Dr Piers Von Berg

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Senior Lecturer

Email:
Piers.vonberg@bcu.ac.uk

Dr von Berg is a specialist in youth justice, and citizenship and human rights education. His research looks at how young people exercise their rights in the criminal justice system and how they learn to be citizens at university. He conducts qualitative participatory research on innovations in pedagogy at university in the areas of citizenship and human rights education; and he researches children’s and young person’s human rights in criminal investigations.

His expertise is primarily in pedagogical innovation with young adults and understanding their legal rights. He has worked in legal practice at the Bar of England and Wales (2010-2017) and international technical assistance in the Caucasus and Central Asia (2000-2006). His foci have included creating pedagogical interventions sensitive to contexts, building senses of community and empowerment in educational settings, cultivating confidence and agency with vulnerable clients, and developing practitioner manuals and texts.

In his most recent project, Dr von Berg developed a new pedagogical research design for teaching and learning human rights and citizenship at university. This incorporated participatory theatre and experiential learning, to help university students cultivate senses of civic identity and agency that challenged exclusionary practices in their communities (von Berg, 2023). He is also developing with others the Global Transformative Education Network. This is a group of over 30 emerging researchers and practitioners from universities in Asia, Europe, North America and South America, who work on education for citizenship, human rights, peace and sustainability.

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