Dr. Maria Rosa Buxarrais was invited to participate in the 6th International Conference on Psychology of the Faculty of Higher Studies (FES in Spanish) Zaragoza, at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) from the 26th to the 28th of February, which was entitled “Innovation in Psychology: Perspectives and solutions”. She delivered a keynote speech on “psychological grounds for moral education” on the 26th and she also offered a workshop the next day with the title “Educational strategies for moral development”.

Keynote speech on the 26th of February

Workshop participants on the 27th of February

On the 20th of last month, Dr. Maria Rosa Buxarrais gave a lecture at the Creativació Foundation in Girona entitled “Solid Values ​​in Liquid Times“, on how to teach beyond a strictly academic objective. This lecture is part of the foundation’s initiative called “Teachers for tomorrow“. The aim is to create a network formed by teachers of centres of Catalonia who meet monthly, as they explain on the web, with the purpose of creating “a space of personal growth where one can share, learn and experience. Thus, we acquire academic and human (values) resources to improve our educational task.”

Dr. Buxarrais has been named ambassador of the institution.

Dr. Buxarrais with Jordi Callejón, manager for projects and services of the foundation.

On the 3rd of December, Dr. Buxarrais attended the 13th Meeting on Teaching Support Centres (ECAD) at the The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile), where she was the keynote speaker with a talk on “The Teaching Profession at the University: Challenges of Teaching Support Centres”.

Over 140 higher education teachers attended this event, which aims at promoting innovation, quality, and continuous improvement in teaching and learning processes in higher education in Chile.

This month of July (20th to 23rd) The 48th Association for Moral Education (AME) Conference, took place in Manchester with the theme “Moral Development & Moral Education in Global Transition”. The event was organised by the Assocation for Moral Education, the Journal for Moral Education y the Asia-Pacific Network for Moral Education. Dr. Buxarrais presented a paper and a poster in the conference (see below).

The paper, authored as well by her two research students, Eric Ortega and Laura Fontán was intitled “Ethics in Times of Pandemic: An exploratory study on the values, attitudes and civic habits of Catalan citizens towards the COVID-19 crisis“.

This is the abstract: “The coronavirus pandemic has had a wide impact on everybody’s life. From the Observatory of Civism and Values of Catalonia and the Moral Education Research Group GREM of the University of Barcelona, we carried out an exploratory study to find out the impact on moral values, attitudes, habits, and citizenship behavior during the pandemic in Catalonia (2020-2021). We collected data at two different times through two descriptive surveys, collecting individual perceptions and concerns about the virus. In the realm of people’s values and ideals, a reconfiguration of the hierarchy of values can be observed”.

Dr. Buxarrais with her research students, Eric Ortega and Laura Fontán

The poster Dr. Buxarrais presented (which can be freely downloaded here) was intitled “Evaluation of Ethical Competencies in Students of Behavioural, Biological and Health Sciences” and it was a common effort between Zaragoza Faculty of Higher Education of the Autonomous University of Mexico and the Faculty of Education of the University of Barcelona. The authors, Los autores, además de Maria Rosa Buxarrais, son Rubén A. Miranda, Mirna García, Alan A. Mercado, Miriam de la Torre y Héctor Raymundo.

Parcial image of the poster presented by Dr. Buxarrais

Furthermore, as the Chair for the Good Work Award Committtee, Dr. Buxarrais handed this year’s award to Geoff Thompson, five times heavyweight champion of the world in karate, for the work he carries out with his NGO Youth Charter promoting the role and value of sport, art, culture and digital technology in the lives of young people in underpriviledged communities, nationally and internationally.

Photos of the event

Dr. Buxarrais with Dr. Loret de Ruyter (Univ. of Utrecht), AME President

Dr. Buxarrais with Dr. Brian Gates (Univ. of Cumbria), local host of the conference

Dr. Buxarrais with Dr. Taylor (Univ. of London) and Dr. Conroy (Univ. of Glasgow)

Dr. Buxarrais with Dr. Phyllis Curtis-Tweed (Bermuda College)

Last November, Dr. Buxarrais participated in the 45th Annual Conference of the Association for Moral Education, which took place in Seattle (USA) with the theme “Morality and Ethics in the Digital World”.

The title of her paper was Measuring Ethical Sensitivity of students at the University of Barcelona, coauthored with Dr. Josep M. Ustrell, from the School of Dentistry of the University of Barcelona. This is the abstract:

The study examines the Ethical Sensitivity of university students chosen from two Degrees: Education and Dentistry. We have used the Ethical Sensitive Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ) (Tirri & Nakelaine, 2011). The Scale was presented to a sample of 187 students of Education and 58 of Dentistry, in the first year and last year of the degree. Before, we have adapted the scale questionnaire in the context. A quantitative cross-sectional design was utilized. Data were collected twice, in the first and the fourth year.

Eric Ortega and Laura Fontan (see photo), interns from the Research Group of Moral Education (GREM), which is coordinated by Dr. Buxarrais, were also presenting the work they are doing for their PhD research.

In this conference, Dr. Buxarrais was officially appointed as Chair of the Good Work Award Committee of the Association for Moral Education, where she has been serving as an elected board member since 2015.