The 2021 International Conference on Childhood, Education

and Technology Was Successfully Held

Hosts

School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University (HZNU)

Tencent Society Research Center

CIPSH Chair Collaborative Office in Hangzhou Normal University

Collaborative Organizations

Special Committee of Basic Theory for Early Childhood Education

China National Society of Early Childhood Education

Journal of Early Childhood Education, Renmin University

Session 1：2021/04/23, Morning (North America Session)

On the morning of April 23, 2021, the first session of the International Conference on Childhood Studies 2021 "Education and Learning" was successfully held at Hangzhou Urban Research Studies Center 109 of Cangqian Campus of Hangzhou Normal University. The opening session was started by professor Ping-chen Hsiung, the CIPSH Chair Professor of New Humanities and distinguished Professor of the School of Education in Hangzhou Normal University. It was presided over by Xu Jianmei, Deputy Dean of the School of Education with 40 experts and scholars from home and abroad participating.

Prof. Ping-chen Hsiung presented " Shall Children Play? Arguments from Arts, Sciences, and Letters in Late Imperial China", with professor David Goldberg as moderator. Professor Hsiung presented her research ideas for the audience, addressing the question of whether children should be allowed or encouraged to play. She provoked deeper think about children's play by offering occasion for the late imperial Chinese articulation to provide substantive input from the past that could be read as historical resources for future reflections.

Prof. Ping-chen Hsiung

Prof.  David Goldberg

Prof. Geroges Van Den Abbeele presented "Are the Aims of Education Necessarily Those of Civilization? Reflections on an Enlightenment Trope" and raised the question of the actual relation between education and civilization, with Prof. Ping-chen Hsiung as moderator. Professor Georges Abbeele made clear of thread by combining the etymology of education and civilization with the Enlightenment as the background and way of research.

Prof. Geroges Van Den Abbeele

Prof. Philip Buckley gave a lecture on " The Foreign, Strange and Mysterious World of Children ". The lecture was moderated by Prof. Harold P. Sjursen. Prof. Philip Buckley recollect and re-translate the German philosopher Edmund Husserl’s concepts of “home-world” (Heimwelt) and “foreign-world” (Fremdwelt) as a tool for approaching, tentatively, the “world” (Welt) of children, enriching the "common world" we can share together.

Prof. Philip Buckley 

Prof. Harold P. Sjursen gave a talk which title is an interesting question " Are Our Children Cyborgs Now?" The lecture was moderated by Associate Prof. Margaret Tillman. Given the ubiquity of interactive "smart" devices in the experience of young children, Prof. Harold P. Sjursen drew on Piaget's theory of cognitive development, Heidegger's Question Concerning Technology, and contemporary theories of techno-humanism to discuss how children perceive these devices.

Prof. Harold P. Sjursen

Associate Prof. Margaret Tillman discussed the contribution of science and technology in fostering cross-cultural and transnational relationships in the context of UNESCO's aim to promote "international education" across borders and instill a new global consciousness in the post-World War II era, with the title " International Education and the Advent of Distance Learning Technology in the Postwar Period". She talked over how relevant science and technology can be used to facilitate cross-cultural and transnational relationships in the post-epidemic era. The lecture was moderated by Professor Philip Buckley.

Associate Prof. Margaret Tillman

After the lecture, Prof. Ping-chen Hsiung summarized and led the discussion of this sub-forum. It is reported that Professor Yu Wei from Northeast Normal University and Professor Jin Sheng-home from Suzhou University of Science and Technology will give lectures at the second forum on "Education and Civilization" to be held this afternoon. The related lectures will also be presented simultaneously on B-site (room number: 22984697).

Writer : Fusheng Zhou, Xinyue Zhang;

Translator: Zhiming Liu