Colloquium: Understanding civic learning: contributions from research
day 1 – June 7th
10.00-10.30 Welcome and introductions
Prof. Dr. Maria de Bie/Prof.Dr. Danny Wildemeersch
10.30-11.00 Learning in public places: What have we learned?
Prof. Dr. Gert Biesta
11.00-11.30 coffee break
11.30-12.15 ”What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?”
Prof. Dr. Carl Anders Säfström
School of Education, Culture and Communication, Mälardalen University, Sweden
In this presentation I will ask if the responsibility of education only is to teach the young how to live in society, regardless of the nature of society? Or does education and democracy for that matter, bring with it a demand that makes education within the limits of a particular society problematic? I will argue that not only education but also democratic action is only possible in the cracks of the institution. The presentation will draw on empirical work from the project “Learning Democracy” and the reading of the work of Jacques Rancière. Particularly the paper centres on the question of bullying as a problem for education and democratic action.
12.15-13.30 lunch
Prof. Dr. Walter Lorenz
Freie Universität Bozen, Italy
The contribution will explore how the civil and public formation of integrated industrial societies in Europe took different routes depending on social policy positions that frame and interact with educational processes in different countries. The constitution of persons as citizens on the margins of society is a particular task of social services whereby the types of intervention practised can broadly be characterised as aiming either at the assimilation of the behaviour of marginal people into the mainstream or at the emancipation of persons capable of participating in a collective process of civic identity formation.
14.15-14.45 coffee break
14.45-16.15 Group meetings speakers (rapporteurs: Dr. Lieve Bradt & Dr. Griet Roets)
We will split the audience in half. Each group will meet with each speaker for 45 minutes. The aim is to discuss the presentations in relation to, on the one hand, the themes and issues of the Francqui chair and, on the other hand, the relevance of these themes and issues for educational and social work settings. Participants are asked to formulate perspectives and suggestions on how to support educational processes and practices that contribute to democratisation, and to make a personal contribution to understanding civic learning. The rapporteurs will summarise main insights, observations and questions.
16.15-17.00 Writing wall
Outcomes of the group discussions are displayed on a writing wall and participants are invited to add comments.
day 2 - June 8th
10.00-10.30 Welcome and introduction
Prof. Dr. Gert Biesta
Prof. Dr. Daniel Schugurensky
School of Public Affairs and School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University, USA
In this presentation I will engage with three related points made by Gert Biesta in the insightful inaugural lecture of this Francqui seminar series. I will discuss these three arguments by exploring the educational dimension of two experiments of participatory democracy: the Citizens Assembly for Electoral Reform, and Participatory Budgeting. The Citizens Assembly for Electoral Reform, implemented twice in Canada (2004 and 2007), constitutes an unusual case of a randomly-chosen citizens’ forum that was given significant political power in the decision-making process: the framing of a province–wide referendum with long-term implications. Participatory Budgeting is an innovative public space of deliberation and decision-making that started in Porto Alegre (Brazil) in 1989, and it is currently implemented in over 1,200 cities around the world. Porto Alegre participants call it their ‘school of citizenship’. Drawing on the debates between Freirean and Rogerians on directiveness and non-directiveness, and on the enlightenment-engagement dilemma in citizenship education, and on the so-called 'tango' of citizenship learning and participatory democracy, I will address the possibilities and challenges of turning citizenship education on its head. I will also raise questions about the present and potential role of educators in these experiments on participatory democracy, and suggest some pedagogical possibilities and limitations of ‘informal education’ (which I differentiate conceptually and practically from 'informal learning').
11.15-11.45 coffee break
11.45-12.30 Civic learning in a ‘pedagogical civil society’: How Gert Biesta’s dream can become reality
Prof. Dr. Micha De Winter
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
In his inaugural lecture for the international Francqui chair, Gert Biesta makes an enlightening distinction between socialisation and subjectification as genres of civic learning. While socialisation is about telling (young) people what they need to learn in order to become a ‘real democratic citizen’ (whatever this maybe), subjectification is about active engagement with and participation in the permanent experiment that democracy is all about. Biesta argues for subjectification, but seems to ignore the question how engagement of children and young people with this democratic experiment can be fuelled. In my contribution I will try to show that civic learning requires a combination of both genres. The ‘peaceful community project’ developed in Utrecht is a true experiment in democracy, not only because of its deliberative content, but also because of its apparent capacity to strengthen a ‘pedagogical civil society’ in a socially fragmented and individualized neighbourhood. Its succes however is clearly rooted in the engaging practice of democratic socialisation that for many years has been established in almost all neighbourhood-schools.
12.30-13.45 lunch
13.45-15.15 Group meetings with speakers (rapporteurs: Prof. Dr. Michel Vandenbroeck &
Dr. Rudi Roose)
We will split the audience in half. Each group will meet with each speaker for 45 minutes. The aim is to discuss the presentations in relation to, on the one hand, the themes and issues of the Francqui chair and, on the other hand, the relevance of these themes and issues for educational and social work settings. Participants are asked to formulate perspectives and suggestions on how to support educational processes and practices that contribute to democratisation, and to make a personal contribution to understanding civic learning. The rapporteurs will summarise main insights, observations and questions.
15.15-16.45 Imagining democracy
What does democracy look like? What are images of democracy and how can we imagine democratisation? We ask invited speakers and rapporteurs to provide brief responses to a number of video clips.
16.45-17.00 Concluding remarks
Prof. Dr. Gert Biesta
