The Tattooed Teacher

On this episode of The Tattooed Teacher Podcast, I chat with Michael Murphy, PhD candidate researching the purpose of education, university lecturer, podcaster and self-described cultural cartographer, to unpack his journey from marine biology student to mapping how education systems think.Michael shares how he ended up in teaching by accident, how pages of notes became his mantra (help people live well in a world that’s worth living in), and what he misses and doesn’t miss since stepping out of the classroom. The love is a big gap. The bells are not.We explore what really matters when you zoom out on education:why the Australian curriculum is a map, and why the projection we choose, content, experience or capabilities, changes everythingthe public transport map of purposes of education from his PhD, and what happens when 3,000 people are on the economic productivity line and the equality line is emptydecoupling and recoupling, like when a system says it wants lifelong learners but measures it with Year 12 completionwhy process and product both matter, from bin projects to enrichment toys designed for Adelaide Zoomaking a part of someone’s good day instead of trying to make it, and why empathy is under a layer, not lostWe also get into the metaphors we live by, three-year-olds in kindy to build submarines, why schools aren’t the only ones killing creativity, banning with replacement, buddy benches, and why we need more glimmers. A key thread throughout the episode is simple but important: you can’t highlight everything on a map, so own what you prioritise and what you simplify.This is a thoughtful, funny, and open conversation for teachers, school leaders, and anyone who has ever wondered what school is actually for.#PurposeOfEducation #Curriculum #EducationLeadership #TeacherLife #EducationAustralia #SchoolLeadership #Education #TheTattooedTeacher #PodcastYou can find Michaelhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-murphy-edup/https://www.edup.education/https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/vacilando/id1801641843you can find me on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-murdoch-%F0%9F%A4%99-68a846b1/YouTubehttps://youtube.com/@thetattooedteacher01?si=tJy1U6Huz684CtZEFollow DJ Fruit Salad:https://www.instagram.com/djfruitsaladofficial/Sponsored byThe BUSY SchoolThis episode is brought to you by The BUSY School— a network of special assistance schools for Year 11 and 12 students who've disengaged from mainstream education. Small classes, real industry connections, and completely free for students. If you know a young person who needs a different kind of school, The BUSY School could be exactly what they're looking for. The BUSY School is part ofThe BUSY Group — an Australian not-for-profit approaching its 50th year, operating across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Find out if there's a BUSY School near you at ⁠⁠busyschools.edu.qld.au⁠⁠Supported byThe Design & Technologies Resource SiteAn Australian platform built to help creators, educators, and podcasters increase their visibility and connect with Design & Technologies educators.https://andacod.com.au/TeacherPD Australiahttps://teacherpd.com.au/Australia's Premier Teacher PD Directory

On this episode of The Tattooed Teacher Podcast, I chat with Nicole Dyson, CEO and founder of Future Anything working with over 100 schools and YouthX (Australia’s only startup accelerator. She is a multi-award-winning educator and entrepreneur and a global authority on project-based learning, entrepreneurial pedagogy and school transformation..We explore what really matters when you want young people to think, not just recall:why the first idea is always the worst idea, and how project-based learning, entrepreneurial thinking and design thinking build the iteration school rarely rewardsproductive friction, and her TEDx research showing 15-minute challenges lifted student self-confidence by four to eight percent in ten weekswhy you can't AI your way through a design classroom, and what an analog-led process with AI at targeted points looks likewhy academic high flyers often drop a grade the first time they hit project work, while the C and D students climbwhy agency only shows up when students feel safe and connectedA key thread throughout the episode is simple but important: if we want young people ready for life after school, they need to learn they can sit in ambiguity and work their way through it.This is a practical, honest conversation for teachers, school leaders, and anyone who wants more joy in how we design learning.The Future Anything Challenge grand final is on 9 November at the Thomas Dixon Centre in Brisbane and online.#FutureAnything #ProjectBasedLearning #DesignThinking #AIinEducation #StudentAgency #Education #TheTattooedTeacher #PodcastYou can find Nicolehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nicdyson/https://www.futureanything.com/[email protected] can find me on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-murdoch-%F0%9F%A4%99-68a846b1/YouTubehttps://youtube.com/@thetattooedteacher01?si=tJy1U6Huz684CtZEFollow DJ Fruit Salad:https://www.instagram.com/djfruitsaladofficial/Sponsored byThe BUSY SchoolThis episode is brought to you by The BUSY School— a network of special assistance schools for Year 11 and 12 students who've disengaged from mainstream education. Small classes, real industry connections, and completely free for students. If you know a young person who needs a different kind of school, The BUSY School could be exactly what they're looking for. The BUSY School is part ofThe BUSY Group — an Australian not-for-profit approaching its 50th year, operating across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Find out if there's a BUSY School near you at ⁠⁠busyschools.edu.qld.au⁠⁠Supported byThe Design & Technologies Resource SiteAn Australian platform built to help creators, educators, and podcasters increase their visibility and connect with Design & Technologies educators.https://andacod.com.au/TeacherPD Australiahttps://teacherpd.com.au/Australia's Premier Teacher PD Directory

On this episode of The Tattooed Teacher Podcast, I chat with Dr Louise White, Postdoctoral Research Fellow and consulting researcher, about what it really means to include autistic students in our schools and why the research keeps pointing back to the same thing: belonging, flexibility, and teachers who are willing to look at the barriers instead of the child.Louise's story is deeply personal, her son was diagnosed with autism. Which led to her own diagnosis. Forty years of questions suddenly had answers. And everything that came with her diagnosis: forgiveness, identity, and a complete reorientation of what she thought she knew after fifteen years in the classroom.We explore what really matters when it comes to autism, inclusion, and education:•        why inclusion isn't just having someone in the room, it's creating an environment where everyone has what they need to succeed and genuinely feels like they belong•        the difference between changing a child and changing their barriers, and why one of those approaches will always fail•        what autistic students wish teachers understood, and why it doesn't cost any money and barely takes any time•        why flexibility is the most important thing schools can build in for autistic students, and what getting that wrong looks like in practice•        how Louise's own experience of leaving school and dropping out of law, unable to take a train or order a coffee, shaped her PhD research on preparing autistic young adults for adulthoodWe also get into masking, the spoon theory, monotropism, what the EKKA crowd taught us about how far we've come as a society, why school captain and dropout can belong to the same person, and why providing questions in advance is a simple adjustment that makes a profound difference.A key thread throughout the episode is simple but important: you are not going to change an autistic person's brain. But you can change the barriers. And that's where teachers have real power.This is a warm, honest, and deeply important conversation for classroom teachers, school leaders, parents, and anyone who works with or alongside autistic young people.#AutismEducation #InclusiveEducation #Neurodiversity #Education #AutismResearch #TheTattooedTeacher #PodcastYou can find Louisehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-louise-white-0a8908338/https://reframingautism.org.au/https://www.aspect.org.au/you can find me on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-murdoch-%F0%9F%A4%99-68a846b1/YouTubehttps://youtube.com/@thetattooedteacher01?si=tJy1U6Huz684CtZEFollow DJ Fruit Salad:https://www.instagram.com/djfruitsaladofficial/Sponsored byThe BUSY SchoolThis episode is brought to you by The BUSY School— a network of special assistance schools for Year 11 and 12 students who've disengaged from mainstream education. Small classes, real industry connections, and completely free for students. If you know a young person who needs a different kind of school, The BUSY School could be exactly what they're looking for. The BUSY School is part ofThe BUSY Group — an Australian not-for-profit approaching its 50th year, operating across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Find out if there's a BUSY School near you at ⁠⁠busyschools.edu.qld.au⁠⁠Supported byThe Design & Technologies Resource SiteAn Australian platform built to help creators, educators, and podcasters increase their visibility and connect with Design & Technologies educators.https://andacod.com.au/TeacherPD Australiahttps://teacherpd.com.au/Australia's Premier Teacher PD Directory

On this episode of The Tattooed Teacher Podcast, I chat with Dr Hugh Chilton, Head of Teaching and Learning at Wycliffe Christian School, co-founder and Associate Director of the Sydney Character Initiative, and co-chair of Research Invested Schools, about what it really means to form human beings well and why character education needs to sit at the centre of everything schools do.Hugh is a thinker, a connector, and someone who genuinely lives the ideas he talks about. This is one of those conversations that gave me a perspective and plenty to think on.We explore what really matters when it comes to character, education, and human formation:why the root word of education, educare, to draw out, is still the most important frame for thinking about what teachers actually dothe founding vision of Scots College and how that inspired Scots X, a school within a school learning lab built around connection, choice, and challenge for Year 8 boysthe three learning modes Hugh and his team designed: mastery training, interdisciplinary quests, and real world projects that asked boys to make something worth showcasingwhat the Sydney Character Initiative is building, including the Forming the Formers fellowship and how Australia can bring its own distinct voice to character education globallywhy character isn't just caught in relationships but is also taught through the content, the texts, and the craft of what we put in front of young people every dayWe also get into Research Invested Schools, how different types of schools have more in common than we think, Hugh's challenge to every educator to spend time reflecting on what they actually believe about being human, and why "come and behold what is true, good and beautiful together" might be the most important sentence in education.A key thread throughout the episode is simple but important: we are forming character in every interaction, every day, whether we are intentional about it or not. So let's be intentional.This is a rich, warm, and deeply thoughtful conversation for educators, school leaders, and anyone who believes that education is fundamentally about human formation.#TheTattooedTeacher #Podcast #CharacterEducation #HumanFormation #SchoolLeadership #TeacherLife #EducationAustralia #SydneyCharacterInitiativeYou can find Hugh https://www.linkedin.com/in/hughchilton/https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/our-research/research-areas/education-and-social-work/sydney-character-initiative.htmlyou can find me on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-murdoch-%F0%9F%A4%99-68a846b1/YouTubehttps://youtube.com/@thetattooedteacher01?si=tJy1U6Huz684CtZEFollow DJ Fruit Salad:https://www.instagram.com/djfruitsaladofficial/Sponsored byThe BUSY SchoolThis episode is brought to you by The BUSY School— a network of special assistance schools for Year 11 and 12 students who've disengaged from mainstream education. Small classes, real industry connections, and completely free for students. If you know a young person who needs a different kind of school, The BUSY School could be exactly what they're looking for. The BUSY School is part ofThe BUSY Group — an Australian not-for-profit approaching its 50th year, operating across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Find out if there's a BUSY School near you at ⁠⁠busyschools.edu.qld.au⁠⁠Supported byThe Design & Technologies Resource SiteAn Australian platform built to help creators, educators, and podcasters increase their visibility and connect with Design & Technologies educators.https://andacod.com.au/TeacherPD Australiahttps://teacherpd.com.au/Australia's Premier Teacher PD Directory

On this episode of The Tattooed Teacher Podcast, I chat with my good mate Josiah Hein, teacher, content creator, TikTok sensation, and the man behind “Jesus loves you baby”, about what it looks like to build an authentic life in public without losing who you actually are.And yes, this is episode 75. Fortune had it that Josiah landed the milestone. Couldn't have picked a better one.Josiah came to Australia to get a visa. Teaching was on the critical skills list, he had a business degree, and one more year of study seemed like a pretty good trade for residency. That was over ten years ago and he's still in classrooms, still bringing the joy, and somehow also appearing on Channel 9 couches, red carpets for Paramount, and TikTok feeds across the country.We explore what really matters when you're building something real:how a promise made at a best mate's funeral at age thirteen brought Josiah to Australia, and what happened when he got herethe video filmed on a plane coming back from his sister's funeral that hit five million views, and the luggage carousel video that changed everything an hour laterwhy he says Jesus loves you, baby at the end of every video, and the story behind it that you won't see comingwhat overnight success actually looks like when it takes seven years of posting every single day to get therewhy the classroom keeps pulling him back even when the red carpet is calling, and why he reckons he's called to bring the party wherever he goesWe also get into staying grounded when the algorithm tries to change you, what authentic content creation actually costs in hours per day, why you have less to lose than you think when you take a risk, and the world trip that started with a video of a car engine block in minus forty-five degree Canadian winter.A key thread throughout the episode is simple but important: the clout, the fame, and the opportunities are just a byproduct. If you lose your purpose and who you are, you lose everything.This is a fun, honest, and genuinely joyful conversation for teachers, content creators, and anyone who needs reminding that a good life is built one real moment at a time.#TheTattooedTeacher #Podcast #ContentCreation #TeacherLife #Authenticity #Education #EducationAustralia #SocialMediaYou can find Josiahhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/josiahhein/https://www.instagram.com/josiahhein/https://www.youtube.com/@JosiahHeinhttps://lnk.bio/[email protected] can find me on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-murdoch-%F0%9F%A4%99-68a846b1/YouTubehttps://youtube.com/@thetattooedteacher01?si=tJy1U6Huz684CtZEFollow DJ Fruit Salad:https://www.instagram.com/djfruitsaladofficial/Sponsored byThe BUSY SchoolThis episode is brought to you by The BUSY School— a network of special assistance schools for Year 11 and 12 students who've disengaged from mainstream education. Small classes, real industry connections, and completely free for students. If you know a young person who needs a different kind of school, The BUSY School could be exactly what they're looking for. The BUSY School is part ofThe BUSY Group — an Australian not-for-profit approaching its 50th year, operating across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Find out if there's a BUSY School near you at ⁠⁠busyschools.edu.qld.au⁠⁠Supported byThe Design & Technologies Resource SiteAn Australian platform built to help creators, educators, and podcasters increase their visibility and connect with Design & Technologies educators.https://andacod.com.au/TeacherPD Australiahttps://teacherpd.com.au/Australia's Premier Teacher PD Directory