English · About this website
Education, pedagogy and staying human in the age of AI
I am Jan Jaap Hubeek, director of the Dutch foundation NIVOZ, podcast maker and author. This website brings together my podcasts, essays, reviews of sources and talks about education, pedagogy and artificial intelligence.
Please note: this website is in Dutch, and almost all podcasts are recorded in Dutch. This page gives an English overview of what you will find here and where to go next. Your browser can translate the written pages; for the conversations themselves, most episode pages of the AI series include a full Dutch transcript that translates well.
About me
Not “what works?”, but “what for?”
Since May 2024 I have led Stichting NIVOZ (the Dutch Institute for Educational and Pedagogical Affairs), based at the Dokhuis in Rotterdam-Zuid. NIVOZ works on the pedagogical core of education: the relationship between teacher and child, and the question of what education is for.
Before that I taught in special education and vocational practice schools, at schools in Paramaribo (Suriname) and Kathmandu (Nepal), and at a primary school in Amsterdam. I then spent more than seventeen years as programme manager of the teacher education programme at Hogeschool Leiden, and was executive director of a group of eight Steiner (vrije) primary schools in South Holland.
I write and speak from the continental European pedagogical tradition. Education is not a neutral technique but a normative practice: the first question is not “what works?” but “what for?”. Thinkers I return to include Max van Manen, Gert Biesta, Philippe Meirieu, Hannah Arendt, Hartmut Rosa and Janusz Korczak.
Recurring themes: humane education, pedagogical space, pedagogical leadership, the influence of AI and systems thinking on schools, inclusion and diversity, and the lemniscate, a model for alignment between intention, design and action in teaching.
Book · Telos, April 2026 · in Dutch
Mens blijven tussen systemen
Staying human between systems. A plea for humane education in times of AI. The book looks at what happens to education when dashboards, data and algorithms increasingly decide what matters in a school. It works towards pedagogical space between those systems, with four perspectives for action: attention, slowing down, interrupting and supporting. Written for teachers, school leaders, governors, teacher educators and policy makers. Foreword by Felienne Hermans. ISBN 9789083660035.
Podcasts · mostly in Dutch
More than 300 conversations about education since 2019
I talk with teachers, school leaders, researchers, students and thinkers about what good education asks of us. The conversations are slow on purpose: they take time for the question underneath the issue of the day. The main series:
- AI – Het pedagogisch appèl (AI – The pedagogical appeal). Conversations about the pedagogical responsibility behind the technological acceleration in education, with people from education, science and technology. This series led to the book. Most episode pages have a summary, quotes and a full transcript. One episode is in English: AI in education, a conversation with Matt Brittin, President of Google EMEA.
- Meesterwerk (Masterpiece). The longest-running series, since 2019, with more than 200 episodes: conversations with people who shape their education from a humane vision. Now a channel of NIVOZ.
- Bronnen van Betekenis (Sources of Meaning). On the work of pedagogical thinkers such as Hannah Arendt, Janusz Korczak and Edith Stein, and what their ideas mean for everyday practice.
- NIVOZ Portretten (NIVOZ Portraits). Conversations and portraits I made for NIVOZ.
- Shorter series on Agora education, giftedness (with Annet Stegeman), Steiner education, inclusion and diversity (with Aziza Mayo and Wouter Modderkolk), IMC Weekendschool and Klein Amsterdam, plus two series about plants recorded at the Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam.
Writing, sources and talks
Writing to think
Publications
Essays and articles for NIVOZ, journals and newspapers, interviews in the media, and “living essays” that are published in versions and grow with readers’ responses.
Sources
Short notes on books, films, documentaries and articles that matter for pedagogy, many of them used for the book. Each note says what you could do with the work in your own practice. Many of the titles are English.
Talks
Lectures, dialogue sessions and study days on AI and pedagogy, pedagogical leadership, humane education and systems thinking in schools, for teams, school boards and conferences.
Contact
Get in touch
For a talk, a conversation, a podcast or a collaboration, you can write to me in English. Contact details are on the About page; you can also find me on LinkedIn.