Andras Kocsis

I was born in Transylvania, one of the few places left where you can still find the way of life of hundreds of years ago. After graduating high school in 1987, I began attending undergraduate university courses in philosophy during the day and worked with runaway and asylum-seeking children at night. As the fall of the Berlin Wall ushered in a new world to Eastern Europe, my challenges as a novice educator remained. In my work I had to identify ‘separated’ children, and provide them with care and protection from abuse and exploitation. I facilitated safe and suitable transition shelters, researched family backgrounds, and provided counseling and rehabilitation. As my work became overwhelming, I temporarily suspended my undergraduate studies.

In 1994, I travelled to UK to work as an emerging professional specializing in teaching people with special needs (Asperger's syndrome, Down syndrome, etc.). I thoroughly enjoyed this experience because I could broaden my learners` skills and help them develop a healthy awareness of making meaningful contributions in life. I particularly appreciated that education was tailored to each student and their wide spectrum of needs. By making a meaningful contribution to the needs of others I came to understand inclusive social development. As my identity as an educator was taking shape, I also laid the foundation for growth in my personal and professional capacities as a practitioner. I returned to finish my studies, and in 1996 I received my Diploma in Curative Education and Social Therapy from Sheiling College, Ringwood, UK.

In 1998 in London, UK, I began studies in education with focus on Waldorf pedagogy. In 2000 I completed my teacher training and received my Teaching Diploma in Waldorf Education. Soon after graduation I returned to Hungary and gained employment with Pesthidegkúti Waldorf School, Budapest where I worked for 13 years (teaching English, Non-denominational Religious Studies, and Visual Arts) as a class teacher at both the junior high and high school levels. During this time, I also served first as a member then Chair of the school management board, and completed a certificate program in Non-denominational Religious Studies Education, at the School of Spiritual Science in Goetheanum, Basel, Switzerland. Throughout my practice as a teacher, I sought to bring a Freireian approach to any classroom, valuing the learners’ experience and insights.

In the late summer of 2013, I moved to Halifax, Canada, with my family, then took a year off to be the caregiver for my small children. In 2014, I reentered academia, enrolling at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU), with a persisting motivation to continue my education and to deepen the inquisitive nature of my intellect. In 2016, I graduated with a Master of Arts in Education degree, thesis “Cursive or Right Click? A Critical Analysis of Lifelong Learning and Cursive Writing. After my thesis defense I received a Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Graduate Scholarship, and at the 2017 fall Convocation ceremony I was awarded the Senate Award of Distinction.

In June of 2016, I was accepted as a doctoral student at MSVU in the Inter-University Doctoral Program in Educational Studies. Guided by the goal of having a transformative impact on education research, policy, and practice, my research focuses on various domains, including human development, foundational studies, in-depth learning and teaching, policy analysis and evaluation, and instructional practice. My aim is to become a university professor. To clarify and emphasize this serious statement I must remind myself of the experiences I had as an emerging educator. The task is, as Hanna Arendt notes, to repair and nourish or to protect and cultivate the delicate past, so that it can continue to throw light on the present and provide us with a sense of consistency. From this perspective my professional goal makes sense. Moreover, my early social pedagogic impulses and my consequent Freireian experiences as a teacher provided me with a warm sense of humor, and made me an educator of initiative with a contemporary approach and a citizen interested in every facet of life who never compromises with untruth. Further to this, my work—and indeed my life—is concerned with social injustice, inequality, and human rights abuses, and I am passionate about uplifting examples of humanity, brother/sisterhood, victory, love, and hope. My latest project at the YMCA, Fairview— “Inspire peace. Think it. Say it. Do it”—was formally recognized in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly and Halifax Regional Council. Currently, I am looking for opportunities to begin a new project called “The bulwark of kindness”, a place-based educational initiative fostering community building as an experience bearing directly on the well-being of the social places people actually inhabit.
At present, I enjoy the advantages of being a part-time lecturer and academic instructor for two courses: “Philosophy of Education” and “Curriculum and Instruction in Social Studies for the Elementary School” in the Bachelor of Education program of the Faculty of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University. I am also teaching scholarly writing in the Academic Writing Group—an association of the Community of Scholars—for graduate Master’s and PhD students.
When I am not occupied by the state of public education or the unforeseen consequences of digital technology, I worry instead about the Arsenal football club.

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