The Democratic Education Network Summer School (2025), Visiting Journey and Eighth Conference was an extremely successful and insightful experience for not only me as an individual but as an organisation and group. It helped really understand how and why community is important. This for me was especially demonstrated in the conference held on the 9th of May 2025. Where domestic and international students presented and listened to many different ideas and topics.
Initially I expected the DEN Conference to have some major challenges, including delays, few engaging sessions, and an information overload. However, I also expected would be a fantastic opportunity to hear fresh perspectives and innovative ideas, Insights from students on a variety of topics. I also expected Networking opportunities and for the experience to have impacted my personal growth. I am happy to say that it went exceeded my expectations especially with engaging with fellow peers who have presented, exchanging ideas and building connections. This is especially important to me as it may support future collaborations which would positively contribute to my career path. My role as presenter also boosted my confidence when speaking to a large group of people, which had always been something I struggled with. It has helped me acknowledge that I need to push myself towards public speaking, so I overcome my nerves and my uncertainties towards public speaking.
The conference helped me deepen and acknowledge the importance of democratic education and global engagement. Being inclusive towards different opinion and ensuring that we hear our peers out. The conference held a variety of different people from different nations (Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Vietnam to list a few) Listening to our peers helps us grow and challenge our way of thinking and ensure that we a critical to not only environment but also towards ourselves. This is incredibly important as it helps us as people, and as students to embody open-mindedness. I believe that the conference was also a wonderful opportunity for cross cultural integration and collaboration. Many of the presenters were international students and diverse backgrounds. The conference brought us together and unified us under our mutual understanding and respect for out different values, beliefs, customs, and communication styles. Most importantly this reduces our cultural barriers.
Personally one of the most influential presentations to me were made by the International students of Uzbekistan who showed the me the importance of being critical and challenging out way of belief and disposing of any ego when making arguments (in debates etc.). This to me was a very important skill for me to gain in my academic and professional career as the ability to challenge oneself is often overlooked through ones pride and ego.
I believe that although the structure and layout of the conference was great (presenting then audience question time), I believe that there should be more time for the audience to interact with presentations at the end. When sitting in the audience, I saw many people want to ask questions and discuss topics further but have very limited time or no time to do so. If this cannot be achieved then I believe that there should be a Q and A Dropbox for the audience to write or email questions to whichever individuals they wish to question.
Overall, I believe that the eighth annual DEN conference was a success, demonstrating Unity, Multiculturalism and the Growth of all individuals that participated and presented. It opened doors for further collaboration efforts and helped understand our fellow peers. It has helped me become much more open-minded and grow personally. It has also shown me how important it is, especially in the current political climate, to unify and create a dependable community which promotes democracy, knowledge and collaboration.
Anjali Pandya