160 - Schoolishness, AI and the Future of Education: A conversation with Dr. Susan D. Blum.

What if the biggest challenge facing education isn't grading—but our assumptions about school itself? In this episode, Sharona and Boz welcome anthropologist and author Susan Blum for a wide-ranging conversation about how her research into plagiarism led her to question the fundamental purpose of grades, assessment, and formal education. Drawing on her books Ungrading and Schoolishness, Susan reflects on why students so often pursue achievement instead of learning, how traditional grading systems shape that behavior, and why the rapid rise of AI has intensified long-standing questions about motivation, authenticity, and the value of education. Rather than focusing on grading techniques alone, this episode steps back to examine the larger assumptions underlying our educational systems and asks what meaningful learning should look like in a rapidly changing world.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) by Susan D. Blum
• Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for Authentic, Joyful Learning by Susan D. Blum
• Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School (Hack Learning Series) by Starr Sackstein
• Trevor Aleo's Substack
• Susan D. Blum on Substack and LinkedIn

Resources

The Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading:

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel

Follow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.