PAEDEIA Café and the urge "To aaarrhg"- in evaluation”

Abstract

A central objective of the PAEDEIA project was to develop, test, evaluate and refine an induction programme for this very purpose. In 2013 the programme was developed under the title Paedeia Café; 187 paedeia1 after the project name, and café after the programme’s intentional resemblance to the interactive and informal atmosphere of a café. The café concept was based on the reasoning that, for most, the idea of a café meeting would certainly not involve being lectured by any one individual on subjects that are of no real interest or relevance to any others present. Far from it. Those present would expect to be able to talk and share openly and on an equal par about things that are important to everybody involved. They would also hope for a friendly, trustful atmosphere where people listen attentively to what each other has to say. This ideal might, admittedly, not be the way things always happen in cafés, but it is this core idea of talking with equals or peers about shared issues and challenges that the project group wanted to capture as the guiding principle of the induction scheme.