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

Keynotes

17.06.2026, 13.30 - 14.30: Sabine Doff - «UNLOCK THE FUTURE»

Abstract

This keynote is based on the premise that educational equity is a central benchmark for a sustainable and livable future. It asks how this principle can be implemented in everyday school practice. The presentation draws on the project “Unlock the Future – Educational Equity: A Key to the Future”, whose findings are presented and discussed.

The starting point is the diagnosis that educational success continues to be strongly influenced by social background, meaning that educational equity is not only a political goal but also a fundamental precondition for individual and societal future viability. The study examined twelve schools in Bremen and Bremerhaven operating under challenging conditions. Rather than focusing on deficits, the project aimed to highlight successful practices: How is educational equity enacted in practice? What strategies do school actors develop to enable participation? And how can effective approaches be transferred to other contexts?

The project combines academic research with artistic and participatory methods. In addition to a research study, an interactive travelling exhibition was developed, presenting findings in visual and narrative forms. A particularly innovative element is the use of photography and AI-supported visualisations, enabling students to express their ideas of just education and desirable futures.

The results show that educational equity emerges where schools use their scope for action, strengthen relationships, and collaboratively assume responsibility with learners. Successful approaches are less dependent on isolated measures than on shared attitudes, cooperation, and systemic support. At the same time, the findings indicate that existing practical knowledge needs to be more widely disseminated and structurally embedded.

In conclusion, implications for educational policy, school development, and science communication are discussed, with the aim of establishing educational equity as a shared societal responsibility in a sustainable way.

References: 
https://www.unlock-the-future.de/ 

Sabine Doff (2025), Expedition Bildungsgerechtigkeit. Ergebnisse und Erfahrungen von der Suche nach dem Schlüssel zur Zukunft von Kindern und Jugendlichen. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. 

Speaker Bio

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.

18.06.2026, 08.30 - 09.30: 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.

18.06.2026, 17.00 - 18.00: Gert Biesta - «What kind of society does the school need? A defence of the school as institution»

Abstract

Schools, colleges and universities operate in highly-demanding environments. It is not just parents who want the best for their children and students who want the best for their money. Society also has many expectations about what education ought to ‘deliver,’ and is increasingly watching and monitoring education systems in order to make sure that they perform and achieve. This all too often results in unhelpful and counterproductive pressure. In my presentation I will explore the relationship between ‘school’ and ‘society’ by not just asking what kind of school society may need, but also – following Eckart Liebau – what kind of society the school may need. By exploring the ‘double history’ of the modern school, I will be able to argue that the school stands in a double relationship with society: not just as a function but also as an institution. Whereas a function the school has a duty to perform, as institution it has a duty to protect and therefore also a ‘duty to resist,’ as Philippe Meirieu has celled it. Along these lines it may become possible to recalibrate the relationship between school and society and push back in meaningful and legitimate ways against the performative pressures modern education systems are under.

Speaker Bio

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

19.06.2026, 15.00 - 16.00: Raphael Berthelé - «Multilingual Political Debates in Polarized Times: On the Potential of Foreign-Language “Unevenness”»

Abstract

In Switzerland, there is a widely discussed gap between linguistic pedagogical ideals and the actual language competencies of the population. It is sometimes overlooked that institutional contexts exist in which even individuals with limited interest in languages are able to express themselves on complex topics in foreign or non-dominant languages.

In this talk, I discuss the idea that political discussions involving participants with different first languages are characterised by specific properties that are relevant for social coexistence.

Speeches by nationally active politicians in German or French as ‘foreign’ or ‘second’ languages are typically less stylistically polished than those of so-called native speakers; however, they also tend to have a depolarising effect and are, on average, less negative and less subjective.

I demonstrate these effects through qualitative and quantitative analyses of a corpus of statements by 10 politicians who appear in both French- and German-speaking Swiss television programmes (Infrarouge, Arena).

These findings can be related to concepts from different disciplines, ranging from the psycholinguistic Foreign Language Effect (Corey et al., 2017), to Dewey’s pedagogically relevant notion of reflective thinking (1910), and the somewhat old-fashioned but democratically important idea of mere civility (Bejan, 2017).

Speaker Bio

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.