Michelle St. John is the founder and director of VinE (Veganism in Education). VinE aims, through education, to encourage the development of empathy, critical thinking and ethical decision making, She has background in law, having worked as a Crown Prosecutor, a Magistrate and as guest lecturer on English Law at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow.Heather Marshall is a Senior Lecturer and Religious Education PGCE Course Leader at Edge Hill University . She is a specialist in #religiouseducation pedagogy but also has interests spanning diversity in learning environments, the impact of digital technologies on teaching, teacher identity formation, education policy, and effective assessment strategies. She is a VinE ambassador.In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions: “what’s real?”, “who matters?” and "how can we make a better world?"
Sentientism answers those questions with "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
00:00 Clips
00:53 Welcome
03:00 Heather's Intro
- Teaching kids, now teaching teachers and research
04:11 Michelle's Intros
- Polish & English parents
- Social anthropology
- Law (barrister and magistrate), human rights and justice
- Vegan at 50 "that was the big change... human rights, animal rights, hand in hand"
- "Education was a key for change... because in my owneducation I hadn't been given that opportunity to explore the moral status of animals"
- Marc Bekoff, Melanie Joy episodes
- Founding VinE "This is where we begin"
- Launching resources with Angela Hill from RE Today @re-today-services
- Ethical veganism as a worldview (featuring religious andnon-religious ways in like #Sentientism)
- Spirited arts competition with the @animalinterfaithalliance
- Partnering with The Vegan Organic Network@GrowingGreenVideos
07:53 What's Real?
Heather
- Not brought up spiritual but a deep interest in religion and society
- "I've got quite a secular worldview... but I understand the importance of religion... the impact... why people might want to be involved in that"
- Critical thinking & questioning "I am quite scientific"
- As a social scientist "I do recognise that things are beyond the physical as well"
- Interested in psychology and how the brain works
- Not so concerned about the metaphysical e.g. "whathappens after death"
- "That probably seems a bit weird for someone that teaches RE (Religious Education)... I'm interested in other people's beliefs and why they might believe it... but I'm not that interested in exploring it for myself"
17:31 What and Who Matters?
50:02 A Better World?
01:27:00 Follow Heather and Michelle:
- VinE
And more... full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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