Russia Today and the Chartered College of Teaching

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So I noticed a tweet by Warwick Mansell, the U.K. journalist who is best known for shaming schools who enforce their school uniform policies. The purpose of the tweet, now deleted, was to draw our attention to a discussion between Dame Alison Peacock of the Chartered College Of Teaching and Graham Brown–Martin, an advocate of edtech, 21st century skills and that kind of thing.

The odd aspect of this was that the discussion was hosted on Russia Today, a known propaganda arm of The Kremlin. Why would a body in receipt of millions of pounds in U.K. government cash seek to prosecute its case via such a controversial medium? It doesn’t seem to make sense, particularly given today’s criticism by the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, of Russian propaganda tactics.

I couldn’t possibly speculate, but I did wonder if it was something to do with Graham Brown-Martin. The piece that was broadcast on Russia Today was made by Renegade Inc., the ‘talk show that allows us to think differently’. Despite being apparently produced in the U.K., Renegade Inc.’s output seems supportive of Russian policy and is quite dismissive of a link between Russia and any meddling in the 2016 U.S. election (this piece about Syria is also interesting).

Graham Brown-Martin has a profile page on Renegade Inc. If I were a betting man then I would wager that CoT have been drawn into this sorry affair through these links. It was probably a huge mistake by Peacock and the College of Teaching, but such naivety does not serve the teaching profession well. Propaganda relies on the use of friendly faces to convey its message.

Time, perhaps, for some critical thinking.

Update: Statement from the Chartered College of Teaching. Key point: “When Alison took part in the interview, we were not aware that it would be syndicated on RTUK. Had we been aware of the syndication deal we would not have participated in the show.”

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