Mastodawn

“Early childhood education reforms have globally reinforced the pitfalls of meritocracy by promoting competition over cooperation, individualism over solidarity & the idea that talent & effort rather than uncontrollable factors such as luck or social context, determine individuals’ lifetime success”

The meritocracy trap: Early ch...

The meritocracy trap: Early childhood education policies promote individual achievement far more than social cohesion

Governments worldwide have reformed early childhood education (ECE) to equip young people with competitive skills for an increasingly specialized workforce. These reforms have coincided with a widespread acceptance of meritocratic beliefs holding that talent and effort, rather than uncontrollable factors (e.g., luck, social context), determine individuals’ lifetime success and achievement. This study examines whether recent ECE reforms may have promoted an economic meritocratic mindset that favors skills linked to individual competition for future achievement. Data came from a total of 92 documents published between 1999 and 2023, including ECE advisory reports from international organizations and government-endorsed ECE curricula from 53 countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. A step-by-step thematic analysis was conducted through combining qualitative text coding with statistical analyses applied to the emerging themes. Findings show that: (1) while experts and policymakers recognized the importance of ECE access and quality, they defined social cohesion primarily through economic indicators; (2) ECE documents prioritized cognitive skills and –mostly among international organizations– socioemotional skills as key for individual achievement, but citizenship skills were largely omitted; (3) individual agency and responsibility within ECE contexts were defined as central to educational and lifetime success, while uncontrollable factors (e.g., intergenerational transmission of advantage, family origin) were largely neglected; (4) both international organizations and governments strongly embraced an economic meritocratic mindset in ECE, implying that life outcomes mainly depend on talent and effort, obscuring the role of support and solidarity from peers, relatives, communities or institutions. Overall, this study suggests that ECE reforms have globally reinforced the pitfalls of meritocracy by promoting educational policies that prioritize competition over cooperation, individualism over solidarity, and the widespread notion that talent and effort, rather than uncontrollable factors such as luck or social context, determine individuals’ lifetime success in society.

Peter Moleman Jul 5

Malte Engeler Jul 4

Speaking from experience: Taking a risk by calling things out can be a very isolating experience. Don't applaud people that do. Do as they did: Take a risk, speak up, call shit out.

Because the more people do so, the less risk everyone has to take. And eventually what was once daring to say has moved into the realm of ordinary again.

Peter Moleman Jul 1

https://decorrespondent.nl/16213/als-den-haag-het-niet-doet-doen-deze-burgers-het-wel-zo-bouw-je-een-beter-asielsysteem/824506a3-a415-0761-2774-9e5810b9129c?pk_campaign=rss-feed&pk_medium=rss&pk_source=publication&pk_kwd=all&pk_cid=eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3

Als Den Haag het niet doet, doen deze burgers het wel: zo bouw je een beter asielsysteem

Den Haag loopt vast, maar het kan best: tientallen initiatieven in Nederland werken aan originele, hoopvolle oplossingen voor de problemen die migratie met zich meebrengt. Van de opvang van asielzoekers tot integratie in de samenleving. ‘We hoeven niet te wachten op de overheid. Let’s start.’

De Correspondent

Peter Moleman Jun 28

kim_harding ✅Jun 26

This cartoon needs to be aired again...

Peter Moleman Jun 25

This Is My Glasgow Jun 24

I love this mural by Smug on Mitchell Street in central Glasgow, and I've been known to spend way too much time waiting for some unsuspecting person to be pass through exactly the right spot to take a photo of it!

#glasgow #streetart #mural #smug #glasgowmurals #glasgowstreetart #mitchellstreet #honeyishrunkthekids

Peter Moleman Jun 19

Ulrike Hahn Jun 19

It’s live: The Anti-Autocracy Handbook- The Scholars’ Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding. The need for this is self-evident given current events around the world and in particular in the U.S. The team of authors includes experts from relevant fields and several authors with first-hand experience of living under autocracy.

a pdf of the handbook is freely available for download at the short link https://sks.to/autocracy and there is an associated Wiki that will continue to be expanded and updated.

Please share!

The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding

The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. It tries to provide guidance to scholars navigating the growing global trend of democratic backsliding and autocratization, in particular in the U.S. To this end, it sets out how autocracies often follow a common playbook, built around the “3 Ps”: populism, polarization, and post-truth. Leaders present themselves as voices of “the people” against “corrupt elites”, inflame societal divisions, and undermine facts to avoid accountability. This leads to a cascade of dangers for scholarship, including censorship, restrictions on funding and research collaboration, and even violence. The Trump administration serves as a contemporary example, with policies that curtail international scientific cooperation, revoke research grants, and suppress studies related to public health, climate change and minority issues. Because open inquiry and dissent are central to science and academia—qualities antithetical to authoritarian control—academia is often among the first targets of autocrats. To help scholars resist authoritarian developments, the handbook highlights both historic and contemporary measures aimed at attacking scholars, their institutional environments, and their scholarship. The handbook also sets out a framework for action based on personal risk level—low, medium, high, or extreme. This is designed to help scholars think about their own risk and purposefully choose actions in line with it. The handbook considers tools for enhancing digital safety and highlights the importance of ongoing documentation, preserving imperilled data, and creating distributed archives as a defence against erasure. It also calls on scholars to tell their stories—publicly or anonymously—to inspire others, maintain accountability and preserve a historical record. Accompanying the handbook is a living wiki that will continue to incorporate new developments and provide updates on global efforts by scholars to push back against authoritarianism and safeguard the democratic foundations that enable free inquiry.

Zenodo

Peter Moleman Jun 15

Waarschuwing uit Washington: Follow the Money speelt met vuur.
https://www.ftm.nl/nieuwsbrieven/waarschuwing-uit-washington-follow-the-money-speelt-met-vuur

Waarschuwing uit Washington: Follow the Money speelt met vuur

Follow the Money - Platform voor onderzoeksjournalistiek

Peter Moleman Jun 13

The Correspondent: This is fascism.
https://decorrespondent.nl/16177/this-is-fascism/c4bf802c-8087-0bbc-31d5-5ed403fd281d?pk_kwd=all

This is fascism

Fascism starts with talk, not tanks. With democratic elections, not a coup. And it takes hold thanks to people who think things won’t move quickly—until they do just that.

De Correspondent

Peter Moleman Jun 11

Albert Cardona Jun 11

On writing is thinking:

"On the page, you are confronted with the shortcomings in your thinking, the gaps in your evidence, the flaws in your argument. You become aware of important matters that you had not considered. The process of writing is the process of working through those problems, of figuring out the best way to express whatever you are trying to express. Onerous as it may be, the result is gratifying, even if fleetingly so."

HT https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/114664774420469765

Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her) (@emilymbender@dair-community.social)

"Part of our task in the face of generative AI is to make an argument for the value of thinking – laboured, painful, frustrating thinking." "[W]e also need to hold our institutions accountable. [...] university administrators are highly susceptible to the temptations of technology-driven downsizing, big tech donations, and the appearance of being on the cutting edge." https://activehistory.ca/blog/2025/06/11/on-generative-ai-in-the-classroom-give-up-give-in-or-stand-up/

Distributed AI Research Community

Peter Moleman Jun 9

Het is tijd dat politieke duiders Wilders niet langer beoordelen door de bril van het oude normaal. Wilders is een gewiekste strateeg die probeert ons politieke systeem – en daarmee de democratie – te ontregelen. En zijn tegenstanders? Die zullen met méér moeten komen dan de uitgekauwde verhalen over daadkracht, fatsoenlijk bestuur en leiderschap.
https://decorrespondent.nl/16159/we-moeten-het-gepruts-van-wilders-door-een-andere-lens-bekijken/c2434848-e036-05c7-0b59-0665820243e9?pk_kwd=all

We moeten het ‘gepruts’ van Wilders door een andere lens bekijken

Volgens politieke duiders was Wilders’ deelname aan het kabinet ‘amateuristisch’. Volgens politieke leiders is hij ‘weggelopen van zijn verantwoordelijkheid’. Wakker worden: gebruikelijke politieke normen gelden sinds het kabinet-Schoof niet meer. Als we onze oude bril vervangen, zien we dat onbestuurbaarheid altijd al zijn strategie was.

De Correspondent

Tjeerd Royaards May 30

There is a sad and frustrating repetitiveness to my cartoons about Gaza, but still I think it's important to keep drawing them, just as it's important to keep sharing the images from Gaza.

Today's cartoon for Trouw: https://www.trouw.nl/cartoons/tjeerd-royaards~bcb45712/

#Gaza #Netanyahu #Israel #redline

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Dziadek May 30

@royaards

You have captured this superbly well.

Heel hartelijk bedankt!

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me_valentijn May 30

@royaards
It's remarkable how many American democrats now insist Biden's administration wasn't doing exactly the same thing, while also actively arming Israel to facilitate the slaughter 🙄

It's not a UN problem, or even a US problem. It's a money in politics problem, and Israel has excelled at playing that game in democratically vulnerable Western markets/countries over the decades.

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Dahmonium May 30

@me_valentijn @royaards Money always played a role in Politics. Politics is mostly about discussing and deciding about equal distribution of resources (Money).
This was the outlook for the Palestinians with the discovery of marine gas fields in 2020. Exploitation of it and grow economically independent. And I believe exactly this was/is a growing concern for especially Israel AND U.S.A. In the same way Russian gas delivery was a concern.

As vulnerable Western Mrkt, I'ld say it's a EU problem.

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Petra van Cronenburg May 30

@royaards Your cartoons are as important as humanity is important in this world. They help to tell the horror when all words fail.

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Beldarak May 30

@royaards Oof! Amazing work, this is a really powerful drawing imho :O

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Yora May 30

@royaards Have we reached the Strongly Worded Letter stage yet?

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Madagascar_Sky May 30

@yora @royaards

That was last week or this week. UK, France and Netherlands (?) issued a strongly worded letter against Israel.

Bibi then threatened to annex West Bank, bombed a refugee camp school or hospital (could've been both honestly) and then recognised some more illegal (by Israeli standards) West Bank settlements.

Let's wait for strongly worded letter 2. It'll have sharp edges to give bibi papercuts.

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Yora May 30

@Madagascar_Sky @royaards Took them only like what? A year?

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Madagascar_Sky May 30

@yora @royaards

Year and a half and ~50,000 dead people. 15000 kids. Wars with 4 different countries.

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Madagascar_Sky May 30

@royaards

I hate how evergreen this song is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIdCsMufIY

This Land Is Mine

"What's Nina working on now??" THIS: https://apocalypseanimated.com/+++++A brief history of the land called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/the Levant.Who's-killing-...

YouTube

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Robin Barton May 30

@royaards I agree but I think you are doing good work putting it out there as it makes it easier for people to visualize. I don't blame the UN as they only have any authority is the nation states give them power to act.

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BonzoDog May 30

@royaards Israel committing mass murder and the world looks on and thinks sanctions will stop them!!

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JustRosy 🇺🇦May 30

@royaards Just stick devil horns on death, and slap a 666 somewhere on *rump, and it's complete.

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daria-andrea May 31

@royaards also also: “If we stand for women and we stand against rape as an act of war, we all have to stand up to what Hamas did.” (Margo Lindauer)

regardless of whether individuals support an Israeli, Palestinian or two-state solution or a ceasefire