In the movie satire Don’t Look Up, a deadly comet threatens to hit earth. Two astronomers recognise the impending disaster, but their warnings remain unheeded. The US President, experts and the media refuse to engage with facts, imploring us all ‘not to look up’. Such blatant denials of unacceptable truths – war, vaccines, climate change – result in an existential crisis where distraction is de rigueur. Too often crises in public education have been hidden in plain sight. Action is taken against those who dare to investigate, forcing the gaze from the actualities of a failing system. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi actively called out criticism of the Prime Minister by school children. Ministers who fail are rewarded. Public education is an outlier soon to be replaced by privatised providers. Universal access is denied. Children are subjected to harsher inequalities; knowledge is seen as a commodity exposed to the vagaries of unaccountable politicians. We are implored not to look. But look we must, in all directions, at: (1) the crisis of education as the great experiment; (2) the crisis in pedagogy and teacher burnout; (3) the crisis of education for climate change; and (4) the looming disaster of increasing inequalities.
