Symposium Unfolding Human Potential

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Symposium A dialogue on core qualities and practices needed in education February 8th & 9th, 2017, Driebergen The Netherlands

Index

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Urgency: what is at stake?....................................................... 4

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How is the symposium organised? .......................................... 5

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Programme .............................................................................. 8 Evening programme ....................................................... 10

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More about the grammar and the vocabulary ...................... 13

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Starting point: examples of educational practice.................. 15

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Academic experts present themselves.................................. 19

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Some participants, our questions, their answers .................. 24

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The hosts of this symposium Learning for Well-being.................................................. 29 NIVOZ ............................................................................. 31

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Blanc pages for your own notes ............................................ 32

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Map of Landgoed de Horst .................................................... 40

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Welcome to our symposium The Unfolding of Human Potential. We hope you see this programme as an unfolding set of opportunities to stimulate insights and connections.

We hope you will see, listen, experience, express and interact, and that together we will come closer to the heart of what each and every child needs from education.

In moving closer to the essence of what is needed, we hope to find the vocabulary, the underlying structures, and what that may mean.

Luc Stevens director

Daniel Kropf director

Contact NIVOZ:Nickel van der Vorm n.vandervorm@nivoz.nl Contact Learning for Well-being: Yakarah Attias-Rosen yakarah@learningforwellbeing.org

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Urgency: what is at stake?

Connectedness between people, on several dimensions, is eroding.

The role of education in the development of our societies must urgently be reconsidered. In our invitation letter, we have already addressed the urgency we feel for this symposium, and the broader dialogue that it aims to contribute to. At stake are our open, liberal democracies, and the sustainable well-being of our society as a whole. Connectedness between people, on several dimensions, is eroding. Not only the connection between groups of people in society as a whole, but also the connection of people working together in schools and the workplace, and, it could be argued, even the connection with our inner selves.

We are convinced that education has an important responsibility.

Education is not a cure-all for difficult problems that we face. Education cannot compensate for all of society’s flaws, but it is part of society, so the disconnections of society are part of education too.

But we think it cannot be ignored that education deeply affects the way children develop their worldview, and a perspective on how they themselves can contribute to a sustainable, human society. Education offers the opportunity to renew the connections that have been eroding, and in that way can provide the conditions that are needed to let everyone be able to participate in society, and take their responsibility for a sustainable way of living.

To be able to take up this responsibility, a perspective on education is required that acknowledges that education, and human development at large, is an inherently uncertain endeavour, and is intertwined with moral dilemmas, for which no objective ‘best answers’ exist. This also means that we cannot avoid the question what our personal responsibility is in this respect.

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How is the symposium organised?

By starting from concrete, practical examples, we start from the ‘educational event’ as a whole.

The symposium is organized with the practice of teaching as its starting point.

Practice as a starting point, followed by dialogue and experience of the participants, to be supported or challenged by academic input at the end.

Practice-driven As we see it, education is first and foremost an event – an event that takes place on a specific moment in interaction between specific people, with a specific purpose. Teachers continuously make decisions, big and small, all carrying - by definition - moral consequences. All aspects and dimensions of what constitutes ‘good education’ are there in a real-life situation, and with that, they offer the most fruitful and meaningful starting point for our explorations.

Each session of the symposium will start with examples of inspiring practices.

We have been invited into a widely diverging range of school practices and prepared short films portraying them, to kick off each of the first three chapters of the symposium.

Chapters of the symposium The symposium program is divided into four chapters of 2,5 hours each, with the following themes: 1) 2) 3) 4)

The (true) nature of teacher-student interaction The (true) nature of teacher education The (true) nature of pedagogical leadership and school development; The (true) nature of enabling educational research (towards a new scientific ethos).

The first three chapters will more or less follow the same path:  A short clip and interview on-stage of inspiring practices  Dialogue at the tables, each led by a table host  Break, during which table hosts and academic experts come together to exchange what has been discussed  Reflections by two academic experts with specific expertise The fourth chapter takes the form of a panel discussion and subsequent dialogue with all participants Unfolding human potential

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Leading questions for the four chapters The dialogue during each of the chapters is guided by the four leading questions, see below. It is important to recognise that the dialogue at the tables doesn’t necessarily has to lead to a solution.

1.

2.

3.

4.

How do we perceive children’s well-being as they grow up and take responsibility, and what qualities of interactions are important to guide the development of children?

What does it ask from professionals in education to guide our children’s development within educational institutions and how should they prepare professionally for this? How do they perceive their responsibility?

How should we, starting from the assumptions we have formulated earlier with regard to the quality of interaction that is needed in the school, and about what is asked of professionals, understand the school as an organisation, and how should we perceive educational leadership?

Given the growing influence of social and educational sciences on current practice in schools and teacher education, what do we perceive as relevant knowledge, that can be offered to the daily realities encountered in the educational world, for teachers as actors and as professionals who strive to improve themselves? What are the most fruitful ways in which this knowledge can be ‘created’ or arrived at?

Dialogue An important assumption for the symposium is, that there are no final, allencompassing answers to what constitutes good education. Consequently, to make the symposium a success, we need to avoid convincing each other of our personal opinions. What is needed, is a dialogue. Dialogue is not about critiquing each other’s viewpoints, but about asking questions, and opening up our minds and hearts to understand the ideas of others, constantly looking for ‘free space’ in the conversation from which new insights can emerge.

In order for us, all participants included, to arrive at new insights and/or new existential questions we would like to encourage participants to partake with an open mindset. And to pay attention to, to be aware of, how one pays attention to others and to what one will experience.

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Role of interviewers and conference host The general discussion for each chapter is led by two interviewers (Luís Pinto and Hartger Wassink). They introduce the theme of the chapter, interview the practice representatives, lead the discussion of table hosts and experts during the break, and ask questions (if needed) to guide the reflections of the academic experts.

The conference host (Shanti George) leads the general discussion, and takes over from the chapter interviewers for the concluding reflections of the day, when the general academic experts give their reflections and where there is some room for broad dialogue with all participants.

Shanti George Shanti George feels privileged to have been invited by NIVOZ and the Universal Education Foundation (UEF) to be the conference host for the Unfolding Symposium. She is an independent researcher who crosses conventional professional boundaries between knowledge and practice, and who facilitates dialogue across professional and cultural divides.The Unfolding Symposium gives her a very welcome opportunity to participate in a rich dialogue about re-imagining schools.

Hartger Wassink Hartger Wassink coordinates the NIVOZ Forum, an online and offline space for researchers and practitioners in education, to engage in dialogue on themes with regard to good education.

He is an organizational psychologist with a specific interest in educational research that is relevant to practice. In addition to his work at NIVOZ, he works as an independent consultant specializing in values-based governance.

Luís Manuel Pinto Luís Manuel Pinto loves learning (and alliterations). He has put this passion at the service of human development – individuals and organizations – as a facilitator and designer of educational programmes. Luís has an avid interest in theatre, movement and image which he uses as ways to explore new forms of participation and learning. Luís is part of the Universal Education Foundation, working to support a Learning for Well-being approach, and heading Strategy and Development for C.A.T.S. – Children as Actors Transforming Society.

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Programme – day 1 10:30 Opening

 Guest speakers

Isabelle Biney Ahmed Aboutaleb, mayor of the city of Rotterdam 11:00 Nature of interaction and learning in education, its grammar and vocabulary  Video: the case of two schools Wittering.nl, Rosmalen RVC De Hef, Rotterdam Escola Marina, Barcelona 

Interview

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Dialogue at the tables

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Break

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Main speakers reflect and add

Practice representatives featuring in the video and from elsewhere in Europe are interviewed Tablehosts and speakers synthesize dialogues Prof Ferre Laevers Dr Tone Saeve

13:30 Lunch 14:30 Nature of teacher education. Teachers as their own instruments and lived experience as starting point. Grammar and vocabulary 

Video: the case of a teacher education college

School of Education, HAN Nijmegen.

Initiative Thieu Besselink.

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Interview

Practice representatives featuring in the video and from elsewhere in Europe are interviewed

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Dialogue at the tables Break

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Main speakers reflect and add

17:00 General reflections

17:30 Drinks and dinner 20:00 Evening programme (see page 10-12) page 8

Tablehosts and speakers synthesize dialogues Prof Colleen Mclaughlin Prof Paulien Meijer Prof Gert Biesta Prof Michael Fielding Linda O’Toole Closing of day 1 around 22:00

Programme – day 2 09:00 Opening of Day 2 09:15 Nature of leadership and school development. Grammar and vocabulary 

Video: the case of leadership in a primary and secondary school

Laterna Magica, Amsterdam.

Titus Brandsmalyceum, Oss. L’Ecole Singelijn, Brussel.

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Interview

Practice representatives featuring in the video and from elsewhere in Europe are interviewed

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Dialogue at the tables Break

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Main speakers reflect and add

11:45 General reflections

Tablehosts and speakers synthesize dialogues Prof Edith Hooge Prof Günther Opp Prof Gert Biesta Prof Michael Fielding Linda O’Toole

12:00 Lunch 13:00 About educational research, towards a new scientific ethos 

Introduction

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Panel: three perspectives on educational research

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Dialogue at the tables

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Break

14:45 General reflections

15:00 Closing of the symposium: bringing it all together

Prof Rob Martens Prof Arjan Wals

Prof Gert Biesta Prof Michael Fielding Linda O’Toole Prof Luc Stevens

16:00 End Unfolding human potential

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Evening programme In the evening participants can go three ways. There are two inspiring activities, starting around 8:00 pm. The third one is to go your own way and to relax. Please find more information below for each of the options.

Inspiring…

Down to Earth Including a Q&A with director Rolf Winters himself.

DOWN to EARTH is a mirror to humanity, a poignant and timely reflection on our civilized world. The movie invites us to see the world through the eyes of the Keepers of the Earth. It takes us on an inner journey, connecting us with the source and the mutual path we are walking. DOWN to EARTH is both a wake up call as a resurgence of hope for our world to come.

Leaving the rat race behind, a family of five embarks on the journey of a lifetime. They travel the ends of the earth searching for a new perspective on life. During five years on six continents they seek out tribal sages never filmed or interviewed before. DOWN to EARTH reveals the deep wisdom they found and its power to transform lives. Screening will take place in Theatre Maitland.

Experiencing…

Social Presencing Theatre, an embodied practice This session will use practices inspired by ‘Social Presencing Theatre’, an innovative social art form developed by the Presencing Institute that draws upon a body-based, intuitive knowledge of oneself and others. It is an invitation for participants to have a break from words, and explore their personal questions about the themes of the symposium using the wisdom of the body, the space and the group. The use of non-verbal techniques to inquire page 10

into “stuck” situations in one’s life may lead to surprising insights, possibilities …and even fun. It will take place in the attic of the estate’s main building (marked as ‘mansion’ on your map).

Mingling…

Maybe you want to relax in your hotelroom or to continue a new conversation in more easy-going way – You are welcome at the bar at the groundfloor of the estate’s main building (marked as ‘mansion’ on your map).

The writing is on the wall…. on all walls!

By Rolf Winters, director of the film ‘Down to Earth’ Collectively we are responsible to prepare our children for their future. But what is that future we are preparing them for? I believe it is fair to say that never before has this question been more difficult to answer. Yet, it also has never been more important!

In their lifetime, the young people of today will already be seriously confronted with the consequences of our modern world and the lifestyle that we and previous generations have developed. We do not have the luxury to just wait to see how things pan out. The writing is on the wall…. on all walls!

We didn’t inherit the Earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children. (Chief Seattle) The clock is ticking…. collectively, we have created an ecological time bomb and we cannot continue to pretend that it is not in our hands. Even though our lives do not seem to be under direct threat, the livelihood on Earth is at stake.

The problem is that we do not feel the impact of our lifestyle, do not see the size of our footprint on this Earth. Yet, humanity is at a crossroads and we are forced to make up our minds, now! A lot of the damage has already been done and some of the deterioration processes of our ecosystems and climate have gone past critical points, but it is not too late to come to the insight that it is Unfolding human potential

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time to mend our ways. Itstarts with a change in the way we look at the world and our place in it: Who am I in this world today?

We have to change the lens with which we look at our world and we have to change the questions we ask ourselves as educators. It simply will not do to ask ourselves how we can best prepare our children for a good job, for a good position in society. In fact, this question might be the very reason that nothing has really changed since the early 1970s, when leading scientists proved that our planet cannot sustain our lifestyle and our path of economic ‘growth’ (Limits of Growth, 1972).

How will we ever create the change that is needed if our education is still focused on delivering ready and fit participants for a system that is the actual cause of the big problems we face as humanity? Instead, shouldn’t we get serious and really PREPARE our children to become the generation that will turn the tide? The young generation of today might be facing the hardest task any generation has ever faced before.

So the real questions we face are: How do we empower them to become that generation? How can we develop a generation that knows what our true human potential is? And that it is not measured by GDP or the Wall Street index? How can we guide a generation that is capable of questioning the system, questioning the models of growth and questioning our modern consumption-based lifestyle? Isn’t it our biggest responsibility to ensure they don’t continue on the same path humanity has been on for too long, that they don’t follow the same dead-end road?

These were among our considerations in 2005, when we as a family decided to take our children out of the school system and live off the grid for five years. What evolved from this journey of exploration can be seen in the film DOWN to EARTH, which will be screened at the symposium on Wednesday evening. The film was launched in the Netherlands in October and still has sellout cinema screenings today. The film has hit a nerve in Dutch society. Apart from record-breaking cinema attendance, we have had hundreds of requests from parents and teachers who would like to use the film in their schools.

Therefore, we are now developing school programs, to bring a different awareness and different mindset into the class room.

It is a privilege to have a dialogue with you after the film as we are keen to cocreate with change makers in education.

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More about the grammar and the vocabulary Our words affect how we perceive our world and who we can be

By Geert Bors/Hartger Wassink Many thinkers have noted that it is virtually impossible to avert neoliberalism (to use this umbrella term) as part of our current-day identity. Even when we overtly claim to dislike or even oppose its economic efficiency thinking, our lives are still suffused with this ideology that has come to dominance over the last thirty years.

Our common vernacular is littered with economic jargon: in the Netherlands, we kiss our partners goodbye in the morning and wish them ‘success’ for the working day ahead. After the holidays or the weekend, we do not say that we have been relaxing, but instead that we have ‘recharged’, as if we are merely batteries to keep the machine going. And recently, the young Dutch philosopher Robin van den Akker claimed that, after us having had to be ‘entrepreneurs of our own lives’ in the 1990s, our society has seen a further shift towards efficiency thinking: Van den Akker sees a ‘sportification’ of our society, which has lead all of us to become ‘athletes of the self’ – always fit, always healthy, always prepared for peak performances.

In our schools, we hear a very similar jargon to gauge the state of affairs: schools are mainly assessed by quantifiable results: from the load of legalist administrative tasks that teachers see themselves confronted with to the yearly cycle of test results – highly stressful for everyone involved, children, parents, teachers and schools alike.

‘The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.’ * Ludwig Wittgenstein To paraphrase the Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: ‘The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.’

Words are more than mere words. Our vocabulary guides our thinking. Not only does it set limits to what we can think, but it also frames our identity. Our words, our vocabulary and the grammar that we use, affect how we perceive our world and who we can be.

If we want to our education to answer to the needs of a more humane, sustainable and peaceful world, we must be aware of our vocabulary and our grammar – starting with ourselves and in our schools. It may not be so much Unfolding human potential

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that we need a whole new vocabulary to speak of ‘new concepts’, but rather that we find ways of reappraising and embracing those ancient terms that have always coloured our language with qualities of the inter-relational: words such as trust, responsibility, presence, care and creativity, or aspects such as patience, imperfection, vulnerability and acceptance.

What is crucial is that we are aware that these timeworn words and concepts can gain new contemporary meaning, in the light of our own time and of the questions our children ask us and their schools. If we are able to have a meaningful, thoughtful dialogue about these concepts, we will be able to understand each other better, and create a shared language. Not only will we be able to have a conversation about good education, but also can we have a good conversation about education.

Just as humans are much more than rechargeable batteries, our schools are much more than talent factories.

What we mean by a new grammar then, consists of the underlying current to with this shared vocabulary refers. Just as humans are much more than rechargeable batteries, our schools are much more than talent factories. The common economic vernacular in schools – however inadvertently it is being used by many of us – yields a certain underlying worldview. By consciously adapting different new words – or rather: old concepts in a new field of meaning – we may strive to modify, revise and even change the grammar of educational thinking.

Of course, we are very well-aware, that these central concepts may have many different interpretations, depending on our local context, our personal background and experience, even our mother tongue. Therefore, what we also need to discuss is which words we use, when we are talking about these central concepts, and what these words mean to us. In short: the vocabulary of our common language. Only when we learn to understand each other while using these words, and appreciate what different kinds of meaning exist in our different contexts, will we be able to let new shared meanings and values emerge.

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Starting point: examples of educational practice Chapter 1 Wittering.nl (Rosmalen, Netherlands) Wittering.nl in Rosmalen, is a school for children between the ages of 4 to 12, that for over a decade has developed, maintained and carried out a novel vision on learning. At our schooling the teaching and learning process is organised radically different; not only does the school offer many different sources and pathways for learning, it also encourages pupils and their parents to nourish an active attitude towards learning. Children often have a choice at our school to opt for their own learning routes in order to achieve their goals: they can choose how and with whom they want to learn, as well as plan how long it will take them. At Wittering.nl, children themselves search for answers to questions they regard important – along their own route, at their own pace. www.wittering.nl RVC De Hef (Rotterdam, Netherlands) Rotterdams Vakcollege de Hef is a safe and valued vocational school in Rotterdam, for children between the age of 12 to 16. The classes are alternating and mainly focused on the professional skills that the child wants to learn and become good at. RVC de Hef treasures a set of core values: connectedness, attention, quality and safety. The school aims to cross the bridge to society: its pupils are the professionals of the future; they are aware of their citizenship and able to provide a meaningful contribution to society. www.rvcdehef.nl Escola Marina (Montgat, Barcelona, Spain) Marina school is a newly established center (opened in 2005), at which an innovative practice flourishes, and which is in constant growth. We want to achieve the whole development of our students, working for the expansion of their individual abilities in a welcoming and respectful environment. For this reason, we promote participation, transparency, integration, cooperation, dialogue, creativity, solidarity and responsibility. At Marina school - located in Montgat, Barcelona - approximately 500 students (between the age of 4-12 years) get daily classes. agora.xtec.cat/ceipescolamarina Unfolding human potential

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Chapter 2 HAN (Arnhem/Nijmegen, Netherlands) At Han PABO, a school for educating teachers for primary schools, in Arnhem/Nijmegen, The Netherlands we feel the importance to teach what we preach. In order to adapt to our students (almost 1600) our education is characterized by nearness, cooperation, ownership, dialogue and reflection. Together with students we search for ways so they can fully use their potential. www.han.nl/opleidingen

Initiatives Thieu Besselink Dr. Thieu Besselink is founder of The Learning Lab, developer of De Nederlandse School, Laureate of the European Leonardo Award. The story I choose to be a part of is one in which teachers, students, and school communites are a force for human growth and social change. What does this mean for educators? As an educator myself I take it as my art and craft to see the invisible, and to create the conditions for its unfolding. www.denederlandseschool.nl; www.thelearninglab.nl

Chapter 3 Laterna Magica (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Laterna Magica is a school where 'Natural Learning' (social-constructivism) take place for children of 0-12 years to 0-18 years developing, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We are in the process of expanding to children between 0-18. The movie clip gives you an example of how we provide purpose, space and guidance/scaffolding for our pupils, parents and staff members in our community. To help them develop a moral compass; to strengthen their confidence, self-efficacy and autonomy; to take responsibility for themselves, for people, for the world around them; to support them in creating narratives, tell stories. We start from curiosity, and aim not only to let curiosity lead the way, but also to hold on it, as a source that helps us to keep learning, and to create the future. Annette van Valkengoed is the principal. www.obslaternamagica.nl

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Ecole Singelijn (Brussels, Belgium) Dominique Paquot is the Director of Singelijn, an "active agency and integration" school for children between 4-12 years, in Brussels, Belgium. The school places the child at the centre of its own cognitive and social development. Children with (learning) disabilities are welcome and an equal part of school life in Singelijn. www.ecolesingelijn.be Titus Brandsmalyceum (Oss) The Titus Brandsmalyceum in Oss, The Netherlands, was named and co-founded by Professor Dr. Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) O.Carm. He is often characterised as a sincere and determined man. He stood firmly for his social and educational views, even though they differed from the common perspective and the status quo of his time. We still cherish Brandsma’s willfulness as a character trade of our school. At the Titus Brandsmalyceum, at which we educate children between the age of 12 to 18, tradition is important, with a direction towards the future. We strive to raise our children to become critical, self-aware young people who are open towards their world, but who also stand for their convictions: passion instead of indifference; exploration instead of waiting, nurturing a deep interest instead of superficiality, and connecting instead of remaining alone. Tom Brocks is rector of the Titus Brandsmalyceum. www.hethooghuis.nl

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Video’s, interviews and questions During the symposium, we will interview representatives of each of the filmed examples. From each context a video is shown.

General questions for interviews with examples of education practices: 1. Which values lead you in your work?

2. What are your most important sources of inspiration? Your references?

3. Where – in your opinion – in your acting/practice/school can we best recognize the reflection of those values?

4. How do you know your students relate to/recognise those reflections of your values?

5. What do you really need to pursue your values?

The examples from practice in the movie clips offer key moments: short ‘vignettes’, that relate tot key concepts, like trust, connection, or responsibility.

These broad key concepts could together provide a new structure, that constitues a new grammar, from which the ‘new rules’ are constructed that guide the development of processes of good education. This also encompasses the image we hold of what education is for, what we are aspiring to achieve with it.

And each of these broad concepts can have different meanings for different people, according to time, role and context. That means that we all use different language (sometimes literally) to give meaning to these key concepts.

The new vocabulary we seek to explore, can be found in these languages, in the words we use.

Again…

Again, we are not looking for a blueprint. There is no decisive answer to what the definitive set of key concepts (as a new grammar) should be, or to which language (as a new vocabulary) is ‘wrong’, or which language is ‘right’. What we aim to explore is how we can use these concepts and these languages to arrive at an alternative way of reflecting on good education, a way of reflection and deliberation that acknowledges the complexity and uniqueness of the ‘educational event.’

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Academic experts Ferre Laevers

University of Leuven, BE ferre.laevers@ kuleuven.be

Prof. dr. Ferre Laevers is professor of Experiental Education at University of Leuven, Belgium. He laid the foundations of ErvaringsGericht Onderwijs (i.e. ‘experimental education’), a comprehensive educational concept that gives centre stage to children’s well-being and engagement. The idea behind this concept is that, in order for children to learn and develop in an optimal way, they need to experience joy and well-being within the school environment, and to feel experientially engaged with the learning process. At the symposium, Ferre Laevers will be reflecting on theme 1, ‘interaction and learning in education.’

Michael Fielding

UCL Institute of Education at London, UK

Prof. dr. Michael Fielding is professor emeritus of the Institute of Education of University College London, UK. His research work concentrates on student voice and the development of democratic education. He is a leading authority on enhancing student engagement in school development through action research. Before becoming a lecturer and researcher at the Universities of Cambridge, London and Sussex, Fielding taught for 19 years in some of the UK’s pioneer radical secondary comprehensive schools. His perspective has been strongly influenced by democratic school traditions, with a special role for the personal dimension.

m.fielding@ ucl.ac.uk

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Colleen Mclaughlin

University, of Cambridge, UK cm10009@ cam.ac.uk

Professor Colleen McLaughlin is director of Educational Innovation at the University of Cambridge. She taught in secondary schools, worked as an advisor in a local education authority and worked at the University of Sussex, before coming to Cambridge in 1985. Her recent research has focused on wellbeing in schools; relationships in schools; sexuality and HIV-related education in Africa; bullying and pupils with special educational needs and disabilities; counselling in schools; and aspects of personal, social and emotional development in schools. Support for international educational reform is also now a major area of work.

She has been involved as an advisor to governments and NGOs on the personal and social dimensions of schooling.

Paulien Meijer

Radboud University, NL p.meijer@ docentenacade mie.ru.nl

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Paulien Meijer has been professor of Teacher learning and development at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen since 2013, as well as academic director of the Radboud Teachers Academy (ILS). Furthermore, Meijer works as the VELON-affiliate professor of teacher education at the Open University, Heerlen, and senior lecturer and research leader at the University of Utrecht. Her research interests include: (student) teacher learning, development of teachers’ professional identity, teacher education, workplace learning, teaching for creative learning.

Gert Biesta

Brunel University London, UK & University of Humanistic Studies , NL gertbiesta@ gmail.com

Gert Biesta is Professor of Education and Director of Research in the Department of Education of Brunel University London and, for one day a week, NIVOZ Professor for Education at the University of Humanistic Studies, the Netherlands. In addition he is Visiting Professor at NLA University College Bergen and a member of the Education Council of the Netherlands, the advisory body of the Dutch government and parliament. His work focuses on the theory and philosophy of education and the theory and philosophy of educational and social research. Recent books include: The Beautiful Risk of Education (Routledge, 2014) and Teacher Agency: An Ecological Approach (with Mark Priestley and Sarah Robinson; Bloomsbury 2015). In 2017 he will publish The Rediscovery of Teaching (Routledge) and Letting Art Teach (ArtEZ Press).

Tone Saevi

NLA University College Bergen, NO

Toni Saevi is Professor of Education at NLA (School of Religion, Education and Intercultural Studies) University College in Bergen, Norway. Hermeneutic phenomenology and education are Dr Saevi’s main research interests. Hermeneutic phenomenology or ‘phenomenology of practice’ (Max van Manen, 2014) is a methodic and methodological approach to education, mainly practiced by non-philosophers. She leans strongly towards a Continental approach of education and educational thinking – be it called “Pädagogik” in German or “pedagogikk” in Norwegian.

tone.saevi@ nla.no

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Linda O’Toole

Universal Education Foundation, USA

Linda O’Toole is a consultant to the Universal Education Foundation (UEF) which functions as a catalyst for the Learning for Well-being community (www.learningforwellbeing.org). She brings over 30 years of experience in the human development field to her role as a well-being and inner diversity specialist.

She began working with UEF in early 2006 and has participated in creating the Voice of Children surveys, various communication strategies and materials, and youth and adult workshops for cultivating capacities that contribute to physical, emotional, mental and spiritual development.

lotoole1@ earthlink.net

Edith Hooge

TIAS School for Business and Society, University of Tilburg, NL e.h.hooge@ tias.edu

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Prof. dr. Edith Hooge is vice dean and full professor at TIAS School for Business and Society. With her chair ‘Boards and Governance in Education’, she participates in the TIAS GovernanceLAB and in several educational programs. Edith has more than twenty years of experience with academic research and teaching. She is member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Education (EJE) and of the Dutch journal NTOR. During her career Edith always has connected science, policy and practice. Hooge is the chairperson of the NIVOZ Board of Governance, which she has called ‘an institute that emphatically champions the importance of pedagogical values in education, also in times with a rather one-sided result-driven view on education.’

GĂźnther Opp

Martin Luther University, Halle, DE

Dr. GĂźnther Opp is professor for the education of emotionally and behaviorally disordered children at the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg. His research interests are focused on practices of inclusive education and resilience. He also has a strong interest in the theoretical foundations and the practice of positive peer culture with children and youth. Before becoming a professor in Halle he was a special education teacher and worked in an assistant professor position at the University of Munich.

opp@paedagogik. uni-halle.de

Rob Martens

Open University, NL Rob.martens@ ou.nl

Professor dr. Rob Martens was educated as an education psychologist. Currently he holds a professorship at the Welten-Instituut of the Open University, and is the chairman of the department of Teaching and Teacher Professionalization. He specialises in educational reform, processes of motivation and teacher professionalization. Since 2015, he also is the academic director of the Centre of Expertise for vocational education (ecbo) of CINOP. Martens has held various academic positions and professorships at different universities and academic institutes across the Netherlands, and held the honorary Francqui Chair at the University of Leuven, Belgium, in 2012.

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Some participants Our questions, their answers..

The following participants shed a light on their own expectations for the symposium by answering a set of questions we sent in antipication. These four are but a sample of the many more who provided us with their answers. On the website you can meet all of them.

Wouter Pols Teacher educator, educational researcher, Hogeschool Rotterdam (Research Center Urban Talent) E-mail: w.pols@hr.nl What made you decide to accept the invitation to partake the symposium?

To share not only notions, ideas and theories, but also experiences on education, especially on education ‘between the lines’ of formal education.

What appeals to you in the symposium’s themes?

Within theme 1 I perceive a searching for a value-laden anthropological basis for educational theory and practice, a search for an educational anthropology. I am convinced that educational practice is in need for such an anthropology (instead of the current psychology). Within theme 2 I notice a search for an ethical way in which educators and teachers create relationships and communicate with children and young people. I am convinced that the ethos of the educator or teacher is the basis of his or her practice and not things such as abstract knowledge, tools, techniques and formats. The latter are important, but only if they rest upon the ethos of the educator or teacher. With regard to theme 4: I am interested in research that uncovers the ‘lived’ meaning of educators and teachers. By uncovering the ‘lived’ meaning we really enter the heart of the practice of education.

The principal questions and issues that guide me in my work are: uncovering the ‘lived’ meaning of educators and teachers within their everyday practice.

What is at stake for you personally?

To find a way out of the limited theoretical systems by which education is conceptualized nowadays. I am looking for a practice-theory which could have the function of a map that educators or teachers could help to orientate themselves in their practice (a map to uncover the meaning(s) of practice). I page 24

presume that teacher education would be fully changed if at the core of teacher education there would be creating, working and acting with maps!

Corina van Doodewaard PhD researcher. Institute: Calo- Hogeschool Windesheim.

Bachelor: Physical Education Teacher Education. Master: Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy. Function: Senior lecturer Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy E-mail: corina@vandoodewaard.com What made you decide to accept our invitation to partake in the symposium?

1.

2.

3.

The list of academic experts and the opportunity to participate in such an inspiring network. The language that was chosen in the invitation woke my curiosity.

I would like to deepen the curriculum of the Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) with inspiration for good education (I am highly involved on both bachelor as masters level) It could contribute to my PhD process which focusses on the links among physical educators’ constructions of the body, identity and inequality issues from a social justice perspective.

What in the symposium’s theme appeals to you, prior to the event?

The urgency of changing educational institutes into institutes for good education. That will include education in all areas of life – and will require a reflective and critical perspective of all (teacher) educators (and the teacher education institutes) What are the principle questions and issues that guide you in your everyday work, and why?

How can I work positively with difference, celebrate difference and promote good educational environments that enable all students and young people to learn, to develop skills and (be) move(d) together.

What is at stake for you personally?

A social justice agenda: every life matters.

What questions do you wish, hope or expect to be explored during the symposium?

What is our next step, when leaving this symposium?

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Hester IJsseling Teacher/philosopher/educational researcher.

Organisation: Primary School De Kleine Reus, Amsterdam.

E-mail: hester.ijsseling@dekleinereus.org The reason I happily accept your invitation to partake in the symposium?

I happily accepted your invitation, because I look forward to meet with an international group of colleagues who are concerned with the issues that are at the centre of my mind. I am glad to see that the pedagogical approach to educational issues is gaining ground, and I think it is good and important that we gather forces for the good cause of unfolding human potential for world citizenship.

What appeals to you in the symposium’s theme?

In the current discourse on education, too much emphasis is on the qualification aspects of education. Furthermore, the work on qualification as it is organized now, is a socialisation in disguise. A socialisation, moreover, that undermines the aspect that, in my opinion, is key to the unfolding of human potential for world citizenship: subjectivation. The symposium appears to be precisely about that issue.

The principle questions and issues that guide you in your everyday work?

The principle question that guides me in my teaching as well as in my research, is the question: how is the desire awakened in the child, to be in the world as a free, responsible, conscientious subject? How do we draw that spark? And how do we, as teachers, schoolleaders and researchers, talk about this? How do we find the words? How do we investigate this What is at stake?

What is at stake, ultimately, is a society built by people who are aware that a society can only come into being through a dialogical relation to the other. This relation requires subjects that chose to act freely, responsibly, conscientiously.

The desire to become a subject is – if at all – awakened very early on, in the relation between children and their parents and teachers.

To be able to work on this in our schools, we need to develop a language, a vocabulary of pedagogical interactions, to talk about the things that happen and the things we do in our classrooms – a language that is different from the current instrumentalist language of policymakers and empirical-analytical scientists. Therefore, we need a different kind of educational research than the page 26

empirical-analytical education research that is currently dominant, at least in the Netherlands. We need to engage with the humanities (Geisteswissenschaften) and particularly with phenomenological research, to reclaim ground in education research.

Questions you hope to explore with the other participants during the symposium?

What can we do in our classrooms to awaken the desire in our pupils, to be in the world as a free and responsible subject? Where do we witness the appearance of the subject, and what is the meaning of this phenomenon?

What is at stake here? What does it require from the teacher? What does it require from the organisation of education in our schools? What does it require from education research? How can we revive the Dutch tradition of phenomenology of practice and push back the predominance of empiricalanalytical education research? How can we gather forces? To what extent is there a difference between the current Dutch situation and other countries?

Michael Fielding Emeritus Professor of Education, UCL Institute of Education at London, England, UK. E-mail: m.fielding@ucl.ac.uk What made you decide to accept our invitation to partake in the symposium?

My respect and admiration for the work of NIVOZ, Luc Stevens and Nickel van der Vorm and the friendship that has developed between us in the last 5 years.

And the opportunity to learn with and from colleagues from Europe.

What in the symposium’s themes appeals to you, prior to the event?

The emphasis on the relational nature of human being and becoming in the first chapter. The emphasis on the necessity of vocation in chapter two. The need to understand the nature of community (and its organisational expression) in chapter three. Here it is particularly important to understand the interrelation between community and organisation and to understand that the latter must be an expression of the former. A key question here is how, in a practical, everyday sense, a school enables and encourages its teachers to retain and further develop their vocational integrity. It is also important to explore ways in which democratic values and practices can express and develop these aspirations on a day-to-day basis. In chapter four the need to Unfolding human potential

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confront reductionist forms of research and develop a reciprocity of endeavour that expresses and further develops the aspirations that underpin this symposium. Research, in its broad and more specific senses, must be at the heart of the work of the school and should include young people, staff and community taking the lead and sharing responsibility as time and circumstance allow.

What are the principle questions and issues that guide you in your everyday work, and why?

Bringing together and developing a synergy between philosophical and historical understandings of the world and applying them to the challenges that face education at a difficult time in our shared histories. How can schools retain and express their commitments to education in its fullest sense at a time when narrow forms of schooling are dominant? How might we take inspiration from our radical progressive traditions of education in and for democracy?

What is at stake for you personally?

I am not sure ‌ I shall just be pleased to be amongst people with a profoundly creative concern for education in its most profound and enduring senses at a time of national and international crises.

What questions do you wish, hope or expect to be explored during the symposium?

What does education in and for participatory democracy mean at a time when populism is on the rise? How might we best learn from the past to create a better future?

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Learning for Well-being Children experience their world holistically, in the flow of their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions.

Learning for Well-being (L4WB) is an initiative of the Universal Education Foundation (UEF), soon to be the Learning for Well-being Foundation. With operating offices in Brussels and Ramallah, UEF convenes the Learning for Well-being Community, mobilizing partner organizations across Europe, the Middle East and beyond. These partners share L4WB’s vision of positive transformation that will enable us to make vital decisions and to take actions that truly serve ourselves, our communities and our planet.

NIVOZ is a valued partner within the L4WB Community, and UEF is delighted to collaborate with NIVOZ in organizing the ‘Unfolding Human Potential’ symposium.

The symposium’s leading question is: How do children experience their world holistically, in the flow of their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions?

Recognizing and integrating all these four dimensions is central to the L4WB vision. Children’s engaged participation in their everyday worlds should draw on the unique potential and inner diversity within each child, and educational systems should nurture this potential and diversity rather than suppress them in the manner that conventional education often does when it focuses unduly on standardized assessment rather than on relationships and processes.

The four questions for each chapter of the symposium emphasize the pedagogical relationships and processes that lie at the heart of the educational systems which pupils and teachers experience on a daily basis – relationships that facilitate children’s well-being and development, teachers’ perceptions of their responsibility and how best to prepare for this, the role of educational leadership in the organization of a school and what research can offer teachers as professionals who strive to improve themselves. L4WB’s seven principles can be summarized as wholeness, purpose, diversity, relationships, participation, systems and feedback and these principles are well addressed by the symposium’s guiding questions.

Unfolding Human Potential: A dialogue on core qualities and practices needed in education as the symposium is titled, calls for an introduction of the nine core practices advocated within the L4WB approach. In order for mental, physical, emotional and spiritual capacities to unfold, the core practices of Unfolding human potential

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relaxing, enriching sensory awareness, noticing, subtle sensing, reflecting, listening, inquiring, empathizing and discerning patterns are exercised within L4WB’s wider integrative framework — and we anticipate that these practices will come into play during exchanges within the symposium.

Dialogue at the symposium about the involvement of pupils, teachers, school leaders and educational researchers in the everyday processes that go on within schools and impact them will contribute to L4WB’s guiding purpose – which is to create inclusive and supportive societies where we can all learn to realize our distinctive potential throughout our lives, and where well-being finds its rightful place at the centre of all our endeavours. We invite likeminded individuals and organizations to join us.

Learning for Well-being takes a ‘living systems’ approach that opens up questions about the purpose of education and who is responsible for it. The Unfolding symposium offers an exciting opportunity to pursue these key questions, in synergy with NIVOZ.

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NIVOZ Strengthening and encouraging teachers, school leaders and other professionals in realizing their pedagogical assignment NIVOZ (Netherlands Institute for Educational Matters) was established as a nonprofit organisation in 2003 by professor Luc Stevens after his retirement from the University of Utrecht. Stevens is a nationally renowned scholar, whose work places special emphasis on school reform. His pedagogical vision has been inspired and nurtured by his work with children with motivational problems and learning disabilities but is equally relevant for any other child.In the practice of education and child raising – beleaguered as it often is by political, social and economic claims – there is an increasing need for pedagogical thinking, pedagogical reflection and meaningful pedagogical theory. At present, the NIVOZ Institute is one of the pivotal places in the Netherlands to address and supply this need. The organisation of the Unfolding in partnership with Learning for Well Being is illustrative in this respect.

It is NIVOZ’s conviction that every human being is capable of taking part in his or her society and world, in a connected and responsible manner. As part of education’s societal task, schools make an essential contribution towards the realization of this pedagogical objective for every child.

NIVOZ strengthens and encourages teachers, school leaders and other educational professionals in realizing their pedagogical assignment.

NIVOZ is a place for thinking and educational design, for awareness, contemplation and dialogue, but also a place for critical corrective. We seek to inspire educational professionals, to connect them and their practices with others, to connect the oftentimes-diverging worlds of educational theory and practice, and offer scientific validation.

With a ‘good school practice’ we refer to a practice in which young people are encouraged to discover and develop their own individual character, talents and possibilities in order to become self-reliant adults, who envision their place in society in a responsive and responsible connection with themselves, others and the world. Thus, NIVOZ strives not only to foster good educational practices, but also to help nurture a society that remains and increases to be peaceful, sustainable and viable. Here NIVOZ strongly connects with the Learning for Well-being Network.

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Notes We encourage you to share your thoughts and reflections with us. Within a month we will issue a special Symposium-booklet with words, pictures and illustrations.

Please send your own article, reflections or review (max 750 words) to unfolding@nivoz.nl We will be in touch and hope for long-term affiliations with you. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

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Finally, we like to thank: De Baak / Landgoed de Horst for making available their hospitality in a welcoming and flexible way Video’s: Netherlands: Bazarmedia.nl, Arnan, Bas, Harm Brussels: Guadalupe Barcelona: lacreativa.com, Sara and Hug. The teachers, principals and students of the schools in The Netherlands, Spain, Belgium.

Illustrator Albert Hennipman of De Ruimte Ontwerpers.

Photographer Ted van Aanholt.

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Plan Estate ‘De Horst’

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We will be in touch www.unfoldinghumanpotential.org page 40