2026 annual conference of the Swiss Society for Research in Education (SSRE) and the Swiss Society for Teacher Education (SGL)

Keynotes

Sabine Doff

Sabine Doff is Professor of Foreign Language Education (English), Academic Director of the doctoral programme «Die DUALE PROMOTION», and Dean of the Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies at the University of Bremen. Her professional focus is on what already works in schools, notably through her participation as a member of the jury for the German School Award (Deutscher Schulpreis). For the past two years, she has been working in close collaboration with schools in Bremen within the framework of the project «UNLOCK THE FUTURE», addressing issues of educational equity through a participatory approach that integrates artificial intelligence. The results achieved to date have been analysed and disseminated both scientifically and through artistic and creative means by an interdisciplinary project team, in particular through the travelling exhibition of the same name, accompanied by a digital programme.

Pierre Dillenbourg

A former teacher in elementary school, Pierre Dillenbourg graduated in educational science (University of Mons, Belgium). He started his research on learning technologies in 1984. In 1986, he applied machine learning for developing a self-improving teaching system. He obtained a PhD in computer science from the University of Lancaster (UK), in the domain of artificial intelligence applications for education. He has been senior scientist at the University of Geneva. He joined École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2002. He has been the director of Center for Research and Support on Learning and its Technologies, then academic director of Center for Digital Education, which implemented the MOOC strategy of EPFL. He is full professor in learning technologies in the School of Computer & Communication Sciences, where he leads the CHILI Lab: "Computer-Human Interaction for Learning & Instruction ». He has been the director of the leading house DUAL-T, which developped technologies for dual vocational education systems (carpenters, florists,...). With EPFL colleagues, he launched in 2017 the Swiss EdTech Collider, an incubator with more than 90 start-ups in learning technologies. He (co-)-founded 5 start-ups, does consulting missions in the corporate world and joined the board of several companies or institutions. In 2018, he co-founded LEARN, the EPFL Center of Learning Sciences that brings together the local initiatives in educational innovation. He is a fellow of the International Society for Learning Sciences. He has also been the Associate Vice-President for Education at EPFL as well as Vice-President for Academic Affairs (Provost) ad interim.

Gert Biesta

Gert Biesta is Emeritus Professor of Public Education at Maynooth University, Ireland, and Professor II in the Department of Pedagogy, Religion and Social Studies, at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. He is an appointed member of the Education Council of the Netherlands, the advisory body of the Dutch government and parliament and is involved as an expert in the development of the Council of Europe’s European Space for Citizenship Education. He writes about educational theory and policy, with a particular interest in teachers, teaching, teacher education, curriculum, citizenship education, arts education and religious education. To his surprise, his work has been translated in more than 20 languages. His latest monograph, World-Centred Education: A View for the Present was published in 2022 by Routledge. In 2026 he will publish Religious Education for Everyone (co-authored with Patricia Hannam), Indirect Education: A Guide for Teachers (co-authored with Herner Saeverot and John Baldacchino) and a single-authored book called Teaching in Bloomsbury’s Philosophical Ideas in Practice series.

• Gert Biesta

Raphael Berthelé

Raphael Berthelé is Professor in multilingualism at the University of Fribourg. He studied and worked at the Universities of Fribourg, Tübingen, Berkeley, and Berne.
He co-founded the Fribourg Institute of Multilingualism in 2008. Currently he directs the MA programmes in Multilingualism studies and in foreign language pedagogy.
His research interests cover different areas from cognitive to social aspects of multilingualism. In the course of the last years he has focused on the empirical investigation of language-specific, general cognitive, affective, and social predispositions to using and learning additional languages in young and adult learners. His research consists of multi-variable investigations of different samples of learners, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally.