Keynote Lecture 1

Professor Sandra Simpkins, University of California Irvine: Cultivating Culturally Responsive Activities: Centering Diversity in High-Quality Extended Education Opportunities

Extended education opportunities, including organized activities and programs outside of school, provide youth with empowering experiences that can change a child’s life. But what if these spaces are only positive for some youth, but not all? In the U.S., some youth feel misunderstood, marginalized, and discriminated against when they are at out-of-school organized activities and programs. How can we help ensure that extended education opportunities are positive spaces for everyone, particularly those who have been marginalized? Scholars who focus on the school day and what happens in classrooms think culturally responsive practices (also known as culturally relevant practices) are key to supporting positive youth development for all children. Though culturally responsive practices show great promise in supporting learning and positive development during the school day, we know very little about what these practices look like or their potential in extended education. In this presentation, Dr. Sandra Simpkins will discuss current frameworks on culturally responsive practices and how they complement current conceptualizations of program/activity quality. She will summarize current evidence on the importance to cultivating culturally responsive activities. However, executing high-quality culturally responsive programming is challenging to say the least. Dr. Simpkins will describe some of the challenges and best practices she and her team have identified in their work with activities, youth, and families. Though much of her work has focused on these issues in regard to youth’s race, ethnicity, and immigration status in the U.S., culturally responsive practices are critical to consider for any setting that serves a diverse group of youth (such as, diversity on sexual orientation, language, and socioeconomic status). Considering culturally responsive practices centers culture in our theories about activities, our conceptualization of quality, and staff practices.

Professor Sandra Simpkins, Ph.D. in psychology, is a faculty member of the University of California, Irvine School of Education. Her work has focused on how families, friendships, and social position factors (such as, ethnicity and culture) shape adolescents' organized after-school activities and motivation.

Keynote Lecture 2

Prof. Dr. Natalie Fischer, University of Kassel: Parents’ Employment, Equality in Education or Student Agency? Quality of School-Based Extended Education from Different Perspectives

Internationally, provisions of extended education programs in school and related research are increasing. Although in most countries this recent expansion relies on the aims to allow parents to work full-time and to reduce inequities in education, there is a current shift towards supporting individual learning, agency and well-being in education to prepare children and youth for an insecure future (OECD, 2019). In line, “students’ learning experiences – the quality of ‘learning processes’ – have risen in value and expanded the focus beyond ‘outcomes’” (OECD, 2019, p. 13). Whereas an enrichment of traditional schooling should fulfil these new demands (Noam & Triggs, 2020), the impact of participation in extended education programs relies on their quality. However, the relevance of specific quality features may vary according to different goals (e.g. Fischer, Elvstrand & Stahl, 2021). The aim of this talk is to analyze goals and quality of extended education from the perspectives of students, parents, researchers and policymakers based on empirical results and normative guidelines. This will give insights into future requirements for school-based extended education settings.

Prof. Dr. Natalie Fischer is Professor of Educational Science with a focus on social relationships in schools at the University of Kassel. She researches the development and quality of all-day schools, multi-professional cooperation and pedagogical relationships.