{"id":38,"date":"2014-02-05T23:49:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T06:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/epic\/?page_id=38"},"modified":"2018-12-03T18:19:45","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T01:19:45","slug":"weber","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/epic\/ubc\/weber\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. B. Weber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Dr. Barbara Weber is an Associate Professor in Human Development, Learning and Culture in the Department of Educational Psychology & Counselling Psychology and Special Education. She is the co-director of the Vancouver Institute for Philosophy for Children together with Dr. Susan Gardner (Capilano University) and is presently coordinating the BC hub called \u201cEngaged Philosophical Inquiry Consortium<\/a>\u201d (EPIC) that meets bi-monthly at UBC and brings together scholars from local universities and colleges, school practitioners and graduate students.<\/p>\n

She has a PhD in Philosophy, Psychology and Education from the Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich, Germany and was a full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Regensburg before she moved to Vancouver in 2013.<\/p>\n

Dr. Barbara Weber has been working in the field of philosophical inquiry for 12 years.\u00a0 In 2004, Weber authored a complete curriculum and delivered a 168 hour certification program for elementary and high school teachers on EPI. This program was certified and nationally accredited by the German Ministry of Education. In 2005, she co-designed the structure and content of a University Program for philosophy students at the University of Philosophy, Munich.\u00a0 She has published over 40 articles with 26 on the subject of EPI, edited 7 anthologies with 4 related to EPI, and she has authored 4 books with one dedicated to EPI entitled: \u201cPhilosophizing with Children about Human Rights: Rationality and Empathy as Preconditions for a Democratic Dialogue Culture\u201d (Freiburg, Germany: Alber Publisher 2013).<\/p>\n

Her research at UBC investigates the impact of philosophical inquiry on the development of social-emotional skills such as empathy and perspective-taking.\u00a0 This work is funded by a SSHRC Development grant and HSS Seed grant. She also conducts qualitative research on how children think about core philosophical and sociological topics including nature, the environment, human rights, and globalization. For these projects she cooperates with different schools and alternative educational initiatives (e.g. Self-Design Learning) and collaborators with universities in Germany (e.g. the pedagogical University of Karlsruhe). She has also initiated a number of international and intercultural research projects including the Israel-German Project on Narratives, Dreams and Imaginations \u2013 Israeli and German Youth Imagine the Future, where she uses this inquiry based pedagogy to facilitate transnational philosophical dialogues on politically central topics.<\/p>\n

Research Projects:<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/b>Engaged Inquiry with Children: Fostering Empathy and Perspective-taking<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>
    \nThis quantitative study involves children between the ages of 11 and 13 and investigates how engaged philosophical inquiries impacts their ability to empathize and take on different perspectives.
    \nPrincipal Investigator:     Dr. Barbara Weber<\/span><\/a><\/span>
    \nCo-Applicant:     Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. <\/b>\u2018Nature Gives and Nature Takes\u2019: A Qualitative Comparison between Canadian and German Children about their Concepts of \u2018Nature\u2019\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span>
    \nThe interdisciplinary pilot study uses qualitative and quantitative methods in order to investigate common concepts children (between the ages of 10 and 13) have about nature.
    \nPrincipal Investigator:     Dr. Barbara Weber<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Building a Canadian Engaged Inquiry Network<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span>
    \nThis project will create a national network that explores, assesses, and promotes inquiry-based teaching practices in Canadian universities, schools, and informal learning environments. Focusing on teacher education, student learning outcomes, and community engagement, this network will initially consolidate existing strengths in inquiry-based pedagogy in Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta. It will also foster emerging interests in this pedagogy in British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan before expanding nationally.
    \nPrincipal Investigator:     Dr. Rob Wilson<\/span><\/a><\/span>, University of Alberta
    \n    Dr. Barbara Weber<\/span><\/a><\/span> is one of the Co-Applicants<\/li>\n
  4. <\/b>What are the Values and Meanings of Research Today? An Empirical Survey at U.B.C.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span>
    \nIn this project we investigate: a. How do researchers conceptualize different kinds of knowledge in their disciplines and why is this knowledge valuable to them? b. What impact does justifying research with an economic vocabulary have on innovation and inspiration? c. What other vocabularies do researchers use to describe the value of research and what impact do these alternate narratives have? d. How are these beliefs and narratives similar to and different from those formally and informally maintained by the institution itself (i.e. the lead administrators)?
    \nPrincipal Investigator:     Dr. Barbara Weber<\/span><\/a><\/span>
    \nCo-Applicants:     Dr. Steven Taubeneck<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Faculty of Arts), Dr. Kirk Madison<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Faculty of Science)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Research Team:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Dr.\u00a0Mahboubeh Asgari<\/span><\/a><\/span> – Post-doctoral researcher
    \nArthur Wolf<\/span> – Ph.D.\u00a0Candidate<\/p>\n

    Adi Burton – Ph.D. Candidate
    \n    Parmis Aslanimehr<\/a><\/span>– Ph.D.\u00a0student
    \n    Bruce Moghader<\/span><\/a> – Ph.D. student
    \nBahar Khazei<\/span>\u00a0– Master student<\/p>\n

    Goals:<\/b><\/p>\n