Conference

Over the last decades, the notion of the commons has been arallying cry for social movements and intellectuals against processes of privatization and fragmentation in neoliberalism. In education, the idea of the commons has been an important starting point for imagining new forms of solidarity and collaboration. Recently, however, decolonial scholars have interrogated evocations of collectivity in political and educational projects oriented toward the commons, pointing out that colonial appropriations of space and discourse are often repeated in these projects. At the same time, the Left has shifted away from open and assembly-based movements toward more structured forms, implicitly questioning the relevance of the commons as a figure for radical organization. Nevertheless, I argue that we should not abandon the idea of the commons but rather rearticulate it. Thus, projects based on the notion of a decolonial commons can propose forms of solidarity that work through rather than transcending difference, while offering a stronger basis for collective struggle. Likewise, autonomous experiments associated with projects of commoning in education and social movements might be rethought as asource for broad-basedradical-democratic initiatives. On this basis, teaching oriented toward the commons might make unprecedented links between school and non-school spaces, challengeconstitutive processes of epistemological exclusionin curriculum, and innovate more complexsenses of democratic identity with students.

Sevasti-Melissa Nolas

Goldsmiths, University of London

What sort of audience members and interlocutors might we need to become to achieve

‘equality, sharing, participation, togetherness, caring and freedom’ in educational commons, and other intergenerational collectivities? In this keynote, I focus on childhood publics and sketch out my response to this question, starting with children’s private lives. “Private life is doing nothing, lying down in the sun and feeling the sun on my face and having time to myself,” my young (age 7) London interlocutor reflected. “Doing homework, a way to secure your own space and time,” and “Private life is being ‘free from others’ interference”, our young interlocutors in Athens and Hyderabad added. A private life is a prerequisite for a childhood publics. These children, together with 42 others, took part in an international study on the relationship between childhood and public life between 2014-2019. Over a three-year period, we (researchers) worked together with the children and their parents, drawing and mapping, taking photographs, exchanging stories, writing newsletters and blogposts, writing emails and sending post cards, coming together in workshops, making photo-stories, and co-curating and mounting exhibitions, to create and make visible a childhood publics. Publics emerge at the margins of institutional life, in the cracks of the everyday, they rely on their members having a private life, a freedom to dream, to reflect, and to associate. As such, we spent many hours dwelling in children’s private lives, entering their imaginations and private thoughts with them. We focused on the peripheries of schooling and of family life, on the settings and times of leisure and play both in person and online, and/or in the in-between-institutional times and spaces, such as bedrooms, playgrounds, walking to and from school or a friends’ place, when children themselves may be left largely to their own devices, with little to no adult supervision and input; those increasingly squeezed and vanishing private moments of the day when a child might catch the sun on their face, have their head in a book of school work, or in a game on a device, with the bedroom door shut ‘free from others’ interference. Childhood publics are the, often invisible, ways in which children are connected through issues of common care and concern, and our project was an experiment in making these connections visible and documenting them in multimodal ways. In so doing, it required of us to become something other than the highly skilled adult researchers that we were, to develop a different sort of acoustics and haptics than the one we had been trained in. Drawing on a rich multimodal ethnographic record that inscribed children’s speech acts, gazes and gestures, and their multifarious ways of garnering our attention, the keynote shares examples of children’s cares and concerns, in children’s own idiom. My aim is to think through the devices we, as audience members and interlocutors, might need to turn into so that we may pay adequate attention and become fecund audiences.

International Conference SMOOTH (HORIZON 2020)

May 26-28, 2023
University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

Presentation title of paper:

Seeking integration and continuity for refugee children and youth: Problems, challenges and
possibilities within the German context. Case -Study: Federal State of Schleswig – Holstein.

Prof. Dr. Vassilis Tsianos, Professor in Social Sciences at the Department of Social Work & Health,
University of Applied Sciences, Kiel/Fachhochschule Kiel
Project Coordinator of project partner Fachhochschule Kiel

Christos Zisis, PhD Candidate in Social & Cult. Anthropology/Lecturer, FH-Kiel/Universität
Hamburg
Project Coordinators’ Assistant of project partner Fachhochschule Kiel

Keywords : refugees education, continuity in educational training, Good practices, integration,
multicultural education, anti-discrimination and anti-racist education
Areas : Active social inclusion via informal and non-formal learning pathways, Educational
policies and alternative forms of evaluation , Social inclusion in refugee education

Abstract
Although the right of refugees to education in Germany is non debatable, the national regulations
and laws of the states distinguish refugees according to their residence title, duration of stay and
country of origin. In particular, asylum seekers and tolerated refugees face obstacles in regards to
their educational needs. Yet, the practices for refugee education and inclusion into the German
national school system are still very diverse and not based on the needs and suggestions of the
parties involved, i.e. refugee and German students, and teachers/educators.
In this project presentation, building on a relevant state-of the-art review of educational policies and
teaching practices in the federal state of Schleswig Holstein, Germany, and based on our needs
analysis and assessment research, we aim to to discuss the main problems of refugee education in
this federal state, challenges and possibilities concerning the needs of refugee youth, along with
involved educators and stakeholders. Some of these include intercultural communication problems,
insufficient training of educators, the language barrier/offering of language courses, and the
engagement to inform refugees proactively. Additionally, we will present a series of good practices
and refer to the prospects for refugee children and youth and refugee teachers, especially focusing
on issues of continuity, social inclusion in schooling and in teacher training programmes.

4._abstract chris zisis FH Kiel, Continugee

This study is theoretically framed by Play Responsive Early Childhood Education and Care (PRECEC) in relation to pedagogical tact (se. Van Manen, 2016) and, didaktik (se.Broström, 2022; Klafki, 1995). Play-responsive teachinghas a theoretical perspective where the concept of response is used in relation to children’s play. Teachers’ response to children’s play can lead to teaching of a new content this stands in relation to joint attention or make common (Barnhart, 2004; Pramling et al, 2019). Common in this study is related to Korsgaards (2019) understanding of common, as make things together. In recent years, teaching is enabled through the Education Act (SFS 2010:800) and part of the curriculum since 2018. Teaching as an activity in a Swedish preschool context has led to a need for a broader understanding of what teaching can become in preschool. Through ethnographic method and a video camera to collect data, this study explore teaching through play in relation to response and make common.This study asks the following questions: What can be characterized as teaching in preschool in relation to play? How can the concept of common be understood in relation to content and teaching through play in preschool?

Keywords: Teaching, play, response, make common

Barnhart, R. K. (Ed.). (2004). Chambers dictionary of etymology. Edinburgh, Scotland: Chambers.

Broström, S. (2022). Didaktik in preschool:: Critical-democratic and play-oriented. Educare, (2), 21–57. https://doi.org/10.24834/educare.2022.5.2

Klafki, W. (1995). On the problem of teaching and learning contents from the standpoint of critical constructive didaktik. In: Hopmann, S., &Riquarts (Eds.). Didaktik and/or Curriculum. Kiel: IPN. Institut fürdiePädagogikderNaturwissenschaften an derUniversität Kiel.

Korsgaard, M. T. (2019). Education and the concept of commons. A pedagogical

reinterpretation. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(4), 445–455.

National Agency for Education (2018). Curriculum for preschool. Stockholm: Ministry of Education.

Pramling, N., Wallerstedt, C., Lagerlöf, P., Björklund, C., Kultti, A.,Palmér, H., Magnusson, M., Thulin, S., Jonsson, A., &Pramling Samuelsson, I. (2019). Play-Responsive Teaching in Early Childhood Teaching. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.

SFS 2010:800. Educationact. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet.

Van Manen, M. (2016). Pedagogical tact. Knowing what to do When you don´t know what to do. Routledge: New York, USA

Lazaridou Eirini, Bicknell Danae, Chronaki Anna, Lykourioti Iris, SymeonidouIoanna

University of Thessaly, Volos, GR

The present study discusses mathematics and the commons in the preschool setting through creating imaginary spaces connected to local spatialand social realities in Greece (i.e the island, insular and coastal life modes and the making of a respective material culture) and by considering epistemologies of the south where knowledge is grounded in the four axis of: land, work, assembly, and festivity (Guterriez-Anguilar, 2017, Constantakopoulou, 2010). This conceptualisation allies with educational commons defined as decolonial strivings against epistemicides and with solidarity alliances (Santos, 2016, De Lissovoy, 2011, Chronaki&Lazaridou, 2019) realized in engaged pedagogic practices that counter enclosures and expand commoning visions. The paper unfolds a three-month classroom ethnography of children’s ways of making mathematics by orchestrating and appropriating the imaginary space of first a fictional Island and second a virtual communication space with university students. These imaginary spaces have provided opportunities for children to encounter maps and mapping, trails and lines, symbols and numbers, quantities and qualities, length and surfaces, artifacts and games through practices related with land, work, assemblies and festive playing experienced as commons. Moreover, the study raises questions about the persistent emphasis to enclose children’s mathematical activity in modern epistemologies that narrow mathematics education toward privileging limitless development and argues for the need to reclaim early years mathematics education at a slower pace and for diverse skills and abilities (Chronaki, 2018). For this, commoning mathematics can bring hope.

Keywords: mathematics, artifacts making, commons, insularity, imaginary spaces, early years, education

References

Chronaki, A., &Lazaridou, E. (2019). Mathematics Education out in the Rural Scape: Experimenting with a Radical Democracy for the Commons. 10thInternational Conference Mathematics Education and Society, January 28 – February 2, Hyderabad, India.

Chronaki, A. (2019). Affective bodying of mathematics, children and difference: choreographing ‘sad effects’ as affirmative politics in early mathematics teacher education. ZDM MathematicsEducation51, 319–330. doi: 10.1007/s11858-019-01045-9

De Lissovoy, N. (2011). Pedagogy in common: Democratic education in the global era. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43(10), 1119–1134. doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2009.00630.xl

Gutiérrez-Aguilar, R. (2017). Horizontes Comunitario-Populares. Producción de Lo Común Más Allá de Las Políticas Estado-céntricas. Madrid: Traficantes de Sueño

Santos, de Sousa, B. (2016). Epistemologies of the South. Justice against Epistemicide. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Constantakopoulou, C. (2010). The dance of the islands: Insularity, Networks, the Athenian Empire and the Aegean World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

“From Photography to Citizenship “is a collaborative project between the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College (University of London), the Child Photo Archive, the Μ.Α. Program “Education and Human Rights” at the Department of Early Childhood Education,National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Education, and the Directoratesof Environmental Education and Cultural Affairs Coordinators of Primary Education of 1st Directorate of Athens, teachers and students from 4,5-12 years old from 12 schools.

The Project aimed at testing the method of “photostories” as a tool for developing practices of relational citizenship education drawing from children’s own multimodal idioms of citizenship. It was implemented during the school years 2020-22 (mostly during lock-down periods) at 12 preschool and primary schools. Following an action research methodology, teachers invested the project with a lot of commitment and enthusiasm playing thus an active and invaluable role. Teachers participated in four online workshops on photo-storying for citizenship education, on its experimentation in the classroom, and on the analysis of the images and texts produced. With the aim of capturing children’s live experience, teachers asked children to choose whatever was meaningful to them, to take a photograph, to talk about it in the public space of the classroom, and to explain why they chose it. The photo stories became a vehicle for creating the appropriate ‘relational space’ within which teachers listened to children, engaged in a discussion with them, and encouraged interaction among themselves, seeking both to understand their perceptions and practices in relation to public life, and to enable them to discuss and reflect on the issues they chose to make public. The photo stories covered a range of topics directly or indirectly related to citizenship, such as friendships, solidarity, relations with animals and family (social problems, children’s needs, safety, etc.), social justice, the “other”, gender.

The photo story technique elicited creative material that can be used by teachers for the promotion of active citizenship, as well as contributed to enhanced communication between children, teachers, and parents.

Maria Dimopoulou, Coordinator of Environmental Education ,1st Directorate Primary Education A’Athens

Kalliopi Kyrdi, Coordinator of Cultural Themes,1st Directorate Primary Education A’Athens

Τhalia Dragona, Professor Emerita,National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Department of Early Childhood Education

Laboratory of Economic Policy & Strategic Planning

Department of Economics,

University of Thessaly,

Emails: parvanit@uth.gr, papagiannitsis@gmail.com,athinazoe@gmail.com

Abstract

Education is a key tool in reducing inequality, as it can provide individuals with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to succeed in life. The ideahas been embraced by international organizations (OECD, 2015, 2018a, 2018b; OXFAM, 2019), promoting a standard policy formula of widening educational access with a view to increase social mobility, reduce poverty and diminish gender, racial, ethnic and other social inequalities. Nevertheless, researchhighlights that even though social and economic inequality differs from place to place,it has been increasing in both developed and developing countries over the past few decades (Piketty, 2014; Atkinson, 2015). This might be related to the fact,observed by Brown and James (2020),that educational expansion and educational policies remainmyopically attached to the mainstream economics’target of economic growth and increase of individual earning, which is depicted in the moto ‘learning equals earning’.

What actually is needed if one seeks to promote social justice, to increase quality of life and well-being and to combat social inequalities, is a different perspective (in a sense, a ‘paradigm shift’) that challenges the dominant view regarding the role and organizationof education where acquisition of employment-related skills and formal qualifications are prioritized, and hierarchical, formal, top-down, educator-centered structures dominate. Such a different perspective that promotes progressive and emancipatory objectivesis the educational commons, in whichthe entire educational community(educators, parents, children)collectively and on equal termsco-producelearning, knowledge and education, with the aim to build social sensitivity and responsibility, egalitarianism,democratic ideals, community ethos, and cooperation(Pechtelidis and Kioupkiolis, 2020).

The SMOOTH project comes to explore the emergent idea of educational commons as an alternative value and action system in the field of education able to address inequalities in a pro-active way. Along these lines, the current work sets forth to explore the initial views of educators involved in the project about education, inequalities and the commons. The purpose is twofold. First, tomap outtheir perceptions and attitudes regarding thepurpose and organization of education, theobjectives and functionof the institution and the educatorsand the education elements that can enhance equality. Second, to evaluate differences in these perceptions and attitudes between different groups (e.g. people involved in formal vs. non-formal education, private vs. public sector, are less vs. more experienced, etc.) as well as to critically assesshow much ingrained is the dominant narrative of education even in this rather informed community of educators. It does so by analyzing the responses to a novel questionnaire, developed from scratch on the basis of existing theory, distributed to 152 educators in 11 institutions of 8 countries.

References

Atkinson, A. B. (2015). Inequality: What can be done?. Harvard University Press.

Brown, P. and James, D. (2020). Educational expansion, poverty reduction and social mobility:Reframing the debate.International Journal of Educational Research, 100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2020.101537

OECD (2015). All on board: Making inclusive growth happen. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/inclusive-growth/All-on-Board-Making-Inclusive-Growth-Happen.pdf.

OECD (2018a). A broken social elevator? How to promote social mobility. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264301085-en.

OECD (2018b). The framework for policy action on inclusive growth. Paris: OECD. https://www.oecd.org/mcm/documents/C-MIN-2018-5-EN.pdf.

OXFAM (2019). The Power of Education to Fight Inequality. How increasing educational equality and quality is crucial to fighting economic and gender inequality. Oxford: Oxfam International. https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/power-education-fight-inequality

Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Pechtelidis, Y. and Kioupkiolis, A. (2020). Education as Commons, Children as Commoners: The Case Study of the Little Tree Community.Democracy and Education, 28(1), 1-11.

Keywords: learning by doing, maker, experimenting, community,

Abstract:

This communication is based on the case of the project Je Fabrique mon matériel pédagogique. The aim of this project is to help teachers to easily create the pedagogical material that they need or building materials that have been already made by someone else, beyond market-driven logic. Indeed, understanding educational resources as common resources is an opportunity to give everyone the means to do, to experiment, but also to be in a mutual aid logic by going beyond the competitive thinking of the market.

The project also finds its roots in the maker spirit (i.e. the Maker Faire, a gathering of makers and educators that was co-founded by Dale Dougherty in 2006)and the commons-based peer production (Kostakis et al., 2018; Kostakis & Papachristou, 2014). In the project, every resource is available as pedagogical commons on an online platform.

Through interviews from teachers and makers (from France and West African countries),we did a research work where we explore, educational commons, and how educational commons can be a way to answer day-to-day needs from teachers and children. In this article, we will make a specific focus over the question of inequalities and inclusion. Indeed, our interview highlights:

The willingness of makers to create another environment (i.e. in a fablab) where children (and even adults) with disabilities or with difficulties at school can learn by doing, and this way regain confidence.
The way teachers involve children in the classroom and take in consideration their way of learning
Raise awareness to disabilities among children (by making them work with My Human Kit for example)

In the article, the pedagogical situations are told in the light of the resources mobilized. The community can begin to live in common, with reciprocity that value the work of creation as well as the work of use. It is the people that values the contents of these platforms by making it possible to put their uses into a narrative and to identify more easily how to mobilize resources in a specific situation. The producers of knowledge are then more widely recognized beyond their peers.

According to Segault (2022), the success of a contributory cultural project relies heavily on the vivacity and sustainability of its contributing community. A serious and important investment must therefore be made in the construction and animation of this community. The author insists on the importance of the community’s development and animation.

Indeed, the author highlights the fact that the maintenance of such a contributory community is not done in a spontaneous and self-organized way.On the contrary, it is necessary to have ‘community animators’ whose mission is to communicate, collaborate, federate, incentive, involvement, organization and capitalization of the knowledge capitalization of the knowledge produced.The work of Segault (2022) also tends to emphasize that contribution to a platform inexorably fades over time. It is maintained by new communities that take over from those whose contributions diminish over time.

Then, in an underlying way, come the questions:

of appropriation, in a sociotechnical meaning, the question of appropriation involves the inclusion of the object (here for instance an educational common) in an artefactual process that begins with the discovery of the object studied, its functionalities, and its possibilities, before moving on to an eventual assimilation of the object into the operator’s daily life and then its appropriation. Once this stage is reached, the object can even become invisible in its context of use (Rabardel, 2005).We would like to study the conditions of a wide appropriation of the resources with a concern forcross-validation bringing together an academic community and civil society.
And of articulation, here, how the educational common‘fits’ into the professional activity and the culture of teachers, children or even parentstobecome established.

Bibliography

Kostakis, V., Latoufis, K., Liarokapis, M., & Bauwens, M. (2018). The convergence of digital commons with local manufacturing from a degrowth perspective: Two illustrative cases. Journal of Cleaner Production, 197, 1684‑1693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.077

Kostakis, V., & Papachristou, M. (2014). Commons-based peer production and digital fabrication: The case of a RepRap-based, Lego-built 3D printing-milling machine. Telematics and Informatics, 31(3), 434‑443.

Rabardel, P. (2005). Instrument, activité et développement du pouvoir d’agir. In P. Lorino & R. Teulier (Éds.), Entre connaissance et organisation : L’activité collective (p. 251‑265). La Découverte.

Segault, A. (2022). Animation de communauté dans les projets participatifs culturels : Quelques enseignements des concours photographiques Wiki Loves Monuments. Hybrid, 8.

Authors:

Antoine Henry, Assistant professor, Lille University, GERiiCO

Alain Mille, Professor Emeritus, Lyon1 University, LIRIS

Jérémie Virgo, scientific coordinator, Coexiscience

Original PDF: 33._Kiourtsoglou_Elisavet_abstract_Listen To Why architectural thinking is important to the rest of the campus

My proposal for the upcoming conference is to discuss my teaching methods and the content
of two of my classes: “Theories of Design of Space” and “Soundscapes”. Both are elective and
open to 1st and 2nd year of the BA program of the newly established department of Culture,
Creative Media, and Industries of University of Thessaly. The BA program provides
interdisciplinary training in subjects related to culture and practices of cultural production in
contemporary environments. While our wish is to see our skilled graduates having a fruitful
career in the creative industries, the encounter with the first-year students is less idyllic.
Most of them have no background related to arts, music or architecture and relatively poor
cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1979). The first three years of teaching I did not take under
consideration the fact that the appreciation of architecture and arts was part of a “broader
taste”, which was culturally shaped (Bourdieu, 1979.) David Gooblar (2022: 14) is radical on
this point: “Helping students learn requires us to create the conditions in which students can
revise their previous understandings of the concepts and skills we’re trying to help them
acquire”. After, three years of trial and errors, my courses are not anymore on architecture,
arts or build environment and its soundscape. It is on how architectural thinking can be a way
of activism. By architectural thinking I mean understanding the design process and its cultural
perception through interactive learning strategies, that has been shown to “have a
disproportionately positive impact on traditionally underprivileged groups of students”
(Gooblar, 2022: 16).
My principal tools are dialogue, examples of everyday architecture coming from newspapers
and social media, as well as exercises of attentive listening and devised theatre.

References :
Gooblar David. The Missing Course. Everything They Never Taught You about College
Teaching. (Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2022)
Bourdieu Pierre. La distinction : Critique sociale du jugement, (Paris : Éditions du Minuit,
1979)
Oliveros Pauline. Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice. (iUniverse, 2005)
Schafer Murray. HearSing: 75 Exercises in Listening and Creating Music. (Arcana Ed., 2005)

BIO
Elisavet Kiourtsoglou holds a diploma of Architecture (UTH, 2005) a post professional master on history and
theory of Architecture (NTUA, 2009) and a PhD in Architecture (Université Paris 8). Her thesis on the relation of
music to architecture in Iannis Xenakis’ work has been awarded the Prix de la Recherche of Académie
d’Architecture (Paris, 2017). She published a monography on rhythm of music and architecture in Xenakis’ work
(Athens :Nefeli, 2022) and she is a co-editor with Angeliki Sioli (TU Delft) of collective volume intitled The Sound
of Architecture : Acoustic Atmospheres in Place (Leuven University Press, 2022). She has taught in numerous
Schools of Architecture in France. Currently, she is assistant professor in the Department of Culture, Creative
Media and Industries of University of Thessaly, Greece.

Participants:
Associate Professors in Pedagogy Liselott Mariett Olsson, Robert Lecusay and Monica Nilsson
Early Childhood Educators Kristina Rickan and Joanna Forsman
Early Childhood Principals Birgitta Forsman and Pernilla Sahlin
Artists Ellen Spens and Erik Rask
Format:
Panel-presentation by 4 representatives from the team’s educators, principals, artists and
researchers. The complete team participates in subsequent discussion with the audience.

ABSTRACT

In this presentation, the Swedish team engaged in the SMOOTH project would like to share

some findings on educational commons in explorations of an urgent question, shared by preschool-
children and adults, concerning the human being’s place in nature and the relation between nature and

culture. A pedagogy of listening, pedagogical documentation and project work (Olsson 2023) – all
methodologies deployed within SMOOTH – have constituted the starting point for educators,
principals, researchers and artists’ building up a Playworld/Interactive performance (Lecusay &
Nilsson, 2020; Kollaborativet 2023) where children’s interest in the common question could be
further explored. In the presentation, aesthetical, pedagogical and philosophical (Bergson
1896/1991; Dewey 1934; Vygotsky 1978) perspectives are put to work in qualitative analysis of
children as commoners, engaged in commoning practices and the creation of new commons (Pechtelidis &
Kiuopkiolis 2020) in the Playworld/Interactive performance. Additionally, recent results from a
quantitatively informed study of children’s prosocial behaviours in the Playworld/Interactive
performance are presented, and we draw some preliminary conclusions on what kind of
definition could be given to educational commons in early childhood education and care (ECEC).
REFERENCES
Bergson, H. (1896/1991) Matter and Memory. New York: Zone Books.
Kollaborativet (2023) Jag är Tid – Jag är Rum: Sinnligt språkande scenkonst tillsammans med barn och
unga med funktionsvariationer [I am Time – I am Space: Sensual performing arts together with children and
youth with varying abilities]. Malmö: Kollaborativet.
Lecusay, R. & Nilsson, M. (2020). Lek i förskolan [Play in Preschool]. In G. Åsén (ed.) Vad säger
forskningen om svensk förskola? [What does research say about Swedish Preschool?] (pp.77 – 91).
Stockholm: Liber.
Olsson, L.M. (2023) Becoming Pedagogue – Bergson and the Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics of Early
Childhood Education and Care. London & New York: Routledge.
Pechtelidis, I. and Kiuopkiolis, A. (2020) Education as commons, children as commoners: The
case-study of the Little Tree community, Democracy & Education, 28 (1), 1-11.
http://democracyeducationjournal.org/home/vol28/iss1/5
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Title:

School councils using the Sociocratic Circular Method: traces & insights

Panel Presentation related to:

Educational commons and socio-political transformation
Alternative pedagogies, heterotopias or real utopias in education: advancing freedom and equality
Peer to peer learning and governance
Active listening and conflict resolution in educational commons
Active social inclusion via informal and non-formal learning pathways

Names:

Naya Tselepi, Alexandros Kioupkiolis, Yannis Pechtelidis

Abstract

This panel presentation will describe the processes and outcomes of a series of interventions in two private schools in Northern Greece; the first of a pre-schooling education and the second being a first grade school. The interventions in the first are related to the creation of the ‘House of the Forest’ and are targeted to students of four to six years old, while the ones in the second are supporting the ‘Humanity Upgrade Council’ and are applied to students of the sixth grade. Both aim at the (self)governance of the students by using the Sociocratic Circular Method, which contributes -among others- to the students’ inclusion through school circles and the decision making by consent. Within this panel presentation, we will shed light to the various transformations of the two groups regarding: i. the practices of education that become a ‘common resource’ and the ways they are collectively managed, ii. active listening and the culture of communication and facilitation, iii. equal participation in ‘circles’, iv. distribution of personal roles and collective tasks, v. decision making by consent. Following that, we will share our insights for the contribution of the SCM as an impactful tool in educational commons, focusing on the students’ inclusion, equality in participation as well as personal and collective governance. Finally, we will contemplate whether the tool can open pathways for socio-political transformations and emancipation actions.

Key words:

educational commons, school councils, school circles, Sociocratic Circular Method, equality in education, governance, active citizenship

Naya Tselepi, PhD Human Geography, Researcher & Project Coordinator, Facilitator in Sociocratic Circle Method, Adjunct Professor Hellenic Open University

Alexandros Kioupkiolis, Associate Professor of Contemporary Political Theory at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

YannisPechtelidis, Associate Professor in Sociology of Education at the Department of Early Childhood Education, at the University of Thessaly

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Paper Title
Free the imprisoned knowledge! – Inclusive educational paths in prisons
Abstract
This contribution is based on a concrete experience in the context of a project for the right to study in
prison at the University of Milan, from which we intend to examine the function and potential of
education in prison in the dual role of a universal right and a tool for social (re)inclusion. In particular,
we will reflect on how commons education can work within a particular context such as prison through
experiences of defining shared educational paths between external trainers and inmates starting from
the latter’s needs and skills. Starting from the consideration of the socio-economic and cultural
characteristics of the prison population, we’ll outline a possible educational approach aimed at
contrasting processes of exclusion. Specifically, we will focus on the forms of “peer-to-peer learning” –
with specific reference to direct experience of shared learning between university students with the role
of tutor and prisoner students – and the shared construction of knowledge, which will be interpreted as
a means of contrasting both the hierarchical dynamics of traditional knowledge and the power relations
that permeate the prison context. These educational methods will also be interpreted as forms of
inclusion in the social discourse on inequalities and possible means of combating them, in the
conviction of the co-responsibility of different social actor – prison and university above all – in the
development of policies for active social inclusion through learning pathways promoting freedom and
equality.
Names
Chiara Dell’Oca graduated in philosophy with a thesis in public ethics on total institutions. She
obtained a master’s degree in Prison Law, specialising in the protection of rights in contexts restricting
personal freedom. Since 2015 she has been working in prisons covering various roles within the
“Prison Project”, for the support of the right to study in prison, of the University of Milan, for which
she is currently the contact person.
She is the founder and head of the secretariat of the first Observatory on the right to university study in prison
in Italy, set up by the University of Milan.
She published Heures de “sortie”. Domaines d’action et rôle multiforme du tuteur universitaire en prison (in P. Pacini
Volpe, L’enseignement universitaire en milieu carcéral, Champ Social Éditions) and Connessione instabile. Una
prima analisi dell’impatto degli strumenti di comunicazione a distanza nei Poli Universitari Penitenziari nel contesto
dell’emergenza pandemica in Antigone – Rivista semestrale di critica del sistema penale e penitenziario, N.2
(2023).

Arianna Zottarel is a PhD student in Organized Crime Studies at the University of Milan. She has been
Senior Tutor of the “Prison Project” of the University of Milan for six years.
Her research activities have mainly focused on organized crime, education of lawfulness, prison studies,
violence and transnational youth gangs. Since 2016 she has been a member of the Monitoring Research
Center on Organized Crime – CROSS at University of Milan.
Among the publications: La mafia del Brenta (Melampo, 2018); L’educazione alla legalità nelle carceri minorili
in Italia, in Rivista di Studi e Ricerche sulla Criminalità Organizzata, V.5 N.2 (2019).

Chronaki Anna, Lykourioti Iris, SymeonidouIoanna, Lazaridou Eirini, Bicknell Danae

with UThstudents:Alexaki Eleni, Kleisiari Katerina, KounavisIoannis , Lialiou Andriana, Markopoulou Anna, NikolakakouLoukia, Nikolopoulou Maria, PapaioannouLygia, Papounidou Chara, TsarouchasStergios Georgios, Tsiara Maria, Vacondiou Miranda ZingiridouAndromachi

University of Thessaly, Volos, GR

With Bruno Latour (2004) one could argue that mathematics tends to remain a ‘matter of fact’ that rarely becomes a ‘matter of concern’ for youth. Its fate as ‘common knowledge’ is trapped, by and large, within harsh enclosures of curricula, international assessments or high-stake exams, funneling its creative potential to gatekeeping practices for a dystopic societal progress and development that perpetuates epistemicides, injustices and alienation. How could we counter this deadening situation? And, how could we move toward commoning mathematics and modes of making artifacts for lay people? Taking into account that these processes are connected to wider concerns for the survival and sustainability of habitats (Højrup, 2003), this paper discusses the potential remaking of mathematics through a collective design process of making artifacts in reference to life-modes (insular, coastal) with preschool children and university students (i.e. Architecture, Education). A feminist epistemology of collective-making as ‘matters of care’ (see Puig de la Belacasa, 2017) is employed here to attend for a pedagogy of decentered power relations where ‘…the meanings and situated relevance of care cannot be taken for granted’ (p. 11). Our study denotes that caring for commoning mathematics is engulfed when dialogic moves of transdisciplinary activity and transversal modes of thinking, feeling, and making are allowed to unfold. Two such moves will be specified: first, between preschool and university activity transversing the disciplinary areas of education, mathematics and architecture, and second, within the experimental co-making of artifacts intended as ‘gift’ for the children and through children’s interactive encounters with that gift suggesting novel artifact-making.

Keywords: mathematics, artifact making, commons, matters of care, power relations, dialogic spaces, tertiary education, architecture, education

References

Latour, B. (2004). Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry. 30 (2), 225-48. doi: 10.1086/421123

Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017). Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds. University of Minnesota Press

Højrup, T. (2003). State, Culture and Life-Modes: The Foundations of Life-Mode Analysis. Oxfordshire: Routledge

Abstract

Since the “inclusive turn” (Ainscow, 2007· 2020), the discussion on “inclusive
education” and “Education for All” policy and practice is growing (UNESCO,
1990· 2000· 2016· 2020· Warnock & Norwich, 2010· Mitchell, 2014· Florian, 2019·
Ainscow, 2021· Kauffman, Anastasiou, Hornby, Lopes, Burke, Felder, Ahrbeck &
Wiley, 2022· Kauffman, Burke & Anastasiou, 2022). Considering “inclusive
education” as a wicked problem (Rittel and Webber, 1973· Pesch & Vermaas,
2020), concerning both policy and practice, I suggest approaching it as a
collective process of designing a just education for all. I argue that, in order to
design a just education, enhanced educational commons -consisting of more
than teachers, learners and their guardians- can provide alternative ways of
thinking and doing. Also, within enhanced digital interdisciplinary educational
commons, solutions to existing dilemmas, such as the dilemma of difference
(Terzi, 2008), can be better understood and approached. In this paper I

describe the opportunities and challenges that fields such as Science-
Technology-Society (STS), History of Technology, Philosophy of Technology

and Transition Design Studies present in the process of designing a just
education for persons with disability or/and special educational needs.
Examples showcasing the contributions of the four fields, within the proposed
educational commons paradigm, are presented.
Key-words: inclusive education, just education, persons with disability or/and
special educational needs, enhanced interdisciplinary educational commons,
History of Technology, STS, Philosophy of Technology, Transition Design
Studies

References

Ainscow, Mel (2007). Taking an inclusive turn. Journal of Research in Special
Educational Needs, 7, 1: 3-7.
Ainscow, Mel (2020). Promoting inclusion and equity in education: Lessons
from international experiences. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational
Policy, 6:1, 7-16, DOI: 10.1080/20020317.2020.1729587
Ainscow, Mel (2021). Inclusion and equity in education: Responding to a global
challenge. In Kopfer A., Powell J.J.W., Zahnd R. (eds). International
Handbook of Inclusive Education. Global, national and local perspectives,
Chapter 4, p. 75-87. Verlag Barbara Budrich & JSTOR.

Smooth Educational Commons and Active Social Inclusion Conference, Volos, 26-28/05/2023

2

Florian, Lani (2019). On the necessary co-existence of special and inclusive
education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23: 7-8, 691-704,
DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2019.1622801
Irwin, Terry (2015). Transition Design: A Proposal for a New Area of Design
Practice, Study, and Research, Design and Culture, 7:2, 229-246, DOI:
10.1080/17547075.2015.1051829
Kauffman, J.M., Anastasiou, D., Hornby, G., Lopes, J., Burke, M.D., Felder, M.
Ahrbeck, B. & Wiley, A. (2022). Imagining and Reimagining the Future of
Special and Inclusive Education. Education Sciences, 12, 903.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci12120903
Kauffman James M., Burke Mack D. & Anastasiou Dimitris (2022). Hard LRE
Choices in the Era of Inclusion: Rights and Their Implications. Journal of
Disability Policy Studies 1-12. DOI: I0.l 177/10+1207322111307<4
Mitchell, David (2014). What really works in special and inclusive education.
Using evidence-based teaching strategies. London and New York:
Routledge.
Pesch, Udo & Vermaas, Pieter E. (2020). The wickedness of Rittel and Webber’s
dilemma. Administration and Society, vol. 52(6): 960-979.
Rittel, Horst W.J. and Webber, Melvin M. (1973). Dilemmas in a General
Theory of Planning. Policy Sciences, vol. 4(2): 155-169.
Terzi, Lorella (2008). Beyond the dilemma of difference. The capability
approach in disability and special educational needs. In Florian Lani &
McLaughlin Margaret (eds), Disability classification in education. Issues
and perspectives (pp. 244–262). USA: Corwin Press, A SAGE Company.
UNESCO (1990). World Conference on Education for All: Meeting basic learning
needs. The final Report. Jomtien, Thailand: UNESCO.
UNESCO (2000). The Dakar Framework for Action: Education for All: meeting
our collective commitments. UNESCO.
UNESCO (2016). Education 2030. Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action
for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensure
inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong opportunities for all.
Paris: UNESCO. Available in:
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000245656
UNESCO (2020). Global Education Monitoring Report 2020. Inclusion and
education: All means all. Paris: UNESCO. Available in:

https://en.unesco.org/news/global-education-monitoring-gem-report-
2020

Warnock, Mary and Norwich, Brahm (2010). Special Educational Needs. A new
look. Key Debates in Educational Policy. Edited by Terzi, Lorella. London:
Continuum.

María José Palacios Esparza, Pompeu Fabra University. Predoctoral Researcher (FI-AGAUR) in the PhD in Communication. Member of the research group on Youth, Society and Communication (Jovis.com). mariajose.palacios@upf.edu

Mittzy Arciniega-Cáceres, Pompeu Fabra University. Postdoctoral Researcher. Member of the research group on Youth, Society and Communication (Jovis.com) of the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University. mittzy.arciniega@upf.edu

Sonia Páez de la Torre, University of Girona. Department of Education. Margarita Salas Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Communication, Pompeu Fabra University. Barcelona, Spain. Member of the research group in Youth, Society and Communication (Jovis.com). sonia.paez@udg.edu / sonia.paezdelatorre@upf.edu

Mònica Figueras Maz, Pompeu Fabra University. Lecturer at the Department of Communication. Coordinator of the Research Group on Youth, Society and Communication (Jovis.com) of the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University. Barcelona, Spain, monica.figueras@upf.edu

This communication presents the results obtained from the experience of the case study developed with and by young people from a non-formal education association in the Raval neighborhood (Barcelona) within the framework of a european project Smooth Educational Spaces. Passing through Enclosures and Reversing Inequalities through Educational Commons (SMOOTH) in which the Department of Communication of the Pompeu Fabra University participates.

In this work, we analyze the process of creating two audiovisual pieces produced by young people that emerge from the application of participatory audiovisual methodologies in the framework of educational commons. In this way, the emphasis is placed on the contribution of the audiovisual participatory methodology as a powerful resource for people to think from a collective perspective, problematize themselves as a social group and build discourses from criticism and resistance to the system.

For this, the authors review the theoretical and methodological foundations that have guided the application of the case study, the work stages are described in detail and the results and conclusions raise questions to reflect on for future approaches in the application of the methodology, especially with groups in vulnerable contexts.

Keywords:

Audiovisual Participatory Methodology, Educational Commons, Action Research, Youth.