People

Asher Albo
Tal Shiber

Abstract:

This paper deals with the question: what is the right way to handle conflicts between teachers and students in the classroom? In the past years there where some cases that published in the media of conflicts between teachers and students on the basis of deferent political views, or privet interaction threw social media. It seems that the authorities of the ministry of education tends to formulize the relations between teachers and students and publish regulations that will make shore there will be no misunderstanding between teachers and students in the classroom on the basis of political views, and no severe conflict will arise. Our claim is that humanistic approach in education must see the relationship between teachers and students in a more holistic way, despite of the dangers of conflicts. Education is a dangerous thing, and teachers must be brave. There will be no regulations that can prevent conflicts in the classroom, and if there where they will prevent not only the conflicts, but also the education act itself. We will bring some case studies from our experience in the field to prove our claim.

Abstract:

The edictof Joshua Ben Gamla, which first established public education in the land of Israel, places the responsibility for educating children of the state on the establishment and the community. Through the ages, this responsibility has also been perceived as a public obligation whose target population is the “normative” student body, those learning in ordinary educational frameworks. Atypicalpupils with special needs, also referred to as special education students, are allegedly excluded from this directive and its public, economic, social and halachic implications. In the words of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein: “But to oblige anyone to help a yeshiva with such students…possibly the rabbis did not require… and maybe the Sages did not want to burden the public any further.”

Indeed, the discussions of students with special needs found in the writings of the Sages, Halacha and responsa literature remains confined to specific definitions and topics. We do not find the “Edict of Yehoshua Ben Gamla” to have institutionalized a state and public special education system by virtue of halacha and the law.

Changes that have taken place in the world over the years regarding the integration of atypical pupils within the general society, and in particular students with special needs in educational institutions, have led to the establishment of streams, social movements and legislative processes that anchored the rights of atypicals in general, and students with special needs,within the general education system. Based on the “Case of Brown against the Board of Education” (1954) and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement marked a significant milestone with regard to the educational rights of minorities and people with special needs. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that the state must provide mixed educational services to minorities and citizens alike within its jurisdiction and has prohibited establishing segregated frameworks specifically for minority children. This milestone has helped drive movements, organizations, and parents of children with special needs throughout the U.S. to demand the integration of their children in standard educational settings. Indeed, beginning in the second half of the 20th century, courts in many US states began to require schools to integrate students with special needs into regular educational settings. These legislative processes have also extended to Congress and theU.S. Supreme Court.

Abstract:

The talk will address a gender affirming approach to education, in light of transgender and non-binary pupils’ rights. The talk will include a review of the current reality of transgender people in Israel and around the world, some background on gender affirming processes, different issues trans people face in schools, and practical tools that can help you create an inclusive environment, make services more accessible, and treat trans and gender diverse pupils with respect.

According to recent estimates, approximately 1.8% of the population identify on the trans spectrum. This means more than 150 thousand people in Israel, and more than 40 thousand pupils in the education system. A recent study conducted by Ma’avarim – Israeli Trans Community found that 17% of pupils on the trans spectrum were asked intrusive personal questions by school staff, and a significant link was observed between that and either partial or complete absence from school.

These data, together with the rising awareness of the subject, shed light on educators’ dire need of practical tools to support trans and gender diverse pupils. This is what a gender affirming approach strives for, and it’s based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, conserving children’s rights of identity, equality, participation, and protection.

Dr. Yifat Ben-David, Dr. Gil Amit

Abstract:

Trust, which babies develop in a significant adult from the moment of birth, endows them with a sense of basic trust. In school, where educators are the significant adults, their trust in their students is a major component of their evolving relationship. Janusz Korczak cast a holistic look on the issue of trust between adult and child in the various circles of life, especially in the relationship between educator and child in orphanages. Korczak, viewed suspicion as one of the educator’s greatest flaws. Instead of being open to children’s being and lovingly accept their mistakes as they investigate the world, suspicious educators mistrust the children’s actions, do not encourage them when they fail, and do not assist children in their attempt to shape their world. This lecture will examine educator-student relationship in reference to a significant anchor that is all but absent from the ethical and scholarly discourse in the education system – trust. Korczak’s perceptions and actions in everyday life and within the Korczakian system indicate the importance of building a trust-based relationship, one that is respectful, containing, and empowering. This is an educational system that advocates endowing equal rights to children as humans who are in processes of physical, intellectual, emotional, and ethical growth. We will then focus on the success of the educational system in Finland, where a meaningful change was made, centered on trust. 

Finally, the focus will turn to Israel, and examine teacher-student relations and the relations between teachers and policy makers (school administration and the Ministry of Education) in regard to reforms and challenges in education. We will discuss the challenges to contemporary educators, proving Korczak’s philosophy is relevant to the education system of 21st-century Israel.

Abstract:

Back in the early twentieth century, Janusz Korczak had explored the movement between the desire to stay in the moment and the urge to move forward to the next thing. The educational approach he established in his orphanage encompassed future and present, concentrating on the pursuit of the desired future graduate, but simultaneously attending to the everyday conversations, gestures and events taking place in the present. 

Korczak perceived educational practice as a process that shifts between widening and narrowing. The ability to move back and forth from the educational vision to the particular moment provides educators with the ability to accurately distinguish their everyday needs from their developmental vision, the subjective from the collective, and the immediate from the future.

Korczak viewed the school and the orphanage as a field of research and treated them like an educational clinic. He believed that the children’s behavioral patterns told a deeper story, one that the educators ought to decipher. Observation provides a glimpse into the nature of this hidden story.  It is not just a technical procedure for Korczak; It is an existential position, and the educator’s professional identities echo within it.

In 1919, Korczak published the essay “Educational Moments” that was intended to facilitate educators and provide them with the means to stay focused in the moment. The purpose of the text was to steer teachers’ attention to meaningful moments; to show them how to observe those moments, decipher and conceptualize them.

This directs our attention to the educator’s ability to diagnose his students, be compassionate, and respond to their needs. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Korczak’s perspective was a reaction to what he believed to be an uninspired, technocratic, uniform approach that dominated education in general and orphanages in particular. Today, on the verge of 2020, his approach is no less vital, and perhaps even more than ever.

Abstract:

Child participation is one of the core principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC not only asserts that children and young people have the right to freely express their views, there is an obligation to listen to their views, and to facilitate child participation in all matters affecting them within their families, schools, local communities, public services, institutions, government policies and judicial procedures. Meaningful child and youth participation is not only a fundamental human right, it ensures child well-being and creates democratic societies with active citizens.

This discussion paper will explore the intersection between child participation and theories of gender equality in order to understand the impact of gender roles in the meaningful participation of boys and girls as children and young people in their communities and society. Gender transformative approaches are critical for shifting social norms that often create and reinforce gender inequalities that lead to barriers for children and youth participation. Drawing on the author’s experience in managing children and youth programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Egypt, Honduras, India, Malawi, Tanzania, and Yemen, the paper will share lessons learned in ensuring an inclusive approach that takes into consideration gender roles, specifically the limitations often placed on girls which prevents them from meaningful participation in decision-making processes in their families, communities and society.

 

Abstract:

Komemiyut school is the last of nine secular elementary school in the Ultra-orthodox Jewish city of Bnei Brak. Recently, due to emigration of the secular Jewish population from the city, and the entrance of migrant workers and asylum seekers to it, the vast majority of students are members of migrant communities from different countries, most of them from Africa. Like similar schools in other cities, Komemiyut deals with the tension between the commitment to grant education to any child regardless of his or her origins and status, in the spirit of the UN’s Children Rights convention, and the difficulties on the way to its implementation. In Bnei Brak the situation is even more extreme since most of the city’s population and leadership is Ultra-Orthodox, and so have inherent difficulties to cope with the culture and religion of the school’s community. 

In recent years, students from the Interior, Building and Environment Design department of Shenkar Academy plan and build projects in the school. In the frame of the academic/ practical Space Identity Community (SIC) course, students learn the needs and dreams of Komemiyut pupils and teachers alike, and accordingly design and implement projects that are made to improve the everyday life and the space of the school.

We would introduce in this lecture the encounter between the two schools: Shenkar and Komemiyut. Inspired by Korczak’s “School of Life” we will examine the educational dilemmas arising from the relations between Komemiyut and its physical and cultural environment. We’ll look at the difficulties the school is having on its way to exercise the rights of children whose legal status is unclear, and see how these tensions are reflected in the encounter with the students of Shenkar, and in the actions and spaces they designed and implemented.

Abstract:

The child’s rights of offense victims (injured) and offenders that are minors in Israel have been upgraded over the years. The Convention on the Rights of the Child in Israel (1991) has led to a significant change throughout the years in legislation, policies and the socio-cultural approach in Israel.

As a partner, that  was active in a considerable part of the system’s significant changes and taking in consideration the minor’s “claim” of a protective law and his benefit before us, the legislative leaders (Amendment 14 of the Youth law and other amendments, subject to the improvement of the minor’s rights), we can witness the great importance in overrun changes and upcoming future improvements. 

The emphasis of the lecture is on what was and what had changed in the social, legal and cultural aspects of minors’ status in Israel.

Within a relatively short time (50 years), the minor’s status was transformed from a “serving tools” used by his parents and the surrounding society even to the possibility of being sold, to the status of a person ” in the center of stage” at home and in society. This represents an interesting historical process (from Medieval period till nowadays) that led to a revolution in the way we think and address minors in Israel and in the Western world.

Dr. Yifat Ben-David, Dr. Gil Amit

Abstract:

Trust, which babies develop in a significant adult from the moment of birth, endows them with a sense of basic trust. In school, where educators are the significant adults, their trust in their students is a major component of their evolving relationship. Janusz Korczak cast a holistic look on the issue of trust between adult and child in the various circles of life, especially in the relationship between educator and child in orphanages. Korczak, viewed suspicion as one of the educator’s greatest flaws. Instead of being open to children’s being and lovingly accept their mistakes as they investigate the world, suspicious educators mistrust the children’s actions, do not encourage them when they fail, and do not assist children in their attempt to shape their world. This lecture will examine educator-student relationship in reference to a significant anchor that is all but absent from the ethical and scholarly discourse in the education system – trust. Korczak’s perceptions and actions in everyday life and within the Korczakian system indicate the importance of building a trust-based relationship, one that is respectful, containing, and empowering. This is an educational system that advocates endowing equal rights to children as humans who are in processes of physical, intellectual, emotional, and ethical growth. We will then focus on the success of the educational system in Finland, where a meaningful change was made, centered on trust. 

Finally, the focus will turn to Israel, and examine teacher-student relations and the relations between teachers and policy makers (school administration and the Ministry of Education) in regard to reforms and challenges in education. We will discuss the challenges to contemporary educators, proving Korczak’s philosophy is relevant to the education system of 21st-century Israel.

Dr. Ora Segal-Drori and Dr. Anat Ben Shabat

Abstract:

The aim of the present study was to test children’s perceptions on the inclusion of innovative technologies in the kindergarten. Investigating children’s perceptions or perspectives is a relatively new field of research that has developed over the past two decades. This research stemmed from the understanding that it is important to hear the children’s voice and to perform studies together with children, and not only about them. These insights were influenced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and are also based on two theoretical approaches: the postmodern approach in education and the “sociology of childhood” approach. It is compatible with a democratic worldview that emphasizes the independence of all individuals in the society and their right to express their opinions. Our literature review yielded very few studies on young children’s perceptions and attitudes toward the inclusion of innovative technologies in the kindergarten, and no such a research has been carried out in Israel to date. The current study included 171 Israeli children aged 3 to 6 who participated in in-depth interviews regarding their perceptions on the inclusion of innovative technologies in the kindergarten. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis. Three major perceptions regarding inclusion of innovative technologies in the kindergarten were found: The degree to which the innovative technologies are necessary in the kindergarten; the goals of the use of innovative technologies in the kindergarten; the framework for using innovative technologies in the kindergarten. The conclusions from the children’s answers are that most of them understand the importance of using these technologies and their contribution to many fields, and that kindergarten teachers should include innovative technologies in the kindergarten more extensively and wisely than they actually do today, and should do this with adapted mediation.

 Abstract:

Patience is considered an important virtue in the upbringing and education of children. There is a lot they need to learn and master, and this simply requires time. Already in his life-time Korczak observed how educators, himself included, struggled between patience – allowing time and space to children to develop – and impatience, the impulse to ‘take over’ from the child, thus ‘saving time’. In Korczak’s life and work there are many instances of his almost angelic patience with children. The activity of the children’s court, which took a lof of his and the childrens’ time, is a fine example of this. Pupils always got new chances to better themselves. There is, however, also another reality of Korczak, as a sometimes desperate, sombre, and very impatient man. This, in fact, makes him more human, and also more interesting and relevant for upbringing and education today. In my lecture, I will elaborate on the virtue of patience, and reflect on the struggle between patience and impatience, illustrate this with examples from Korczak’s life and work, and consider the topicality of his lived experiences for our own, sometimes very impatient, times.

 

Abstract:

In the early 21st century, privacy is one of the most challenged and controversial human rights. We focus on students’ privacy in the context of the surveillance school, namely schools that introduce new technologies of surveillance. Given that children’s rights are subject to the adults in control of the relevant social setting, in this study we focus on teachers’ perceptions of the students’ privacy. The case study discussed is of Israeli teachers in the context of school CCTV surveillance. 

Based on 55 interviews, the findings revealed three clusters of teachers’ perceptions: (1) dismissing students’ privacy, arguing that students are indifferent to protecting their privacy, highlighting the school’s need to control students, and portraying schools as public and undemocratic spaces; (2) acknowledging students’ privacy as an independent factor, reflecting students’ desire and need for privacy, characterizing schools as semi-private and compulsory spaces, and highlighting educational considerations; and (3) merging students’ privacy with teachers’ privacy. Almost all teachers noted the importance of their own privacy, and their justifications echoed various privacy theories. 

Our conclusions focus on teachers who alluded to these justifications only when they concerned their own privacy. We term this phenomenon differential rights consciousness – a situation in which a person who has power over others’ rights considers his or her own rights while disregarding their subordinates’ rights. We offer possible explanations for differential rights consciousness, relying on the study of rights consciousness, perspective-taking, and privacy. 

We do not judge the interviewed teachers for being hypocritical. Our challenge was to understand how and why the phenomenon of differential rights consciousness occurs. Understanding the factors that produce differential rights consciousness among teachers may assist in shaping professional development courses that facilitate naming and perspective-taking.

Dr. Yifat Ben-David, Dr. Gil Amit

Abstract:

Our children have the right to live in a world that is peaceful, and this begins with our families and schools. UNESCO’s Report of the Secretary-General on the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (A/55/377) states that the reduction and elimination of violence are the greatest gifts that we can give to our children.

A new emerging paradigm in education, holistic education, is surfacing as a possible solution to the bullying, aggression and violence we see today in our schools/society. As a peace educator and holistic teacher, I looked for a school whose philosophy of education is holistic, global and emphasizes the nourishment of the soul and peaceful community.  

My paper is about one such school, based on my doctoral research of the Robert Muller School of Fairview. Robert Muller was past Assistant Secretary-General of the U.N. The focus of my paper is on Muller’s all-inclusive educational framework referred to as The Four Harmonies, the school’s academic program that was plugged into this framework, and the school’s attempts to construct a culture of wholeness, wellness and non-violence. 

It includes: (1) Holistic Education and its emphasis on our students’ essential needs for wholeness, wellness, connectedness, meaning, purpose, relevance and fulfillment, (2) Earth Education, with its emphasis on the right of the child to be in nature, (3) Peace Education, with its emphasis on healing emotional afflictions and on developing communication, problem-solving and conflict resolution skills appropriate for living non-violently and democratically, (4) Multicultural Education, with its emphasis respecting the rights and needs of those from other cultures, and (5) Global Education, with its emphasis on planetary/earth relationships. Also examined are the transformational effects of the program on students, teachers and parents.

 Abstract:

Rotterdam is a multicultural city and a large port city. More than 60% of the children in primary education have a non-Western background. Immigrants came from all over the world, migrant workers, sailors, refugees. In the city there is a children’s monument with the names of all Jewish children who were deported from this city in World War II and killed. This monument forms the basis for a special primary education project on racism and discrimination that is being implemented by many schools in Rotterdam. Children adopt a few names of the Children’s Monument and investigate their history. Then they connect this with their own life. They share their experiences about racism and discrimination, incorporate this into stories, poems and drawings. Human rights and especially the Children’s Rights are explicitly discussed.

Finally, they visit the monument and discuss in their own children’s council what they can do to prevent racism in their own environment and in the world.

Nurit Weisberg Nakash

Rinat Moalem

Dr. Tali Burla 

Abstract:

Children who grow up in the realms of poverty experience, besides the current economic shortage in their lives, also the less realised opportunity for optimal development compared to other children of their age as a result of the reduction in opportunities for optimal education and health services and adequate housing. Indeed, research has shown that these children, going towards adulthood, are usually less educated, suffer more from health problems, and their chances of living in poverty are particularly high.

Add to this the fact that living in poverty and exclusion also involves a lack of symbolic capital, which leads to a reality in which their parents are not seen, heard and lacking respect by the authority figures around them: education, health, welfare staff and more. In this situation, children’s difficulties are interpreted, many times, incorrectly and the surrounding system, including social workers, signifies their parents as responsible for the difficulties and not as partners in finding the solution.

Studies have shown that the chances of children living in low socioeconomic families to be under the supervision of welfare services or placed in out-of-home/residential placement are significantly higher than those of medium-high socioeconomic status children. This is, by assessments, believed to be due to the fact that the tension caused by life in poverty affects parental functioning, plus the fact that these families are more exposed to the ‘eyes’ (control) of welfare services, which leads, in combination with the lack of power and low social status, to over-definition of these children as children at risk.

For several years, the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services has been leading various programs aimed at families living in poverty. 

Abstract:

The report aims to enlighten the research and practical trends in Korczak educational system as the alternative to ordinary school. The innovation methods of education through playing games are under consideration. 

Korczak ideas on the child education in conjunction with high aims and responsibility, education of dreamers who are eager to be free in their choice of the world perception and search of their own way on the premises of ‘King Mateusz adventures’ and ‘Moses’s childhood’ are deemed.

The conclusions are made how to find a solution for the clash if interests in the process of the child development through socializing and cooperation of different generations by means of the family relation modelling and including the previous generation experience in order to decide the issue of the crucial society conflicts such as ethnic ones.

On the premises of the model there is

• the class (7-10 year old kids) where the educator sharing with children his world adventures encourages them to solve the issue of the adventure planning, surviving skills in emergency, understanding people of another cultural background, solving ecological and social issues of another country (‘Secret loving’ project);
• Literature and Drama theatre as a community that unites people, the youth, the elderly actors and spectators of different age groups, discusses existing  burning issues on the stage such as purpose of life, life-and-death, dignity, education, etc. on the examples of productions based on Korczak’s works, staged in Klovskiy Lyceum, a Kyiv family story production on the stage of National Academy of Sciences in Ukraine House of Scientists where the importance of overcoming the generation gap issue is shown; 
• the forms of cooperation in the process of making a scene and producing theatre products (‘Think by heart’);
•  a social club aimed at uniting the elderly in order to present children and the world their experience, mastery, creative concepts on the premises of Korszak’s ideas to preserve a child in every human despite his age, Korczak’s personal example and experience of creative thinking and free time management as a common game (‘Gift Club’ project).

Abstract:

She will explain that she grew with teachers that never heard of Korczak, and never heard about the right to dream. Reality is not enough for a child who needs something more to alleviate his life. The story ‘Street with no name’ is a story about a forgotten nameless street. It is a poetic story about children involved in their community and about the right to choose and democracy. 

Abstract:

In a concept of “live education”, the phrase “live education”, is considered as a metaphor that allows considering the forms of education, and characteristics which make its final process of education more active and efficient. Such forms of education as reverse, mutual game, research, integrated, mixed offline and online allow speaking about the renewal education dynamic and increasing its efficiency. Such concept is based on the principles of the theory and paradigms of trust and social capital, where the trust by itself acts as a social capital and a perspective horizon of opportunities for the implementation the principle of total humanization of educational practices. It is shown what principles, forms and methods of implementation of “live education” can be. 

Introduction. Educational practices in some case represent the most various types of dispositions on a field of manifestation, with its specifics and the agent’s inclusion. Moreover, criteria of typology are various, which at the same time generate also its various understanding. After all, agents who are included in the educational process, as well as by what this process takes place, what results or competences we get at the end, what duration of the educational process, all this can be considered in general broad sense as an educational practices.  

We deal with the global crisis of the institute of education about what researchers around the world state. The key factor of such crisis can be considered in an emergence of new technologies, especially the Internet network, which changes not only the design of everyday practices, but also the “grows” with different social practices, institutions, making online experience more efficient, mobile, rich and meaningful, at the same time creating other problems, namely aggravating alienations, individualization and global disintegration that takes place with the same integration… Researchers in different ways observing the development of educational processes. In this speech I will dwell in detail on the principles of the concept of “live education” and their correlation with Korczak’s ideas in the educational process.

Abstract:

European societies form a multicultural conglomerate shaped by ethic, national and religious groups. The need to ensure emigrants proper shelter, including the need to locate them in different countries, has led to a political conflict. Poland is an active participant of this conflict, not giving consent to accept any refugees. A high number of Poles display this attitude of rejection.

Many surveys expressed by some politicians in the media, often reflect the negative attitude towards refugees shared by more than half of Poles. In our presentation we are going to point to the results of a study carried out among students of education, concerning their opinions about the “migration crisis” in Europe. The purposive selection of the sample results from the belief that pedagogists serve a significant role in building an open, multicultural society. Their attitudes may be shaped during their academic experience, which is also a new challenge to university teachers.

Abstract:

The Lecture is based on my master thesis, which deals with the topic of educational utopias. This topic allowed me to develop a discussion on the relationship between educational philosophy and the educational practice, two disciplines that are part of my life, but I find that the relationship between them are not necessarily obvious. While philosophy is a discipline of ideas and concepts, education is a practice that demands being fully present, in a complex and dynamic human world. By using fiction and narrative, the literary utopia allows writers to articulate educational creed in a sterile condition, “to do” educational work based on pure educational philosophical ideas, without being tied to the dynamics and complexities of reality.

In addition to Korczak’s School of Life (1906), I found two other works that are both educational and obey the rules of the genre of this utopia: the monumental educational book by Jean-Jacque Rousseau, Emile or On Education (1762), and The Jewish People and Its Youth (1919) by the forgotten Austrian-Jewish philosopher, educator, and psychoanalyst, Siegfried Bernfeld. The three are texts in educational philosophy that aim to “translate” abstract ideas into concrete narrative stories. These three pieces are utopias in the sense that they criticize the existing education in society and describe ideal alternative educational frameworks. However, each of these works has a completely different educational-utopian vision.

In my lecture, I present the utopian vision described in each of the works mentioned above, but I will mostly compare the functions of each utopia. The educational utopia can have a large scale of functions for its author: from replacing the educational practice itself, as in Rousseau’s case, to outlining a guiding and motivating vision, as in Korczak’s.

 

Abstract:

 “School of Life” offers a school combining innovative didactic methods and the structure of a utopian children’s society. The right to dignity and the duty to respect are a central axis and the claim that clear boundaries of the rights and obligations of children and youth will help them become effective and active members of society.In this lecture, I use these assumptions through field research carried out in 2016-2019 in three schools in the south of Israel: nine classes (secondary and elementary), teachers, supervisors and parents went through a monthly workshop, “Utopian Pedagogy – what do I deserve?”. (A) During six sessions over a period of a year we read together the work “School of Life”; (B) Each one of them took out what he would like to see in a “school of life” (eg, love, patience, games, technology, no exams, sex, attitude to the ‘other’); (C) On the next stage, the student-teacher-parent and management rated the tools according to what they thought was important, less important, and what would happen in the coming year; (D) After discussions, the students chose four rights to exercise. With The cooperation of the adults (teacher-parent and supervision) we apply the rights chosen in the classroom. I will present the rights that were chosen and how we acted to realize them (and the difficulties along the way).The findings of the study point to education as a challenge and an ongoing adventure: pedagogical perspectives and questions of children’s rights are influenced, of course, by age, ethnicity, life story and life environment in and around the school. Korczak’s pedagogy is a model in the complex reality of a society with great burdens. This research provides a basis for understanding that Korczak and his extensive discussion of rights and obligations are critical to the fabric of life in the 21st century. 

 

Abstract:

Korczak, a visionary pioneer was ahead of his time and in many ways ahead of our time, can be perceived as a  “rich and … strange” pearl that we draw from the depth of the past (Arendt, 1993, p. 205) to look at the present with fresh and brave eyes. The focus of this lecture is on interrogating Korczak’s far-sighted educational vision and examining his ideas and practices that are significant for current educators “across the boundaries of time, place, and contemporary life” (Alexander, 2003, p. 385). I dialogue with Korczak’s legacy as a transformative call for a paradigm change in the current educational discourse that “inspires educators to regenerate and rejuvenate their current practice” (Alexander, 2003, p. 386). 

Many aspects of Korczak’s vision and practice can serve as a stirring and mobilizing model for educational initiatives. Here I explore his perspective, thoughts, and actions through the lens of responsibility. In the Children’s Republic, Korczak created a social and educational environment that facilitated self-actualization of students as individuals and as members of a democratic community. In Korczak’s educational institute, children were perceived as agents of their own growth whose “road is theirs to choose, freely” (2001, p. 101). With such choice, insisted Korczak, comes responsibility. The response-ability of the educators was to facilitate the educational experiences that enhance children’s ability to take responsibility for themselves, for others, and for their community.

This presentation is linked to Theme 2, Conference Topic: The relevance of Korczak’s thought to education systems in the twenty-first century.

Abstract:

The subject of this pаper is the consideration of the unique pedagogical experience and ideas of Janusz Korczak from the point of view of their relationship with the ideas and experience of the movement of teachers who were supporters of the ideas of the “new education”, “new school”, and worked simultaneously with Korczak in the first half of the 20th century.

These teachers (such as D. Dewey in the USA, S. Shatsky in Russia, S. Frenet in France, etc.), who worked in different countries and in different conditions, adhered to the common task of finding ways to put into practice the model of “schools for children”, “schools of life.” Upon careful examination of their experience, it turns out that they were close not only in the formulations of ideas in their main texts, but in their pedagogical tools for organizing the life of children and adults.

The paper will present an analysis of the general ideas of the “new school” movement and the pedagogy of Janusz Korczak. Also, this similarity will be demonstrated by the example of the discovered similarities in biographies of such prominent representatives of this generation as the Polish teacher Janusz Korczak and the Russian teacher Stanislav Shatsky.

Understanding the ideological and instrumental unity of the pedagogical approaches of these teachers, the inclusion of their unique experience in the general search for contemporaries, the connection of these searches of our predecessors with the tasks and problems of modern practice, allow us to outline ways to use Korczak’s pedagogical ideas and experience for the development of education in the 21st century.

The relevance of Korczak’s ideas for the development, in particular, of alternative education will be discussed on the example of the work of a private experimental school and the community of alternative schools in St. Petersburg.

Abstract:

The „Janusz-Award” was first presented in Vienna in 2017 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the „Austrian Janusz Korczak-Society“.

Who can be nominated? 

Children and adolescents who grown up in difficult living conditions and achieved something special should be honored for their remarkable personal achievements.

We clearly and unmistakable draw attention to children’s rights! With the „Janusz-Award” ceremony, we give children and young people the opportunity to receive a slightly different, special award. It is not about competition, but about rewarding efforts and special personal achievements that have led to success, despite difficult start conditions and living conditions. Especially the small steps and small successes are important milestones in the development of young people.

 

Abstract:

In 2017 Kibbutzim College of Education has initiated a unique project aimed at writing an ethical code for Israeli kindergartens. The project was recognized and funded by the Higher Education Council as the College’s flagship program for the years 2017-2019. This project is based on cooperation between an academic teacher training faculty, students and practicing preschool teachers. The project involves issues of educational ethics, philosophy, children’s perspective and human rights. After composing an initial draft of the ethical code, our current goals are set to add more diverse voices to the document, mainly
children’s perspectives concerning their experience at the kindergarten. As well as implementing the code in the field. In addition, in the years 2019-2020 we will conduct a pilot in cooperation with the Education Department of Ramat Hasharon municipality, the leading
preschool teachers and the Municipal Parents’ Committee.
We believe that our project is relevant to the conference because it aspires to promote children’s rights and children’s perspective in educational organizations such as kindergarten, by dealing with educational and ethical dilemmas. Furthermore, our projects highlights subjects such as education in a multi-cultural and multi-identity society that is part of Israel reality. Main goals In the suggested workshop for the conference we would like to fulfill a few of these goals:

1. The participants will experience the process of writing an ethical code for
kindergartens through a simulation of the process that took place at the Early
Childhood Education Department at Kibbutzim College of Education.
2. The participants will be presented with the unique training model, centered around the
collaboration between students, staff and practicing preschool teachers.
3. The participants will discuss academia-field collaborations, as well as the challenges
and opportunities presented by the process to different partners.

 

Abstract:

Korczak calls to see children as equal members of human society and argues that this depends on perceiving them as individuals. The idea that human dignity is planted in her individuality lies in the foundation of the humanistic tradition and therefore one can names Korczak’s educational approach “humanism for children”. This approach stands in opposition to the scientific approach to education, which based on generalizations and brings to conformism through standardization.

Abstract:

One of the interesting phenomena that are worthy of study, is that of a revolution that is “too successful”. The human rights discourse in general, and the one of children’s rights in the educational context in particular, areextremely important processes, which have been beneficial to all those who believein the equal value of all human beings and adhere to the humanistic fundamentals. It seems, however, that here, also, the familiar process of the too successful revolution, or the servant who overpowers his master, has taken place. Unfortunately, there is a growing connection between the rights discourse and the development of the culture of entitlement. A reversal of the needed balance between rights and commitments has gradually taken place over the years. Any worthy educational process, especially one that seeks to shape persons who wish to take responsibility for their lives and for the society in which they live, has to link the freedom to choose (Rogers) to the personal commitment to implement in practice what follows from this choice or is required by it. There is no choice without responsibility.There is no choice without a commitment to the tasks and missions that it entails.The vulgar translation of the rights discourse into that of “I deserve”, into that of demanding and blaming the “other” has intensified the self-victimizing discourse in the educational system. It has undermined one of the cornerstones of the autonomy discourse – the connection between choice and the commitment and responsibility that one undertakes in order to fulfill it.

Autonomous pedagogyseeks to provide the youth with a set of skills and qualities that people have to adopt in order to legislate their own laws and control their destiny, and in order to be involved in shaping the life of the society in which they live. An autonomous pedagogy means to educate the students to take responsibility for their lives as active human beings, who create themselves from themselves. It seeks to expand the role of the student in shaping the learning process and in assuming responsibility for the contents, processes and products of the educational dialog. School has to serve as an essential, active site, fostering full democratic life and enabling the student to constantly practice the basic components of the autonomous-democratic-humanist culture.

Dr. Lotem Perry-Hazan

Matan Gazit

Abstract:

This study examines the fulfillment of disadvantaged youth’s participation rights in collective decision making. It was conducted in participatory frameworks operating under the auspices of a municipality in Israel that implemented a national program aiming to improve the living conditions of children and at-risk youth. The qualitative research design was based on semi-structured interviews conducted with nine youth at risk, aged 16-18, who had participated in collective decision-making processes and with 10 adults who facilitated these participation processes or held senior administrative positions.

The findings showed that disadvantaged youth’s participation in collective decision making is encumbered by unique barriers relating to parents’ livelihood challenges, the absence of family support, difficulties in persevering and in complying with timetables, a derogatory attitude expressed by adults not involved in the facilitation process, and youth’s apprehension regarding these attitudes. Factors surmounting these barriers included relational participation, allowing the participants a sense of belonging; adapted participation, based on flexibility and mediation; and counter participation, which stands as a positive alternative to being marginalized at school. The findings also showed that the influence of the youth’s participation encompassed various collective and personal domains, including the ways it transformed the social construction of the youth. The conclusions are grounded in Foucault’s writings on heterotopia (1967). This conceptualization highlights the dual role of the examined participation as an other space for the youth, which provided them with hegemonic cultural capital and narratives, but was also intertwined with their daily lives in their urban environment context.

Marek Michalak

Batia Gilad

Abstract:

Wielkie dzieła wielkich ludzi są uniwersalne, nie tylko nie przemijają, ale zyskują nowe

oblicza i formy. Idee Janusza Korczaka żyją i rozwijają się nie tylko w kolejnych wydaniach jego dzieł, ale jednocześnie żyją w ludziach i ich działaniach, w ruchach społecznych i różnorodnych inicjatywach podejmowanych na całym świecie. 

Godność, wsparcie, pomoc, opieka – te wartości wprost odczytujemy w prawach Konwencji. Wyrazistym znakiem korczakowskich myśli jest dzisiaj międzynarodowy ruch korczakowski. Zyskuje on coraz większą siłę i znaczenie w różnych częściach świata. Rozwija się w Europie, w obu Amerykach, w Afryce i w Azji. 

Jego ogromną siłą są znakomici liderzy i coraz większe grono zaangażowanych znawców i entuzjastów Korczaka. Ważnymi momentami przełomowymi istotnymi dla rewitalizacji myśli korczakowskiej były rocznice korczakowskie, a zwłaszcza rok 2012, ogłoszony w Polsce na wniosek Rzecznika Praw Dziecka  Rokiem Janusza Korczaka a celebrowany na całym świecie. 

Współcześnie postać Korczaka pojawia się w przestrzeni publicznej w różnych krajach. Jest on obecny w literaturze, w sztuce a także w przestrzeni publicznej oraz w pamięci i myśli pedagogów, nauczycieli i opiekunów dzieci i młodzieży.  Coraz bardziej stają się oni, rozumiejąc myśl korczakowską, obrońcami praw dziecka. 

Na tym tle bardzo atrakcyjnym, coraz bardziej znanym i rozpoznawanym znakiem myśli korczakowskiej jest Order Uśmiechu. Powstał on z inicjatywy dzieci w 1968 roku. W 1978 decyzją Sekretarza Generalnego ONZ został umiędzynarodowiony i jest jedynym na świecie odznaczeniem nadawanym dorosłym wyłącznie na wniosek dzieci. Jest ucieleśnieniem myśli Korczaka o prawie dziecka do dorosłego. 

Order Uśmiechu bardzo wyraźnie odzwierciedla korczakowską podmiotowość dziecka, jego głos i miejsce w społeczeństwie. Podkreśla dziecięce obywatelstwo i zrównuje jego prawa z dorosłymi, tak jak mówił Korczak: Nie ma dzieci są ludzie… Dotychczas Orderem Uśmiechu dzieci nagrodziły ponad 1000 osób z całego świata, do grona których weszli m.in. papieże: Jan Paweł II i Franciszek, Dalajlama XIV, królowa Szwecji Sylwia, Irena Sendlerowa, Nelson Mandela, Matka Teresa z Kalkuty, Oprah Winfery, Steven Spielberg, Joanne Rowling,Peter Ustinov, Astrid Lindgren oraz trzech ostatnich żyjących wychowanków Janusza Korczaka – Itzchak Belfer, Szlomo Nadel i Izaak Skalka.

 

 

Abstract:

Presentation about Korczak’s work and his legacy at the Institute of Special Education, established in 1922 and then transformed into the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw.

In 2004 the UNESCO/JANUSZ KORCZAK CHAIR in Social Pedagogy was established at the Maria Grzegorzewska University, in Warsaw – the city of Korczak. The UNESCO Chair exists to pursue the issues of social inclusion, human and children’s rights, child protection and early intervention in challenging environments being a centre for children’s rights and childhood studies for Central and Eastern Europe.

The presentation will include the history of the Chair and the people and organizations (such as IKA and the Polish Korczak Association), who contributed to its ongoing development.

Abstract:

In 2017 Kibbutzim College of Education has initiated a unique project aimed at writing an ethical code for Israeli kindergartens. The project was recognized and funded by the Higher Education Council as the College’s flagship program for the years 2017-2019. This project is based on cooperation between an academic teacher training faculty, students and practicing preschool teachers. The project involves issues of educational ethics, philosophy, children’s perspective and human rights. After composing an initial draft of the ethical code, our current goals are set to add more diverse voices to the document, mainly
children’s perspectives concerning their experience at the kindergarten. As well as implementing the code in the field. In addition, in the years 2019-2020 we will conduct a pilot in cooperation with the Education Department of Ramat Hasharon municipality, the leading
preschool teachers and the Municipal Parents’ Committee.
We believe that our project is relevant to the conference because it aspires to promote children’s rights and children’s perspective in educational organizations such as kindergarten, by dealing with educational and ethical dilemmas. Furthermore, our projects highlights subjects such as education in a multi-cultural and multi-identity society that is part of Israel reality. Main goals In the suggested workshop for the conference we would like to fulfill a few of these goals:

1. The participants will experience the process of writing an ethical code for
kindergartens through a simulation of the process that took place at the Early
Childhood Education Department at Kibbutzim College of Education.
2. The participants will be presented with the unique training model, centered around the
collaboration between students, staff and practicing preschool teachers.
3. The participants will discuss academia-field collaborations, as well as the challenges
and opportunities presented by the process to different partners.

 

Abstract:

Since the convention on the Rights of the Child was signed and ratified in 1989, children are being awarded with rights that promise equal treatment, more possibilities, participation and security. Article two sheds light on the ban of discrimation and equal treatment of children, but so far one form of discrimination is not taken into consideration: Adultism – the discrimination of children due to age and life experience.In the beginning of the 20th century Janusz Korczak raised awareness on Adultism in his works and formulated complementary children’s rights that fought this kind of discrimination. Among other statements he demanded the right of children to not only speak their minds, but also to be heard. A main question is: How can we use Korczak’s ideas for today’s research and practice, while implementing the „Child’s rights“? Korczak answers that question himself: „We can’t do it without the help of experts, and the expert is the child.“ (Korczak, 1926, [1999] S.398).
Therefore this Paper outlines Korczak’s concept of adultism. Based on that it will then present the currently ongoing participatory research project „Children as Stakeholder“ (University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf & University Kassel, Germany), which relies on Korczak’s concept and puts children
as experts in the centre of its research.
Children between the ages four to six are asked to articulate their perspectives. They enter their facilities with the researchers, film and comment on it. The intention of this project is to hear the children and to gain empirically evidenced insights on their perspectives, the topics they point out as important and therefore the expert view of he children on their kindergarten. First ideas about how children experience, interpret and negotiate rules in their educational everyday life, will be presented.

Abstract:

Although there are a variety of early childhood accreditations available to preschools, learning centers, and childcare throughout North America, none are specifically Jewish. More importantly, none are child-centered, focused first on the rights of the child.

The K-School Accreditation and its sister methodology, The Kaiser Method, was developed as part of an in-depth doctoral research study. The K-School Accreditation is a Jewish educational accreditation designed for early childhood based on the life and work of Janusz Korczak, specifically his commitment to, and development of, the rights of the child. This accreditation promotes high quality early childhood education practices and standards, as well as a commitment to morals, values, and children’s rights.

It is our goal to ensure that early childhood education nurtures the physical, spiritual, academic, and emotional development of every child. We believe that values and ethics should be an integral part of all early childhood education. It is in these first years of life that we have the most impact on not only children’s intellectual development, but also the development of their convictions.

The K-School Accreditation strives to make values an integral part of early childhood education. Instilling values in our children has long been a part of the Jewish tradition. Judaism is more than a faith – it is a way of living kindly, intentionally and with respect for the world and its inhabitants. Respect for children and admiration for kindness are woven into Jewish culture. All education can benefit from the influence of values. As early childhood educators, it is our responsibility to ensure that everything we do is for the benefit of the whole child; their intellectual development as well as their humanity. Although this accreditation is infused with Jewish values, it is not only for Jewish schools. Any school that shows a dedication to children in all aspects of their existence (moral, spiritual, physical, cognitive and emotional) can apply to become a K-School.

Abstract:

Although there are a variety of early childhood accreditations available to preschools, learning centers, and childcare throughout North America, none are specifically Jewish. More importantly, none are child-centered, focused first on the rights of the child.

The K-School Accreditation and its sister methodology, The Kaiser Method, was developed as part of an in-depth doctoral research study. The K-School Accreditation is a Jewish educational accreditation designed for early childhood based on the life and work of Janusz Korczak, specifically his commitment to, and development of, the rights of the child. This accreditation promotes high quality early childhood education practices and standards, as well as a commitment to morals, values, and children’s rights.

It is our goal to ensure that early childhood education nurtures the physical, spiritual, academic, and emotional development of every child. We believe that values and ethics should be an integral part of all early childhood education. It is in these first years of life that we have the most impact on not only children’s intellectual development, but also the development of their convictions.

The K-School Accreditation strives to make values an integral part of early childhood education. Instilling values in our children has long been a part of the Jewish tradition. Judaism is more than a faith – it is a way of living kindly, intentionally and with respect for the world and its inhabitants. Respect for children and admiration for kindness are woven into Jewish culture. All education can benefit from the influence of values. As early childhood educators, it is our responsibility to ensure that everything we do is for the benefit of the whole child; their intellectual development as well as their humanity. Although this accreditation is infused with Jewish values, it is not only for Jewish schools. Any school that shows a dedication to children in all aspects of their existence (moral, spiritual, physical, cognitive and emotional) can apply to become a K-School.

Abstract:

Janusz Korczak was born on the 22nd July in Warsaw with exact year of his birth unknown. He used his experience gained during the medical practice along with pedagogical experience. This contributed to his greater social commitment and opposition to all forms of violation of human rights. Korczak and children from orphanage died in the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942. Janusz Korczak’s ideas, thanks to their timelessness, are extremely important for the whole society, and in a special way for educators. As research shows, many factors are related to the relationship between the student and the teacher. The aim of this study is to check the content of teachers’ narratives about their relationship with students – how teachers describe their students, themselves in a professional role, and, in this case, their relationship with students. The main research question was posed: What is the content of teachers’ narratives about their relations with students? The study used a narrative interview method. The participants of the study were teachers taking part in the workshop “In Search of Subjectivity. Experiences of Janusz Korczak and contemporary educational institutions “. Teachers’ narratives were compared after the first part of the workshop and a month after the end of the second part. The results of the study indicate that the narratives in the second measurement were longer, and the number of thematic categories and the number of individual thematic threads increased in comparison to the first measurement. The analysis of the narrative of the participants of the study showed the presence of many important threads in the idea of Janusz Korczak in the content of the story about the student-teacher relationship.

Abstract:

In 2017 Kibbutzim College of Education has initiated a unique project aimed at writing an ethical code for Israeli kindergartens. The project was recognized and funded by the Higher Education Council as the College’s flagship program for the years 2017-2019. This project is based on cooperation between an academic teacher training faculty, students and practicing preschool teachers. The project involves issues of educational ethics, philosophy, children’s perspective and human rights. After composing an initial draft of the ethical code, our current goals are set to add more diverse voices to the document, mainly
children’s perspectives concerning their experience at the kindergarten. As well as implementing the code in the field. In addition, in the years 2019-2020 we will conduct a pilot in cooperation with the Education Department of Ramat Hasharon municipality, the leading
preschool teachers and the Municipal Parents’ Committee.
We believe that our project is relevant to the conference because it aspires to promote children’s rights and children’s perspective in educational organizations such as kindergarten, by dealing with educational and ethical dilemmas. Furthermore, our projects highlights subjects such as education in a multi-cultural and multi-identity society that is part of Israel reality. Main goals In the suggested workshop for the conference we would like to fulfill a few of these goals:

1. The participants will experience the process of writing an ethical code for
kindergartens through a simulation of the process that took place at the Early
Childhood Education Department at Kibbutzim College of Education.
2. The participants will be presented with the unique training model, centered around the
collaboration between students, staff and practicing preschool teachers.
3. The participants will discuss academia-field collaborations, as well as the challenges
and opportunities presented by the process to different partners.

 

Abstract:

The Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1924) is the first international treaty that stipulates “public assistance” to children beyond national frontiers. Janusz Korczak (1878-1942), however, openly opposed to the Declaration for its appeal for “charity” without specifying children’s rights. The late-coming
Convention on the Rights of a Child (1989), some researchers and educators claim, amended the early Declaration’s orientational flaws contended by Korczak, explicitly stating the rights of children and including all the three pillars of Korczak’s visions – a child’s dignity, rights, and citizenship.
Focusing on a child’s citizenship, I offer a thorough analysis of the Convention from the discipline of citizenship studies. In so doing, I cast critical light on its Article 7 that delineates a child’s right to acquire nationality vis-à-vis normative state membership practices. The relevance of this inquiry lies in the
proliferated international migration and related civic activism in recent years; it has become a common occurrence to see migrant and status-less children in media outlets as they are caught up in the process of border-crossing and deportation – all of which gravely hinder the affected children’s development and their exercise of rights. Furthermore, signatory states are particularly reluctant, if not bluntly resistant, to granting them a citizenship status.
By identifying theoretical predicament in the reading of the Convention in conjunction with citizenship discourse, I aim to make critical implications on its practical constraints. Citizenship distribution is essentially rights-allocation and entrenched in the principle of state sovereignty, and the Convention, while promoting children’s rights to be universalized, wholesomely respects and acknowledges individual, independent “national law” for the welfare of children in “special” circumstances. I substantially argue that the Convention is principally dependent on “good-will” of a state in the face of non-citizen children: that is, the
“charity” directives to which Korczak duly opposed.

Abstract:

This workshop is based upon the continuation of the theme I explored in Seattle Conference in 2018, which emphasised the theme of the Importance of the Common Good and the necessity of selfless self- actualisation.

We observe that the nurturing aspects of our education and trends in our society are often neglected or placed as secondary dimensions of the educational processes and values. Janusz Korczak, Irena Sedler and Stefa Wilczynska all affirm that this compassion based nurturing is essential to a proper functioning of education systems, communities and societies. Societies based on the strong values of nurturing and compassion are able to combat negative ideologies of Nazism, totalitarian oppressive ideologies based on the cult of personalities and populism. Such nurturing qualities of love, compassion, empathy have often been relegated as feminine and therefore less important to the proper functioning of politics, economics, religions, education and civic  society systems.

However Korczak and others have shown that even in the most oppressive of systems and ideologies there is a place for love, nurturing and heroic endeavours which allowed humanity overcome the most abusive aspects of false ideologies. Therefore the values of nurturing and compassion in the orphanages confronted oppression, exclusion, dehumanisation and death. Such communities showed respect for children, the poor and the oppressed and led to a stronger social cohesion, peace and resilience.

Nurturing societies therefore are based on the recognition of human universal needs for love, security, empathy and compassion for the other and for those who are our neighbours. Those engaged in delivering the values of nurturing society are able to engage with human beings in the I -Thou way without objectification of another fellow human beings that too often leads to wars, abuse and disrespect.

Therefore education that prioritises „repairing of the world” through empathy and compassion is vital to our future in which we ought not to neglect education of the hearts and minds, starting from a Young age.  Therefore to reform the world and repair the long standing damages, we have to reassess our humanist moral education in the context of emotional/relational human needs: love, security, compassion, reflection, contemplation, affect regulation and respect for the Mother Earth and all it’s sentient beings. Such approach would contribute towards better mental wellbeing, peace, social cohesion and inclusion for all.

Inclusive, nurturing societies help their citizens integrate wisdom of the hearts and minds which if able to influence education, economic and political systems, would enhance our human relationships and attitudes to our Society, including the Ecology and sustainability on this only planet we have, our Earth. We need to learn how to live in peace with respect for our human rights and justice taking into account our heart as well as our minds. Korczak expressed this essential, existential need so well in his story about the „Planet Ro”.

It is my belief which will be explored in the workshop; that expressed  Love, nurturing and compassion render ourselves and our neighbours worthy of peaceful and respectful coexistence. Therefore these values have to become our way of seeing and acting in the world, as Janus Korczak put it “ I exist not to be loved and admired, but to love and act. It is not the duty of those around me to love me. Rather, it is my duty to be concerned about the world, about human beings….”

 

Abstract:

‘Kol Zchut’ (= All Rights) is a web site containing information regarding the rights of Israeli residents, in all life situations, written in simple language,  Hebrew and Arabic, at no cost and not for profit. ‘Kol Zchut’ operates with the support of the Israeli Ministry of Justice, the Ministry for Social Equality, and JDC-Israel.

About a year ago, following a push from the national supervisor for implementation of the students’ rights at the Ministry of Education, ‘Kol Zchut’ initiated the developing of a novel, on-line platform, dedicated to teenagers, where they can find information about their rights in situations they are more likely to encounter, and easily understand how to realize those rights. 

‘Kol Zchut No’ar’ (=All Rights of Youth) was developed in the last year having now about 100 articles. The process involved a focus group of youth, and the national supervisor for implementation of the students’ rights at the Ministry of Education. The web site is on-line as of September, we are collecting feedbacks from the field, and plan to actively promote its’ usage starting November.  

We see the importance of ‘Kol Zchut No’ar’ spanning even further than the powerful impact of youth being aware of their rights in various life situations, and realizing them. We hope ‘Kol Zchut No’ar’ will be an instrument for developing a social consciousness of human and civil rights – of myself and of others in society. Moreover, we hope to empower the youth of Israel (which naturally holds a high level of internet efficacy), to be a change agent in spreading this consciousness within their families, communities, and social networks.

We will present ‘Kol Zchut No’ar’, its conceptual basis, and hopefully also preliminary feedback from the field. We will also hold a short interactive session with the audience.

Abstract: 

Why it is worthwhile to deal with the pedagogical ideas included in The School of Life [Szkoła życia] – texts written over 100 years ago (in 1907 and 1908) in a different historical context? Is it possible to find the foundations of creating the school of life shared by many (who?) in the 21st century? Time is what links these questions. Time, with its global and local characteristics, is the foundation of existence of individuals and communities. The aim of the presentation is to analyze the perception of time in Janusz Korczak’s pedagogy and to derive the implications for contemporary teachers. What Janusz Korczak writes about time leads to the perception of a human in the full temporal perspective, with their own past, present and future. Both his reflection and practice is definitely future-oriented. This may be the basis for a number of implications for contemporary teachers, such as: the ability to decipher and understand children’s past experiences, carefully interpret daily events and situations, and help children create and accomplish their own visions of the future.

Abstract:

The paper is about current ways of empowering youngsters and children in the spirit of Janusz Korczak. All of the methods have been implemented and practised in Korczakowo youth camp in Poland, where Korczak’s legacy has been applied in practice since 1969. Korczakowo’s main goal is to empower youth in spirit of cooperation and work for other people and in outcome  self-development. Among many Korczak’s methods being part of Korczakowo’s pedagogical system authors would like to present some of them, mostly those which were implemented in recent years, such as Korczakowo Participatory Budget (similar to many cities in the world where the citizens decide what they would like to spend the part of the budget on), Camp’s Council (which gives the kids real power of deciding in some of the camp’s issues), Participants’ Day (during which it is the Korczakowo’s participants that lead the workshops and other activities for colleagues and counsellors). In this paper authors will explain their advantages and put stress on possible issues, being aware that the summer youth camp which lasts for couple weeks differs from other institutions. Authors present the methods and give some tips on how to introduce them in other institutions such as schools etc.

Abstract:

Presentation about Korczak’s work and his legacy at the Institute of Special Education, established in 1922 and then transformed into the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw.

In 2004 the UNESCO/JANUSZ KORCZAK CHAIR in Social Pedagogy was established at the Maria Grzegorzewska University, in Warsaw – the city of Korczak. The UNESCO Chair exists to pursue the issues of social inclusion, human and children’s rights, child protection and early intervention in challenging environments being a centre for children’s rights and childhood studies for Central and Eastern Europe.

The presentation will include the history of the Chair and the people and organizations (such as IKA and the Polish Korczak Association), who contributed to its ongoing development.

Abstract:

Since the convention on the Rights of the Child was signed and ratified in 1989, children are being awarded with rights that promise equal treatment, more possibilities, participation and security. Article two sheds light on the ban of discrimation and equal treatment of children, but so far one form of discrimination is not taken into consideration: Adultism – the discrimination of children due to age and life experience.In the beginning of the 20th century Janusz Korczak raised awareness on Adultism in his works and formulated complementary children’s rights that fought this kind of discrimination. Among other statements he demanded the right of children to not only speak their minds, but also to be heard. A main question is: How can we use Korczak’s ideas for today’s research and practice, while implementing the „Child’s rights“? Korczak answers that question himself: „We can’t do it without the help of experts, and the expert is the child.“ (Korczak, 1926, [1999] S.398).
Therefore this Paper outlines Korczak’s concept of adultism. Based on that it will then present the currently ongoing participatory research project „Children as Stakeholder“ (University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf & University Kassel, Germany), which relies on Korczak’s concept and puts children
as experts in the centre of its research.
Children between the ages four to six are asked to articulate their perspectives. They enter their facilities with the researchers, film and comment on it. The intention of this project is to hear the children and to gain empirically evidenced insights on their perspectives, the topics they point out as important and therefore the expert view of he children on their kindergarten. First ideas about how children experience, interpret and negotiate rules in their educational everyday life, will be presented.

Abstract:

On the Educational Legacy of Janusz Korczak relates with the Conference themes:

– Innovative methodologies in interdisciplinary, intercultural and inter-class education.

– Innovative methodologies in interdisciplinary research and the creation of “open source” knowledge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMPORTANCE OF MOVEMENT IN CLASSROOMS.

 

Rocío Rodríguez Bradley  

Mount Vernon School District, WA. WA.                                  

Technology/Dance Teacher

National Board-Certified Teacher.   

 

 

   

                                                                                                                                         

Have you ever wondered why your students are not excited when you are teaching the most amazing subject? Why the kids look bored and tired 10 minutes after you start teaching? Have you ever felt the sensation of failure after seeing your students showing absolutely no interest in the class that took you so much time and effort to prepare? What is going on? You wonder.  You are confused and want answers. Do not worry, just like you many teachers around the world are experiencing the same situation in their classrooms. So, what is really going on? 

 

The problem is that students in our schools are moving their bodies less and less every day. Due to increase of use of technology in classrooms, social media and heavy academic curriculum (math, science, literature, etc.) Also, in some schools the dominant model for formal learning is still “sit and git.” Many teachers still have the idea that students need to sit still as soon as they get to the classroom, then listen to the lecture for at least an hour sometimes 90 minutes. At the end of the first subject, students have a few minutes to organize their materials and get ready for the next class, which means another hour or 90 minutes of sitting. That is how the school day goes. Usually, from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM.

 

At home, many of our students are not doing any physical activity either. Could be for the high amount of homework that they have to do.  Maybe parents have no time to take the kids to parks to play. Perhaps the increase of criminality in neighborhoods influences parents not to let their children play outside. The point is that our students are sedentary and their time is spent in leisure. 

There is plenty of research and data that shows that students (Does not matter their cultural background, ethnic group or nationality) need to have physical activity due to the benefits that students get on their bodies and minds. Scientists have demonstrated that movement can be an effective cognitive strategy to:

(1) Strengthen learning, 

(2) improve memory and retrieval, 

(3) Enhance learner motivation and morale.

 

These scientists realized after their studies that there are links between thinking and movement, strong connections between physical education, movement, breaks, recess, energizing activities, and improved cognition. 

Experts have also explored physical activity as a way to improve classroom performance. Studies have shown that physical activity in the classroom find that students demonstrate increased alertness, attentiveness, and willingness to learn after participating in physical activity. Physiologically, there is evidence that suggests physical activity improve attention in the classroom. Activity also has success in minimizing off-task and inattentive behaviors. Many play-oriented movements have the capacity to improve cognition in the school. Samples of activities are: 

 

• Exercise play (aerobics, running, chasing, dance routines).
• Outdoor learning activities (digging, observing insects).
• Group or team competitive games and activities (relays, cheerleading).
• Exploratory play (hide and seek, scavenger hunts, make-believe).
• Individual competitive games (marbles, track and field, hopscotch).
• Group noncompetitive activities (dance, drama).
• Walking excursions (outdoors, indoors).

 

All this meaningful research put a lot of pressure on teachers that are already overwhelmed with the demanding academic objectives that they have to teach during the school year, standardized tests, teachers’ own evaluations, etc. Just to think about preparing extra activities and integrating them into the already packed school day is exhausting. Even though, changing the physical activity patterns of students by creating opportunities in the classroom is relatively a new target area, adding movement into our routines should not be a heavy task. 

Keeping in mind the 4 C’s (Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity) of the 21 Century when you organize your school day schedule will help you to energize your students, maintain focus on their tasks, creative writing will improve the same that the students’ motor skills. Students will perform better on standardized academic tests, and their   behavior will be no problem.  You will be amazed to see your students’ learning process growth.

Become a creative teacher you will see endless ways to bring more movement into your lessons and your students will love to be in your classroom.  Make your own routines with your students’ help. 

Are we ready to start moving and learning? Then, let’s dance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you requested I am also sending you my BIO.

 

 

Rocio Rodriguez Bradley is an elementary school teacher in Mount Vernon, WA. USA. She received her B.A.  in Economics at the University of Mexico (UNAM) and her Master Degree in Technology at City University, WA. USA, and her Master’s Degree in Spanish at the University of Salamanca, Spain.  Ms. Bradley got a National Board Certification (English as a New Language in USA. Ms. Bradley has taken many different dance (Mexican Folkloric, Jazz, Belly dancing, Contemporary, Flamenco and Sevillano) courses in Mexico, Spain, and USA. She has participated in classes and seminars from NCTA (East Asia Resource Center) Ms. Bradley has participated on the Board of Directors of organizations such: WABE Washington Association for Bilingual Education. FENAME (National Federation of Economist Mexican Women). LER League of Revolutionaries Economists. OME Independent Organization of Economist Women. Also, she toured in Europe for 11 years (during Summers) with a Mexican Folklore Group. I appreciate your time. Thank you 

 

Sincerely 

 

Rocio R. Bradley 

 

 

 

 

Abstract:

In our lecture we will present the Polish nationwide civic debates carried out recently by social organizations, e.g. “Plan for education” and by universities, e.g. “Starry debates”. These debates addressed the problems of Polish school – its strengths and weaknesses and the need for change. The debates, where most important actors of the education system actively participated: teachers, parents and children, are a consequence of numerous controversies and widespread social dissatisfaction with subsequent education changes recently introduced in Poland. We will try to show the key issues that were raised during these debates, such as: What does the school teach and what does it prepare for? How do we educate children? What do relations at school look like (and should look like)? – in the context of Korczak’s pedagogy and his statements about the role of school and education, its potential and dangers for the child’s development. In our opinion such peculiar approach to the pedagogical tradition and challenges of the present day towards the universal values ​​of education is needed by next generations, not only in Poland. It shows that return to basic questions is important, as well as our today’s answers to them. It may help us to put in context a real dimensions of the school crisis, is its strengths and values.  W shall consider what connects (and perhaps divides) ours and Korczak’s worries about the future of our children. In his works, Korczak often asked these questions rhetorically, through his books and writings, trying to trigger reflection in the educators. Citizens’ debates mobilize participants to change the educational process in a slightly different way – through open debates. Are they equally challenging? Does the school have ever a chance to fulfill our hopes placed in it? How can Korczak’s ideas help steer our contemporary civic discussions?

Abstract:

In our lecture we will present the Polish nationwide civic debates carried out recently by social organizations, e.g. “Plan for education” and by universities, e.g. “Starry debates”. These debates addressed the problems of Polish school – its strengths and weaknesses and the need for change. The debates, where most important actors of the education system actively participated: teachers, parents and children, are a consequence of numerous controversies and widespread social dissatisfaction with subsequent education changes recently introduced in Poland. We will try to show the key issues that were raised during these debates, such as: What does the school teach and what does it prepare for? How do we educate children? What do relations at school look like (and should look like)? – in the context of Korczak’s pedagogy and his statements about the role of school and education, its potential and dangers for the child’s development. In our opinion such peculiar approach to the pedagogical tradition and challenges of the present day towards the universal values ​​of education is needed by next generations, not only in Poland. It shows that return to basic questions is important, as well as our today’s answers to them. It may help us to put in context a real dimensions of the school crisis, is its strengths and values.  W shall consider what connects (and perhaps divides) ours and Korczak’s worries about the future of our children. In his works, Korczak often asked these questions rhetorically, through his books and writings, trying to trigger reflection in the educators. Citizens’ debates mobilize participants to change the educational process in a slightly different way – through open debates. Are they equally challenging? Does the school have ever a chance to fulfill our hopes placed in it? How can Korczak’s ideas help steer our contemporary civic discussions?

Dr. Nira Wahle, Dr. Anat Porat and Goni Shaul. 

Abstract:

Children’s voice and Children’s right for participation in the educational system in general, and in early childhood in particular, is in the heart of the public discourse; yet, children’s voice is hardly ever heard and doesn’t have the chance to influence their daily life. Regularly, children come to a preschool where regularities are predetermined by preschool staff and they do not have the opportunity to take part in the decision making process or to influence their environment. Childhood sociology approaches (Clark, 2004) and child and childhood perspectives (Clark & ​​Statham, 2005; Dayan & Ziv, 2012) perceive children as human beings with rights. Children, even at preschool, have the right to be heard and to participate in shaping their lives. This approach is based on the Children’s Rights Discourse (UN, 1989)​

and is influenced by Korczak’s pedagogical conceptions.

In the presentation we will describe the course ‘children’s perspectives’. We will talk about the humanistic-dialogic approach in teachers training, based on the children’s right discourse. Following, we will enlighten the practices that enable the implementation of this approach in the kindergarten, including conversational skills, interviews with children and qualifying children’s aptitude to effect regularities. 

Three interrelated perspectives will be presented:

1. A description of the process of embedding a humanistic-dialogic worldview and the pedagogy of listening and children’s participation.
2. An introduction of the course practices which facilitates the conceptual change, and the realization and implementation of the dialogic and democratic values.
3. Course’s graduate will present a collaborative research in which students interviewed children about issues related to their daily life. Additionally, the graduate’s reflection of the whole process and the contribution to her professional life will be portrayed.

Dr. Nira Wahle, Dr. Anat Porat and Goni Shaul. 

Abstract:

Children’s voice and Children’s right for participation in the educational system in general, and in early childhood in particular, is in the heart of the public discourse; yet, children’s voice is hardly ever heard and doesn’t have the chance to influence their daily life. Regularly, children come to a preschool where regularities are predetermined by preschool staff and they do not have the opportunity to take part in the decision making process or to influence their environment. Childhood sociology approaches (Clark, 2004) and child and childhood perspectives (Clark & ​​Statham, 2005; Dayan & Ziv, 2012) perceive children as human beings with rights. Children, even at preschool, have the right to be heard and to participate in shaping their lives. This approach is based on the Children’s Rights Discourse (UN, 1989)​

and is influenced by Korczak’s pedagogical conceptions.

In the presentation we will describe the course ‘children’s perspectives’. We will talk about the humanistic-dialogic approach in teachers training, based on the children’s right discourse. Following, we will enlighten the practices that enable the implementation of this approach in the kindergarten, including conversational skills, interviews with children and qualifying children’s aptitude to effect regularities. 

Three interrelated perspectives will be presented:

1. A description of the process of embedding a humanistic-dialogic worldview and the pedagogy of listening and children’s participation.
2. An introduction of the course practices which facilitates the conceptual change, and the realization and implementation of the dialogic and democratic values.
3. Course’s graduate will present a collaborative research in which students interviewed children about issues related to their daily life. Additionally, the graduate’s reflection of the whole process and the contribution to her professional life will be portrayed.

Dr. Nira Wahle, Dr. Anat Porat and Goni Shaul.

Abstract:

Children’s voice and Children’s right for participation in the educational system in general, and in early childhood in particular, is in the heart of the public discourse; yet, children’s voice is hardly ever heard and doesn’t have the chance to influence their daily life. Regularly, children come to a preschool where regularities are predetermined by preschool staff and they do not have the opportunity to take part in the decision making process or to influence their environment. Childhood sociology approaches (Clark, 2004) and child and childhood perspectives (Clark & ​​Statham, 2005; Dayan & Ziv, 2012) perceive children as human beings with rights. Children, even at preschool, have the right to be heard and to participate in shaping their lives. This approach is based on the Children’s Rights Discourse (UN, 1989)​

and is influenced by Korczak’s pedagogical conceptions.

In the presentation we will describe the course ‘children’s perspectives’. We will talk about the humanistic-dialogic approach in teachers training, based on the children’s right discourse. Following, we will enlighten the practices that enable the implementation of this approach in the kindergarten, including conversational skills, interviews with children and qualifying children’s aptitude to effect regularities. 

Three interrelated perspectives will be presented:

1. A description of the process of embedding a humanistic-dialogic worldview and the pedagogy of listening and children’s participation.
2. An introduction of the course practices which facilitates the conceptual change, and the realization and implementation of the dialogic and democratic values.
3. Course’s graduate will present a collaborative research in which students interviewed children about issues related to their daily life. Additionally, the graduate’s reflection of the whole process and the contribution to her professional life will be portrayed.

Dr. Ora Segal-Drori and Dr. Anat Ben Shabat

Abstract:

The aim of the present study was to test children’s perceptions on the inclusion of innovative technologies in the kindergarten. Investigating children’s perceptions or perspectives is a relatively new field of research that has developed over the past two decades. This research stemmed from the understanding that it is important to hear the children’s voice and to perform studies together with children, and not only about them. These insights were influenced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and are also based on two theoretical approaches: the postmodern approach in education and the “sociology of childhood” approach. It is compatible with a democratic worldview that emphasizes the independence of all individuals in the society and their right to express their opinions. Our literature review yielded very few studies on young children’s perceptions and attitudes toward the inclusion of innovative technologies in the kindergarten, and no such a research has been carried out in Israel to date. The current study included 171 Israeli children aged 3 to 6 who participated in in-depth interviews regarding their perceptions on the inclusion of innovative technologies in the kindergarten. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis. Three major perceptions regarding inclusion of innovative technologies in the kindergarten were found: The degree to which the innovative technologies are necessary in the kindergarten; the goals of the use of innovative technologies in the kindergarten; the framework for using innovative technologies in the kindergarten. The conclusions from the children’s answers are that most of them understand the importance of using these technologies and their contribution to many fields, and that kindergarten teachers should include innovative technologies in the kindergarten more extensively and wisely than they actually do today, and should do this with adapted mediation.

Abstract:

The project provides an opportunity for children with disabilities to create dramatic novels about their life in society together with children from the art school of the Theater «On the Riverbank». The project is set using the author’s methods of Fedor Sukhov in one year cycles.

Each year long cycle includes the following stages:

1. Disabled children participate in thematic «TIGers» – theatrical games of the Theater «On the Riverbank».
2. Each child composes dramatic novels. All together children choose 9 novels and write scripts for the play.
3. Children together with the director create an interactive performance consisting of 9 drama novels.
4. Presenting an interactive performance. During the performance the audience chooses 3 novels from 9.
5. The children shoot 3 short films.

This inclusive project is a “river” both in content and in form. 

Each year the audience selects new novels at the final performance for film adaptation, and a year later they watch a new interactive performance and the three short films made by the children. 

Author and Art-director of the project – Fedor Sukhov.

Film director – Daria Krilova. 

Art Curator – Oksana Daniluk.

 

Abstract:

In 2017 Kibbutzim College of Education has initiated a unique project aimed at writing an ethical code for Israeli kindergartens. The project was recognized and funded by the Higher Education Council as the College’s flagship program for the years 2017-2019. This project is based on cooperation between an academic teacher training faculty, students and practicing preschool teachers. The project involves issues of educational ethics, philosophy, children’s perspective and human rights. After composing an initial draft of the ethical code, our current goals are set to add more diverse voices to the document, mainly
children’s perspectives concerning their experience at the kindergarten. As well as implementing the code in the field. In addition, in the years 2019-2020 we will conduct a pilot in cooperation with the Education Department of Ramat Hasharon municipality, the leading
preschool teachers and the Municipal Parents’ Committee.
We believe that our project is relevant to the conference because it aspires to promote children’s rights and children’s perspective in educational organizations such as kindergarten, by dealing with educational and ethical dilemmas. Furthermore, our projects highlights subjects such as education in a multi-cultural and multi-identity society that is part of Israel reality. Main goals In the suggested workshop for the conference we would like to fulfill a few of these goals:

1. The participants will experience the process of writing an ethical code for
kindergartens through a simulation of the process that took place at the Early
Childhood Education Department at Kibbutzim College of Education.
2. The participants will be presented with the unique training model, centered around the
collaboration between students, staff and practicing preschool teachers.
3. The participants will discuss academia-field collaborations, as well as the challenges
and opportunities presented by the process to different partners.

 

Marek Michalak

Batia Gilad

Abstract:

Wielkie dzieła wielkich ludzi są uniwersalne, nie tylko nie przemijają, ale zyskują nowe

oblicza i formy. Idee Janusza Korczaka żyją i rozwijają się nie tylko w kolejnych wydaniach jego dzieł, ale jednocześnie żyją w ludziach i ich działaniach, w ruchach społecznych i różnorodnych inicjatywach podejmowanych na całym świecie. 

Godność, wsparcie, pomoc, opieka – te wartości wprost odczytujemy w prawach Konwencji. Wyrazistym znakiem korczakowskich myśli jest dzisiaj międzynarodowy ruch korczakowski. Zyskuje on coraz większą siłę i znaczenie w różnych częściach świata. Rozwija się w Europie, w obu Amerykach, w Afryce i w Azji. 

Jego ogromną siłą są znakomici liderzy i coraz większe grono zaangażowanych znawców i entuzjastów Korczaka. Ważnymi momentami przełomowymi istotnymi dla rewitalizacji myśli korczakowskiej były rocznice korczakowskie, a zwłaszcza rok 2012, ogłoszony w Polsce na wniosek Rzecznika Praw Dziecka  Rokiem Janusza Korczaka a celebrowany na całym świecie. 

Współcześnie postać Korczaka pojawia się w przestrzeni publicznej w różnych krajach. Jest on obecny w literaturze, w sztuce a także w przestrzeni publicznej oraz w pamięci i myśli pedagogów, nauczycieli i opiekunów dzieci i młodzieży.  Coraz bardziej stają się oni, rozumiejąc myśl korczakowską, obrońcami praw dziecka. 

Na tym tle bardzo atrakcyjnym, coraz bardziej znanym i rozpoznawanym znakiem myśli korczakowskiej jest Order Uśmiechu. Powstał on z inicjatywy dzieci w 1968 roku. W 1978 decyzją Sekretarza Generalnego ONZ został umiędzynarodowiony i jest jedynym na świecie odznaczeniem nadawanym dorosłym wyłącznie na wniosek dzieci. Jest ucieleśnieniem myśli Korczaka o prawie dziecka do dorosłego. 

Order Uśmiechu bardzo wyraźnie odzwierciedla korczakowską podmiotowość dziecka, jego głos i miejsce w społeczeństwie. Podkreśla dziecięce obywatelstwo i zrównuje jego prawa z dorosłymi, tak jak mówił Korczak: Nie ma dzieci są ludzie… Dotychczas Orderem Uśmiechu dzieci nagrodziły ponad 1000 osób z całego świata, do grona których weszli m.in. papieże: Jan Paweł II i Franciszek, Dalajlama XIV, królowa Szwecji Sylwia, Irena Sendlerowa, Nelson Mandela, Matka Teresa z Kalkuty, Oprah Winfery, Steven Spielberg, Joanne Rowling,Peter Ustinov, Astrid Lindgren oraz trzech ostatnich żyjących wychowanków Janusza Korczaka – Itzchak Belfer, Szlomo Nadel i Izaak Skalka.

 

 

Abstract:

Presentation about Korczak’s work and his legacy at the Institute of Special Education, established in 1922 and then transformed into the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw.

In 2004 the UNESCO/JANUSZ KORCZAK CHAIR in Social Pedagogy was established at the Maria Grzegorzewska University, in Warsaw – the city of Korczak. The UNESCO Chair exists to pursue the issues of social inclusion, human and children’s rights, child protection and early intervention in challenging environments being a centre for children’s rights and childhood studies for Central and Eastern Europe.

The presentation will include the history of the Chair and the people and organizations (such as IKA and the Polish Korczak Association), who contributed to its ongoing development.

Abstract:

The idea of children’s participation is rooted in Janusz Korczak philosophy of relationship between an adult and a child. Korczak was the first who called for listening to children and giving them voice. Moreover Korczak proofed  in his pedagogical practice that it is possible. He managed to create a democratic environment where children and adults collaborated where children and adults were partners.  

In the contemporary world social participation of children is  seen as the idea that should be implemented on various social levels. The idea itself is understood multi-dimensionally – as different social activities of children and youth  but participation in decision-making process is seen as crucial. In today’s discourse on children’s participation its collective meaning is in the first row, that means that participation and access of children as a social group (or rather  different groups ) to social goods and to citizenship is primarily considered . 

In the presentation possibilities of treating children as partners on different social levels and in different  environments – schools, local communities and in wider context will be discussed But also some misunderstandings in implementation of children’s participation idea in practice will be considered, to understand deeply its sense.

 

Abstract: 

Why it is worthwhile to deal with the pedagogical ideas included in The School of Life [Szkoła życia] – texts written over 100 years ago (in 1907 and 1908) in a different historical context? Is it possible to find the foundations of creating the school of life shared by many (who?) in the 21st century? Time is what links these questions. Time, with its global and local characteristics, is the foundation of existence of individuals and communities. The aim of the presentation is to analyze the perception of time in Janusz Korczak’s pedagogy and to derive the implications for contemporary teachers. What Janusz Korczak writes about time leads to the perception of a human in the full temporal perspective, with their own past, present and future. Both his reflection and practice is definitely future-oriented. This may be the basis for a number of implications for contemporary teachers, such as: the ability to decipher and understand children’s past experiences, carefully interpret daily events and situations, and help children create and accomplish their own visions of the future.

Abstract:

The paper is about current ways of empowering youngsters and children in the spirit of Janusz Korczak. All of the methods have been implemented and practised in Korczakowo youth camp in Poland, where Korczak’s legacy has been applied in practice since 1969. Korczakowo’s main goal is to empower youth in spirit of cooperation and work for other people and in outcome  self-development. Among many Korczak’s methods being part of Korczakowo’s pedagogical system authors would like to present some of them, mostly those which were implemented in recent years, such as Korczakowo Participatory Budget (similar to many cities in the world where the citizens decide what they would like to spend the part of the budget on), Camp’s Council (which gives the kids real power of deciding in some of the camp’s issues), Participants’ Day (during which it is the Korczakowo’s participants that lead the workshops and other activities for colleagues and counsellors). In this paper authors will explain their advantages and put stress on possible issues, being aware that the summer youth camp which lasts for couple weeks differs from other institutions. Authors present the methods and give some tips on how to introduce them in other institutions such as schools etc.

Abstract:

The educational ideas of Janusz Korczak were tempered and shaped through his dramatic struggle with the social and political realities of the times. An early understanding of the social injustice suffered by children contributed to the formation of his original concepts, according to which any society was split into two groups or classes – one of adults and the other (the oppressed one) of children. Searching for the reason of children’s oppressed status in society, Korczak came to understand two worlds in opposition – the world of adults and the world of children. On the one hand, Korczak became an advocate of children’s interests and their rights against tyranny and the lawless behavior of adults while, on the other hand, he tried to find ways for both adults and children to be reconciled and reach a mutual understanding of the other.

Korczak’s view of children as an independent social stratum was no less important for him than his certainty of the absolute value of childhood. Korczak believes that children possess a multitude of rights, which adults must implicitly admit.  The paper discusses Janusz Korczak`s ideas on children’s rights as the core of his humanistic views. A number of parallels to new approaches in education, composed by the Russian humanist educators Leo Tolstoy and Konstantin Ventsel are drawn. The characteristics of the children’s rights pedagogy, its nature and content are analyzed in accordance with the cultural context. As a conclusion we note that Korczak and Russian humanistic educators considered education an activity that could provide the most favorable conditions for a free development of a child. They deny rigid determination of this process by adults; it defines a child as an active subject of education in contrast of considering him/her just a passive object. The implementation of this approach is possible only when full consideration of children’s rights is present, and when each child is given access to activities that stimulate his/her growth and development, and help him/her to mature and become a valuable and unique personality.  

 

Abstract:

The educational ideas of Janusz Korczak were tempered and shaped through his dramatic struggle with the social and political realities of the times. An early understanding of the social injustice suffered by children contributed to the formation of his original concepts, according to which any society was split into two groups or classes – one of adults and the other (the oppressed one) of children. Searching for the reason of children’s oppressed status in society, Korczak came to understand two worlds in opposition – the world of adults and the world of children. On the one hand, Korczak became an advocate of children’s interests and their rights against tyranny and the lawless behavior of adults while, on the other hand, he tried to find ways for both adults and children to be reconciled and reach a mutual understanding of the other.

Korczak’s view of children as an independent social stratum was no less important for him than his certainty of the absolute value of childhood. Korczak believes that children possess a multitude of rights, which adults must implicitly admit.  The paper discusses Janusz Korczak`s ideas on children’s rights as the core of his humanistic views. A number of parallels to new approaches in education, composed by the Russian humanist educators Leo Tolstoy and Konstantin Ventsel are drawn. The characteristics of the children’s rights pedagogy, its nature and content are analyzed in accordance with the cultural context. As a conclusion we note that Korczak and Russian humanistic educators considered education an activity that could provide the most favorable conditions for a free development of a child. They deny rigid determination of this process by adults; it defines a child as an active subject of education in contrast of considering him/her just a passive object. The implementation of this approach is possible only when full consideration of children’s rights is present, and when each child is given access to activities that stimulate his/her growth and development, and help him/her to mature and become a valuable and unique personality. 

Abstract:

In this lecture I would like to discuss the metaphorical concept of “the school of life” and the criticism it raises with regard to real schools. The purpose of the lecture is to present the story of Janusz Korczak “The School of Life” as a text that explains literally and pedagogically two later Israeli texts: The song “I remember a question” by Judah Amichai and the story “Ofek” by Benjamin Tammuz. The analysis to be offered for each of these texts will focus on the emergent dialogue between the two schools and the relationship between them. In the analysis of the texts, I will combine the literary point of view and the pedagogical one with the aim of highlighting the contrasting analogy between institutional schools and the school of life. Korczak’s pedagogical ideas were created in the early 20th century, but they transcend their time and continue to be relevant and contemporary. The analysis of the texts will emphasize that in two major issues, the Korczakian pedagogy echoes from Amichai and Tammuz’s literary texts – asking questions and knowledge acquisition. Korczak’s well-known expression “to observe, to ask, to answer questions – this is the content of life” faithfully summarizes his contribution to the construction of the pedagogical meanings contained in Tammuz and Amichai texts. After all, Tammuz’s story expresses the learning that comes from a curious look and experiential knowledge, while Amichai emphasizes the power of the questions in the learning process, especially those outside the textbooks. The question of whether Tammuz and Amichai knew Korczak’s story would be difficult to answer. But the question itself reinforces Korczak’s unique contribution as a pioneer in the field of education.

 

Abstract:

Young people aged 15-25 constitute a fifth of the world’s population while those under 18 make up almost 30%. Although they are entangled in political and social life of their communities, their role is limited as they are almost solely devoid of the right to participate in the decision process. But it is them who are severely affected by the governments’ decisions. The person who was among the first to call this practice unfair was Janusz Korczak, a progressive pedagogue and promoter of the rights of the child.

The purpose of this paper is to study the contemporary state of play of children’s rights. The main point of reference will be the Korczak’s concept and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. I will refer to his idea and practice of self-government of pupils as an instrument to forge children’s right to have a say and to practice civic education. What seems a capstone of such initiatives is the idea of Children’s Parliament, implemented in several countries. I will focus on the Polish one, formed 25 years ago, to analyze the changes to see the direction and possible grounds of this evolution. Finally, I will consider whether school education and some specific actions truly help the youth to participate in the life of their communities, like Korczak’s self-government system, or whether they teach theory of citizenship.

 

Prof. Michael Birnhack

Dr. Lotem Perry-Hazan

Abstract:

In the early 21st century, privacy is one of the most challenged and controversial human rights. We focus on students’ privacy in the context of the surveillance school, namely schools that introduce new technologies of surveillance. Given that children’s rights are subject to the adults in control of the relevant social setting, in this study we focus on teachers’ perceptions of the students’ privacy. The case study discussed is of Israeli teachers in the context of school CCTV surveillance. 

Based on 55 interviews, the findings revealed three clusters of teachers’ perceptions: (1) dismissing students’ privacy, arguing that students are indifferent to protecting their privacy, highlighting the school’s need to control students, and portraying schools as public and undemocratic spaces; (2) acknowledging students’ privacy as an independent factor, reflecting students’ desire and need for privacy, characterizing schools as semi-private and compulsory spaces, and highlighting educational considerations; and (3) merging students’ privacy with teachers’ privacy. Almost all teachers noted the importance of their own privacy, and their justifications echoed various privacy theories. 

Our conclusions focus on teachers who alluded to these justifications only when they concerned their own privacy. We term this phenomenon differential rights consciousness – a situation in which a person who has power over others’ rights considers his or her own rights while disregarding their subordinates’ rights. We offer possible explanations for differential rights consciousness, relying on the study of rights consciousness, perspective-taking, and privacy. 

We do not judge the interviewed teachers for being hypocritical. Our challenge was to understand how and why the phenomenon of differential rights consciousness occurs. Understanding the factors that produce differential rights consciousness among teachers may assist in shaping professional development courses that facilitate naming and perspective-taking.

Abstract:

1. Representation of teenagers in criminal proceedings is a unique field of public defense, which combines knowledge of the legal field with the knowledge and ability to work with diagnostic and treatment factors while mentally mature, with the client.
2. There is a special code of ethics to represent minors in criminal proceedings. Rule 1B: “As a rule, the public defense attorney will not act contrary to the wishes and instructions of the minor client. The desired objectives in the procedure, including the answer to the indictment, will be defined by the client, after obtaining advice from the public defense attorney. The legal means for achieving the representation objectives will be determined by the public defense attorney after consulting the client.” Empowering the minor client reflects the need for ethical and non-coercive dialogue with him, and the attorney’s responsibility to recommend him the appropriate way.
3. Purpose of the Youth Law is the rehabilitation of the minor and the criminal responsibility of the minor is a reduced liability in advance under the unique clauses and case law.
4. Juvenile public defender combines legal work and compliance with investigative and criminal rights along with promoting the minor’s right to rehabilitation.
5. Public Defender, despite his natural mature position and desire to advance the good of the minor client, must respect his choice in all stages of the criminal procedure, even if contrary to his favor.
6. In many cases, a criminal case ends in juvenile court without promoting the minor’s interest in rehabilitation. This minor is aware of the price he must pay for his choice.
7. It is appropriate for a youth public defender to undergo training to prepare him or her for a dialogue with a client based on the social interest of belonging and contribution.
8. This discourse should, however, be combined with respect for the minor client subjective interpretation that leads him or her to make decisions that affect the outcome of the criminal procedure, by choice.

Abstract:

In our ever changing world with education systems becoming more and more  preoccupied with assessments, numbers and ranking, when and where are the children and their voices heard and valued? Do  they have the right to be themselves? 

What are we doing, what could we do, to repair the world?  “The world should not be left as it is.” (Korczak, J.) What will it take to move closer to implementing the “school of life” idea? There are innovative educational models and practices in different parts of the world and decision makers whose focus and actions  facilitate children living their rights, but why are these exceptions?

This session aims to identify disconnects between schools in the 21st century and “The School of Life”, and explore some of the innovative education models and practices, and also decision makers outside of schools who have direct impact on children’s rights including some of Howard Gardner’s research and practice,  the 100 languages of children and principles of the work of Loris Malaguzzi in action, pictures of practice from schools, Dream a Dream and the role and actions of the Australian Commissioner of Children’s Rights, Megan Mitchell.

Abstract:

“How wonderful it is to watch for hours, in the woods, atone tree in it, one leaf on it, one vein of leaf – and wonderful hoursflow and pass in the soul” Janusz Korczak

The literature concerning human-nature relations has grown over the recent decades. Some consider these relations as a significantsource for hope, inspiration, healing and a spiritual growth (Dominelli, 2015; Macy & Johnstone, 2012; Louv, 2008, Berger & Mcleod, 2006, Abram, 1997, Roszak, 1993, Seed et al., 1988). However, despite this increasing recognition, little attention has beengiven to the importance roles of these relations and specifically to the meaningful aspects of nurturing children-nature positive relations.

The Eco-Appreciation Perspective (EAP) (Nevo, 2019) is an approach that can help us to increasethe awareness of these relations and cultivate them. EAP is a holistic framework that refers to an individual’s self-ecosystem awareness, emotions, identity and actions. This perspective focuses on our ability to appreciate and value our relations with nature in a deep positive ecological way. It is an ability that can beacquired,learned and experiencedby an ongoing inquiry of these relations and by proactively embracing a more positive view in human-nature relationships.

Most children today grow up in cities or their extended suburbs, disconnected from the natural systems that sustain us (Dank, 2010), withdecreasing opportunities to have meaningful interactions with nature as well as reduced awareness of the important relations with the ecosystems around them. In addition, Richard Louv, who focuses on children-nature relations, claimse in his book “Last child in the woods” that spending less time in nature can lead to a Nature Deficit Disorder. On the other hand, spending more time in nature inspires, increasing creativity, imagination and self-confidence (Louv, 2008).

This lecture will address the important role of nature for children and the ways that cultivate the eco-appreciation connection with it. It will discuss the “The childrenrights for nature”and the conceptual meaning of this right using the EAP approach and the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals).I willelaborate on the concept of” Giving nature a place” and how to apply it in an educational practice, and demonstrate Janusz Korczak’s relationship with nature and what can be learned from it.

 

 

Abstract:

Our speech reviews history of educational initiative in interwar Poland, Warsaw. –
Nasz Dom (Our Home) orphanage, invented and conducted by Maryna Falska and Janusz Korczak, in Warsaw.
We describe Nasz Dom as a figure of „social machine”.
Speech will be focused (in major part) on history, relations between functions of public modern architecture and methods of solving social problems (Cooperation in the thirthies with the local community.).
We will present large collection of archival materials and  documentation of contemporary actions and artistic activities.

Abstract:

Our speech reviews history of educational initiative in interwar Poland, Warsaw. –
Nasz Dom (Our Home) orphanage, invented and conducted by Maryna Falska and Janusz Korczak, in Warsaw.
We describe Nasz Dom as a figure of „social machine”.
Speech will be focused (in major part) on history, relations between functions of public modern architecture and methods of solving social problems (Cooperation in the thirthies with the local community.).
We will present large collection of archival materials and  documentation of contemporary actions and artistic activities.

Abstract:

The transition of society to a qualitatively new information state has exacerbated the need for a more subtle cognition of the personality, also appeared the need to help every young man to become a subject of his own life, to realize the desire for self-determination, self-realization, self-reflection, and mastering the culture of communication and behavior. All this makes the rights education not just an urgent task, but also a socially significant characteristic of the educational process of any university. The aim of the article is to present the results of   the research into the rights education of students in the youth organization. 205 students of the 1-2 academic year of the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology of Kazan federal university, Russian Federation took part in the empirical research (103 students are members of Kazan Youth Korczak society “The sun for Children”, 102 students are not the members of the society). The practical significance of the research is connected with the possibility of using its results to strengthen humanistic tendencies in the practice of higher education, with facilitating to promote the organization of educational work on fundamental grounds – rejection of violence, tolerance, respect for the personality. The materials of this study can be used in the organization of educational work in the university, teaching aids for teachers, in organizing the activities of youth organizations.

Abstract:

The transition of society to a qualitatively new information state has exacerbated the need for a more subtle cognition of the personality, also appeared the need to help every young man to become a subject of his own life, to realize the desire for self-determination, self-realization, self-reflection, and mastering the culture of communication and behavior. All this makes the rights education not just an urgent task, but also a socially significant characteristic of the educational process of any university. The aim of the article is to present the results of   the research into the rights education of students in the youth organization. 205 students of the 1-2 academic year of the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology of Kazan federal university, Russian Federation took part in the empirical research (103 students are members of Kazan Youth Korczak society “The sun for Children”, 102 students are not the members of the society). The practical significance of the research is connected with the possibility of using its results to strengthen humanistic tendencies in the practice of higher education, with facilitating to promote the organization of educational work on fundamental grounds – rejection of violence, tolerance, respect for the personality. The materials of this study can be used in the organization of educational work in the university, teaching aids for teachers, in organizing the activities of youth organizations.

Dr. Michal Sadan & Madene Shachar 

Abstract:

Yad LaYeled, established in 1995, as part of the Ghetto Fighters’ House. It is a   Holocaust Educational-Memorial museum for children from the age of 10 and up, but also for adults. The core exhibition in the museum tells the story of “The Jewish Child during the Holocaust”. Along the exhibition path there is a separate hall dedicated to Janusz Korczak. The exhibition has an innovative way of presenting Korczak’s legacy, evoking universal moral, educational and philosophical questions in an ongoing dialogue-based manner. 

The designers (Miri Kedem, Ori Abrahmson and Ronit Lombrozo) reflect Korczak’s pedagogical and philosophical principles, ideas and core values through the exhibition design. They have succeeded in making a brilliant and profound dialogue between the media and the message. The unique design integrates three layers of meaning: visibility, connotation and insight. On the visibility layer visitors experience a circular hall that promotes conversation at eye-level. The connotation layer reflects Korczak’s dialogic idea of talking with the children instead of to the children. The insight layer leads us to construct insights about Korczak’s rights-based approach to life. 

Our lecture will focus on the unique opportunities hidden in the design of the Korczak Hall, as an educational environment. Our claim is that the ‘media’ –the design- affects the ‘message’: Korczak’s rights-based approach and core values, such as inclusion and respect. 

 The key questions are:

1. How does the design of the Korczak Hall construct insights that fit with Korczak’s rights-based approach with children? 
2. How does the museum’s educational staff use this unique opportunity to create meaningful and effective dialogic learning activities that deal with children’s rights and values? 

Dr. Michal Sadan & Madene Shachar 

Abstract:

Yad LaYeled, established in 1995, as part of the Ghetto Fighters’ House. It is a   Holocaust Educational-Memorial museum for children from the age of 10 and up, but also for adults. The core exhibition in the museum tells the story of “The Jewish Child during the Holocaust”. Along the exhibition path there is a separate hall dedicated to Janusz Korczak. The exhibition has an innovative way of presenting Korczak’s legacy, evoking universal moral, educational and philosophical questions in an ongoing dialogue-based manner. 

The designers (Miri Kedem, Ori Abrahmson and Ronit Lombrozo) reflect Korczak’s pedagogical and philosophical principles, ideas and core values through the exhibition design. They have succeeded in making a brilliant and profound dialogue between the media and the message. The unique design integrates three layers of meaning: visibility, connotation and insight. On the visibility layer visitors experience a circular hall that promotes conversation at eye-level. The connotation layer reflects Korczak’s dialogic idea of talking with the children instead of to the children. The insight layer leads us to construct insights about Korczak’s rights-based approach to life. 

Our lecture will focus on the unique opportunities hidden in the design of the Korczak Hall, as an educational environment. Our claim is that the ‘media’ –the design- affects the ‘message’: Korczak’s rights-based approach and core values, such as inclusion and respect. 

 The key questions are:

1. How does the design of the Korczak Hall construct insights that fit with Korczak’s rights-based approach with children? 
2. How does the museum’s educational staff use this unique opportunity to create meaningful and effective dialogic learning activities that deal with children’s rights and values? 

Abstract:

Despite the resistance of the United States to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, work is happening across the country that embraces essential values and aspects of the Convention, including the importance of authentic child participation. In the fall 2018, the Children and Family Justice Center (CFJC) launched the Uplifting Youth Voices – Reimagining Youth Justice project seeking to engage youth who have been incarcerated, their families and other support persons in the community in policy-development “think tanks.” The opinions and experiences of youth and families impacted directly by the juvenile justice system are often underrepresented in the policymaking process. To elevate the voices of youth and families, in collaboration with local community partners, the CFJC launched the think tank workshops in the fall 2018. The initial think tanks have led to valuable data and insight, as well as meaningful experiences for participants, and a community informed policy blueprint to end the harmful and punitive practice of youth incarceration has begun to emerge. Beginning in September of 2019, the CFJC has a unique opportunity to host think tanks within the four walls of every Illinois youth prison, opening an opportunity for participation of incarcerated youth in policy development. In addition to the think tanks, the CFJC has developed a youth leadership component ensuring that youth facilitators co-lead the development of materials, curriculum, and follow up advocacy, and of course, the think tanks themselves. Youth leadership and participation in every aspect of the project is essential to furthering the goal of uplifting youth voices and securing youth a seat at the policy table.

Abstract:

Joop Berding opens his essay about Korczak with somewhat of an apology: “he was by no means a philosopher of education in the current academic sense”. 

A similar tone is found in the introduction of HaKibbutz HaMeuhad to the Hebrew translation of How to Love a Child: “Korczak’s pedagogic writings […] are not organized as one well-drafted paradigm”. 

It is a book that offers a collage of lively images, everyday metonymies, an impressive and expressive hyper-realism. A knotted shoelace, an ink stain on a notebook page, cut fingernails, a garter, a soap, a towel. A description of an intensive, lively being. Within the detailed description of waking up together, the educator’s moments of peace that are often interrupted and the day’s routine, we find some resonating sentences that form a stark contrast to the multiple existence: “the greater the number of orders and prohibitions dictated by apparent concern for the well-being of  the children”. 

Korczak points out a defining, insightful moment at the beginning of his path as an educator: “for the first time, I spoke not to the children but with the children. I spoke not of what I would like them to be but of what they would like to and could be”.  Korczak’s How to Love a Child is a daring, intense essay, surprisingly rich with details of the everyday situations described in it. It does not strive for harmony, and the book seems to reflect the noise of children, without trying to beautify it and present it as a childhood heaven, without being afraid or intimidated by its chaotic nature, with endless conflicts and even violence, which are an inseparable part of this existence. It is a being whose development cannot be planned or predicted ahead of time, and according to Korczak, this is the educational existence that allows one to talk with the students and not to them, and establish an independent, sovereign and learning children community.

An in-depth reading into Korczak’s essay is an invitation for intimacy with the educational practice, its hardships, wounds and fractions of moments. It allows the educator to look through the prism of everyday metonymic situations and explore ideological dilemmas and significant educational decisions: The educator’s movement between the individual child and the group, the privacy of the child’s emotional world, authority and independence, the boundaries of the educator’s responsibility, and more. It is also a statement, defining educational writing as a form of art and the educator as an observing artist.

 

Abstract:

Human work is this universalistic value, which creates a number of other values that guarantee the proper development of man as an autonomous individual and at the same time a social being. The properly understood work and its execution in the category of diligence, gives a sense of human identity deepening, introduces an order into everyday life and interpersonal relationships.

Analyzing Janusz Korczak works, which grew out of his intellectual work and diligence in the famous triad of being a doctor – writer – educator, we notice that it is a specific and innovative message for the child’s contemporary professional pre-orientation, which should occupy an important place in the education system, not only as something declarative.

The aim of the speech is to present Korczak’s wealth for educational and social child upbringing to work and diligence. Child work appears here as a unique education way at various levels and for professional work in adulthood, work done with passion and wisdom.

Abstract:

In Greece Janusz Korczak is known for his contribution to children’s rights, but his pedagogical ideas remain almost unknown. Recently we have tried to study and discuss Korczak’s pedagogical ideas with our students, pre-service early childhood education teachers.  Two issues seem to be found important by them: the children’s right to respect and children’s right to participation. The first one enriched their attitudes to children and especially those children living in vulnerable situations. Based on the second one students design projects during which their pupils in kindergartens “raised” their voices as the youngest citizens of the society. This kind of practices can contribute significantly the daily practice in classroom, especially if the current socio-economic situation in Greece is taken into account: from one hand the financial crisis and on the other the migration issue have put our values (e.g. European values, democracy, humanistic perspective, human rights, etc) into question. The study of Korczak’s pedagogy was not only of resource of knowledge but a valuable reason for reflecting on our ideas and attitudes and enriching our pedagogical praxis.

Dr. Lotem Perry-Hazan, Eden Tal-Weibel 

Abstract:

Education law in general and students’ rights in particular have become more and more relevant to teachers’ daily work. Various trends have contributed to this process. One trend is the growing awareness of children’s rights, following the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. In addition, legal narratives have penetrated school systems due to strict disciplinary policies that emphasize semi-legal procedures in suspensions and exclusions from school. Moreover, the use of education law litigation is increasing, both by parents and social movements seeking to reform education systems. 

In this qualitative study, we examined Israeli teachers’ knowledge about students’ rights and their reports on their actions in instances of possible violations of these rights. We also examined whether teachers independently seek out legal information, and characterized the reasons for teachers’ reluctance to seek out such information. Additionally, the study analyzed teachers’ perceptions of students’ rights and portrayed the role of teachers’ social and organizational status in these perceptions.

Semi-structured interviews with 30 teachers revealed that although teachers encounter frequent legal questions, most of them were only minimally knowledgeable, expressed reluctance to seek out information, and perceived themselves as lacking the capacity to do so. Moreover, due to legal myths that purportedly limit teachers’ autonomy, teachers reported feeling helpless and acknowledged violating rules that in actuality do not exist. The conclusions discuss the interface of legal literacy, Israeli teachers’ low social status, and their perceptions of teachers’ professionalism. We argue that teachers’ reluctance to engage in knowledge work concerning students’ rights frame them as passive agents whose professional responsibilities are limited and in turn, perpetuate their low social status. We also argue that due to the growing dominance of the legal discourse in schools, teachers’ knowledge of students’ rights and their capacity to seek out legal information may serve to empower teachers and strengthen them as professionals.

Abstract:

In my lecture I want to answer the question which meaning arises from Janusz Korczak‘s life and work for the educational theory of early childhood, i.e. especially for the pedagogical work in the field of early childhood education for children from age 0 to 6 (in Germany: from birth until the beginning of school). The following aspects will be dealt with: 

• Which role did early childhood play in Korczak‘s works? For this purpose different well- known and rather unknown publications will be taken into consideration. 
• Was he himself engaged in the field of early childhood education? 
• Which of his – especially of the participatory and democratic – methods can be used for today’s work in the Kindergarten – and above all: which ethical attitude must form the basis of such work? 
• Finally Korczak‘s timeliness for the sector of early childhood education will be illustrated. 

The mean of the lecture is to demonstrate that Korczak (1878/79−1942) – a pioneer of children’s rights as well as participatory pedagogy – contributed a lot to this sector and his thoughts can be inspiring for pedagogical work in early childhood daycare facilities. The lecture will be held in English, probably with some parts in Hebrew.

Abstract:

In his novel, King Matt the First (1923), Korczak described the naïve efforts of children to establish a kingdom of peace where boys and girls, Europeans and Africans, rich and poor, settle their matters in a just and rational way. Only the adults fail them cynically and return society to the known reality of wars.

Korczak is using a children’s story as a vehicle to express his inspiring ideas of all human solidarity that overcome the divide lines between adults and children, social classes, genders, races, and faiths. When his children ask him about the troubling realities of society, he offers them through a naïve story a utopian vision of all-men harmony. King Math inspired generations of children and adult and was translated to dozens of languages.

After the war, Korczak’s disciples, among them his close friend and aid at the children’s newspaper Mały Przegląd, Igor Newerly, made the book into a full-length color movie: King Matt the First (Krol Macius Pierwszy, Wanda Jakubowska, 1957-58, 89 min). It is a naïve children’s movie, maybe not fast enough for the current eye and not sophisticated as movies created in these days, but it is a unique Polish piece of art and a wonderful document of its own. It opens another window to Korczak’s ideas about men and education, the interaction between children and adults, peace education and the realities of war.

In the limited time of our workshop we will watch a few scenes from King Matt and will discuss the way Korczak’s ideas were translated into literature and the language of a naïve cinema.

Abstract:

My talk begins with focus on Article 31 of The UN Convention on Children’s Rights which states: “Parties will recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.” 

In both homes run by Janusz Korczak – “Nasz Dom” (Our Home) directed together with Maryna Falska and “Dom Sierot” (Home of the Orphans) jointly directed with Stefa Wilczynska, the right of the child is evident in all these forms: rest; leisure, play, recreational activities, cultural life and the arts. Korczak writes about. He turns to us with a clear message: “Children want to laugh, run, frolic. Caregiver, if life for you is a cemetery, allow them to see the meadow therein.” Korczak J (1912-1914), How to Love a Child and other Selected Works, (2018), Vol. 1, p141

I hope that we can fully agree with Korczak’s demand, it makes sense, is very logical. However, as is so common to his style of advice, he does not tell us how to accomplish this. This then is for each and every one of us to find the most suitable way for each and every group.

What he does teach us is to observe. Through observation of the child, the group we can better get to know the person, his/her behavior, the inter-action between the peers, their temperament and based on our observations, we will be able to draw conclusions and act. Korczak writes: “On the basis of my observation of children at summer camp I can state firmly that a normal child always prefers playing ball, racing, swimming, or climbing trees to withdrawing secretly into a corner for dreams known only to him.” Korczak J (1904-1908), How to Love a Child and other Selected Works, Summer Camp (2018), Vol. 1, p184 

In his writings Korczak relates to many formats of leisure activities:       Sport: Summer Olympics; swimming; kayak; athletics; ping pong; basketball; volleyball; football; boxing, …

Games: Strength (standing on one leg or arm pull-downs); Distance (long jump; spitting, …); Card & Board games (Poker, Domino; chess, …); Fun-games (skipping; jacks, …)

Theatre: “We also regard amateur theater as a useful pastime, albeit without pompousness and unnecessary raptures and applause. The children ought to discover that playing theater is just like playing ball, that they are not doing anything out of the ordinary. The little concerts ought to be of a homely, quiet nature rather than theatrical and portentous. An adult may want to contribute to the concert by reading something fashionable.” Korczak J (1899), How to Love a Child and other Selected Works (2018), Humorous Pedagogy,Vol. 2, p94

Many of the activities mentioned by Korczak are still relevant today and we easily recognize them and accept them without any hard feelings. However, manipulating what Korczak writes: “Much has changed. Games and play are no longer condescendingly tolerated, …. The changes are happening by the hour, the mentality of the average paterfamilias and the caregiver cannot keep up.” Korczak J (1918), How to Love a Child and other Selected Works (2018), Vol. 1, p62-63 – I adopt his words and ask: What is our role as responsible caregivers to a rising, acute problem, the cell-phone?  

Major changes are fast replacing the familiar games of the past. More and more children (and their so-called role-models, adults) are glued to their cell-phones, obsessed with games and so-called leisure activities. Research shows that cell-phones expose us to a form of electromagnetic radiation and scientists have suspected that this radiation might increase the risk of brain cell damage. There is a rise in traffic accidents, cancer, and health effects such as changes in brain activity and sleep patterns. To what extent do we enable RIGHTS?

Janusz Korczak writes: “How do you foresee, how do you protect? A butterfly over the bubbling stream of life. How do you make it hardy and not burden its flight, fortify it without wearing out its wings? With one’s own example, then, with help, advice, a word? And if he rejects it? In fifteen years, he staring into the future, you – into the past. In you, memories and habits, in him – changeability and impudent hope. You doubt, he anticipates and hopes; you fret, he hasn’t a care.” Korczak J (1918), How to Love a Child and other Selected Works (2018), Vol. 1, p6

This brings me back to the beginning, to The UN Convention on Children’s Rights which states: Article 3 – … ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or her well-being, … Article 19  – … protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation…

Lea Lipiner

Reuven Nadal 

Abstract:

The lecture is in the spirit of “Growing Roots” books that tells about Solomon’s memories. In the book Korczak and Stefa are described as significant figures in shaping the trainees’ personality. The book describes the way in which the orphanage was run in the spirit of Korczak’s pedagogical view 

Shlomo Nadel, who passed away at the age of 97, admired Korczak and was grateful for everything he received from him. He said, “thanks to this wonderful man, I had a childhood in heaven.” It was important for him to preserve Korczak’s memory not only as the hero of the Holocaust, but also as an intellectual, writer and eminent pedagogue.
The photos in the lecture enrich the wonderful stories of the apprentice Shlomo.  The photos of the orphanage were donated by the courtesy of Nadel family.

Abstract:

Traditional teachers training is based on theoretical foundations and systematic and rational experience.However, the 21st century is characterized by global changes that include demographic, social, cultural and technological changes.

The information revolution and its availability aroused the need to examine the professional and educational identity of teachers that is required today and how they can be trained to cope with the existing reality.It should obligate educators to deepen the discussion of values and moral-oriented questions and to seek for new, contemporary training teachers’ programs. It includes a process of forming professional identity. Practical and theoretical tools must be provided in order to deal with knowledge organized in a network structure and non-linear structure.  (Beck, 2014).

Korczak’s ideas are sprinkled in his writings and stories.  This fact allowed educators to gather the relevant ideas and to use them as needed. The question is: Did Korczak have a Theory? Examining the theory that, consciously or unconsciously directed his educational activities will be introduced. Korczak’s educational foundations based on humanistic-democratic approach included: recognizing the child as a person with rights and obligations, listening to the child’s voice and a democratic way of life that facilitates the children’s partnership while maintaining justice and fairness.

A collection of Korczak’s ideas for training teachers will be presented. His ideas for forming teachers’ identities included characteristics that correspond to different definitions of professional identity today. He encouraged educators to use strategies such as: awareness of personal identity, experience, creativity, clinical approach, metacognitive and reflective learning, narrative inquiry, partnerships and personal mentoring. Korczak’s ideas are addressing contemporary educational problems. These ideas can inspire teachers and provide tools forteachers in the process of forming their identities.

 

Haim Megira

Ron Cohen Paraira

Abstract:

Over 40,000 youth participate in a Journey to Poland each year, most through the Ministry of Education. The Journey deals with three main subjects: The Jewish world that once was, the Holocaust, and Poland, both in the past and today. 

Unfortunately, during the Journey, Janusz Korczak is mentioned only briefly, almost by the way, usually, at one of the following stops in Warsaw: the memorial at the Jewish cemetery, a memorial stone along the Heroes Trail that bears his name, the monument at Sienna 16 where the orphanage stood and from which Korczak, Stefa, the educational staff and the orphans were rounded up on 5.8.42, sent to the Umschlagplatz and deported to Treblinka. Another memorial is the stone at Treblinka on which the words “Janusz Korczak and the Children” is engraved. 

For the most part,  the guides on these Journeys briefly tell the story of Korczak next to one of the above mentioned memorials, mostly talking about the “last march” and the last hours of his life without mentioning his unique and ground-breaking educational work, without praising his social and community activities, nor his great influence on many lives, on people from different walks of life – the life story that goes beyond any memorial that bears his name. Sadly, very few go to the orphanage on Krochmalna Street where there is an opportunity to physically go in and to expand on Korczak’s educational outlook and world view. 

We suggest another way of looking, a new way to teach 40,000 youth that go on the journey: a journey in the spirit of Janusz Korczak, personal responsibility, an independent management committee made up of the journey participants, division of responsibility, a joint newspaper, peer guiding throughout the journey, an active court, and more.

The conduct of the guides and teachers will also be in the educational spirit of Korczak.  An in-depth learning session on Janusz Korczak will build the foundation for all stages of the journey will be decided. The “language” of this process will be the “language of Janusz Korczak.” 

Nurit Weisberg Nakash

Rinat Moalem

Dr. Tali Burla 

Abstract:

Children who grow up in the realms of poverty experience, besides the current economic shortage in their lives, also the less realised opportunity for optimal development compared to other children of their age as a result of the reduction in opportunities for optimal education and health services and adequate housing. Indeed, research has shown that these children, going towards adulthood, are usually less educated, suffer more from health problems, and their chances of living in poverty are particularly high.

Add to this the fact that living in poverty and exclusion also involves a lack of symbolic capital, which leads to a reality in which their parents are not seen, heard and lacking respect by the authority figures around them: education, health, welfare staff and more. In this situation, children’s difficulties are interpreted, many times, incorrectly and the surrounding system, including social workers, signifies their parents as responsible for the difficulties and not as partners in finding the solution.

Studies have shown that the chances of children living in low socioeconomic families to be under the supervision of welfare services or placed in out-of-home/residential placement are significantly higher than those of medium-high socioeconomic status children. This is, by assessments, believed to be due to the fact that the tension caused by life in poverty affects parental functioning, plus the fact that these families are more exposed to the ‘eyes’ (control) of welfare services, which leads, in combination with the lack of power and low social status, to over-definition of these children as children at risk.

For several years, the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services has been leading various programs aimed at families living in poverty. 

Nurit Weisberg Nakash

Rinat Moalem

Dr. Tali Burla 

Abstract:

Children who grow up in the realms of poverty experience, besides the current economic shortage in their lives, also the less realised opportunity for optimal development compared to other children of their age as a result of the reduction in opportunities for optimal education and health services and adequate housing. Indeed, research has shown that these children, going towards adulthood, are usually less educated, suffer more from health problems, and their chances of living in poverty are particularly high.

Add to this the fact that living in poverty and exclusion also involves a lack of symbolic capital, which leads to a reality in which their parents are not seen, heard and lacking respect by the authority figures around them: education, health, welfare staff and more. In this situation, children’s difficulties are interpreted, many times, incorrectly and the surrounding system, including social workers, signifies their parents as responsible for the difficulties and not as partners in finding the solution.

Studies have shown that the chances of children living in low socioeconomic families to be under the supervision of welfare services or placed in out-of-home/residential placement are significantly higher than those of medium-high socioeconomic status children. This is, by assessments, believed to be due to the fact that the tension caused by life in poverty affects parental functioning, plus the fact that these families are more exposed to the ‘eyes’ (control) of welfare services, which leads, in combination with the lack of power and low social status, to over-definition of these children as children at risk.

For several years, the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services has been leading various programs aimed at families living in poverty. 

Abstract:

What is Pedagogy?

The word pedagogy is a derivative of the two Greek words: “I lead” and “boy/child”: hence, pedagogy means “to lead a child”. Surprisingly, the Hebrew word “חינוך” is used in a similar way, and refers to the coaching and mentoring process of both parents and teachers.

I would suggest that pedagogy is the way we adults choose to escort and guide a child from the stage ofdependence at an early age, to full independence.

In order to fulfil this task, our parenting has to be balanced and enabling: we need to offer the child the love and affection he or she needs, as well as a clear set ofrules and boundaries. Good parenting is like a donut- it surroundsthe child with soft mantle of care and supervision. But this donut has a hole inside,and this hole is the child’s space – his or her autonomy. We cannot underestimate the importance of this “hole”, as this autonomic space is crucial for a child’s healthy development.

At infancy, the child’s autonomy is very narrow.  As the child grows, this autonomy grows with him or her.  The toddler will let us know what his or her favorite foods and toys are. Later, the same child will choose what to wear and when to do homework, and as he or she turns into a teenager, will insist on making more and more important choices – friends, hobbies anddaily routine.

During 18 years of parenting, we managethis process of growing autonomy. Without this autonomy, the child will not acquire the essential skills needed to survive and thrive in the grown-up world.

Autonomy in the Educational System

Now let’s see what’s happening inside our education system. In kindergarten,children get fairly broadautonomy. Yet, the moment they enterthe school system, the “door of freedom“ closes behind them, and young studentsare deprived of their right to make even their most basic choices, such aswhen to eat or use the toilet. In schools, we dictate nearly everything: where to sit, when to speak, with whom to work and how to study. It isn’t surprising to find that the Hebrew word for teaching literally means: “giving orders”. Moreover, againstall logic,the student’s autonomy barely grows with him or her during their 12 years in school.

The result of this deprivation is obvious: we see students objecting to this system by showing low motivation, lack of interest in sharing feelings and ideas, absenceof curiosity and a tendency towards “technical” learning,in order “to get done with school” with as little effort as possible.

Abstract:

In The School of Life, Janus Korczak presents an alternative, utopian vision of the future of society. Like Owen, Bacon, and Campanella before him, he places education in the center of societal change — in theory and in practice, Korczak’s school of life served as both an experiment in pedagogy as well as a field of research into social relations in general. As a scientist, Korczak was an empiricist, so much so that he believed that he could construct a new metaphysics of humanity, and conduct experimental field research from which he could draw conclusions and inform theories on humans and society in general; as an educator, the school of life was a very real attempt at constructing institutions (newspaper, court, commerce) based on values (equality, freedom, participation) that he believed would optimize human development, not only for the child, but also the adult; and as an activist, he believed that the first two components could directly inform practical proposals for systemic societal reform. Although he never explicitly thought about the importance of a clear epistemology for his activities as a scientist, educator, and activist, a rereading of The School of Life — and other key writings in the Korczak canon — might provide important lessons for the study and reform of societal developments in the 21st century.

Abstract:

Yadlin Elementary School implements a culture of rights as a basis for discourse and trust-based relationships between teachers and students.

In my lecture I will talk about the principles that guide the educational concepts of our school.

The school teaches 21st century skills and abilities to its students, whose purpose is to instill values ​​and tools that will serve them and prepare them for their lives as adults. Among other things, our goal is to lead them to success in school, including their continuation of learning in the education system (junior high school and high school) as well as to prepare them for life in various fields, where an adult is required to show responsibility.

The skills and abilities developed at school include personal development, practical success, personal empowerment, initiative, achievement, planning, goal setting, self-control and personal responsibility. All derive from the purpose of building a foundation of trust between teachers and students, thus preparing them for continuing their education in the education system as well as continuing their lives as graduates in a rapidly changing competitive world.

The educational infrastructure at the school is based on developing among students critical thinking, awareness to their personal and social responsibility and to the implementation of children’s rights in the world.

The Yadlin School, the Young Scientists Academy in Rishon Lezion has for the past seven years applied the principles of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and Student Rights in Educational and Social Processes among Students and Teachers.

The school developed curricula and training programs for the educational staff and the students with the aim of teaching them about the realization of children’s rights alongside the personal and civic responsibility of students and the obligations derived from teachers in their professional role.

Moreover, the basis of knowledge regarding children rights is applied in the relations and the trust that is built between school, parents and community.

Asher Albo

Tal Shieber

Abstract:

This paper deals with the question: What is the right way to handle conflicts between teachers and students in the classroom? 

Every few years, cases of conflict between teachers and students arising from different political views or interactions on social media gain notoriety. The Ministry of Education publishes regulations attempting to minimize misunderstandings and conflicts between teachers and students in the classroom. We assert that a humanistic approach in education must recognize the relationship between teachers and students in a more holistic way despite the risk of conflict. Education is dynamic and teachers must be courageous. There should be no regulations that attempt to prevent conflict in the classroom as they would only serve to constrain the educational process itself. We will be presenting a variety of case studies from our experience in the field to support our position.

Abstract:

The Bialik-Rogozin School serves mostly children of refugees and work immigrants and educates approximately 1300 grade 1 to 12 students that come from 51 different countries. Most of these students do master any specific language, they lack significant parental support, they carry severe past traumas related to escape from their homeland, torture and death they were exposed to. Moreover, these children are under continuous stress and fear of deportation as their immigration status is not clear. 

As such, the school is challenged with critical educational issues in the attempts to overcome significant gaps in cultures, beliefs, life history and habits as well as cognitive and developmental differences combined with complex emotional and mental pressures. It is a major task to try and identify the educational and practical language through which it is possible to communicate with the children for learning, social and emotional purposes.

Beside the psycho-didactic challenges, school staff is also encountered by the needs to help children and their parents explore their social rights in the country and give the students at least a partial feeling of security in these rights. This is when the experiences of the children are mostly related to being different and foreign with no security.

Surprisingly and maybe even with no reasonable explanation, the atmosphere of the school is full with happy, active and creative optimism that culminates amongst other things, to a very high (96%) success rate at the state-wide matriculation examination.

 The aim of the current study was therefore to explore this nearly unbelievable success of the school beyond the superficial and very general educational terminology of inclusion, humanism, empowerment and so on.

 Subjects of the study were a randomly selected group of staff members who had been working in the school for at least 3 years. The main question that was presented to them was “why are you here”?

The analysis of the answers resulted in identification of a number of central themes:

• The scarred helping professional theme – amending painful personal past experiences by assisting in the rehabilitation of others.
• A critical need for love.
• A search for meaning in life.
• Taking part in a broader social fight against injustice.
• Pleasure from working on unique project.

It is suggested that these themes may be the basis for a discussion that goes beyond the privet case of the Bialik-Rogozin school. Such discussion can address the shift from the stereotypic approach which puts the “child in the center” to a novel approach that places “the teacher at the center”. This idea stems from the current data that shows that the attempts of the teachers to fulfill their own internal needs and emotional desires can result in the creation of a positive and revolutionary process in students at both the learning-cognitive aspect and the social and emotional aspects of school work.

Abstract:

The presentation will draw inspiration from the 1914 work by Janusz Korczak, entitled: “Bobo”, which supersedes modern researchers and gives fuel to contradict a simple behavioural theory on action and reaction, by acknowledging agency of infants and a two-way learning process for both caregivers and babies. Korczak’s educational philosophy may be helpful to create an open debate on empowerment of newly born babies, their capacity to be heard, listened to and understood. Korczak’s ideas, revolutionary for his times, resonate in the contemporary, most advanced research into early childhood communication and the best parental practice. 

Abstract:

Presentation about Korczak’s work and his legacy at the Institute of Special Education, established in 1922 and then transformed into the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw.

In 2004 the UNESCO/JANUSZ KORCZAK CHAIR in Social Pedagogy was established at the Maria Grzegorzewska University, in Warsaw – the city of Korczak. The UNESCO Chair exists to pursue the issues of social inclusion, human and children’s rights, child protection and early intervention in challenging environments being a centre for children’s rights and childhood studies for Central and Eastern Europe.

The presentation will include the history of the Chair and the people and organizations (such as IKA and the Polish Korczak Association), who contributed to its ongoing development.

Abstract:

Presentation about Korczak’s work and his legacy at the Institute of Special Education, established in 1922 and then transformed into the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw.

In 2004 the UNESCO/JANUSZ KORCZAK CHAIR in Social Pedagogy was established at the Maria Grzegorzewska University, in Warsaw – the city of Korczak. The UNESCO Chair exists to pursue the issues of social inclusion, human and children’s rights, child protection and early intervention in challenging environments being a centre for children’s rights and childhood studies for Central and Eastern Europe.

The presentation will include the history of the Chair and the people and organizations (such as IKA and the Polish Korczak Association), who contributed to its ongoing development.

Abstract:

In The School of Life, Janus Korczak presents an alternative, utopian vision of the future of society. Like Owen, Bacon, and Campanella before him, he places education in the center of societal change — in theory and in practice, Korczak’s school of life served as both an experiment in pedagogy as well as a field of research into social relations in general. As a scientist, Korczak was an empiricist, so much so that he believed that he could construct a new metaphysics of humanity, and conduct experimental field research from which he could draw conclusions and inform theories on humans and society in general; as an educator, the school of life was a very real attempt at constructing institutions (newspaper, court, commerce) based on values (equality, freedom, participation) that he believed would optimize human development, not only for the child, but also the adult; and as an activist, he believed that the first two components could directly inform practical proposals for systemic societal reform. Although he never explicitly thought about the importance of a clear epistemology for his activities as a scientist, educator, and activist, a rereading of The School of Life — and other key writings in the Korczak canon — might provide important lessons for the study and reform of societal developments in the 21st century.

Abstract:

European societies form a multicultural conglomerate shaped by ethic, national and religious groups. The need to ensure emigrants proper shelter, including the need to locate them in different countries, has led to a political conflict. Poland is an active participant of this conflict, not giving consent to accept any refugees. A high number of Poles display this attitude of rejection.

Many surveys expressed by some politicians in the media, often reflect the negative attitude towards refugees shared by more than half of Poles. In our presentation we are going to point to the results of a study carried out among students of education, concerning their opinions about the “migration crisis” in Europe. The purposive selection of the sample results from the belief that pedagogists serve a significant role in building an open, multicultural society. Their attitudes may be shaped during their academic experience, which is also a new challenge to university teachers.

Abstract:

 A central aspect of Janusz Korczak’s work and philosophy deals with communication between adults and young people. His theoretical, prosaic and autobiographical writings depicted a picture of a person who has invested a mental and thought effort in an attempt to bridge gaps between the generational. The descriptions of his followers also indicate that he was an adult who knew how to maintain rich and complex relationships.

In my lecture, I would like to draw key lines in the language that Korczak creates, as it emerges from the king’s Matt the first, where he describes, through the image of Matt, how a healthy communication can be held and violated between an ‘ultimate others’. Matt, as a child who has fled to the world’s political intrigue, also manages to preserve the childlike communication language. He is not the child who screams “But the emperor isn’t wearing anything at all!” but contains and learns the constraints and norms of his new world. I reading it as a proposal to formulate a communication language between generations, since the text may be called not only as a bildungsroman but also as a document that reveals to the adults the guiding principles of the child discourse. I would like to examine the characteristics of discourse that arise from the book and open to the discourse the question of the possibility of applying them in the framework of the class, with regard to articles from pedagogical writings and autobiographical texts of Korczak.

 

Abstract:

This lecture will focus on knowledge of place, involving a knowing and connection with the natural environment (e.g., geographical orientation, knowledge of plants, animals, outdoor competencies, survival skills, and interconnectedness) as a human birth right.  An extensive body of research links natural settings to individual’s psychological and physical wellbeing (e.g. Gatersleben, 2008; Naor&Mayseless, 2017). Leading to the notion that “Nature is one of the most basically important ingredients of human psychological existence” (Searles, 1960, p. 27). While in the 21 century children can go for long periods of time without having any direct contact and experience of nature. The absence of this direct contact has diminished use of the senses and led to attention difficulties and physical and emotional illnesses defined as “Nature Deficit Disorder” (Louv, 2008). From an eco-psychological perspective, deprivation from nature also deepens our alienation from our inner nature, instincts, identity, and sense of belonging and interconnectedness to the world (Clinebell, 1996).This sense of alienation leads to a lack of purpose and participation and acts of violence, control and exploitation of natural resources and others. This lecture will centralize on remembering our human interconnectedness with the natural environment, specifically focusing on cultivating children’s connection with nature as a profound resource by which knowledge is gained, human virtues are developed and our human right and responsibility to belong and care for others and the environment are gained. Practical implementation in formal and informal educational frameworks will be discussed.

Abstract:

The course The Voice of the Other is a learning journey in the spirit of critical pedagogy that focuses mainly on developing the awareness and the moral-social thought of education students and forming a political worldview.

The course is based on actions relating to consciousness, and not only on those relating to transfer of information. It aspires to expose the complex social picture, while creating connections to the personal worlds of the members of the learning group. In this manner, I believe, it helps remove the feeling of foreignness and disconnection in relation to the social problems that surface over the course of it.

The course’s ideological reference point is the Human Rights, familiarity and developing the understanding that we live in a world that violates human rights consciously and in a concealed manner and that we take part in those violates out of not knowing or not taking a stand.

Since the course trains student teachers, the issue of children’s rights has a central place in it. There is an attempt to create an awareness of the importance of the subject and of looking at the classroom as a micro cosmos of the world in which some of the children are helpless and their rights are violated .  The learning on this subject includes getting to know Child Rights and developing an understanding and methods for working with children on implementing the subject. 

In the course there is an attempt to create a connection between academic knowledge and reality. This connection enables the students to go from an existence of a person observing reality to an active state of changing the contemporary reality by changing the awareness and practical activity in the field.

In the course there is experiential learning that enables the students to take a more active part in researching and teaching the subjects. The course is built as a series of meetings between the group of learners and people from the street, listening to protest music, watching movies, listening to personal stories, creating movies as part of the learning process.

Abstract:

Children’s committees played a significant role in Korczak’s orphanage. Today, this model operates primarily at democratic schools where children, parents, and teachers share school management by means of mutual committees. However, the model can make a significant contribution to any school. It gives children the opportunity to influence their immediate environment, without having to wait until they grow up to make a difference. I will present examples from three different schools where committees operate regularly.

Abstract:

The purpose of the presentation is to propose a model for improvised teaching, which consists of theoretical and practical parts. Theatrical improvisation technique is the model’s practical anchor. These are rules and guidelines for the players how to improvise creatively, free themselves from blockages and develop an evolving dialogue here and now. In the model, I process these guidelines and rules for classroom instruction. The model adopts the principles of theatrical improvisation for improvisational teaching. Common situations in teaching such as uncertainty, surprise, interruption, disruption, changing conditions and circumstances actually invite creative and experiential improvisation. Improvising teaching ranges from planning to improvisation and intertwines the known with the surprising, the common and the routine for the creative and the new. I will bring case studies from the field of improvising teaching and demonstrate how improvising teaching works in the field.

 

Abstract:

Traditionally, children and youth have been on the receiving end of books written by adult authors. However, in the digital age, they have the potential to become authors in their own right. Rather than ignore the tendency of children to write short messages, blogs and other compositions, we should help them develop their skills as e-authors. Over the past six years, I have been involved in one such attempt to encourage children of all ages to write e-books. When Ran Shternin and I built the Ourboox platform in 2013, the original idea was to restrict the usage of the website to children. However, following a request by the Ministry of Education, we decided to allow children to use the platform under the supervision of teachers and parents. What occurred surprised us. Today, the bulk of the 100,000 books on our website are written and read by children in over 200 countries, and in thirty languages. Some of these books have been read over 10,000 times. Many of the books incorporate not only text and pictures but also videos, maps and puzzles embedded from other sources. One important aspect of this ongoing experiment is that we do not curate the uploaded material. Thus the responsibility for the authenticity of the material, the grammar, the quality, rides solely on the shoulders of the author. The children have not let us down. Amazingly, during the history of Ourboox only a handful of books have had to be removed because of hurtful language, pornography, etc.  In the future we hope to follow and contribute to this trend, hoping that children will be empowered enough as authors to write quality books that can be used as teaching material in their own right. To some extent this is already taking place. 

 

Abstract:

In the year 1992, the writer and editor of the student newspaper ‘Haverenu’ Mordechai Michaeli writes:

‘Haverenu’ is the only and first student newspaper in the country that has been in print continuously and regularly[…] for 30 years, […] He also was Prior to the Jewish student newspaper in the Polish language “Mali Peshglund” published in Warsaw from the beginning of 1910 edited by the renowned author and educator Janusz Korczak, […] Korczak acknowledged and cherished our paper and praised its diverse content and saw the vitality that fills its issues […] and advised us not  to deviate from it. “(Michaeli, 1990)

Michaeli’s comments imply to a relationship that existed between the educator, author and pupil newspaper editor Mordechai Michaeli, and the writer and pupil newspaper editor Janusz Korczak. Both Korczak and Michaeli expressed their views and documented their thoughts and actions that accompanied their work as editors. Korczak in his essay “On the School Newspaper” which was published in 1921 and influenced Michaeli’s enterprise, and Michaeli in his essay “The Students’ Newspaper and its Educational Value” published in 1934.  Moreover, some of the newspapers they edited survived, a fact that allows us to examine Korczak’s influence on the editors of pupil newspapers in Israel. This kind of influence is mentioned in the study, in relation to the Kibbutz ‘Ein Harod’ student newspaper ‘Beitenu’. Korczak, who also visited in the kibbutz in 1934, kept in touch with the kibbutz members. The students of ‘Ein Harod’ sent him copies of the pupil newspaper and Korczak published their essays in his newspaper. However, no research has been conducted that examines Korczak’s influence on pupil newspaper editors in Israel. I address this topic in my research. The research focus on the pupil newspaper ‘our friend’ and the editor of the newspaper ‘Mordechai Michaeli’ as a case study.

Although there are differences, Korczak believed in a dialogue between adults and children, so he also wrote sections for the newspaper. Michaeli thought that writing by adults could block the child’s freedom of expression and therefore published in the paper only materials written by children. Korczak that the newspaper should allow free expression of the children’s emotions, even if they were offensive. To him, the paper was a tool for dialogue and problem solving. Michaeli, on the other hand, thought that abusive essays should not be published and therefore censored such essays that he perceived to be detrimental to the dignity and name of other students. Korczak, censor anti-establishment articles that could get adults to act against the children’s newspaper and maybe even close it. Michaeli did not censor political, or anti-establishment opinions that children expressed in their essays. He believed that the freedom of speech in the children’s essays must be kept at all costs.

The student press designed by Korczak offered a discourse recognizing children as intelligent and judgmental individuals. He suggested using school newspapers as a tool to make their voices heard. This discourse received recognition during the Mandat period, and it led the educational discourse. Michaeli adopted this educational philosophy and spent many years devoting his energy to the publication of the children’s newspaper ‘Haverenu’.

Unfortunately, this tool is forgotten. Most children’s magazines today are or magazines written by adults for children or commercial newspapers and if they give expression to the children’s voice, the voice that is spoken does not deal with emotions or daily life but with extroverted phrases such as recommending a new computer game or a good television series. Certainly, no attempt has been made to make the voices of children heard. This reality neglects one of the important channels of expression to secure the child’s right to speak, create and make his voice heard, in fact, it buries a glorious legacy of school press that fulfilled Korczak’s vision. The education system should devote thought to reviving the children’s newspaper enterprise and finding expression channels that will enable the unique voice of children  be heard and will create a communication channels between children and adults.

Abstract:

European societies form a multicultural conglomerate shaped by ethic, national and religious groups. The need to ensure emigrants proper shelter, including the need to locate them in different countries, has led to a political conflict. Poland is an active participant of this conflict, not giving consent to accept any refugees. A high number of Poles display this attitude of rejection.

Many surveys expressed by some politicians in the media, often reflect the negative attitude towards refugees shared by more than half of Poles. In our presentation we are going to point to the results of a study carried out among students of education, concerning their opinions about the “migration crisis” in Europe. The purposive selection of the sample results from the belief that pedagogists serve a significant role in building an open, multicultural society. Their attitudes may be shaped during their academic experience, which is also a new challenge to university teachers.

Dr. Orly Melamed

Osnat Winkler-Rapoport  

Abstract:

Researchers in education found resemblance between Janusz Korczak educational philosophy and critical dialogic education of Paulo Friere. According to United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child, freedom of speech, freedom of identities, participation in media discourse and education are basic rights of children. Children from lower socio-economic status especially need these rights to empower their successful integration in a modern society. 

Economic migrant to Israel has created a new problem in the education system: How to absorb and educate the children of foreign workers? The complex and sensitive status of these children, some of whom are subject to deportation, raises difficult educational dilemmas among the educational staff like how to cultivate their identities?

Osnat Winkler-Rapoport, a former news editor and teacher, initiated and taught a writing project in the middle school in southern Tel Aviv, whose pupils are children of migrant workers, asylum seekers and refugees. Inspired by Freire’s educational principles, over three years, once a week, 20 middle school pupils had free writing exercises as part of the Hebrew language lessons. Following the project, action research was conducted to achieve the following objectives:

1. To know these pupils, the difficulties and challenges they face in formulating their identities as Israelis and as citizens in democracy.
2. To improve their Hebrew language skills.
3. To evaluate the contributions of the writing project to the development of humanistic values, democratic perceptions and to cultural pluralism.
4. To formulate recommendations for the best teaching practice of an open dialogical writing project.

The research questions were examined through a thematic content analysis of the pupils’ stories and their reflections on the writing process. The research shows that the writing process is a dynamic search process during which pupils’ identities are constructed. It also that most pupils enjoy strong, loving family relationships and express an optimistic attitude towards their future; Pupils perceive their home as a place that provides them support and security. The school is perceived as a good place where pupils feel accustomed, because “everyone is different at school.” Alongside this, in some of the stories, there are expressions of harsh feelings due to the manifestations of racism and social rejection by Israeli society. In addition, a range of identities is found: from Israeli identities, hybrid identities and global identities. We hope that in light of the project’s contributions to personal empowerment and to integration of children of migrant workers in Israel and in global society, the project will be extended to all of the pupils in the school nest year.

Dr. Orly Melamed

Osnat Winkler-Rapoport  

Abstract:

The paper explores the fundamental significance of ‘relations of trust’ between educator and child in the work of renowned Polish-Jewish pedagogue, author, children’s rights advocate, and orphanage director Janusz Korczak (1878-1942). The first part investigates the existential importance of ‘trust’  in a pedagogy based upon humanistic-dialogical principles; the second and central part then explores three ways in which Korczak strived to implement the element of trust in his educational work with children at the Dom Sierot orphanage in Warsaw: the first manifested in a renouncement of idealism coupled with a concrete demonstration of respect for students’ actual life experience; the second in the creation and maintenance of a consistent and orderly pedagogical space so as to infuse pupils’ lives with a sense of security and rational order; and the third in a refinement of reality to the level of a game while upholding the child’s right to engage in trial and error within it.

Researchers in education found resemblance between Janusz Korczak educational philosophy and critical dialogic education of Paulo Friere. According to United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child, freedom of speech, freedom of identities, participation in media discourse and education are basic rights of children. Children from lower socio-economic status especially need these rights to empower their successful integration in a modern society. 

Economic migrant to Israel has created a new problem in the education system: How to absorb and educate the children of foreign workers? The complex and sensitive status of these children, some of whom are subject to deportation, raises difficult educational dilemmas among the educational staff like how to cultivate their identities?

Osnat Winkler-Rapoport, a former news editor and teacher, initiated and taught a writing project in the middle school in southern Tel Aviv, whose pupils are children of migrant workers, asylum seekers and refugees. Inspired by Freire’s educational principles, over three years, once a week, 20 middle school pupils had free writing exercises as part of the Hebrew language lessons. Following the project, action research was conducted to achieve the following objectives:

1. To know these pupils, the difficulties and challenges they face in formulating their identities as Israelis and as citizens in democracy.
2. To improve their Hebrew language skills.
3. To evaluate the contributions of the writing project to the development of humanistic values, democratic perceptions and to cultural pluralism.
4. To formulate recommendations for the best teaching practice of an open dialogical writing project.

The research questions were examined through a thematic content analysis of the pupils’ stories and their reflections on the writing process. The research shows that the writing process is a dynamic search process during which pupils’ identities are constructed. It also that most pupils enjoy strong, loving family relationships and express an optimistic attitude towards their future; Pupils perceive their home as a place that provides them support and security. The school is perceived as a good place where pupils feel accustomed, because “everyone is different at school.” Alongside this, in some of the stories, there are expressions of harsh feelings due to the manifestations of racism and social rejection by Israeli society. In addition, a range of identities is found: from Israeli identities, hybrid identities and global identities. We hope that in light of the project’s contributions to personal empowerment and to integration of children of migrant workers in Israel and in global society, the project will be extended to all of the pupils in the school nest year.

Abstract:

The paper explores the fundamental significance of ‘relations of trust’ between educator and child in the work of renowned Polish-Jewish pedagogue, author, children’s rights advocate, and orphanage director Janusz Korczak (1878-1942). The first part investigates the existential importance of ‘trust’  in a pedagogy based upon humanistic-dialogical principles; the second and central part then explores three ways in which Korczak strived to implement the element of trust in his educational work with children at the Dom Sierot orphanage in Warsaw: the first manifested in a renouncement of idealism coupled with a concrete demonstration of respect for students’ actual life experience; the second in the creation and maintenance of a consistent and orderly pedagogical space so as to infuse pupils’ lives with a sense of security and rational order; and the third in a refinement of reality to the level of a game while upholding the child’s right to engage in trial and error within it.

Abstract:

The paper explores the fundamental significance of ‘relations of trust’ between educator and child in the work of renowned Polish-Jewish pedagogue, author, children’s rights advocate, and orphanage director Janusz Korczak (1878-1942). The first part investigates the existential importance of ‘trust’  in a pedagogy based upon humanistic-dialogical principles; the second and central part then explores three ways in which Korczak strived to implement the element of trust in his educational work with children at the Dom Sierot orphanage in Warsaw: the first manifested in a renouncement of idealism coupled with a concrete demonstration of respect for students’ actual life experience; the second in the creation and maintenance of a consistent and orderly pedagogical space so as to infuse pupils’ lives with a sense of security and rational order; and the third in a refinement of reality to the level of a game while upholding the child’s right to engage in trial and error within it.

Korczak’s exemplary pedagogical book “How to love children” was written based on his work in orphanages and especially in children’s camps in early 20th century Poland. The dilemmas and educational situations described there characterized the lives of children who handled seemingly different frameworks from most formal and even informal educational frameworks where the educational process is taking place today. The purpose of the paper is to look at the philosophical, value and pedagogical foundations at the basis of the book, which are not at all conditional on the specific conditions in which Korczak operated and to examine their translation and possible realization in the affluent society where most of the children in modern society are raised and educated.