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A world to win

It is argued that in our world there are many "pessimists", who do not believe that climate, environmental and natural disasters can still be averted, and therefore want to live today as if there was no tomorrow. And if you have nothing more to expect, why should you also let the pleasures of today be taken away from you? Vacations, air travel, football riots, luxury and increasingly technological "convenience". Dancing on the volcano. It is argued that we must do better than this, with the Inner Development Goals. Gentle optimism, mild on the relationship, sharp on the content. Together we have a world to win.

Innovative Ways of Analysing Data with Practitioners as Co-Researchers: Dancing outside the ballroom

Conducting research as part of a PhD study offers students a unique opportunity to explore new methods and methodologies. Although we each based our PhD studies on a more traditional participatory action research (PAR) methodology, we also took the opportunity to experiment with a new data analysis method. Working from a critical social science paradigm (Fay, 1987) that translates into critical and collaborative research practice with an emancipatory intent, our scope of freedom as to how to process data, perform the analyses, then synthesise and report the results, became restricted. We felt that if we were to be genuine in involving practitioners in data analysis, as co-researchers, we needed to adopt approaches that allowed the expression of all ways of knowing. Using the creative arts proved to be an innovative way of working and learning, facilitating the complex interpretation of narrative data, identifying patterns, themes and connections. As in all qualitative research, in order to enhance process and outcome rigour, the (learning) strategies and methods used by researchers should be congruent with the principles characteristic of the chosen methodology. In this chapter, we want to offer you, the reader, a deeper insight into the key principles underlying this method for data analysis, before describing how we "danced" with them in each of our studies. Building on the original work of Boomer and McCormack (2010), who used the key principles of practice development, namely participation, inclusion and collaboration,i we developed a "critical and creative data analysis framework". This framework rests on the three main philosophical principles of hermeneutics,criticality, and creativity. Applying these principles to data analysis we have learned that multiple perspectives usually show more similarities than differences, which we express visually and poetically in Figure 22.1. The interface between two perspectives is not a juxtaposition but a fluid transition, where the sky meets the sea and the sea meets the sand. Each is separate and yet part of the whole, bigger picture.

Dancing to the loop

Dancing with structure: research in Ecological Pedagogy

Ecological Pedagogy is the “Pedagogy of the whole”. It assumes a continuous interaction between the individual and his or her environment (e.g. Bronfenbrenner (1977)). Traditionally, Pedagogy has been aimed at separate aspects, such as the school, the family, the neighbourhood or government policies. By contrast, Ecological Pedagogy is characterised by an integral approach. The perspectives of children, parents, educators and other stakeholders are in the middle and are approached by taking into account all their important interrelations. In this essay, a plea ismade for a broad research perspective in Ecological Pedagogy in which qualitative and quantitative methods are treated by addressing their similarities rather than their differences.

The Dancing Traffic Light

De openbare ruimte staat vol borden waarmee (vooral) de overheid ons gedrag wil sturen. Die borden vertellen ongewild ook een verhaal over de mensen, de organisatie, het beleid erachter. Dat gaat soms goed, soms minder goed.

Dancing with Mathematics: an interdisciplinary educational approach for embodied learning with motion-capture technologies

The ‘Dancing with Mathematics’ workshop includes a variety of hands-on educational activities that combine these two seemingly incompatible disciplines through motion-capture technologies. A heterogeneous group of researchers with diverse academic backgrounds and expertise, that collaborate in the HORIZON-WIDERA project ‘TransEET’ (Transforming Education with Emerging Technologies) has: first, extended two digital technologies widely used for mathematics education (GeoGebra and MaLT2) with motion-capture technologies for embodied interaction; and then, co-developed the ‘Dancing with Mathematics’ pilot educational activities connecting dance and mathematics for different grades. In the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to engage in an innovative learning experience of using their bodies to express mathematical concepts for creating dancing animations. The workshop aims to collect feedback from the arts-related community to feed the redesign phase of the resources for the main phase of the TransEET project and discuss sustainable ways to support arts integration in the main body of school disciplines.