Professor Marcelo Giglio (1966 –2020) In Memoriam

On Sunday July 12^th, we heard the devastating, endlessly sad news that our dear colleague and friend, and an honored member of EAPRIL, Professor Marcelo Giglio, had suddenly passed away after a myocardus infarctus a few days earlier.

Professor Marcelo Giglio, who originally came from Argentina, was a Professor of Creativity and Collaboration in Education (HEP-BEJUNE) and a Lecturer (Institute of Psychology and Education of the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland). He also worked as a professor for music education to form music teachers in six Swiss roman cantons.

Professor Giglio became known in educational circles for his work on reflective and creative collaboration in the classroom, teacher-student relationships and teacher-research innovation. He embodied the rare combination of educational researcher and theorist, with his training and experience in schools. He was always very keen on building bridges between various disciplines. With his background in music education, he was also an active member of the International Society of Music Education (ISME) where he was commissioner for Europe in the Research Commission from 2016.  He aimed to widen the meaning, impact and connections of musical experience. 

Professor Giglio was also known for his publications and strong research record. His ideas can be explored further in his book “Creative Collaboration in Teaching”. He also contributed as guest editor to EAPRIL’s latest Special Issue in the UAS Journal “Practitioner researchers’ current and future visions of education & learning”. He was much appreciated by colleagues internationally as a co-writer and webinar presenter.

Marcelo Giglio was a member of the EAPRIL Board in 2012-2013 and 2015-2017. As a creative person with inspiring and boundary-crossing ideas, he supported his colleagues at the EAPRIL Board to be open minded and to set-up new initiatives for the EAPRIL Conferences, his main portfolio. The highlight of his EAPRIL Board career must have been the 2013 EAPRIL Conference, which he hosted as conference chair in his hometown Biel/Bienne. Under the lead of Marcelo, EAPRIL managed to welcome for the first time in its history nearly 500 participants. Marcelo introduced mother tongue sessions to the program and, as a result, warmly welcomed the French-speaking community to EAPRIL. He managed to successfully incorporate the EAPRIL Conference into his students’ curriculum and training, a wonderful example of how EAPRIL could already add value in the early stages of future educational practitioners’ careers, an excellent example that was followed by future conference chairs. Marcelo exemplified how research and practice, deepened by the meanings of experiences, could support one another, and was therefore a perfect spokesman for EAPRIL.

Marcelo also founded EAPRIL’s Cloud 3 “Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning Environments”, which aims to strengthen learning through creative and innovative ideas.  A prime example of this was shown in the collaboration with fellow Clouds 4 and 9, which led to inspiring output for the EAPRIL Community to which Marcelo contributed extensively.  This collaborative endeavor will be continued, honoring Marcelo’s innovative and collegiate approach. Marcelo’s phenomenally inspiring contribution to our collaboration will remain in our hearts.

Professor Giglio also responded to the Covid-19 educational crisis by starting a new project entitled SILEX, under the guidance of EAPRIL Cloud 3.  SILEX represents resilience and vision and invites all educational actors to discuss and share new strategies for improving teaching and learning environments in times of emergency (https://silexlab.eu/).  This work is especially worthy of being continued by those who are able and interested in collaborating with the project.

It was a true honor to know him and to collaborate with him. His commitment and presence as such in the EAPRIL Community will be deeply missed. Our deepest condolences go to his family and nearest ones.

Professor Marcelo Giglio will always be remembered as a happy, energetic and enthusiastic colleague, a great dancer and a friend, a bon vivant, with a large joie de vivre and a powerful impact on his surrounding environment and networks. Marcelo was an inspiration and greatly influenced people around him. In this light, after the world-famous Hallelujah, at the beginning of the third part of George Fredric Handel’s oratorio The Messiah, the soprano sings her Air, starting with the words “I know that my Redeemer liveth”.   May this be a hope and a consolation in difficult times like these.

Please let us individually listen to silence, or music, or read his writings, to remember him.

July 2020

EAPRIL board

Martijn Willemse, The Netherlands, EAPRIL chair

Nick Gee, UK

Tom de Schryver, The Netherlands

Russell Shobrook, UK

Fazel Ansari, Austria

Harry Stokhof, The Netherlands

EAPRIL office

Inneke Berghmans, Belgium

Stef Heremans, Belgium

Tonia Davison, Belgium

Lore Verschakelen, Belgium

Patrick Belpaire, Belgium

On behalf of the EAPRIL community

Kaarina Marjanen, Finland, former board member and cloud 9 coordinator

Hubert Gruber, Austria, cloud 9 coordinator

Sabine Chatelain, Switzerland

Frank de Jong, The Netherlands, former EAPRIL chair

Sirpa Laitinen-Väänänen, Finland, former EAPRIL chair

Ilona Laakkonen, Finland, cloud 3 coordinator

Zarina Charlesworth, Switzerland, cloud 4 coordinator

Rebecca Eliahoo, UK, former board member and former cloud 3 coordintor

Anje Ros, the Netherlands, former board member and cloud 7 coordinator

Jörg Holle, Germany, former board member and cloud 5 coordinator

Arnoud T. Evers, the Netherlands, former board member and cloud 5 coordinator

Ruben Vanderlinde, Belgium, former board member

Manuel Peixoto, Portugal, former board member