Bio

In the Netherlands, more than 200,000 teachers listened to the Marcel’s keynotes on “Pedagogical tact and leadership” and “Sustainable Educating and Development”. Marcel has given lectures all over the world about many educational subjects such as: “Developments in the Educational World”, “Wellbeing and Involvement, the Criteria for Successful Development”, “Life Lessons and Solidarity”.

Marcel gives master classes called “Knowing What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do”. Sometimes you are the teacher/leader you want to be and sometimes you are the teacher/leader you would rather not be. This is often related to situations in which we do not know exactly what to do. And yet, in a pedagogical sense, it is important that you always have a perspective in (unpredictable) pedagogical situations. In this masterclass you will learn what to do if you don’t know what to do, and how to share responsibility with your students.

Marcel is one of the founding fathers from “Center for Pedagogical Contact” and is responsible for the development of the courses ‘pedagogical tact’ and ‘pedagogical leadership’. In 1990, he started the first school for Experiential Education in the Netherlands. In 1995, he started the foundation for Experiential Education St. Maarten (Caribbean) where he trained schools and developed a model for education and police (prevention delinquent behavior) in the Caribbean.

After his experiences in more than 20 countries with all kind of children programmes, he was fascinated by the question what children need to develop optimally. He was the founder of the Centre for Sustainable Educating and Development.

Marcel is teacher trainer, coach and guide for routes of innovation for education, government and business communities. Marcel is the author of the standard publication ‘Sustainable Educating and Development’ and ‘Experiential Education’ and also the author of many other books (Dutch) and columns and articles.

Marcel: “Children all over the world are driven by their psychological needs: relationship, autonomy and competence. They all want to show who they are and what they are capable of. Connectedness is the condition. Many children are not satisfied in their basic needs. School systems are allowed, and even designed to exclude children. They judge, punish and remove. The basic task for pedagogical workers is to connect. Connect children with themselves, with others and with the environment. That’s the way we understand the group and the individuals. That’s how we empower children.
Therefore, we need teachers and coaches who can engage with their students and do the right thing at the right moment. We need another kind of leadership – leaders with courage.”