The speaker is an associate professor in policy studies and learning city-region focuses. He has participated several European projects and beyond academic work, he is an EPALE Ambassador for Hungary and EAEA board member. Dr. Németh represents the UniPécs in Erasmus+ KA3 PDS4BST project and in PIMA Network, eucen as ambassador, and also in PASCAL International Observatory.

I’m a Professor at Education School in the Polytechnic University of Coimbra, Portugal. This year, I will celebrate 25 years of teaching with a huge party with my students and a big cake! Since 2007, I’ve been actively engaged in projects to promote innovation, quality and excellence in Higher Education. I worked as a teacher trainer, researcher, consultant and editor at the Centre for the Study and Advancement of Pedagogy in Higher Education.

My biggest pedagogical inspirations are Paulo Freire and Antonio Dias de Figueiredo. I’m also deeply inspired by my oldest love, my grandmother, who didn’t know how to read and write, but taught me, with kindness, essential life wisdom, knowledge and skills, and my youngest love, my adolescent daughter. I don’t need to explain to you, right?

When people first meet me, they inevitably pop the question: “So, what do you do?” (We tend to define ourselves by the profession!) With a big smile, I proudly announce, “I’m a teacher!” Then comes the classic follow-up: “Ah! What do you teach?” My conversation partner gets surprised when I say “People!” And then we have a fantastic conversation about the privilege and joy that is to learn from and with the students…

My area of teaching is Adult Education and Educational Gerontology and one of my favorite pedagogical approaches is on-Service Learning. I usually teach night classes with many non-traditional students, mostly working women, some “serial caregivers” like me, with my age (around 50).  I also do applied research on non-formal adult education and education with older learners. I’m a board member of the European Association for the Education of Adults and co-convenor of the European Society for Research on Education of Adults (ESREA) Transformative and Emancipatory Education Network. As a teacher, researcher and also a practitioner, I love to learn outside the walls of the University with my students. I also believe that teaching is something you need to do with your heart!  My pedagogical favorite film is Dead Poets Society and in my bedside is always The book of Disquiet, from Fernando Pessoa.

Thank you for the kind invitation for this promising session!

The speaker studied mathematics and adult education. He is Assistant Professor of the Methodology of Adult Education at the Hellenic Open University and he is adjunct professor at the Democritus University of Thrace. He has designed the well-known accredited training program for the instructors of the National Centre for Public Administration in Greece and has a vast experience in training of trainers. George is considered as the person who guided the internationalization of the Greek adult education community. His research interests are learning, transformative learning, educational biography and critical reflection. He has translated three books on adult education, edited journals and several textbooks. His published work counts more than 100 papers in journals, edited volumes and conference proceedings. In 2019 he was inducted in the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.

The speaker is a program director of GD Events, NGO Trainers’ Association sTOP and creator of over 400 educational games. A graduate of the Institute of Applied Social Sciences, the Academy of Special Education and the School of Group Training. He implemented gamification projects among others for the National Cultural Center, the Polish History Museum, Orange Foundation, Foundation for Civic Education, Cała Polska Czyta Dzieciom and the Pilecki Institute in Berlin. Winner of the Warsaw Cultural Education Award, Masovian Cultural Impulse and Sunflowers of Children’s Time. He lectures at the AGH University of Science and Technology and at the Warsaw Center for Educational, Social Innovation and Training. Author of texts on games, their use and popularization for, among others, Tekstualia, Labib and Noc Bibliotek project.

The speaker is a trainer of the NGO Trainers’ Association sTOP, facilitator and author of educational publications. She works on interculturalism, social diversity, non-discrimination, inclusive language and global education. She is curious about people and their diversity, so whenever she can, she seeks opportunities to meet other cultures. She cooperates with the School with Class Foundation and the Polish Humanitarian Action, and has trained at, among others, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, municipal and state offices and institutions, and the University of Białystok.

Tom Hashimoto, LL.M., DPhil (Oxon), FHEA primarily specializes in financial economics, FinTech, and inclusive growth in the context of European integration. The multipurpose usage of artificial intelligence and blockchain led him to non-financial application of these technologies, including food security and rural development. He mentors and coaches executives and senior managers in small and medium sized companies who seek to integrate and take advantages from technology-driven knowledge management. He holds a doctorate (DPhil) in Geography from the University of Oxford. He is also a member of British Mensa. 

Topic 1: Professor Dina Soeiro: “Contemporary and Diachronic Issues in Adult Education: Critical Reflection in Practice, Personal Transformation, and the Journey to Professionalism”

Topic 3: Katarzyna Radzikowska, trainer of the NGO Trainers’ Association sTOP: “Does the place I come from matter? Education in a multicultural community”