Remco Pijpers

I am a part-time PhD student at the Graduate School at the VU Faculty of Religion and Theology under the supervision of Gerdien Bertram-Troost, professor of Education in a Philosophical and Pedagogical Perspective at the FRT. In my daily life, I work as a strategic advisor for Kennisnet, the public ICT partner for schools, primarily occupied with ethical issues concerning digitalization in Dutch primary and secondary schools.

My aim is to research teaching in a digital context; not about ‘doing’ teaching, but teaching as a way of being. My research will take place at the intersection of theology and (educational) pedagogy. Title: Teaching in a Digital World: A Phenomenological Research of Teachers' Existential Experiences. The research starts from phenomenology, a method of practical reflection on lived and lived-through experiences of teachers. This is done in two stages: through phenomenological reduction and hermeneutic interpretation. I am a year into my journey now; in July, I handed in my research proposal to the PhD Proposal Advisory Committee (PPAC), writing my first chapters of my thesis. 

My plan is to recruit teachers in 2025 and interview them about their experiences of pedagogical situations influenced by digitalization. I want to know what they experienced and what contexts or situations have influenced those experiences. My network is quite extensive, but that is no guarantee for finding teachers soon, considering how busy they are.

I am already extremely grateful for the wisdom and patience of Gerdien and the co-promotor Anneke Smits (from Windesheim). One of the highlights was writing an article together with Gerdien about AI and human becoming, which was published in the magazine Handelingen, titled:AI and the Space for Human Becoming in Education.