Our new event series UWA Talks began with the topic “Quality Education”. In UWA Talks we collect and share diverse opinions about current and exciting topics.
Our new event series UWA Talks began with the topic “Quality Education”. In UWA Talks we collect and share diverse opinions about current and exciting topics.
Sustainable education is a very important issue to us as an organization and should be thought about during every project of ours. But what about the term education itself? What exactly is, can and should education be? What could education look like in the future and what possibilities are accessible to us in order to transfer education more efficiently?
These questions motivated us to organize an event that revolved around these topics. We invited speakers from different backgrounds, to point out issues, give ideas about solving problems, to question existing concepts creatively and to create room for further thoughts.
Within the cozy walls of the Amerlingerhaus a friendly atmosphere was created in which we could wrap our minds around an issue that is relevant to all of us and that is now discussed more than ever.
Davorin Barudzija, recruting manager at “Teach for Austria” and coach for personal development, opened the event with his talk about things that teachers can learn from their students. Afterwards, Mohammad Malayeri, national coordinator at the organization „Students for Liberty”, talked about the historical backgrounds of the Austrian education system, drew parallels to America and drew attention to current problems that education is dealing with. Melanie Payer, high-school teacher of English and German in Vienna, followed with her talk about digitalization in school classrooms. Samuel Koch, founder of the startup “Galacta” finished the morning session with his vision of the university of the future.
After a very lively podium discussion and delicious lunch buffet we offered three different workshops to ensure an interactive participation of all our listeners. Anca Romocea is studying law at the University of Vienna and talked about problematic workplace conditions in non-profit-organizations during her workshop. We were able to invite the movement Fridays For Future to host a workshop about climate change and its consequences – a topic that is of rising importance in the field of education. Last but not least, it was time for UWA to get active as our organization itself – UWA offered a workshop that dealt with the critical approach to and dispute about the term “development assistance”.
In the afternoon further exciting program points followed. Educational researcher Amos Postner talked about the “biographization” of ones own way of life, in that sense that we construct our life around biographical key points and what role education plays in this baffling game. Agnes Pauer, student of political sciences, told us about her project “Removement”, in which women reflect their self- and body image. Anne Stöckelmaier, student of educational sciences, reported about her organization “Achtung Liebe”, through which she enables sex-positive and gender-just sex education. Jörg Reitmaier, employee of the “Bürgerforum Europas”, connected the topics of Europe and education. Karlo Krznaric, founder of “Speech Fennel” – a platform for rhetorical and communicational training, ended the event with his talk about “leadership in classrooms”.
After an intense podium discussion and a relaxed finale, we ended that wonderful day together. Wild discussions and many new ideas were shared and we succeeded in bringing a lot of diverse perspectives and opinions together on stage.
We were especially happy that our entire lunch buffet was sponsored by Foodsharing St. Pölten und Wien.
Our self-proclaimed goal was that every participant has gained a better understanding of what education really means for him and herself at the end of the day. With so much interesting food for thought we succeeded in reaching that goal.
Special thanks to Eure Projekte for the financial support and their help to realize this event!
We are already looking forward to the next event!
Where: Kulturzentrum Amerlinghaus, Stiftgasse 8, 1070 Vienna
When: Saturday, 08. June 2019, entry 09:00 – 17:00
application: the conference was free for all participants
Downloads: Programm and info about the speakers
