The Evens Education Prize 2020

The 2020 Evens Education Prize in the practice category goes to Maslaha (UK). In the research category the prize will be shared between Prof. Kehinde Andrews (Birmingham City University) and Prof. Koen Leurs (Utrecht University).

The Laureates

Maslaha is a UK-based organisation that seeks to change and challenge the conditions that create inequalities for Muslim communities in areas such as education, gender, criminal justice, health, negative media coverage and a continued climate of Islamophobia. Their work is practical and rooted in local communities but with a reach that is national and international, and with a view to influencing policy and the public imagination.

The winning School with Roots project is a great example of the way in which Maslaha recognises and relies on the knowledge and expertise that exists in the communities they work with and the power this has to create change across society.

In this project the jury particularly appreciated the way Maslaha supports schools and teachers to engage in critical thinking in order to make learning more relevant for both pupils and their families, gently challenging the teachers' preconceived ideas and unconscious biases. The jury emphasized the importance of the capacity-building approach Maslaha developed compared to a deficit-based one. They also praised how their solid educational focus – proposing a new way to think about education – has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of the pupils and their families.

Prof. Kehinde Andrews from Birmingham City University developed the first Black Studies degree programme in Europe and is director of the Centre for Critical Social Research.

The course developed by Prof. Kehinde Andrews, Black Studies: Decolonising the university and creating critical education off campus, is both the main source and focus of the research which consists for a large part of reflecting on the process of establishing the programme within the University of Birmingham. The methodology involves reflecting on practices and also interviewing key stakeholders, such as staff, students and partners. It also situates the researcher as not just an active participant in the research but a vital component of it.

Apart from exploring how to embed critical pedagogy that challenges Eurocentrism, they have been researching the extent to which critical thought and engagement with publics outside the university is possible in the context of neoliberalism.

Their work critiquing Eurocentric knowledge claims; on critical pedagogy; the student experience; and building a community component to teaching and knowledge production, is also applicable to contexts outside Black Studies.

Prof. Koen Leurs is an assistant professor in Gender and Postcolonial Studies at the Graduate Gender Program, Department of Media and Culture, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

The participatory action research project Media literacy through Making Media: A Key to Participation for Young Newcomers explored the question to what extent critical media literacy education can acknowledge and strengthen young migrants’ participation and resilience.

The assumption was that promoting their media use as a critical practice may contribute to migrant youth’s participation, resilience and socio-cultural inclusion, on their own terms. As such, being
critical is not the goal, but the means to an end. By making media, students learn to
understand the workings of the media, necessary in order to be able to critically reflect on them.

Although they focused on media literacy education for young people who found themselves at a particular intersection of nationality, ethnicity and religion, the question of what migrant students can teach us about media literacy, yielded important and broadly applicable insights about the potential impact of media literacy education on the lives of other vulnerable, disadvantaged and marginalized groups.

For both research projects, the jury stressed the importance of the empowering dimension both initiatives have. They both put the focus on individuals and communities taking charge of their representations and their voices. In doing so they also address the often existing gap between academia and society.

Shortlist

Because we were not able to organize site visits due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a series of videos was produced about the work of the practice applicants in order to give the jury the opportunity to experience the practices to some extent. You find the 9 videos below.

Overall, the jury was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the shortlisted applications and the potential links between candidates. To encourage the sharing of good practices in Europe and to offer all shortlisted candidates the opportunity to discover the initiatives and actions of their counterparts in other countries, the foundation will organize an exchange meeting in the framework of the Award Ceremony for the laureates.

The Focus of the Prize

The Evens Education Prize, Critical Thinking as a Practice of Freedom, invited applications in two categories:

  • Embedded practices that support critical thinking about social questions
  • Scholarly but practice-oriented work that furthers our understanding of practices, pedagogies, curricula or projects that foster critical thinking, and the conditions in which education for critical thinking can thrive

The call was open to a broad variety of practices implemented in institutional and non-institutional spaces by teachers, scholars, students, educators, youth workers, artists, civil society organizations, citizen groups etc. This includes formal, non-formal and community-based education for youth as well as adults.

© David Sypniewski

The 2020 Evens Education Prize in the practice category goes to Maslaha (UK). In the research category the prize will be shared between Prof. Kehinde Andrews (Birmingham City University) and Prof. Koen Leurs (Utrecht University).

The Laureates

Maslaha is a UK-based organisation that seeks to change and challenge the conditions that create inequalities for Muslim communities in areas such as education, gender, criminal justice, health, negative media coverage and a continued climate of Islamophobia. Their work is practical and rooted in local communities but with a reach that is national and international, and with a view to influencing policy and the public imagination.

The winning School with Roots project is a great example of the way in which Maslaha recognises and relies on the knowledge and expertise that exists in the communities they work with and the power this has to create change across society.

In this project the jury particularly appreciated the way Maslaha supports schools and teachers to engage in critical thinking in order to make learning more relevant for both pupils and their families, gently challenging the teachers' preconceived ideas and unconscious biases. The jury emphasized the importance of the capacity-building approach Maslaha developed compared to a deficit-based one. They also praised how their solid educational focus – proposing a new way to think about education – has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of the pupils and their families.

Prof. Kehinde Andrews from Birmingham City University developed the first Black Studies degree programme in Europe and is director of the Centre for Critical Social Research.

The course developed by Prof. Kehinde Andrews, Black Studies: Decolonising the university and creating critical education off campus, is both the main source and focus of the research which consists for a large part of reflecting on the process of establishing the programme within the University of Birmingham. The methodology involves reflecting on practices and also interviewing key stakeholders, such as staff, students and partners. It also situates the researcher as not just an active participant in the research but a vital component of it.

Apart from exploring how to embed critical pedagogy that challenges Eurocentrism, they have been researching the extent to which critical thought and engagement with publics outside the university is possible in the context of neoliberalism.

Their work critiquing Eurocentric knowledge claims; on critical pedagogy; the student experience; and building a community component to teaching and knowledge production, is also applicable to contexts outside Black Studies.

Prof. Koen Leurs is an assistant professor in Gender and Postcolonial Studies at the Graduate Gender Program, Department of Media and Culture, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

The participatory action research project Media literacy through Making Media: A Key to Participation for Young Newcomers explored the question to what extent critical media literacy education can acknowledge and strengthen young migrants’ participation and resilience.

The assumption was that promoting their media use as a critical practice may contribute to migrant youth’s participation, resilience and socio-cultural inclusion, on their own terms. As such, being
critical is not the goal, but the means to an end. By making media, students learn to
understand the workings of the media, necessary in order to be able to critically reflect on them.

Although they focused on media literacy education for young people who found themselves at a particular intersection of nationality, ethnicity and religion, the question of what migrant students can teach us about media literacy, yielded important and broadly applicable insights about the potential impact of media literacy education on the lives of other vulnerable, disadvantaged and marginalized groups.

For both research projects, the jury stressed the importance of the empowering dimension both initiatives have. They both put the focus on individuals and communities taking charge of their representations and their voices. In doing so they also address the often existing gap between academia and society.

Shortlist

Because we were not able to organize site visits due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a series of videos was produced about the work of the practice applicants in order to give the jury the opportunity to experience the practices to some extent. You find the 9 videos below.

Overall, the jury was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the shortlisted applications and the potential links between candidates. To encourage the sharing of good practices in Europe and to offer all shortlisted candidates the opportunity to discover the initiatives and actions of their counterparts in other countries, the foundation will organize an exchange meeting in the framework of the Award Ceremony for the laureates.

The Focus of the Prize

The Evens Education Prize, Critical Thinking as a Practice of Freedom, invited applications in two categories:

  • Embedded practices that support critical thinking about social questions
  • Scholarly but practice-oriented work that furthers our understanding of practices, pedagogies, curricula or projects that foster critical thinking, and the conditions in which education for critical thinking can thrive

The call was open to a broad variety of practices implemented in institutional and non-institutional spaces by teachers, scholars, students, educators, youth workers, artists, civil society organizations, citizen groups etc. This includes formal, non-formal and community-based education for youth as well as adults.

© David Sypniewski