Current projects (PI)

LH MENA Appel à projets conjoint Maroc-Suisse Vers une politique d'ouverture aux REL: Etat de l'art et perspectives

Ce projet porte sur la gouvernance et les politiques en matières de ressources éducatives libres (REL), i.e. les stratégies, directives, réglementations et recommandations mises en place pour soutenir l'utilisation et la création de matériel éducatif sous licence libre au niveau institutionnel et national. Le projet s'inscrit dans le mouvement de l'ouverture, notamment celui de l'Open Science.
Site web du projet

LH MENA research partnership grant Exchanging Experiences: Building on Open Science and Open Education Capacities across the Mediterranean to Support the Emergence of Open Scholars

With this project, we build on each other’s expertise in terms of Open Science and Open Education to raise awreness among scholars of the Swiss-MENA region to the Open paradigm. Within an overall design-based research approach (DBR), stakeholders will crossbreed their expertise to i) identify respective institutional and if possible national policies towards distance education, Open Education and Open Science, ii) identify a list of competences for the XXIst century Open Scholar to lay the ground for a competences framework; iii) based on existing open material, design a training and identify features for a suited professional development environment for the Open Scholar; iv) work towards a consistent research project focused on a) prioritising research topics for an Open paradigm in the Swiss-MENA region, b) consolidating / extending the network of international Open scholars, and c) developing the training and professional development environment, from the design phase realised in this project.
Project website

Journal: Education Ouverte et Libre - Open Education

The project consists in creating a multilingual scientific journal to reflect on Open Education issues at the international level and in interaction with other "Opens" (e.g. Open Science). The recent recommendation on Open Science by UNESCO (2021) shows how openness needs to be thought with other frames of reference than those of modern societies. Indeed, now that the issue of access is being resolved, a more challenging openness needs to be addressed: Openness at the epistemological level. UNESCO recommends “Open dialogue with other knowledge systems”, referring to “dialogue between different knowledge holders, that recognizes the richness of diverse knowledge systems and epistemologies and diversity of knowledge producers”. How can Openness be envisaged in education? We provide a forum for multilingual reflection to discuss related questions. To ensure a truly open and international discussion, we welcome articles in all the languages of the world and, for each accepted article, produce an extended summary (1000 words) of the article in the 6 languages of the United Nations. Indeed, concepts are best expressed in a mother tongue language but then can only be spread though translation.
Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, IntenScif website; Journal website

Recent past projects

Scientific Exchange: A Roadmap for Open Education in Switzerland: First Steps

Supported by the University of Geneva, HEG – HES-SO, EPFL, several universities of teacher education throughout Switzerland and by the Open Education Global conference, this scientific exchange explores education as a commons. Science has been opening up for some years, with visible impact today in terms of commoning (e.g. Open Access, Open Research Data) and fore coming impacts in terms of opening up to diverse knowledge and cultures (UNESCO, 2021). Open movements represent a way to improve efficiency in education and research relying on long-term ecological agendas, particularly in knowledge societies where science and education are deeply entangled. The overall objective of this scientific exchange is to discuss Open Education (OE) in Switzerland in a constructive dialogue with international experts. The exchange takes place in Nantes, backed to the Open Education Global conference (May 22-25, 2022), to capitalise on the presence of international experts. Three specific goals guide the exchange. The first is to identify key stakeholders who will act as change agents. The second is to draft a roadmap on the basis of a critical analysis of relevant OE expert knowledge. The third consists in starting a Swiss OE network for the mutualisation of future actions.
SNSF web page; Project website

SNSF SPARK: Open Education for Research Methodology Teaching across the Mediterranean

The objective of this project is to develop common practices in research methods education on both sides of the Mediterranean. Targeting young researchers in educational sciences, it postulates that methodology represents a foundation on which to build a solid and context-sensitive scientific cooperation. Taking advantage of readiness shown on both sides of the Mediterranean represents a historical opportunity to examine critically epistemologies and methods and develop together shared, respectful of contexts, appropriate research practices. Indeed, Southern countries are formulating a huge demand in terms of research methodology training while Switzerland enjoys a long research tradition, recently joining the FAIR research standards.During the 2018-9 academic year, a Swiss institution supported the creation of three research methodology training modules. This training mixed francophone PhD students from the North and from the South, was offered entirely on-line and is the starting point for the single study we are presenting here and that is driven by four objectives. The first objective consists in suggesting a set of design principles to foster a common pedagogical culture in research methodology teaching in the domain of educational sciences across the Mediterranean. The second goal consists in suggesting a set of design principles for the design of learning environments that promote virtual mobility, articulating it with complementary components like dual and cognitive apprenticeship and national and international tutoring. The third aim is to initiate a discussion on how to teach design research in educational sciences. Finally, the fourth objective is to start a reflection regarding epistemologies appropriate to address 21st century educational challenges.
SNSF webpage

LH MENA: RESET-Francophone

RESET-Francophone (REleve Scientifique, Education et Technologies) is a projet in research education in the field of (digital) education. Within the framework of its 2018-2019 pilot, it offered four modules on research methodology. Module 1: Research data management; Module 2: Qualitative research methodology; Module 3: Quantitative research methodology; Module 4: Méthodologies de recherche et coopération internationale en éducation. Some of these modules, licenced with Creative Commons licences have been used within the EDSE CUSO programme in 2021.
Leading House MENA website
Project webpage.
Special issue of L'Education en débats: analyse comparée, Vol. 10 No 2 (2020): Méthodologies de recherche et coopération internationale en éducation

Not funded: Sharing Competencies in transcultural Spaces

This project studies educational and transcultural exchange processes taking place in the context of LECU and SINAN. The aim of this research project is to describe and understand how, in the research site of the two mentioned academic network projects, pedagogical knowledge, competencies and practices of academics at teacher training universities are shared, discussed, adapted and appropriated to serve in different contexts.
Outcomes:
Available from the publication lists: Boulos et al. (2022) and Class et al. (2019).
Class, B. (2021). Insights on the exchange in LECU and SINAN by a silent observer from a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning perspective. Oral presentation at the Concluding LECU-SINAN Symposium, Zurich.
Feixas et al. (2021). Shaping the futures of higher education through international academic networks. 19th Biennal EARLI-European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction, Gothenburg, 23-27 Aout.
Class, B. et al. (2019). Poster. SINAN: Un projet de coopération scientifique dans le domaine du développement professionnel d'enseignants-chercheurs. ECOTIDI - Apprentissage et Enseignement: Enjeux et voies du changement. Hammamet, 15-16 nov.