Speakers
Dr. Elke Van dermijnsbrugge
Dr. Elke Van dermijnsbrugge is a researcher at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.We are confronted with global crises: political instability and conflict, environmental destruction, and increasing global inequalities. The dominant, evidence-based discourses in education do not seem to be offering adequate responses to these crises.
I consider crisis to be an opportunity to interrupt the normal order. Crisis can be an invitation to consider the conditions that have given rise to it; what it says about who we are as humans and how we might be able to imagine and do things differently to work towards peaceful, participatory, plural, just and imaginative futures.
In this keynote, we will tackle the questions How can educators respond to a world in crisis and create alternative futures in the present? and How can the imagination be put to work in educational spaces as a catalyst for peace and social justice?
The keynote will shift the focus from problem-solving and crisis responses to possibility and mutual aid, and explore educational practices that involve imaginative, utopian and speculative thinking and acting. Education and schools in particular will be repositioned and reimagined as spaces where alternative futures emerge, starting here and now.
Biography
Dr. Elke Van dermijnsbrugge is a researcher at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. She has worked in international schools in Asia and Africa, and has developed and taught in various international teacher training programmes for pre-service and in-service teachers. Her research is interdisciplinary, encompassing the educational field but spreading far beyond through links with philosophy, sociology and political theory. She focuses on the application of utopian and speculative thinking, the punk ethos and principles of self-organisation, mutual aid and solidarity to reimagine (educational) policy, research and practices to support collaborative, participatory, plural, just and imaginative futures.
Sjoerd Karsten
Sjoerd Karsten is Professor Emeritus on Educational Policy and Administration of Vocational and Adult Education at the University of Amsterdam.In our neoliberal society, we hardly come into contact with people from different social backgrounds and with different beliefs than our own. That is why our own interests often dominate in our dealings with others and we show little compassion for others with their problems. Although many of our important social and public institutions are based on cooperation and solidarity, we increasingly think in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’. We should certainly not accept this situation in education. It is high time to teach our children and pupils again what cooperation and solidarity mean.
Biography
Prof. Karsten's research centres on vocational education, students at risk, ethnic segregation and parental choice. He received grants from several national and international agencies (e.g. European Union and OECD). He has published in journals such as Comparative Education Review, Comparative Education, Compare, Education and Urban Society, and Educational Policy, on school-based management, choice and ethnic segregation, and comparative educational policy. He co-edited the volumes Education in East Central Europe: educational changes after the fall of communism and From Intensified Work to Professional Development.
Most recent publications
- Karsten, S., Felix, C., Ledoux, G., Meijnen, G. W., Roeleveld, J., & Van Schooten, E. (2005) Choosing segregation or integration? The extent and effects of ethnic segregation in Dutch cities. Education and Urban Society, 36,228-247.
- Karsten, S. (2006) Policy for disadvantaged children under scrutiny: the Dutch policy compared with policies in England, France and the USA. Comparative Education, 42(2), 261-282.
- Karsten, S., Ledoux, G, Roeleveld, J., Felix, & Elshof, D. (2003) School choice and ethnic segregation. Educational Policy, 17 (4), 452-477.
- Karsten, S. (2003) Dutch Social Democrats and the struggle for parental choice in education (1890-1940). History of Education, 32(4), 417-431.
- Karsten, S., Cogan, J. J., Grossman, D. L., Liu, M.-h., & Pitiyanuwat, S. (2002) Citizenship education and the preparation of future teachers. Asia Pacific Education Review, 3(2), 168-183.
- Karsten, S., Peetsma, T., Roeleveld, J., & Vergeer, M. (2001) The Dutch policy of integration put to the test: differences in academic and psychosocial development of pupils in special and mainstream education. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 16, 193-205.