The 11th Biennial IFS Conference 2025 in Erfurt was a resounding success. The conference, which is held biennially, saw the participation of 85 scientists from 11 nations. The participants engaged in a three-day intensive programme, comprising lectures and excursions, during which they exchanged views on significant developments in the history, theory and practice of Froebel pedagogy.
The opening keynote was given by Dr Jens Beljan from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena on the topic of ‘Pedagogical understanding: Childhood as a sphere of expressivity and resonance’, in which he compared the connections between resonance theory and Fröbel pedagogy. On the second day, Dr Maria Cooper from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, gave the participants a guided tour in her presentation “Ka mua, Ka muri (Walking backwards into the future): Nurturing the Whole Child Across Time and Place”, Dr Maria Cooper from the University of New Zealand introduced the participants to the importance of human connection with ancestors and the natural environment in the context of Fröbel’s pedagogy. The third keynote speech by Prof. Dr Helge Wasmuth from Mercy College in New York on the topic of ‘The past, the present, and the future’ dealt with the problem of secondary texts from a historical perspective, which play a major role in Froebel research in English-speaking countries, but raise the question of whether they reflect the ‘authentic Froebel’ (H. Heiland).
Further information regarding the conference can be found here:
