Prof. Dr. Hanife AKAR
Biyografi
Dr. Akar is a faculty member in the Department of Educational Sciences at METU, specializing in Curriculum and Instruction. She conducted research on teacher education as part of the TÜBA Integrated Ph.D. Program at Stanford University. As a Fulbright Fellow, she pursued postdoctoral research on the internationalization of higher education at Northeastern University (MA) and Boston College. Dr. Akar primarily conducts research using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. Her research areas include education and instructional policy, program evaluation, faculty development, transfersal skills, migration, democratic education and equity, intercultural education, design-based learning, educational spaces, STEAM, and foreign language education.
Rethinking School Space to Promote Democratic Education: A Holistic School Approach
| The purpose | GenAI has become emergent in the current educational era, however, we risk forgetting the right question of the “human” dimension of doing democratic schooling. The purpose of this workshop is to enable participants, practitioners, researchers, and decision-makers to understand the relationship among doing democratic schooling, understanding the functions of the school’s physical environment and its spaces, and revisiting the capitals to accommodate diverse student needs and foster inclusive and safe school campuses. Through a research synthesis on the relationship between schooling outcomes and the school’s physical environment, I aim to urge the need to establish more innovative approaches to school design that consider human capital, cultural and social capital as part of the school habitus, and to rethink the functions of the school space and the educational, social and emotional needs of students with diverse backgrounds through a whole-school approach. |
| Learning Outcomes | To explore the relationship between educational outcomes, school spaces, and their influence on students’ development: human capital, social and cultural capital for equity for all.
To analyze the functions of the physical environment and foster inclusiveness. To solve problems related to learning spaces and to design physical school environments for students with diverse backgrounds and special needs, creating safe school campuses. |
| Content and Flow | a. The workshop will start with an art-based learning task.
b. Introduction to understand the relationship between schooling, student diversity, and the need for democratic schooling. c. Three capitals will be revisited through a hands-on activity on school spaces, inclusiveness, and safety for enhancing democratic schooling and through a digital game. d. Photo and video exhibition of school spaces in high-performing countries, and building creative school designs. e. Reflexivity task on authentic schoolyards, classrooms, and corridors as dynamic learning and socialization spaces. f. Conclusion, an art-based whole-group task for an inclusive community. |
| Target Audience | Decision-makers, architects, engineers, school and city planners, practitioners, teacher educators, researchers, school managers, NGOs. |
| Prerequisites | View quality in education as a democratic right for all. |
| Technical Requirements | Notebook or mobile phone with Internet access. |