Christel Hartkamp (Netherlands)

Christel, together with her husband Peter, has been involved in establishing Sudbury model schools in the Netherlands since 2002 and has gained a lot of experience over the years from the perspective of a mother and a staff member.

She has met many young people, both in the Netherlands and abroad, who had developed completely independently at these type of schools. She has also studied the theories that underpin this education. Her great interest in how children learn in these schools has recently resulted in a second PhD study into the effects of these types of schools on the adult life of former students.

Christel will speak about her recently released book, A Pedagogy of Trust. This book brings together a large amount of knowledge acquired over the course of almost twenty years, which forms the pedagogical vision of Sudbury School Amersfoort. Sudbury School Amersfoort is a school that gives students access to fundamental human rights from an early age, such as being treated as a full human being with personal freedom, in addition to having a full say in both the school and the legal system. Sudbury model schools in general are often misunderstood. Schools where apparently no ‘direction’; is given to an educational process appear to be places where children do not learn or are not prepared to function in society. It is difficult to imagine that this ‘control’; is context driven in Sudbury model schools. With this presentation, Christel will address questions such as “How should you interpret this context and what is essential for the self-realization of young people?” “Why would direction undermine the processes that are essential in these school?” “How is learning taking place?” “Are these students developing skills they need?”