Values for Cohesion Podcast Series

Hello and welcome to Values for Cohesion podcast series!
This is Dr Aslı Kandemir and I am with my co-hosts:

-doctoral researcher in Education, Duygu Dogus Tandirci; and
-Digital Media and Communications analyst, Lara Tsentides.

I am the lead of this University of Birmingham project titled ‘Values for Cohesion: In the Shadow of Karagöz and Hacivat’. This important project is funded by Birmingham City Council with Community Recovery Fund of the UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government // and it is in partnership with NASUWT Teachers’ Union and West Midlands Turkish Association.

This project seeks ways in which schools and communities can work together to rebuild resilience, mutual trust, and community cohesion in the local Birmingham community and beyond. To achieve it, the project asks questions about
-what misinformation and disinformation means for school managers, teachers, and community leaders, and
-how they can be challenged to safeguard young people and communities.
In so doing, it incorporates cultural heritage traditions such as Turkish Shadow Play called Karagöz [meaning the Black-eyed] and Hacivat [meaning The Wise].

To answer the questions we posed in this project, in May and June 2025, we held creative workshops, chaired roundtable discussions, and interviewed teachers and community leaders, who had been working within the education ecosystem. We wanted to gain a comprehensive understanding and insight into how misinformation and disinformation operate within this ecosystem.