In the light of pressing issues like climate change, existing educational repertoires are increasingly seen as not fit for purpose. The ‘knowledge-deficit model’ implied in most forms of education places strict limitations on the social engagement that may be fostered. Therefore, in this workshop, we will together map alternative, hope-oriented educational repertoires, and explore their strengths and weaknesses in fostering social engagement.
Awareness is growing that educational institutes not just play a role in studying problems and worldly processes; they can also activate engagement with real-world contexts and help envision and build new pathways for sustainable futures. But, what precisely such a future- and society-oriented educational system can look like, is still unclear. Therefore, in this workshop we will explore what an academy of hope might look like.
This workshop is organized by researchers from the action-research project called The Academy of Hope. From this project we take two insights into the design of the workshop. The first is that by experimenting and redesigning education, teachers play an important role in inspiring students to perceive change as possible and within reach, and to become more proactive and reflective in their orientation to change. Secondly, our findings suggest that ‘hope’ is best conceived as an active practice, and a movement between something that is aspired and longed for, and something that is critiqued and to-be-changed.
The starting point for the workshop is the recognition that there is not one silver bullet: an Academy of Hope will have to consist of a plethora of activities that in different ways connect real-world contexts, expertise, imagination, and diverse participants (from students in initial education, practitioners, researchers to communities). Looking beyond the level of a course, an Academy of Hope will also have to reconsider the broader educational ecologies in which learning takes place, and consider the long-term learning lines through which learners can start to see themselves as active participants in processes of change. Across educational institutions, educators already experiment with novel forms of education that can contribute to such aims. From introducing creative methods like theater to allowing students to engage with real-world settings by bringing societal practitioners into the classroom. Getting a feel for the diversity and the contours of academies of hope, can empower our inspiration and ability to create such alternative educational repertoires.
Therefore, as a modest first step, the purpose of this workshop is to stage an interactive exploration of how an Academy of Hope may look like. To do so, we will collaborate with the participants in this session to first i) explore what we critique and see as important flaws in present educational repertoires, as well as the kind of educational elements we imagine to be most valuable. Drawing on our undertsanding of hope, we believe that it is in moving back and forth between these critiqued- and longed-for forms education where change becomes conceivable and hope possible. To do so, we will ii) ‘map’ a landscape of educational initiatives of change, thereby co-creating an impromptu exhibition space. To inspire this part of the workshops, the hosts will share a few initiatives of change that inspire them. After having mapped innovative practices, we will iii) use techniques from ‘system constellations’ to interactively explore the relationships between them and identify the contours of diverse Academy of Hopes.
Draft setting of the workshop:
In the room for this workshop, we will co-create a landscape of educational initiatives change, to discuss the contours of academies of hope. To do so, the room is divided into various spaces. On the top/North wall, we collect the educational repertoires participants are most critical about, into a collage of the ‘absurdities of the present’. At the opposing wall, we collect educational repertoires that participants imagine to be valuable for societal engagement and change-making. The middle is where educational change takes place in practice. Here we co-create ‘exhibits’ of initiatives of change, drawing on pillars, posterboards, or high tables. On a third wall in the room, we create a pre-made exhibit, displaying quotes, diagrams, and photo’s of how we understand the practice of hope might work for teachers and students.
Draft workshop outline:
0. Walking in
As participants are walking in, we imagine they can already take a look around, and read some pre-made quotes and ideas that the hosts have added to the ‘empty’ exhibition spaces.
1. Opening: setting up the ‘edges’ of the room
After welcoming the participants to this co-creative space with a brief introduction, we invite participants to move to one side of the room. We ask participants to consider the thing they’re most critical of in their educational practices and environments. What do you want to see change? Why is that? In pairs, participants get a black sheet of paper and white pencil/pen, and listen carefully to one another as they shares their critique, and write it down. Thereby, we create a wall of critique, exhibiting the absurdities of the present.
On the other side of the room, we ask participants to imagine a direction of education that truly inspires them, that feel meaningful. On colourful sheets of paper, we collect these ideas, exhibiting our space of longing.
Then, we sit down in the middle of the room. Here, at this discontinuity between what we critique and what we long for, is where we image an academy of hope to thrive. It is an uncertain space to be in, but a space full of potential. By building an exhibit of our actions and doubts within this space, we collect a reflective and vulnerable exhibit of the initiatives of educational changes we’re (aiming to) work on.
2. Tour of 2-3 ‘initiatives of change’: We then offer a brief ‘tour’ across a few initiatives of change, that the hosts wish to share with the participants. These examples might spark inspiration for participants to see what they wish to contribute to the exhibits.
3. Co-creating initiatives of change: Then, we break up into small groups, and invite participants to discuss and add initiatives of change- or ideas of change, to the space.
4. Freely moving time to ‘visit’ other groups and their exhibited initiatives of change. Participants can, with paper and pen, keep adding thoughts throughout the exhibition space, and reflect with other participants.
4 Plenary ‘system constellation’: Plenary, we ask one person of each group to share an initiative of change they discussed. We then invite them to position themselves within the room at a spot they think fits best, in relation to the walls of critique and imagination, and in relation to the other initiatives of change that are shared. Thereby, they’re forming a ‘system constellation’, through which we explore the contours of what might characterize academies of hope.
5 Plenary closing – collective insights. In a final reflective moment, we collectively make sense of the session and the exhibition, and harvest short words of insights from the participants.
