prof. Hanan Alexanderprofesor filosofie vzdělávání, děkan Pedagogické fakulty Univerzity v Haife, Izrael
Education
for Peaceful
Coexistence:
Project DARE
and the Pedagogy
of Difference
Přednáška se uskuteční v úterý 9. 10. 2018
od 14:30 do 15:45 v konferenční místnosti RUV,
PdF MU, Poříčí 9 – suterén
One of the biggest challenges facing education today concerns the preparation
of students to live together with others whose worldviews and ways
of life may be different than their own. These differences may be based on
culture, language, nationality, religion, race, class, gender, sexual orientation,
physical or developmental disability, and more, and they are sources
of conflict within societies around the globe. Broadly speaking, two approaches
have attempted to address this challenge. One is grounded in
American individualism, with roots in classical political liberalism. The
other is tied to European cosmopolitanism, drawing on multiculturalism,
postmodernism, and postcolonialism. Both approaches presuppose that
excellence in education requires initiation into what each calls a critical
perspective, although they disagree as to what it means think or behave
according to such a perspective. But according to each approach, to be
meritorious colleges and universities must accept and excel at teaching
and researching its particular concept of criticism. This often excludes
the possibility that students can be successful who do not accept or excel
at such a conception, for reasons relating to the sorts of differences
mentioned previously. This has a  tendency to exacerbate rather than
diminish social conflict, the consequences of which abound, from the
marginalization of migrants, minorities or people with disabilities to the
rise of populism. Project DARE, an Erasmus Key Action II funded consortium
of 13 European, Israeli, and Georgian institutions that is celebrating
its final meeting at the University of Masaryk this week, has tested a third
approach known as ‘Pedagogy of Difference.’ It is based on the simple idea
that to be educated entails coming to understand and appreciate oneself,
in terms of the cultural, language, nationality, religion, race, gender, sexual
orientation, or physical or developmental disability one has inherited
or with which one chooses to affiliate. But to understand and appreciate
oneself, one must learn to understand and appreciate others whose worldviews
or ways of life may be different than one’s own. Such an education
offers the possibility of hope for peaceful coexistence across the many
differences that divide societies today. After considering some of the problems
with the two prevailing approaches, this talk will discuss some of the
basic principles of this third orientation and how they have been tried out
in Project DARE.
ped.muni.cz