12h45 -14h, D.041 Bâtiment Dupriez, 

Mardi intime de la Chaire Hoover par Nicolas Cuneen (UCLouvain)

As global education governance has steadily homogenized the criteria used to determine the quality of educational practices across the world, measurement and quantifiable data have taken a front seat in decision-making processes. This methodological mandate has had important consequences for the type of information that is considered relevant. Individualized outcomes – pass-rates, diplomas, graduate employment statistics, sick days – are what can be counted, compared and demonstrated to stakeholders, and are thus what end up mattering. Pedagogical relationships and their quality, on the other hand, are notoriously difficult to measure, but they are no less important to educational practices and the attainment of desired outcomes. How then, can we incorporate this imperceptible “dark matter of education” into our decision-making processes? This talk seeks to explore the idea of relationships as a governing principle in educational institutions at every level, first by proposing a characterization of successful pedagogical relationships and then by examining the challenges surrounding their institutional and legislative prioritization.