IDEC 2010 Kicks Off in Israel

Posted in About IDEA on Apr 07, 2010 - 04:52 PM

Once per year, democratic educators from all over the world gather for the International Democratic Education Conference, or IDEC (gotta love all the acronyms). The conference, which Yaacov Hecht started in Israel in 1993, switches continents every year. IDEC 2008 in Vancouver, B.C., brought together a group of educators that became the founding team of IDEA -- Dana Bennis, Jonah Canner, Scott Nine, and myself (among others) -- and we've all come to Tel Aviv, Israel, for IDEC 2010. The Institute for Democratic Education, the Israeli organization that is a model for IDEA, and the Kibbutzim College of Education are cohosting on the college's campus from April 6 through the 13th.

This year's conference has drawn at least 200 educators from other countries -- as far afield as South Korea, Brazil, Germany, and New Zealand -- and a still-unknown number of Israelis, likely in the hundreds (as locals, many will just show up instead of pre-registering). According to the conference organizers, Saturday will be a popular day, when schools aren't in session and teachers and students are able to attend the open space workshops that day.

IDEA is excited to be one of the ambassadors for the "The Big Dance," an international network that supports a paradigm shift in education and its role in society. Through training, consulting, and leading change processes, education leaders from different countries will promote innovative education practices worldwide. This week, we are meeting with ambassadors from other countries to learn more about our role in the Big Dance.

There's always a lively spirit permeating IDEC. While the drum circles and PA announcements and constant foot traffic can get a little overwhelming for introverts like me, being with people around the world who are educational changemakers is thrilling.

Here are some of the highlights of IDEC 2010 so far:

• Opening talk by Yaacov Hecht, in which he energized the crowd by explaining why now is the moment for education to change. Never before in history, he said, has information been so readily available (e.g. through Google) and global relationships so easy to build (e.g. through Facebook). Today we have the tools to build an educational change movement.



• Panel: "Democratic Schools: Where Are They Heading?" IDEA Founding Director Dana Bennis was part of a panel that included educators from Shure University in Japan, and Kfar Saba Democratic School, Kanaf Democratic School, and Sudbury School Jerusalem (all in Israel). Dana emphasized the need to define what democratic education is, and to broaden that definition to include programs and schools that may not even use the term "democratic education," but who share values of autonomy and social justice. He said that democratic education must raise questions of race, class, and access.



• Visit to Hadera School, (LINK) the first democratic school in Israel. The approximately 380 students, who are aged four to eighteen, hosted at least 200 of us visitors in an impressively organized way. Students led tours for us, as a variety of activities happened around the treesy campus: student musicians played rock music, and people of all ages ran around playing sports and games.



• IDEA workshop introducing our work. Scott, Dana, Jonah, and I led a fishbowl discussion, with a circle of 50 participants around us. We raised questions such as "How might the definition of democratic education need to change in the US in order to be taken seriously and spur substantial change?" and invited two people at a time to join our discussion circle. We also gave a preview of the IDEA video, to be launched next month, and it received a big round of applause.

We'll be posting daily updates to Facebook and Twitter, so now is a good time to join us there if you haven't already! Photos and video clips from IDEC coming soon.

Tags for this entry:
idec, global education, yaacov hecht, hadera school, the big dance

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