Rupert Wegerif (born 2 September 1959) is a professor of education at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

in England.

Overview

Prof. Wegerif is a writer and researcher in the field of

dialogic education Dialogic learning is learning that takes place through dialogue. It is typically the result of egalitarian dialogue; in other words, the consequence of a dialogue in which different people provide arguments based on validity claims and not on p ...

and dialogic education with technology. He has proposed a

dialogic Dialogic refers to the use of conversation or shared dialogue to explore the meaning of something. (This is as opposed to monologic which refers to one entity with all the information simply giving it to others without exploration and clarificatio ...

theory of education for the

Internet Age The Internet Age refers to the time period since the Internet became widely available to the public for general use, and the resulting impacts on and fundamental changes in the nature of global communication and access to information. The beginni ...

, and conducted research on education technology as a support for teaching dialogue in classrooms as well as designing for dialogue with the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. He was the founder of the

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as '' The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', ...

journal '' Thinking Skills and Creativity'' and lead editor until 2017. He is founder and director of the Digital Education Futures Initiative (DEFI) at

Hughes Hall, Cambridge Hughes Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. It is the oldest of the University of Cambridge's postgraduate colleges. The college also admits undergraduates, though undergraduates admitted by the college must b ...

Education

Wegerif studied Philosophy with Social Anthropology at the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

(1980–83), began a PhD on

Derrida Derrida is a surname shared by notable people listed below. * Bernard Derrida (born 1952), French theoretical physicist * Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), French philosopher ** ''Derrida'' (film), a 2002 American documentary film * Marguerite Derri ...

and Millenarianism at the

in 1984 which he did not complete, did a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) specialising in Religious Education at

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

from 1990 to 1991 and a Masters in

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...

at Queen Mary and Westfield College,

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

, 1991 to 1992 followed by a PhD in

Education Technology Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

at the UK

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

, 1992 to 1996. His topic was ‘Using computers to teach reasoning through talking across the curriculum’.

Career

Wegerif began his academic career at the Open University working with

Neil Mercer Neil Mercer is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge. Mercer grew up in Cockermouth in Cumbria, where he went to Cockermouth Grammar School before studying psychology at the University of Manchester. He has a PhD in psyc ...

on a range of funded projects to explore the impact of teaching ‘Exploratory Talk’ on learning, especially on learning with computers. In 2004, he went to the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

as a Reader and in 2006 he joined the University of Exeter as a professor. In 2017, Wegerif became the Professor of Education (2000) at the

Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge is the School of Education located in Cambridge, United Kingdom and was established in 2001. It is part of the school of humanities and social sciences at the University of Cambridge. Courses at th ...

. There he co-leads the Cambridge Educational Dialogue Research Group (CEDiR). In November 2017, Wegerif was awarded a Fellowship at Hughes Hall College (Cambridge). He is known for developing a dialogic theory of Education. This argues for the importance of dialogue as an aim of education as well as being a means to education. Wegerif understands learning as being motivated by relationships and taking the form of 'dialogic switches' whereby students take on different perspectives within already existing dialogues. The originality of the theory lies in the focus on the significance for development of the 'dialogic gap' between perspectives. This leads to a model of development that is not primarily characterised in terms of individual identities or expanding knowledge but in terms of expanding 'dialogic space'. Education is understood as opening, widening and deepening dialogic space through dialogue with specific others, cultural ‘general others’ personifying communities of practice and also ‘the Infinite Other’. The ‘Infinite Other’ is the idea that the unbounded horizon of knowledge can act as a voice within educational dialogues. Wegerif has gained significant sums in research funding for projects exploring diversity in science education and developing tools to support Learning to Learn Together (L2L2) online. In 2006, he founded the journal '' Thinking Skills and Creativity'' with Anna Craft. They edited the journal together until Anna Craft's death in 2014. Wegerif remained chief editor of the journal through June 2018, and was subsequently replaced by Teresa Cremin and Pamela Burnard.

Books

Wegerif's books include: *Kershner, R., Hennessy, S., Wegerif, R., & Ahmed, A. (2020). Research Methods for Educational Dialogue. Bloomsbury Publishing. *Mercer, N., Wegerif, R., & Major, L. (2019). The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education. Routledge. *Kerslake, L. and Wegerif, R. (Eds.) (2018) The Theory of Teaching Thinking. International Perspectives. Routledge *Phillipson, N and Wegerif, R (2017). Dialogic Education: Mastering core concepts through thinking together. London and New York, Routledge. *Wegerif, R, Li, L. and Kaufman, J.C. (Eds.)(2015) The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Teaching Thinking, Routledge. *Wegerif, R (2013) Dialogic: Education for the Internet Age. London: Routledge *Mansour, N and Wegerif, R. (Eds.)(2013) Science Education for Diversity. New Jersey: Springer *Wegerif, R (2010) Mind-Expanding: Teaching for Thinking and Creativity. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press/mcgraw Hill *Wegerif. R. (2007) Dialogic, Education and Technology: Expanding the Space of Learning. New York: Springer-Verlag. *Williams, S and Wegerif, R. (2005) Radical Encouragement: Changing cultures of thinking. Birmingham: Imaginative Minds. *Wegerif, R. and Dawes, L. (2004) Thinking and learning with ICT: raising achievement in primary classrooms. London: Routledge. *Dawes, L., Mercer, N. And Wegerif, R. (2004 2nd Edition) Thinking Together: A programme of activities for developing speaking, listening and thinking skills for children aged 8–11. Birmingham: Imaginative Minds Ltd. *Wegerif, R. and Scrimshaw, P. (Eds.) (1997) Computers and Talk in the Primary Classroom. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

References

External links

Rupert Wegerif website

Rupert Wegerif homepage at the University of Cambridge

Rupert Wegerif page at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wegerif, Rupert 1959 births Living people Alumni of the University of Kent Alumni of the Open University Alumni of the University of Bristol Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Academics of the University of Southampton Academics of the University of Exeter English educational theorists Academic journal editors