lead-host Lee, we are joined by our first guest Dr. Alex Collins for an interview about his experiences as a teacher and voluntary worker on the front lines of the refugee crisis in Athens, Greece. Hosts Lee, Charlie, Nick and Lauren are all in the room in order to cast a critical eye over the current hot topics in education news, with an unashamedly radical left-wing political outlook. In this episode we cover the teaching staff retention crisis, future careers and the green new deal, poor diversity practices in schools, and climate change deniers. The interview covers topics such as working conditions for new teachers in the UK, structural problems with the UK education system, the refugee crisis in Greece, and the work of voluntary groups in trying to help child refugees. Links to Organisations Mentioned: Khora (http://www.khora-athens.org/) is an association of services for and working in solidarity with the migrant community in central Athens. We currently operate three premises; a free shop (like a shop - but everything’s free) in Exarhia offering non-food items, mostly clothes, toiletries and toys; a social centre in Kipseli, housing our asylum support team, a makers/craft/creative space (“The Beehive”), a co-working/open office space used by a variety of other small-scale local projects, a women’s space (run collaboratively with the United African Women’s Organisation), and a music/sound/tech studio in the basement; and a free restaurant/community kitchen in Kipseli (opening soon!). Love and Serve Without Boundaries (LSWB) https://v4r.info/orgs.list.php?ID=721 is a grassroots organisation which started as a street outreach programme providing hot food to the homeless (mostly migrants) around Victoria Square, which now also runs a very busy education project out of their premises in Patissia. They offer volunteer-taught language classes for (hundreds of) adults and children (on a budget of close to zero pounds). The project is run by Maria, herself an asylum seeker from Kenya.