IDEC Inclusion & Diversity Committee
About
The Inclusion and Diversity Committee is made up of IDEC members who have decided to work together to increase diversity and inclusion within IDEC. We reflect on potential barriers at IDECs relating to unconscious bias, discrimination, racism, white dominance, and structural power and privilege and we work with organisers to remove them. We also focus on inclusion and diversity in Democratic Education in general.
Since 2022, we have supported each IDEC’s organizing group with ideas and feedback to increase inclusion, and we have contributed to the conference program by offering workshops and lectures, facilitating discussions and holding spaces for people to reflect, share and connect.
Our offerings at IDEC 2025
In 2025, we have focused on community and connectedness in education. We have worked with the organisers to bring speakers to the conference who use holistic, indigenous, and human-rights based approaches to build connectedness in their learning communities.
Walid Malik will offer a keynote on “Bridging Classrooms with Empathy in Polarized Times: Taking Action against Discrimination facing the Middle East Conflict” and a workshop on “Addressing Complex Societal Challenges in Classrooms – Upholding Human Dignity in Times of the Middle East Conflict”.
Isabel Denis (Caribbean) will offer a workshop on “Belonging Before Learning: Where P.L.A.Y. Powers Community”.
Eve Tonkin (Aotearoa New Zealand) will offer a talk sharing her experiences of “Decolonising the curriculum at our democratic school” and she will facilitate a session for participants to share their own experiences of this.
Chloe Duff (UK) and Dorothea Schuetze (Germany) will facilitate a discussion about “IDEC’s Role in times of the Erosion of Democracy” that invites participants to consider the appropriateness of IDECs traditionally apolitical stance at this moment in our history.
Forum Theatre (Germany) will perform “Common Ground” exploring inclusive education, and run a series of theatre workshops on diversity and inclusion which will culminate in a collaborative theatre happening on our final night.
For more details about what these offerings contain, please go to the speakers and program pages.
Our history so far
The Inclusion and Diversity Committee was founded at the online IDEC in 2021 after John Loflin proposed that IDEC make a response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Several of us volunteered to work on how to respond to this and subsequently realized that we needed to look at inclusion and diversity within IDEC itself and in democratic education generally. Since then, the group has been meeting monthly and new members have joined over time.
In 2022, we examined the place of privilege and racism, supporting one another to acknowledge our personal unconscious and conscious prejudice and biases. In Nepal in 2023, we concentrated on the role of women in IDEC and in Democratic Education. In Taiwan in 2024, we partnered with the organisers to highlight and promote the place and participation of young people at the conference and in the global movement.
Our current members
Madhavi Murdilar (India), Karen Aoyagui (Brazil), Cecelia Bradley (Australia), Isabel Dennis (Trinidad and Tobago), Chloe Duff (UK), Verena Gruner, Tania Corbett, Eve Tonkin (Aotearoa New Zealand), John Loflin, Olivia Loria (USA), Christine Jones (Netherlands) and Dorothea Schütze (Germany).
We look forward to meeting you in 2025!
For more information, please contact: dorothea.schuetze@arcor.de