POLICY PLAN OF THE DENKROUTES FOUNDATION

VISION

We believe in active citizenship, nourished by teacher and resilience.

In order to use, celebrate and increase these, we want to map out thought routes together, with which we can learn and grow, so that connectedness with nature and culture is expressed. We believe that we can contribute to a culturally vital society in which children, adults, their parents and teachers dare, want and can make their essential social contribution.

MISSION

We want to make a difference for Dutch youth in European contexts – and thus for all of us, because they shape our future.

The direct reason for establishing this foundation is to enable acquisition for the projects below. To become eligible for subsidies, an ANBI foundation is essential.

But the foundation's motivations lie deeper: concern for the quality of education and undermining tendencies such as the lack of well-educated, flexible-thinking and sustainably inspired teachers. Concern for the social consequences that this already has and will increasingly have for everyone who receives education: superficial involvement, populism, uncertainty about their own abilities among students, experiencing a gap between knowledge-that-must and the demanding but often differently oriented world around them, fear and polarization.

This grim picture can also be turned upside down: wherever there are well-educated, well-equipped, committed and inspired people working in and around schools, they can make an enormous difference.

Stichting Denkroute wants to provide them with perspectives, advice and educational materials to make this difference. In doing so, it also wants to increase its own reach. The work that we ourselves (as advisors, researchers, authors, school leaders and teachers) try to do in an inspired way is satisfying but also deserves a larger radius of action.

Another aspect of this is that a division threatens to continue in Dutch education: children of parents who can afford 'shadow education' (childcare, tutoring, remedial teaching, homework guidance, exam training) or schools with a high parental contribution versus parents of children who have to make do with an undermining school, where the teachers present are in 'survival mode' because they do not have much confidence in their own teacher and resilience or because the workload is constant and sky-high.

We believe that education should enable a broad introduction of knowledge, insights, skills and attitudes and thus facilitate equal opportunities and a deep sense of involvement with the society that lives together. We believe that this gives every newcomer roots and wings, but that this also transcends the individual interest. With this, the pedagogical task of teachers is emphatically also a social task.

There is a great deal of involvement with the world around them among pupils and students in the Netherlands. This is reflected in the desire to travel, among other things. Young people want to go abroad and as soon as seniors get the chance, they also say they want to explore the world (again). They yearn for depth but often do not know how to find it and thus end up in touristic superficiality and consumerism: bucket lists of locations that can be checked off (and that unfortunately can often only be reached by plane). In the coming years, 'tourism in our own country and on our own continent' will necessarily increase again. There are learning opportunities and possibilities to increase involvement with nature, heritage, the unique and valuable aspects of culture and society.

From education, ways out, that is to say, alternative ways, are also offered. Informal learning is fortunately gaining interest and appreciation again, as is project-based education. Many also have the experience and knowledge that it is a good remedy to look beyond borders – of the country, the bubble and one’s own right – in order to be able to reflect and connect. We therefore also refer to the organisations with which we feel connected and inspired (see below).

How does the Denkroutes Foundation intend to achieve this?

The foundation aims to achieve its goal by, among other things, mapping out learning and thinking routes, finding them together with third parties, developing them further and following them through or coaching participation in them.

This can be in the form of:

Providing strategies and step-by-step plans that support, strengthen and extend learning, reasoning, contemplation and reflection;

Developing, deepening and/or expanding educational material;

Curriculum development, curriculum development or improvement;

Researching and publishing about the domains of culture, language, history, art history, heritage, society, nature and education – preferably a combination of these domains;

Providing guidance and/or advice on the use and development of educational materials and setting up educational projects on nature, society, heritage, language, art, culture and history;

Guiding and stimulating learning from and about the immediate environment;

To offer these services to individuals, businesses and organisations. The intended target groups are children, young people and adults.

To give shape to these objectives by means of teaching materials, tool kits, lesson series, games, stories, scenarios, research, publications, websites, videos, applications, excursions, exhibitions, advice and guidance.

What is needed to achieve this goal (people and resources)

Having and maintaining a wide and active network is necessary to gauge and utilize necessity, need and possibilities. The board members have been selected with emphasis on this.

The idea is to have one project finance the other. At the moment, the projects around the graphic novel Jazzy and the Footsteps of Bertha von Suttner have the best chance of fulfilling the role of financial engine. In the coming five years, the emphasis will be on finding a start in financial resources, goodwill and recognition in the field, which will make it easier for further projects to get off the ground.

Time is the most important resource for this.

The focus of the Denkroutes Foundation in the coming years

The next two to three years will be needed to gather people around the following projects, initiate them, develop them further together and implement them:

Peace visualized – inspiration, idealism and identity. A social and educational project in which the understanding of the concept of “peace” is deepened. By stripping it of noncommittal sweetness, we strive to translate this concept into action – or at least to impress upon our target group the relevance of this and to offer a perspective for action.

Part of this project is Peace People at Work. Young people are brought into contact with professional peacebuilders and interviewed about their work, how they define peace, how they build it daily, what they see as their radius of action and how they came to such a career. These interviews should lead to a large number of inspiring, written and drawn portraits.

A second part of this project is the pursuit of the creation of the graphic novel Jazzy and the Footsteps of Bertha von Suttner. We take this 19th-century pacifist and feminist as a source of inspiration. In the time and Europe in which she lived, militarism was at its peak. Her thinking is extremely relevant and illuminating for today. Also important in her legacy: her presence at the Hague peace conferences in 1899 and 1907 brought the realization of the Peace Palace closer and she had a major input in the creation of the Nobel Peace Prize. She expressed her analyses and idealism in an accessible way in the world-famous novel De Wapens Neer! In turn, we portray these ideals and how they can shape our identity in this day and age in a graphic novel. This story takes place in The Hague today.

A third part of the Vrede Verbeeld project is an exchange between secondary schools in The Hague and Germany and Austria: schools named after Bertha von Suttner. Young people and their teachers explore what it means to live in “The city of peace and justice” or to be formed at a school that has Bertha von Suttner as its patron saint.

The above project could possibly be expanded into a series of stories with the (provisional) titles Lot and the footsteps of Mozart (about fast fashion and child labor), Carl and the footsteps of Anton de Kom (about resistance and its social context) and Orlando and the footsteps of Tjalie Robinson (about assimilation and integration). Another conceivable sequel to the larger project Vrede Verbeeld is the publication of an illustrated atlas about the many travels of Bertha von Suttner.

Other plans and projects in progress:

Hooray, the Wilhelmus is sounding!

A multi-perspective, richly illustrated scrapbook about how the anthem of the House of Orange became the anthem of us all.

The Wilhelmus activity book

A three-day project for secondary schools in the Netherlands about solidarity – and especially the skill of working on it independently and inclusively.

Masamuda Mood

A youth novel about the value and significance of knowledge about archaeology and historical ways of life for young people in the 21st century, based on the educational archaeological heritage in Broekpolder in Vlaardingen.

Dwellers of Dutch Coasts

A growing series of historical portraits of coastal and delta residents who talk about how proximity to water shapes their lives.

Who is your hero?

Developing educational materials to give substance to the celebration of International Women's Day in secondary education.

That's what I'm going to sing about:

A toolkit and trajectory coaching for teachers in group 8 in primary education to use local history and heritage for a final musical written by the students themselves.

What these projects have in common is that they assume that increasing knowledge and curiosity go hand in hand, but also that this knowledge cannot be unambiguous.

Polyphony gives participants in thought routes the space to determine their own direction and interpretation. It nourishes the teacher. This results in more insight, overview, control, understanding and empathy – not automatically, but when people are well coached by others who are flexible and innovative in mapping out those thought routes, but at the same time know how to keep a larger goal in mind. Here: a greater appreciation for each other and the free, safe and inclusive society in which we live and the will and freedom to dare to take responsibility and help build society.

An analysis of the environment

In the domains mentioned, there are many opportunities for developing refreshing and unifying initiatives, either using more traditional media (where actually meeting each other physically is also appropriate), or using digital means and preferably a combination of both, so that a broad audience can be reached intensively.

Which developments are relevant for the organization?

The substantive renewal of the curriculum in primary and secondary education, the revised Canon of the Netherlands and the need for cultural institutions such as museums to move along offer an abundance of opportunities for the Foundation. In fact, it believes that there is a need to respond to these developments.

She also expects to be able to play a positive role in:

Making education more future-proof by responding to 'decompartmentalisation' or cross-disciplinary approaches;

At the same time, not trivializing the differences in professional attitudes, skills, methods, insights and knowledge that are needed to give depth to different disciplines – the different perspectives that this produces – is precisely the added value of inter-, intra-, multi- and meta-disciplinary approaches;

An increase in international exchanges due to greater demand for integration at European level;

Increased accessibility of archives (for example through digitization);

And the expected demand for preserving the value of 'difficult' knowledge and insight in an environment where the focus will increasingly be on skills in the coming years.

Do these developments pose a threat or an opportunity for the organization?

Of course, one can ask what the unique contribution of the Denkroutes foundation is and will be. There are many providers of educational services. One answer to this is that it is precisely the synthesis of domains and expertise that brings the added value.

In order to build up expertise and keep it up to date, the board members and officials all work in culture and/or education. As is known, these are fields of work in which over-demanding employees is the order of the day. A threat to the effectiveness of this foundation is therefore mainly the lack of time. This is also related to the fact that setting up well-timed information campaigns and fundraising is a challenge.

The positive side of this coin is that initiatives are being developed from the field, which better guarantee demand-orientation and realistic expectations.

Our core values and definitions

Education

Important tasks of education are qualification, socialization and initiation into an adult society. This is done in an authentic and efficient way by working together in groups of people with corresponding learning needs.

Education

Education has a slightly different connotation than teaching. In this, the 'knowledgeable partner' and the one who wants to learn may both be fully grown but perhaps not yet mature in the sense of daring to take responsibility. It can also be understood as learning (on) partial aspects. In education, even more than in teaching, the 'acceleration idea' is assumed, namely that not everything has to be learned through investigative learning, through trial and error, with coaching or Socratic questions, but that questions from the learner may receive a short and clear answer from the educator. This gives the learner the opportunity to acquire knowledge, insights, skills and attitudes more quickly.

Culture

A combination of values. Expressions of those values are a set of rules and responsibilities that are jointly recognized. Expressions are also the visualization and making tangible of what is considered beautiful and valuable. Expressions are also reflective, critical and practical thinking. This can take the form of traditions, human intervention in nature (cultural landscape) and disciplines such as visual arts, architecture, film, music, theater, dance, literature, photography, etc.

Heritage

Places and objects that are recognized but also discussed as carriers of what binds us. Often heritage also offers a link between us and a past and thus previous generations. Heritage is preserved and cherished because it is considered valuable for future residents and users of those places and objects.

Nature

Nature seems to be practically absent in the Netherlands and at the same time it is everywhere around us. Landscape, biodiversity, climate, water, air, food and freedom of movement, all of this determines our culture. The miracle of the human body is also nature (human intervention such as medication or tattoos can then be considered culture). The realization that humanity is dependent on nature provides refreshing self-relativization and appreciation of our environment, both leading to a necessary open, inclusive attitude. Recently, research has again proven that the appreciation of nature is increased by spending a lot of time there.

Teacher

We are not talking about 'a teacher' in the sense of a teacher or lecturer, but as a force that lies within all of us. Call it inventiveness, curiosity, the felt desire and necessity to learn or thirst for knowledge and insights. Directly in line is the experience of satisfaction and success and the observation that nature, culture, society and ways to develop one's own initiatives in this, to share and to find allies are 'learnable'.

Pedagogical assignment

Following Gert Biesta, we argue here that an important pedagogical task is to initiate newcomers into a mature culture - mature in the sense of taking responsibility, seeing responsibilities, daring to be involved with fellow human beings and society, taking action and standing up for the consequences of those actions.

Newcomers

Anyone who needs and wants to be introduced into a society in which inclusiveness and democratic culture are guiding principles. These include children, young adults and often (still) adults, and not just immigrants, international students and expats who strive for integration.

Society

In this text, society and community are used interchangeably. The term 'citizenship' also requires further elaboration. And because this term is currently a much-discussed term, we reserve the opportunity to define this term further later.

Organizations we feel connected to or are inspired by:

Euroclio (for an open, international exchange where an apolitical but professional attitude is paramount, the ability to reflect our national preoccupations on other perspectives)

Nivoz (for making the pedagogical task visible, discussable, researchable and evolvable)

IBO (for the complete implementation of educational perspectives in the classroom, inclusive education elaborated down to the finest fibers)

Education is a joint effort (for the example of citizenship education and interdisciplinary, inclusive, activating didactics)

VGN (for substantive discussions, concerns about the direction of history education)

Council of Europe (for a broad and more sustainable view of democratic culture)

January 2023