Teaching complexity Through Real-World and Collaborative pedagogies
Panel Discussion
Location: Room 3 :  Salle Touria Chaoui - 26/03/2026, 14:00 - 26/03/2026, 15:30 (CET) (1 hour 30 minutes)

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Session chair : Prof. Maria Impedovo, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille (France)

Individual contributions 

Dr. Anthony Tibaingana - Makere University, Kampala (Uganda) 

E Integrating digital technologies in the teaching polycrisis across CIVIS Universities. The intended contribution will be in how we can leverage on the available digital technologies to ease the teaching that can assuage polycrisis effects  

Prof. Gudrun Zagel - Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Salzburg (Austria)

EATIA Simulation games to teach polycrises

Dr. Fanny SBARAGLIA & Prof. Denis TERWAGNE, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels (Belgium)

Teaching complexity through Bruno Latour’s compass: comparing applications in STEM and public policy education

Prof. Fadma Ait Mous & Prof. Ben Mouro Youness - Université Hassan II de Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco)

Teaching the complexity of migration in Morocco: Collaborative and experiential pedagogies in social challenges

 Migration in Morocco embodies intricate social, cultural, and economic dynamics, from trans-Saharan routes to Mediterranean crossings and diasporic returns. This presentation explores innovative pedagogies for teaching these complexities in higher education, focusing on collaborative and experiential methods. Drawing on socio-anthropological frameworks, we examine classroom practices where students co-design projects with migrants, engage in fieldwork simulations, and participate in cross-cultural dialogues. These approaches foster critical thinking, empathy, and practical skills to address real-world social challenges like integration, identity, and policy gaps. By bridging theory and lived experience, such pedagogies empower future scholars and policymakers to navigate migration's multifaceted realities.

 

Collective proposal

Dr. Fanny SBARAGLIA & Prof. Denis TERWAGNE, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels (Belgium)

Prof. Fadma Ait Mous & Prof. Ben Mouro Youness - Université Hassan II de Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco)

Prof. Gudrun Zagel - Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Salzburg (Austria)

Dr. Anthony Tibaingana - Makere University, Kampala (Uganda) 

This panel invites academics and practitioners across the CIVIS alliance to explore how higher education can better address the challenge of teaching complexity in a world marked by intertwined social, environmental, and political crises. It focuses on real-world, collaborative cases that allow students to engage directly with authentic societal, professional, and research problems through experiential, challenge-based, and partnership-oriented learning. By connecting universities, public institutions, NGOs, and private organizations, such approaches create spaces for experimentation and mutual learning while confronting key barriers such as institutional rigidity, coordination with external stakeholders, and the evaluation of complex learning outcomes. Drawing on experiences from CIVIS universities in Europe and Africa, the panel highlights how different cultural and institutional contexts shape ways of understanding and teaching complexity. It invites reflections on how educators can design learning environments that embrace uncertainty, foster interdisciplinary dialogue, and cultivate critical and ethical engagement with the challenges of the “polycrisis.” Ultimately, the session seeks to envision the university as a laboratory for collective experimentation, where the co-production of knowledge equips learners to navigate and transform complex realities.


Questions for the audience

  • How can universities design learning environments that genuinely embrace uncertainty and complexity while remaining feasible within existing academic structures? 
  • In what ways can collaboration between universities, public institutions, NGOs, and private actors foster mutual learning and shared responsibility in addressing societal challenges?
  • What pedagogical and ethical frameworks are needed to help students critically and creatively engage with the “polycrisis” and act as transformative agents in complex systems?


Africa Charter for Transformative 
Research Collaboration