Conference of Hope

Under the title “Seeds of Hope in complex Times – from Latin America to the World”, an international conference took place on November 5 and 6, 2021, aimed primarily at leaders of Protestant schools as well as church leaders and leaders in the fields of church educational responsibility. This event, which was held from São Leopold, Brazil, and organised simultaneously in several languages, included about 90 participants from Brazil, Argentina, the USA, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and many other countries.

Exciting speakers and stimulating discussions in small groups characterised the programme. Video recordings of the keynote speeches by Edson and Aline Kaiapó and Fr. Gustavo Gómes Pascua as well as the panel discussion with Alvori Ahlert, Amanda Costa, Benilda Brito and Andrea De Vita are available on Youtube:

Please activate JavaScript to view this video.
Video-Link: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXS_JBvOgsDelcICdImTPC5Gf1ErtTjPq

A comprehensive report by Annette Scheunpflug and her colleagues from the University of Bamberg will be available soon.

The conclusion of the conference was that Protestant schools should see themselves as agents of renewal and change. The worldwide exchange enables learning from and with each other. An important development task is to give space to the rights of marginalised groups, to respect human rights, to make education possible for girls and women, to form inclusive communities, to try out new pedagogical methods and to involve parents in the educational work. To this end, teachers should be offered appropriate training and their task should be valued and respected by society and the church. Schools should become places of free and safe discussion and testing social and church commitment and in this way implement a “pedagogy of hope”.

 

The conference programme is available here:

Seeds of Hope in complex Times_Conference of Hope_Program
/Seeds_of_Hope_in_complex_Times_Conference_of_Hope_Program.pdf
124.5 KiB