Opening up spaces for meaningful engagement in educational praxis

How to open up spaces to make education more meaningful? The concept of space can involve educational interactions, relationships, contents and other relevant aspects relating to this purpose. The book presents three perspectives to engage in opening up spaces. It empowers pupils, students, and teachers to develop as unique individuals, better relate to the communities and cultural traditions to which they belon, and to develop new visions, understandings, and ways of living. This volume is the result of the search of a number of educational professionals on how to open up spaces to make education more meaningful. The opened spaces involve educational interactions, relationships, contents and other relevant aspects relating to this purpose. The book presents three salient perspectives to engage in this envisioned path. It empowers pupils, students, and teachers to: Develop as unique individuals. This process includes engaging with personal feelings, developing a personal way of thinking and judging, and articulating one’s own voice in relation to others and the specific social context. Relate to the communities and cultural traditions to which they (want to) belong, and to interact with others who may belong to different cultural traditions. Develop new visions, understandings, and ways of living in order to lead a sustainable life within the potential of our eco-system, together with the myriads of other life forms on planet earth. These interconnected perspectives are elaborated in the domains of Bildung, worldview education, mathematics, physical sciences and language. The volume provides an inviting new perspective, which holds that students and teachers are already entangled in worldly tensions and issues, from the very start of their entering into education. Given this fact, it is a joint educational challenge to question and make sense of the complexities of today’s world. As such, the spaces that are elaborated in this publication are identified as spaces for praxis, by envisioning education as a means to actively improve ourselves and our contexts. The authors of this research compilation belong to the (network of the) combined research group Normative Professionalism / Life Orientation of the Utrecht University and the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. They are all professionals who combine intensive involvement in educational practice with practice-oriented research.