Vacancy: Part-Time Researcher Application Closed. Thank you for your interest.

The GHFP Research Institute is looking for a part-time researcher to join our global research team.

Hours: Part time 0.5 FTE to cover maternity leave. Flexible working options available.

Contract: Six months from start date

Expected start date: As soon as possible

The candidate should be a Researcher with a Masters or Doctoral degree in education, social sciences, or psychology, who has experiences in mixed-methods research and project evaluation, interests in educational topics and youth empowerment, and a portfolio of research projects and writings.

The post-holder will design and carry out research independently and as part of a research team. The specific projects that the post-holder will work on include evaluating a European educational project, and developing a research for a UNESCO programme, and other GHFP projects.

To Apply: Please send Cover Letter, CV, and sample writing to info@ghfp.

 Posted on October 12, 2021 by

 Uncategorized

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Global Symposium on Transforming Education 22-23 Nov 2021

We are pleased to announce the online global symposium TRANSFORMING EDUCATION: Ethics Education for Learning to Live Together, which will take place on 22-23 November 2021. We invite educators, policymakers, faith-based and civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to join us to reflect, collaborate and prompt action to transform education together!

 Posted on October 12, 2021 by

 HCE programmes, holistic, human-centred education principles, inclusion, Well-being

     

Taking Action Together for Children: COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

From 16th – 20th November 2020, the GHFP joined children, young people and religious leaders from more than 53 countries, and representatives of the United Nations, international, national and grassroots organisations, and diverse experts, for the online Global Week of Faith in Action for Children. This event was organised by Arigatou International and partners.

In response to the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of children around the world, the participants have issued the following Statement, outlining core concerns and commitments to joint action:

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Statement on Faith in Action for Children

Taking Action Together for Children in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Greatly concerned by the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of children around the world, we, the participants of the Global Week of Faith in Action for Children, have issued this Statement.

We are children, young people and religious leaders from more than 53 countries, who, together with representatives of the United Nations, international, national and grassroots organizations, and diverse experts, gathered November 16-20, 2020 for the online Global Week of Faith in Action for Children organized by Arigatou International and partners.

Children and the COVID-19 pandemic

Children of all ages have been among the most vulnerable to the damage and disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated the challenges that prevent children, especially those most vulnerable, from enjoying their rights. Children themselves tell us – and research confirms – that they are suffering grievously from the loss of family members to the pandemic, a serious disruption of school life, an alarming increase in various forms of violence against them, a noticeable deepening  of  poverty, the devastating  impact the pandemic is having on the adults in their lives, as well as the divisive and, at times, competing narratives and misleading information about how to stay safe during the pandemic.

Children who were already disadvantaged by poverty and more vulnerable are being affected even more gravely, and their very development and even survival are threatened. Many experts predict that the Covid-19 pandemic will have a variety of long-term impacts with lasting negative consequences for their mental health, socio-emotional growth, and spiritual well-being. In particular, we are concerned that the spiritual well-being of children is not often considered in education, psycho-social support or social protection programs.

Children are the priceless treasure of humanity and the inheritors of the earth. The potentially irreversible damage to children’s lives we are witnessing is not only unacceptable in and of itself; it also puts the future of humanity at greater risk. Yet, sadly, children continue to remain largely invisible and absent in the global community’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We also wholeheartedly affirm that children have a unique and essential role to play, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, in building a  better  world – a world where the human dignity of each and every person is recognized and respected. To this end, it is imperative that we all work together in solidarity to transform the divisions, inequities and injustices in all of our societies.

Children’s Proposals

We, the children and young people who participated in this Global Week, have shared our ideas and insights, helping to shape this Statement. The following summarizes many of our proposals:

  • Listen with an open heart to us, talk with, support and motivate us in these challenging times.
  • Create ways to continue to stay in contact with us despite the disruptions, be creative to ensure that none of us feels isolated or unsupported, even if we cannot connect using technology.
  • Help us to find coping mechanisms, and find ways to foster our imagination and creativity even during the lockdown.
  • Since many of our brothers and sisters have no access to daily nutritious meals, support the most vulnerable families, including with financial support and nutrition.
  • Support parents and caregivers so they can cope with the “new normal,” so they can better help us. We know that parents want to support us, but sometimes they do not know how.
  • Make more opportunities for dialogue with parents, but also within faith communities and schools. As children, we look up to adults and would like to share our feelings, fears and dreams with them, but there is a need to improve communication .
  • Let us explore the world peacefully because we are born to explore. While exploring the world we children can know what is wrong and what is right.
  • Provide access to education to all children, without discrimination of race or ethnicity.
  • Education must teach us to be good people and teach us about faith.
  • Provide support to children victims of violence.
  • Offer support for distance learning, particularly for those who do not have computers or internet at home.

Joint Commitment to Action

Informed by the children’s proposals and our extensive dialogue over the past five days of the Global Week, we share a compelling determination to  rise to  the  challenge of our times – to meet the ethical obligation to embrace solidarity, work together as one, and honor our innate interdependence and interconnectedness as human beings in all that we do. Toward this end, we, children, young people and religious leaders from more than 53 countries, who, together with representatives of the  United Nations, international, national and grassroots organizations, and diverse experts, have agreed upon a set of collective actions.

We pledge to redefine the term, “new normal.” We will not yield to a pandemic-driven existence of isolation, deprivation, and disease. Instead, we will seize the opportunity provided by this crisis to promote the fundamental changes needed to ensure that each and every child – no matter their socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, religious background, or other factor – can grow and fully develop by helping to shape a more compassionate, just and sustainable world.

We collectively commit to the following actions:
  1. Fulfill the Panama Commitments on Ending Violence Against Ch11dren, which consist of a set of 10 promises made by diverse religious leaders, children and young people, and representatives of civil society and faith-based organizations, at the Fifth Forum of the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) held in Panama City in 2017.
  2. Jointly implement evidence-based strategies to address the multidimensional impact of COVID-19 on children, thereby contributing to economic strengthening, supporting parents and caregivers, challenging harmful norms condoning violence against children and strengthening those that affirm children’s dignity and advance child sensitive social protection .
  3. Promote child participation in all decisions that impact children and work hand in hand with them to create spaces and opportunities for joint solutions for the issues that affect them, focusing on areas of education including nurturing spirituality, prevention of violence against children and ending child poverty.
  4. Be accountable to children in the implementation of our joint actions.
  5. Listen to the advice of scientific and health experts to ensure that we share accurate health information on how to keep people safe, address religious and faith-related concerns, and promote the safety and protection of children and our communities.
  6. Strengthen collaboration and coalition-building at the local level among religious communities and among FBOs, CSOs, multilateral organizations and grassroots and religious communities.
Endorsed by:
  • Arigatou International
  • Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children
  • Guerrand-Hermes Foundation for Peace
  • International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID)
  • International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB)
  • Islamic Relief Worldwide
  • Norwegian Church Aid
  • Parliament of World’s Religions
  • Pastoral da Crianca
  • Religions for Peace
  • Scholas Occurrentes
  • Shanti Ashram
  • UNICEF
  • World Council of Churches
  • World Vision International
Joined by: 
  • Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children (SRSGNAC)
  • Joint Learning Initiative On Faith And Local Communities (JU)
  • World Bank Group

 Posted on December 11, 2020 by

 caring, holistic, inclusion, Interfaith, international collaboration, Well-being, youth voice

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An Interfaith Approach to Advancing Inclusive Education

The G20 2020 theme, Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All, is supported by a global consensus that inclusive education should be a core policy priority.

The GHFP team have been working in collaboration with the G20 Interfaith Forum Education Working Group, to develop a policy brief that brings to the fore the urgent need for G20 leaders to review national policies to enhance the quality and equality of education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed ever-widening gaps, with disadvantaged populations finding themselves further marginalised. Inclusive education can contribute to cohesive and thriving societies characterised by the wellbeing of all, in particular supporting the most vulnerable children and young people. 

Inclusive education offers paths to enhancing students’ motivation for participation and learning, raising self- and other-awareness, reducing biases, enriching relationships, increasing capabilities in team work, collaboration and conflict transformation, enabling a greater sense of belonging and community, reducing bullying and violence, and most importantly, improving wellbeing and opportunities for all. Without inclusive and caring approaches, vulnerable children and young people are not only discriminated against within the current systems, they are also excluded from broader opportunities for learning and wellbeing. 

Globally, during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, faith-inspired initiatives have played  distinctive roles in advancing a values-based discourse and promoting spiritually meaningful approaches to respecting all children’s dignity and meeting their diverse needs. Faith-inspired educational initiatives are working in many settings to empower local communities to close the gaps resulted from school closures, lack of public services, and isolation. They also provide practical support to address the acute social, emotional and spiritual needs of children during this time. By engaging with religious leaders and faith/interfaith actors, G20 leaders, national governments, and their international partners can strengthen the 2020 G20’s vision of “global cooperation to forge mutually beneficial solutions, face challenges, and create opportunities for all”.     

The G20i Education Working Group’s Policy Brief highlights an ongoing need exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It makes an urgent call for G20 governments to forge cross-boundary partnerships to jointly advance an agenda of inclusive education. It outlines the specific challenges confronting the global community at this time and draws on relevant literature, insights from a recent survey of faith-inspired organisations’ conceptions and approaches to inclusive and caring education, and proposals from a wider interdisciplinary consultation, to provide specific and implementable policy recommendations for the G20 leaders to consider at the G20 Summit in Riyadh in November 2020. 

The key recommendations of the policy brief are:

1. Advancing the Wellbeing of Every Child as the Core Aim of Education 

  • Promoting wellbeing of all students in the learning community
  • Introducing inclusive curricula
  • Prioritising collaborative and co-creative learning in the classroom  

2. Ensuring Participation of All in Inclusive Learning Environments 

  • Engaging [all] young people and empowering student voice and agency 
  • Forming partnerships among schools, families and faith communities to support all children 
  • Strengthening links between schools, faith communities, and wider society 

3. Aligning Teachers’ Professional Development with a Wellbeing and Inclusion Focus

  • Reviewing national capability frameworks for teachers’ professional development
  • Enhancing teachers’ awareness, sensitivity, and appreciation of diversity and inclusion 
  • Enabling teachers to facilitate transformative, collaborative and dialogue-based learning  
Download the full Policy Brief hereDownload

 Posted on October 7, 2020 by

 caring, inclusion, Interfaith, learning community, teachers professional development, Well-being

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Understanding Inclusive Education

As part of the preparation for the 2020 G20 Summit, the G20 Interfaith Forum Education Task Force, sponsored by the GHFP Research Institute, carried out a survey with over 50 interfaith-inspired organisations, conducted a literature review, and explored case studies with a view to understand better how these organisations and educators conceptualise inclusive education.

The result was an extremely rich vista in terms of how we might understand inclusive education, including:

  1. recognising and respecting the intrinsic worth of all children
  2. being available and accessible to learners of all backgrounds, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, caste, religion, ability, sexual orientation, economic status, language, or beliefs
  3. focusing on the whole child, and nurturing their holistic well-being, including the physical, social-emotional, intellectual, moral, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of development
  4. honouring students’ diversity, valuing their difference, and being responsive to their evolving needs in all aspects of learning, development and wellbeing
  5. creating safe and caring learning spaces and promoting cohesive learning communities
  6. cultivating students’ agency, and attending and responding to students’ voice respectfully, appreciating what everyone brings to the educational setting, and advocating solidarity
  7. empowering all learners to participate transformative collective actions in the community and beyond
  8. supporting all children to thrive in the face of increasing uncertainty

Such understandings have provided the basis for G20 Interfaith Forum Education Policy Recommendations aimed at meeting the challenges of social cohesion and collective well-being and flourishing during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

 Posted on October 7, 2020 by

 caring, inclusion, inclusive education, Well-being

     

Research Findings: Inclusive and Caring Education

The Covid-19 pandemic has accentuated an ongoing global need for social justice. In particular, it highlights wide gaps between ideals and practices pertaining to the shared goals of quality and equality in education. These gaps are evident across the most and least wealthy of countries. In particular, the pandemic has unmasked different forms of discrimination and exclusion, marginalising children and young people who are already disadvantaged.

Many religious/faith/spiritual organisations and communities have long played an important part in reaching out to the excluded, caring for the vulnerable, and encouraging equality in education. During the pandemic, these organisations and communities have been particularly active in identifying and helping those most at risk, engaging multiple stakeholders, and collaboratively making the provision of quality education more accessible.

By establishing an Education Task Force, the G20 Interfaith Forum (G20i) will be able to draw on insights from relevant faith-inspired practices to articulate a forward-looking vision of reimagined education. To this end, the Task Force, in collaboration with the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation (GHFP) Research Institute, launched (1) a Desk Review, and (2) a Survey, aimed at deepening our understanding of inclusive and caring education, and identifying educational programmes where religious and faith inputs are central to their underpinnings. This exploration illustrated that at the core of a common global agenda of quality, equality, and social cohesion are practices of inclusive and caring education, with many inspirational examples linked to approaches anchored in faith. (The term faith is used broadly here, to include religion, faith, belief and spirituality.)

Download the summary of the research report which will serve as the basis for G20i’s global high-level expert consultation during which relevant policy recommendations will be put forward.

 1 Comment

 Posted on July 23, 2020 by

 holistic, inclusive education, Uncategorized

     

Inclusive & Caring Education: G20 Interfaith Forum Education Task Force

As part of the G20 Interfaith Forum’s Education Task Force, the GHFP has launched a research into Inclusive and Caring Education from a Faith Perspective. The research consists in two parts: (1) a literature review to understand better how religion/faith/spirituality tends to define inclusive and caring education; (2) a questionnaire survey to seek examples and case studies of faith-inspired approaches to inclusive and caring education.

For further information, please read G20-Interfaith-Forum_Edu-Task-Force.

We welcome all faith-inspired educational projects and programmes that have a focus on inclusion and diversity to share their practice HERE.

 Posted on June 28, 2020 by

 caring, inclusion, teaching and learning

     

The World’s Biggest Conversation

The World’s Biggest Conversation

Human-Centred Education is delighted to share Education Reimagined: Shaping Our Children’s Future, Together from our friends at School of Sophia. The World’s Biggest Conversation also feature our very own Dr Scherto Gill as a keynote speaker.

Join a wonderfully interactive conversation with parents and educators across the globe. As part of the UN’s 75th Anniversary Celebrations, this special 3-hour group discussion takes place online, on Friday 26th June 3-6pm BST, as we re-imagine how to shape a brighter future for the next generation. What are the lessons you’ve learned by staying at home with your children? What future do you most wish to create for your children and grandchildren?

Join the conversation and be a part of the global movement towards greater solidarity. Hosted by Priya Mahtani (School of Sophia), there will be guest contributions from Christopher Clouder, Torin Finser and Scherto Gill as speakers, and creative contributions from Kevin Davidson, Els Vrints & More! Free to join. Registration however is essential. Find out more on their website https://www.schoolofsophia.org/er-un75 

 Posted on June 23, 2020 by

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Relational Evaluation in Education

Relational Evaluation in Education

Gergen&Gill2020_Beyond-the-Tyranny-of-Testing_Relational-Evaluation-in-EducationKenneth J. Gergen and Scherto R. Gill

This book is a the most timely contribution to address our current educational impasse. It

  • Offers a compelling alternative to the measurement-assessment orientation to evaluation that undermines learning and well-being in schools today
  • Improves on the patchy critiques of testing and grading by offering a coherent account of the historical and cultural assumptions on which the measurement-testing tradition is based
  • Richly illustrated with school-based examples that inspire the possibility of a relational approach to evaluation of students, teachers, and whole schools
  • Provides concrete, classroom-rooted practices that can stimulate discussions among school leaders and policy makers

The book leads the dialogue and imagination about a post-Covid world where systemic transformation in education is possible, and where education can nurture the holistic well-being of our students in an inclusive and engaged way. See more about the book HERE.

 Posted on May 19, 2020 by

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Beyond the Tyranny of Testing

During Covid-19 pandemic, many schools are closed, exams cancelled, and without the stress of testing, education continues in truly creative ways: Learning becomes both local and global, engagement is mix-aged, reflective, and mutually supportive, and evaluation is carried out relationally and collaboratively. No longer constrained by performance outcome, schooling at home is enriching and enjoyable. Instead of focusing on attaining grades, students find themselves imagining the kind of world humanity should be living in, the persons they want to become, and the things they would like to do to contribute to a better future. The questions remain:

  • “What educational system would sustain such enthusiasm for learning?”, and
  • “How might schools be re-structured to kindle children and young people’s passion for world-making?”

In our recent book, with the same title, we have explored what a systemic transformation may look like and how the classroom-based innovation and teachers and students initiated approaches to learning can inspire positive structural changes in schools.

Beyond the Tyranny of Testing: Relational Evaluation in Education

Kenneth J. Gergen and Scherto R. Gill

Abstract

Measurement-based assessment in education is byproduct of a bygone era. As grades and test scores now become the very goals of education, learning suffers, along with human relationships and well-being of students and teachers. In this book, we propose an alternative to the current assessment tradition, in which schools are no longer conceived as factories, but as learning communities and sites of collective meaning-making. Prioritized is relational process that assessment practices tend to undermine. Relational process is constituted in our well-being, from which we draw understandings of the world, what counts as knowledge, learning, meaningfulness and goodness. A relational orientation to educational evaluation is thus proposed, highlighting evaluation as co-inquiry and value-creation. It aims to stimulate learning while simultaneously enriching the vitality of relational process. To illustrate, a wide range of innovations in evaluative practice is offered to bring these ideas to life. Case studies are drawn from both primary and secondary schools, demonstrating how evaluation can sustain continued engagement in learning and relating. Likewise, a relational approach also applies to evaluation of teachers’ practices and schools’ progress as a whole. As the book shows, the former enhances teachers’ professional development, the latter nurtures the learning communities. Additionally, a relational shift in evaluation opens a space for systemic transformation, including the flourishing of interactive and dialogic teaching and learning practices, flexible, varied and co-created curricula, as well as a culture of mutuality and collaboration. Such a transformation speaks to the demands of a rapidly changing and unpredictable world.

 Posted on April 26, 2020 by

 Uncategorized

HCE Lectures in China

This year, the GHFP was invited by Beijing Normal University to teach a credit course on HCE. Dr Scherto Gill and Professor Kenneth Gergen, a fellow of the GHFP, provided the lectures together.

Participants are masters, doctoral and post-doctoral students. The lectures focused on the theories and practices of Human-Centred Education. The course concluded with a peer-evaluation day when students reflected on their own learning and discussed how they might take some of the ideas to their own research and work. A high note was reached when one of the students burst into tears about her awakening to this humanising view of students and the potential such human-centred approach might have in transforming lives of children and the society.

On 16th October, 52 school principals and their key members of staff travelled from different corners of the country to attend a one-day lecture on HCE provided by both Dr Gill and Prof Gergen. This lecture was likewise appreciated by the Principals, but they felt this was only a beginning. Schools in China are eager to learn how to integrate HCE practices in classrooms.

 Posted on October 18, 2019 by

 HCE programmes, human-centred education principles, learning community, school leadership, teachers professional development, Well-being

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Saturday Satya

“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to find out who and what you are!” (student participant)

Saturday Satya is a co-curricular programme, originally designed and created in 2007 as part of the Eton-Slough-Hounslow Independent & State School Partnership initiative and Eton College’s Wisdom Project, with the support of the GHFP.

Satya is a Sanskrit word for ‘truth’ or ‘ultimate reality’ and refers to the virtue of being truthful in one’s thought, speech and action. Saturday Satya is a series of Saturday morning sessions in which a group of young people from diverse backgrounds are challenged and guided to explore their understandings of themselves, others and the world around them in more empowered and nuanced ways.

Saturday Satya supports students’ whole-person development and growth, enabling individuals to strengthen a sense of themselves and to gain an appreciation of others and their different perspectives. The programme’s activities enable the students to develop self-conceptions and personal identity through building understanding in three interrelated areas:

  • Understanding oneself: Students are more able to see themselves in new and more positive ways, such as feeling more confident and more creative, with a more positive self-image. 
  • Understanding others: Students get to know and understand individuals from different social and cultural backgrounds, which in turn helps them interrogate or develop their own perspectives, including learning to develop attitudes of acceptance and respect for differences.
  • Understanding one’s own orientation within the wider community: Students are enabled them to explore cultural roles and their own socio-political and religious orientation within or outside of these contexts.

In supporting the development of students’ self-conceptions and personal identity, the programme offers rich opportunities for students’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural (SMSC) development, as defined within OFSTED guidelines. 

Human-centred pedagogies embedded in the programme’s activities and the teacher-mentors’ practices play a pivotal part in supporting these learning opportunities and in creating rich and safe learning spaces:

  • A Pedagogy of Care: This involves the cultivation of genuine, human relationships between teacher-mentors and students, built on trust, respect and care. This approach to relationships, alongside an open and ‘no-right-answers’ approach to learning, helps to create safe and nurturing spaces where young people feel able to explore and examine their own and others’ ideas and perceptions without fear of failure or judgement. This ethos of the Saturday Satya is enriched by the teacher-mentors’ willingness to listen deeply to the voices of students and to care for and respect their individual needs.
  • A Pedagogy of Whole-Person Engagement: The activities of Saturday Satya are rich and diverse, engaging students on many different levels, and thereby supporting their whole-person development. Some activities engage students through their physical senses, some challenge them through their intellect and some invite them to explore their emotional landscapes. Still others engage their creativity and imagination and others prompt them to be reflective or encourage them to be contemplative.
  • A Pedagogy of Presence: Through meditative practices, silence and stillness, and activities which give students opportunities to bear witness to each other’s experiences, they are enabled to be truly present to the here and now. By leaving behind the pressures and anxieties of home and school life, and being able to engage fully with their experiences within the sessions, students are empowered to learn in engaged and meaningful ways. The teacher-mentors embody this presence, allowing themselves to be truly available to students, rather than ‘performing’ the role of a teacher.

In this way, the Saturday Satya’s pedagogical practices enable the teacher-mentors and students to live values which are fundamental to young people’s well-being in education.

The Saturday Satya programme provides participants with significant opportunities to learn and develop holistically, strengthening their sense of who they are and promoting an openness to otherness and an appreciation of diversity. The pedagogies of the programme feature respectful, caring, imaginative and open-minded approaches which help create safe spaces and enable students to explore different aspects of themselves and engage with others’ perspectives.

If you would be interested in developing Saturday Satya or a similar programme with young people in your school or area, please do get in touch via the website.

For more information about the programme see Saturday_Satya_Report_2015Download

 Posted on October 11, 2019 by

 HCE programmes, holistic, Uncategorized, Well-being

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