Dr. Buxarrais was invited as a keynote speaker at the 4th International Conference on Civil Engineering Education:Challenges for the Third Millennium, organised by the Escola de Camins (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC BarcelonaTech), and EUCEET (European Civil Engineering Education and Training) Association from the 5th to the 8th of September.

The conference was entitled “Ethical competencies in Higher Education” and the abstract can be read next:

Higher Education encompasses three interconnected dimensions:

• A dimension related with the construction and transmission of the scientific, technical, cultural and humanistic knowledge.
• A political and social dimension linked to the implication in the society and in the democratic principles development.
• An ethical dimension bound together with and activity compromised with the justice, the people’s and communities’ dignity and human rights.

Since Higher Education must train competent professionals who are to analyse their own practises, we will consider the third dimension. Furthermore, they must be able to evaluate their actions, their perceptions, their beliefs and their thoughts, not only as professionals in their field of knowledge but as compromised citizens as well. Thus, the training of the ethical competence is necessary to develop ability of reflection, analysing and the taking of a post. Here we are going to ask ourselves questions related to the teacher practises and the ethical learning in the higher education.

Last month of June (21st to 23rd), Dr. Buxarrais intervened in the CIPE18 in Logroño presenting the paper “Families approach towards their children homework: an exploratory study“, authored jointly with Francisco Esteban (UB), Teodor Mellen (ESADE) & Guillem Pérez (UB).

Abstract:

“Una de las tareas familiares que mayor atención reclama, y que mayor protagonismo adquiere en las diferentes dinámicas familiares, es la que se refiere a la ayuda de padres a los hijos en sus tareas escolares: los deberes. Dicha ayuda puede adoptar diferentes formas y/o estructuras, adquirir diversos sentidos y, por lo tanto, presentar distintas incidencias en la educación familiar. El artículo que se presenta trata de dichas formas, sentidos y su incidencia educativa en el ámbito familiar, concretamente, sobre la repartición, el compartir y la conciliación de dicha tarea. Con el objetivo de desvelar qué formas predominan en la actuación por parte de las familias en torno a las tareas escolares de sus hijos e hijas, se han entrevistado a 471 personas. Asimismo, sacamos a la luz algunos de los resultados obtenidos de este estudio nacional sobre la conciliación familiar y concluimos con las ideas extraídas de lo expuesto, dejando en evidencia la necesidad de proponer intervenciones motoras de un cambio”.

On November, 10, Dr. Buxarrais was invited to the University Trás-os-Montes e Alto d’Ouro, in Vila-real (Portugal). There, she gave a lecture in the morning entitled: “How to behave ethically: values education”

Abstract:

The lecture starts with a clarification of the concept of “ethical values” and its classification, showing examples for each of its typologies. Then, we shall explain the ways of learning values: 1) practice: experiences lived where we can put our values into practice; 2) Observation and imitation of our models of values and ethical behaviour; 3) autonomous and rational reflection, personal moments to reflect on our values and how we show them in our everyday routines. Being familiar with how we learn ethical values, we will be able to think about how to teach them. Therefore, we will also talk about educational strategies to help develop certain moral dimensions of the person. Finally, we will conclude with the proposal of a design of contexts and ways of being successful in this task.

In the afternoon, Dr. Buxarrais was part of a PhD thesis jury in the School of Human and Social Sciences, presided  over by Dr. Manuel Luis Tibério (in the picture below).

Dr. Buxarrais took part in several activities in the AME conference this year, which took place in St Louis, Missouri (USA) (2 – 4 November).

On Thursday 2nd, she participated in the symposium “Teaching Common Values in Europe: Democracy and Tolerance in Education Policy and Practice in the EU Member States”, organized and chaired by Dr. Wiel Veugelers. Her paper was entitled “Case Study Spain: Revitalising Education for Citizenship”. Abstract of the symposium: “The European Union has always stressed the relevance of the values of democracy and tolerance for Europe as a community as well as for its Member States. This research focuses on the policy of teaching the common values of democracy and tolerance in secondary schools, and how this policy is implemented in practice. Further, it covers how teachers, local communities and NGOs influence the teaching of common values. Data on the formal education policies of all 28 European Union Member States has been collected by national academic experts, and in-depth curriculum studies have been performed in 12 Member States”.

On Saturday, the last day of the conference, Dr. Buxarrais took part in an invited special session coordinated by Dr. Ann Higgins d’Alessandro and Dr. Kaye Cook entitled “AME Collaborations: Ideas for Impacting International Moral Education”. The objective of this international panel was to highlight AME’s many areas of expertise and enhance its global reputation, perhaps by aligning with government or educational priorities in various countries.  After brief presentations, the session left substantial time to ideas from the audience.

Finally, Dr. Buxarrais presented officially in Saint Louis what will be the 44th AME Conference in 2018, in Barcelona, organized by herself and Dr. Elena Noguera.

Photo: Dr. Balakrishnam (University of Malaya), Dr. Berkowitz (University of Missouri-St. Louis), Dr. Buxarrais (Universitat de Barcelona) and Dr. Gross (The Hebrew University)

Editorial Graó has recently published the book “Aprender a ser. Por una pedagogía de la interioridad” (ISBN: 978-84-9980-750-8 , 184 pag.), edited by Dr. Maria Rosa Buxarrais and Dr. Marta Burguet. This book offers a wide range of views on the importance of the basic lesson of learning to be that should take place in the school. It is a call for reflection and action that provides scientific and academic contributions from the disciplines of Ethics, Philosophy and Neuroscience. It emphasizes the necessary attention to the development of the emotional, psychological and spiritual aspects or the very being and, at the same time, the book presents practices in diverse educational contexts that promote the care to the inner self, from the attitudinal, emotional and spiritual points of view. Teaching this is part of the challeges teachers have nowadays in this accelerated and isolated society.

Table of contents
– El ser existencial, dimensión filosófica, by Margarita Mauri Álvarez.
– La cuna del yo: un viaje autoconsciente al cerebro, by David Bueno Torrens.
– El cuidado ético como camino hacia el ser, by Maria Rosa Buxarrais Estrada.
– Aprender a ser: educar la dimensión emocional en la escuela, by Luis Núñez Cubero and Clara Romero Pérez.
– ¿Qué aporta el trabajo del eneagrama en la conexión con la esencia del ser?, by José Luis Iriberri Díaz.
– La escuela que aprende a ser: de la intención a la acción, by Eulália París Pujol.
– Relaciones educativas desde el cultivo del espacio interior, by Marta Burguet Arfelis.
– El aula: gestión y ser, by Bartolomé Calero Rubio.
– El ser corporal, by Paula Gelpi Fleta.
– La interioridad, un horizonte de conocimiento profundo, by Berta Meneses Rodríguez.
– Habilidades para ser, en contexto, by Víctor Martínez Ruiz.
– “Escúchate, confía y ve más allá”, by Xavier Serret Juan and Josep Maria Llull Novell.
– Educar en y desde el ser en el ámbito de la gestión transformadora del conflicto, by Marta Ponce Mas.
– Educación de la interioridad: despliegue de la dimensión espiritual, by Fátima Ramos Brieva.
– El mayor descubrimiento, by Silvia Martínez Grau.
– Experiencias de una comunidad que busca crecer desde dentro, by María Ximena Coria and Verónica del Valle Gálvez.