Download valedictory speech by professor Wiel Veugelers
20th June 2019
Today, profesor Wiel Veugelers will give his valedictory speech, titled: Learning and Teaching in Critical-Democratic Citizenship Education. Professor Veugelers was professor of Education at the University of Humanistic Studies from 2002 until 2019. You can download the speech.
In his speech, Wiel Veugelers analyses developments in theory, policy and practice of moral education and citizenship education in the past few decades. He criticises the strong focus on the individual and its adaptation to society. Instead, he argues for a stronger link of autonomy with social concern and social justice, connecting the moral and the political, and a critical and dynamic concept of democracy.
Learning should be considered as a reflective, dialogical and democratic process of meaning giving. In guiding these learning processes, teachers should include different perspectives and introduce moral values as criteria in reflection and critical thinking. Schools should be as democratic and inclusive as possible. He argues for a return to the ‘sixties’ and their combination of personal and collective emancipation, or in more contemporary concepts: the combination of autonomy and social justice.
Prof. Dr. Wiel Veugelers studied developmental psychology at the University of Amsterdam. From 1979 till 2015 he was working at the Graduate School of Teaching and Learning of the University of Amsterdam, recently as associate professor. Since 2002 he had a chair as Professor of Education at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, in particular in the area of moral and citizenship education with a special focus on a humanist perspective on ethical education.
He is coordinating the network ‘Education for Democratic Intercultural Citizenship’ (EDIC) in which seven European universities work together in education and research (since 2010). This network is funded by the European Erasmus + Programme (strategic partnership). (See also www.uvh.nl/edic). He was the coordinator of the EU-funded Research Project Teaching Common Values Democracy and Tolerance (2016-2017). All 28 EU member States participated in this study.
He is co-editor of the bookseries ‘Moral Development and Citizenship Education’ of Brill l Sense. He is associate editor of the Journal of Moral Education (since 2012) and member of the editorial boards of the journals Compare, International Journal of Leadership in Education and Pedagogiek. In 2012 he received the Maslovaty Award of the SIG Moral and Democratic Education of EARLI for his book ‘Education and humanism’. In 2015 he received of the Association of Moral Education the Kuhmerker Career Award for his contribution to the research on moral and citizenship education.
Today, profesor Wiel Veugelers gives his valedictory speech, titled: Learning and Teaching in Critical-Democratic Citizenship Education. Professor Veugelers was professor of Education at the University of Humanistic Studies from 2002 until 2019.