About me

Present and future

I am the President of the international NGO “International Forum for the Future of Education” (IFFE). IFFE organises amongst other things an annual international conference for the exchange and debate on major educational issues. Furthermore I open to suggestions should my experience and expertise as a speaker, consultant or trainer, for different target groups (teachers, teacher trainers, school heads, parents, policy makers, etc) be of interest. My current main interests lie in the following areas

  • vision and purpose of education
  • autonomous, self-directed learning
  • intercultural communication and human identity
  • critical thinking and questioning
  • sustainable production
  • responsibility and accountability
  • curriculum development and teaching and training material
  • professional and personal development of education professionals

You can contact me through this web site. And you can find out more about me here: LinkedIn

Past

I worked for the Council of Europe Education Department where I was responsible for activities the field of continued professional development, capacity building and teacher training as well as the development of online learning resources. From 2006 to 2017 I was responsible for the Pestalozzi Programme, the Council of Europe programme for the training of education professionals and for activities in the field of intercultural competences development and media literacy. Up until July 2006 I was involved in the Council’s Higher Education and Research Division and was responsible for the organisation of two Higher Education fora on higher education governance (2005) and on the responsibility of higher education for a democratic culture (2006) and co-editor of the ensuing publications.

From 1998 to 2004, as Head of Programmes and Deputy Executive Director of the European Centre for Modern Languages I led the Centre’s programme of activities and research and development projects and its publications series on language learning and teaching, intercultural communication and language education policy. 

Before that I was involved in language education policy development by the Austrian Ministry of Education between 1992 and 1998 and a language teacher in schools and at universities in Austria and abroad.