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What is the role of education as global crises become increasingly interconnected?

21 Oktober 2024
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In this article, CIVIS Alliance project PolyCIVIS’ Teaching Work Package presents a collection of interviews conducted with academics from within the Alliance and beyond. Each of these interviews shed light on their teaching methodologies, experiences, and insights. 

We invite you to explore these interviews and gain deeper insights into the transformative potential of education within the PolyCIVIS alliance. 

What I think is particularly important is to empower students with a can-do mindset, as they are socialized into a world whose multiple crises can easily lead to anxiety and discouragement. We hope to make an educational offer that allows them not only to survive, but to thrive in such a complex environment". Dr. Kanifa Kamatara, Makerere University (MAK)

About the Web Dossier

As global crises become increasingly interconnected, education plays a critical role in empowering students, and equipping them with skills, knowledge, and experiences that are necessary in order to better understand, and navigate these complex challenges. 

This collection of interviews conducted with academics from the PolyCIVIS network universities sheds light on some of their existing teaching methodologies, experiences, and insights coming from both continents. Educational offers featured include both polycrisis-related courses taught within individual universities and ongoing joint African-European programmes.

The interviewees emphasise the importance of continuously working towards developing innovative approaches to teaching the polycrisis. They stress that to fully understand the diverse crises—from climate change to social fragility— it is important to achieve an ongoing interaction between academic institutions and the society, in both European and African contexts. Finally, they also give concrete advice with regard to successful joint programme engineering.

Interviews with: 

  • Prof. Anne Weyembergh and Prof. Ramona Coman, both Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
  • Dr. Markus Gastinger, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS)
  • Dr. Kanifa Kamatara, Makerere University (MAK)
  • Prof. Mina Karavanta, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA)
  • Prof. Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Prof. Pape Sahko, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD)