Keynote speaker: Lewis Birchon, Head of Publishing Solutions for Cambridge Partnership for Education, part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Three PhD researchers will present their work and discuss.
When: Thursday 19th October, 2–4 pm (CEST – Paris, France)
Platform: Zoom
Language: English
Moderator: Andy Smart
Pre-inscription by email: catherine.ayme@gmail.com (Please write to Catherine Aymé to obtain a link to the webinar.)
Programme
- Introduction by the moderator Andy SMART
- Presentation of the PhD researchers group by Catherine AYME
- PhD researchers presentations (10 minutes each)
- Juliette FANJAT, Centre national d’étude des systèmes scolaires,
Université Paris Cité - Juan Gabriel SANTAMARIA, Didactica & Social Sciences
Université de Barcelone - Hubert BOËT, LabSIC, Information & Communication Science
Université Sorbonne Paris Nord
- Juliette FANJAT, Centre national d’étude des systèmes scolaires,
- 30–45 minutes presentation by the keynote speaker: Lewis Birchon
Lewis Birchon is Head of Publishing Solutions for Cambridge Partnership for Education, part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment. He has worked in educational publishing for nearly 20 years, producing textbooks, teacher guides, and digital learning materials for K-12. Birchon has provided consultancy, training and support for government-funded educational publishers around the world, including Thailand, Ethiopia, Oman, UAE, and Kazakhstan.
Visit Lewis Birchon’s blog Absolutely Textbook at lewisbirchon.substack.com - Moderated discussion, with questions from the PhD researchers, followed by questions from the audience.
Lewis Birchon’s presentation: What are textbooks good for in the 21st century?
In modern education discourse the word ‘textbook’ has become a pejorative. It conjures a model of schooling that has remained unchanged for since the industrial revolution: rows of desks, chalk-and-talk, the imparting of prescribed knowledge.
And yet textbooks remain a key policy tool. From Ron Desantis’s high-profile campaign of book bans in Florida and China’s rewriting of history in Hong Kong, through to the historic normalising of relations between the UAE and Israel and the emphasis of peacebuilding in Ethiopia’s new curriculum. Few other education interventions have quite such wide-ranging impact beyond the classroom.
Drawing on recent case studies we will look at the strengths and pitfalls of textbooks and attempt to explain why textbooks remain so important for today’s politicians.
The three Master and PhD researchers’ biographies
Juan Gabriel Santamaría Pérez is a High school teacher at the “Gustavo Rojas Pinilla” official educational institution, in Tunja, Colombia. Bachelor’s degree in Spanish and classical philology from the National University of Colombia. Master’s in teaching for secondary education, specializing in Spanish, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning of Sciences, Languages, Arts and Humanities -rural education-, Faculty of education, University of Barcelona. Brings 15 years of experience as an author and editor of school textbooks for rural contexts in Colombia.
Juliette Fanjat is a recent graduate in international cooperation in education and training (Université Paris Cité). As a scientific project manager at the French Center for Education Studies (Cnesco), she is currently working on the co-organisation of a consensus conference in Senegal with the Conference of Ministers of Education of French-Speaking States and Governments (Confemen). She’s particularly interested in questions related to teaching and learning mathematics in (pre)primary school.
Hubert Boët is a PhD researcher in communication sciences at LabEx ICCA (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord), working on the new modalities of educational industrialization through adaptive learning softwares in France and in the United States. Under the supervision of Philippe Bouquillion and Laurent Petit, he first studies in which forms of educational data mining and learning analytics research come out of laboratories to spread into the educational markets (from Pre-K to professional development). Subsequently he works on the stakeholders strategies (startups, publishing companies, public authorities) to support or mitigate the development of these technologies.