Migration, Social Transformation, and Education for Democratic Citizenship - INZENTIM & EARLI-SIG 13 CONFERENCE 2018

Keynote Addresses

By clicking on the respective keynote address, you can find a short biographical introduction about the lecturer, an abstract of the keynote address and a link to watch the video recording of every lecture. Please note that it can take a few minutes to open the video file.

James A. Banks holds the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is a past president of the American Educational Research Association and of the National Council for the Social Studies. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. Professor Banks is a specialist in social studies education and multicultural education and has written widely in these fields. His books include Cultural Diversity and Education: Foundations, Curriculum, and Teaching; and Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society. His edited books include The Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education and Citizenship Education and Global Migration: Implications for Theory, Research, and Practice. Books by Professor Banks have been translated into Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Turkish. A video archive and interview of Professor Banks appears on “Inside the Academy” at http://insidetheacademy.asu.edu/james-banks.

A video recording of James A. Banks´ keynote lecture is available here.

Abstract: Failed Citizenship and Transformative Civic Education in Immigration Societies

Global migration, the quest by diverse groups for equality, and the rise of populist nationalism have complicated the development of citizenship and citizenship education in nations around the world. Many racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious groups are denied structural inclusion into their nation-state. Consequently, they do not fully internalize the values and symbols of the nation-state, develop a strong identity with it, or acquire political efficacy. They focus primarily on particularistic group needs and goals rather than the overarching goals of the nation-state. I conceptualize this process as failed citizenship and present a typology that details failed, recognized, participatory, and transformative citizenship. I will describe the role of the schools, colleges, and universities in reducing failed citizenship and in helping marginalized groups become efficacious and participatory citizens in multicultural nation-states.

Dr. Dorit Alt is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Education and Community Department at the Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee. Dr. Alt is specialized in the field of constructivist learning environments in the era of information. Her work includes research on digital and media literacy skills, the construction and validation of several innovative scales, to map and assess different aspects of constructivist learning environments, and the measurement of the connection between these environments and psychological, behavioral, multicultural, social, ethical, and democratic aspects. Her research papers have been published in leading scientific journals such as International Journal of Educational Research, and Computers in Human Behavior. She is also a reviewer for various scientific leading journals in the field of teaching and learning. Dr. Alt is highly active in the scientific international arena aimed at promoting the application and research on new learning environments. She is actively engaged since 2007 in the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), and coordinated one of its special interest groups (SIG 13: Moral and democratic education). She has presented her scientific work at international conferences and organized several international scientific symposia and conferences. She was leading the Kinneret Academic College group of Lifelong Learning in Applied Fields (LLAF) Tempus funded joint project that developed new environments for lifelong learning (2013 - 2016) and currently leads an Erasmus+ joint project on assessment tools for higher education learning environment (ASSET).

A video recording of Dorit Alt´s keynote lecture is available here.

Abstract: Lifelong Learning as a Lever for Moral and Democratic Values

Democracies in the Western world are changing. The growing phenomenon of migration, particularly from non-traditional sources, poses new challenges to the nature of identity, introducing a dimension of ethnic and racial diversity heretofore unknown in many European countries. This worldwide phenomenon raises complex and difficult questions about citizenship, human rights, democracy, and education, as well as new possibilities about educating students for effective citizenship. Because of global migration, nations must rethink and reconceptualize citizenship education. For migrants, education and training are of importance for their integration in society and for their active participation in promoting democratic citizenship. A successful integration requires education and training also for the host society. In view of these trends, education systems are gradually required to equip the young generation with new skills and competencies that will allow them to actively contribute to preserving the democracy and society in which the main asset is knowledge. The 21st century skills and competencies must be more relevant to the social development of the present century. Lifelong learning and citizenship skills, encapsulated in one concept that expresses the link between them: ‘lifelong citizenship’, are suggested to cope with the need to adjust to the changing era– an era with a new human agenda, whose key features of human, individual and social existence are characterized by instability and the creation of new social phenomena and frameworks. This denotes the up-to-date skills required from a citizen in modern-day democracies, that may be grouped around four key dimensions of lifelong citizenship: (1) personal wellbeing, (2) digital literacy, (3) learning to learn by experience and practice, and (4) social cohesion and justice.

Joel Westheimer is University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa and education columnist for CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning and Ontario Today shows. He began his education career as a summer camp director and then middle school teacher in the New York City Public School system before obtaining a Ph.D. from Stanford University. His newest critically acclaimed book is What Kind of Citizen: Educating Our Children for the Common Good (Teachers College Press, 2015). Other multiple award-winning books include Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America's Schools (foreword by Howard Zinn) and Among Schoolteachers: Community, Autonomy and Ideology in Teachers’ Work. Westheimer lectures widely and has delivered more than 200 keynote speeches. He is the author of more than 75 academic and professional journal articles, book chapters, and books. He addresses radio and television audiences nationally and internationally. He is currently directing (with John Rogers, UCLA) The Inequality Project, investigating what schools in North America are teaching about economic inequality. You can follow him on Twitter @joelwestheimer.

A video recording of Joel Westheimer´s keynote lecture is available here.

Abstract: Educating the Good Citizen: Democratic Approaches for Multicultural Societies

Belief in the fundamental importance of civic education for democracy has been long-standing. But if educators can agree that schools have an essential role to play in preparing students for informed engagement in civic and political life, they can’t seem to agree on what that means. The very same efforts that are applauded by some are viewed as misguided by others. The result for school children has been a mostly watered-down notion of civic education that emphasizes good “character" over critical thinking and engaging with multiple perspectives. At the same time, we are experiencing rising populist support for anti-democratic forms of governance. What does it mean to educate the “good citizen” in multicultural societies today?

Farhad Khosrokhavar is professor at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France and the director of the “Observatoire de la radicalisation” at the “Maison des Sciences de l’Homme” in Paris. His main fields of study are:

• the social movements in Iran, mainly after the Islamic Revolution;
• Arab societies, in particular radical Islamist movements in them;
• the Arab revolutions;
• Jihadism in Europe with a particular focus on France.

He has published some 20 books, six of which either translated or directly written in English, some translated in different languages and more than 70 articles, in French, English, and occasionally, Persian.

He has been a Rockefeller fellow (1990), a Yale Visiting Scholar in 2008, and a Harvard Visiting Scholar in 2009.

A video recording of Farhad Khosrokhavar´s keynote lecture is available here.

His latest books

• The Trilogy L’Utopie sacrifiée, sociologie de la révolution iranienne, Presses de Sciences Po., Paris, 1991;L’islamisme et la mort, le martyre révolutionnaire en Iran, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1995; L’anthropologie de la révolution iranienne, L’Harmattan, 1998.
• Muslims in Prison : a comparative perspective between Great Britain and France (avec James Beckford et Danièle Joly), Palgrave, London, 2005
• Suicide Bombers, The New Martyrs of Allah (translation from French), Pluto Press, Michigan University Press, 2005.
• Quand Al Qaeda Parle: témoignages derrière les barreaux, Grasset, Paris, 2006.
• Inside Jihadism: Understanding Jihadi Movements Worldwide (Yale Cultural Sociology Series), Paradigm Publishers, 2009.
• Etre jeune dans le pays des ayatollahs (in cooperation with Amir Nikpey), Robert Laffont Publishers, Paris, 2009.
• Jihadist Ideology, The Anthropological Perspective, CIR, Aarhus University, Danemark, 2011.
• The New Arab Revolutions that Shook the World, 2012, Paradigm Publishers.
• Radicalisation, Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2014, English translation : Radicalization, Why Some People Choose the Path of Violence, The New Press, December 2016; German translation, Radikalisierung, Taschenbuch, 2016.
• Le jihadisme, (with David Bénichou & Philippe Migaux), Plon, 2015.
• Prisons de France, Robert Laffont, 2016.
• Le Jihadisme des femmes (with Fethi Benslama), Seuil, september 2017 (forthcoming Arab translation).
• Le nouveau jihad en Occident, Robert Laffont, 2018.

Abstract: The "Neglected" Analysis: The Urban, National and Anthropological Dimensions of Jihadism

The study of jihadism has been characterized by a massive focus on networks and individuals. What has been neglected is:

• the urban settings (how can one draw a typology of the urban settings that contribute to jihadism, in what cases the urban side is not significant...)
• the national particularism (the major characteristics of German, French, English, Danish... Jihadists and what distinguishes them from each other)
• the anthropological features of jihadism, namely the family dimension
• the ethnic problems (migrants' origins and their peculiarities: Moroccans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis...).
• the analysis of the class characteristics (lower classes versus middle classes) has usually not been articulated to the anthropological dimensions (what are the motivations of middle class jihadists in comparison to the lower class ones?)
• the gender issue and the typology of women versus adolescents in relation to their subjectivity and social conditions

I'll try to present an analysis of these aspects of jihadism, summarizing my latest book "Le nouveau jihad en Occident" (Robert Laffont Publishers, March 2018).

Prof. Dr. Ruud Koopmans is director of the research department “Migration, Integration, Transnationalization” at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and Professor of Sociology and Migration Research at Humboldt University Berlin. He is also a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Nuremberg and of the Board of Trustees of the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM). His current research focuses are migration and integration, religious fundamentalism and extremism, and majority and minority rights.

A video recording of Ruud Koopman´s keynote lecture is available here.

Abstract: Religious Fundamentalism as a Challenge to Democratic Citizenship

In the context of immigration, democratic political cultures are threatened not only by populist opposition to immigration and diversity, but also by anti-democratic and extremist tendencies among immigrant minorities. Among the latter, religious fundamentalism and extremism of Islamic provenance has been especially salient in recent years. This lecture provides an overview of the evidence on religious fundamentalism among Muslim immigrant communities as well as in countries of origin. Causes of religious fundamentalism as well as its relations between religious fundamentalism to outgroup hostility and support for religious violence are discussed.

Cooperation:

European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI)

World Education Research Association (WERA)

Deutsches Jugendinstitut (DJI)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft (DGfE)

Cofunded by:

Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ)