Pears Foundation

Speaker: Dr Alison Body, Senior Lecturer in Philanthropic Studies, University of Kent   What role do teachers play in fostering active citizenship? Teachers play a crucial role in shaping the minds and values of future generations, providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary to become engaged and responsible members of society. However, there are concerns that their role as educators is changing, with less emphasis placed upon critical enquiry, contextualising knowledge and lived experience. In this session, Ali will present the findings of the ESRC funded research project, Educating for Public Good. She will consider the role of education in democracy and encouraging active citizenship, presenting the notion of the civic teacher and the civic school as central to fostering a collective sense of solidarity and empowering children and young people to become active agents of change. This is an online event open to all our grantees but particularly aimed at organisations that work with young people, education and citizenship. There will be an invite-only in-person lunch for our education and citizenship partners but Ali’s talk will be livestreamed on Zoom for a wider audience. Speaker biography: Dr Ali Body is a Senior Lecturer in Philanthropic Studies & Social Policy with the Centre for Philanthropy, at the University of Kent, leading their successful MA Philanthropic Studies programme. She began her career working for children’s charities as a youth worker, fundraiser, and senior manager and has written numerous studies on fundraising and voluntary action in education, alongside research exploring how children’s charities navigate austerity.  Her current research interests focus on how children ‘learn to give’ and the role of education in raising philanthropic and socially orientated children, with a particular emphasis on younger, primary aged children.