THE ENQUIRING CLASSROOM

In the context of the global refugee crisis and the rise of populism, violent extremism and debates about integration, there is growing interest within the European educational context in developing strategies to support teachers and students in engaging in difficult ethical conversations about identity, beliefs, democratic values, diversity, belonging and violence, in order to establish a firm foundation for inclusive and tolerant schools.

The Enquiring Classroom Summer School 2017 will explore techniques for targeted capacity building in classrooms, enabling teachers:

1. To use the tools of philosophical enquiry to engage in complex ethical discussions about contemporary questions and to support students' capabilities in this regard.
2. To promote peer knowledge transfer and exchange of pedagogical content, strategies and practice to support students' lived encounters with philosophical and religious thought, in particular by demonstrating how to activate a 'lived values' approach to religions and beliefs.
3. To develop a comprehensive peer-informed skill-set for teachers that supports careful and sensitive facilitation of complex issues.
4. To mobilise arts-based methodologies to support expression and inclusion in diverse classrooms, and to provide alternative ways of exploring and articulating ideas and experience.