2012 Business Report

2012_business report download
2012 Business report download

Assessment of past ECER (2012)

ECER 2012 was the first Conference where network 28 (Sociologies of Education) accepted submissions. The network very focused and selected only the appropriate proposals . That choice intended to stimulate the accumulation of knowledge, and the opportunities of discussion and reflection among participants by promoting also the quality of knowledge production. The network attracted 62 paper proposals, yet accepted, after the review, 21 submissions. The rejected paper proposals were overall 7, and those redirected to other networks were 34. We had 11 sessions, and the network covered the following topics: New perspectives of European inequalities, Beyond PISA: Social and Ethical Aspects of Key-Competences; the Post-Comprehensive School; the Post-Welfare Reforms, Spaces, Socio-technical Assemblages and Learning, Academic Regimes, Citizenship, Cultures and Practice. The network sessions were introduced by the welcoming speech of Martin Lawn, and by a keynote presentation of Terri Seddon. The title of her speech was: Reconsidering Sociological Practice for Global Times: Reflections on Transnational Research Knowledge Architectures and the Space for Sociologies of Education. The sessions had a good attendance; the sessions had up to 30 participants for each group of session. The network attracted the attention of researchers from different disciplines and from different countries. Few participants decided to withdraw the contribution. The presentations maintained an overall good quality standard, and the framework of the sessions (focused network; appropriate selection: little group) favoured generative discussions. Participants preferred to use their ppt presentations, and few distributed hands-out to audience. The network had also participants among early researchers that presented their paper, or attended the sessions, also by preparing a poster (the network accepted one poster).

Network meeting had a good attendance as well (20 participants). Participants acknowledged the benefits of a focused network, and suggested to deepen and develop the focus on the network building on this first Conference. Further themes and in particular suggestions for the next conference will be:

i) Exploring the sociologies in each country

ii) Trying to get an understanding of what a transnational sociologies of education should look like

iii) Social reproduction of sociologists

iv) Sociologies of non-sociologists (practitioners, etc.).

 

The network meeting agreed also to circulate power point presentations among those attending the sessions, and that agreed to receive information about the network. A website with a paper-room might be a place for accumulating knowledge, stimulating reflexivity, and for shaping gradually the network. Finally, the network expresses a commitment to solicit the production of short papers from participants to be circulated before the next Conference in Istanbul.

The network hosted also a meeting proposed by Jean-Louis Derouet aimed at starting a collaboration among European journals of social sciences. The meeting was attended by representatives of seven journals: Scuola Democratica, Educacao, Sociedade e Culturas, Globalisation, Education and Society, Education et Sociétés, European Educational Research Journal, Italian Journal of Sociology of Education , Revista Lusofona de Educacao. The aim of this initiative is to create a common space of reflection among European j ournals, to develop a network that may help in making visible the plurality of education circles of knowledge producers in the world of academic globalization, to reflect on the specificities of the European sociologies of education without reproducing methodological nationalism, to create exchanges among editorial boards, among articles, etc. to produce generative interferences among knowledge productions and editorial work. It was agreed to reinforce the collaboration by inviting other journals from the north, the east and central Europe, and prepare a symposium for the next ECER in Istanbul.

 

Network activities

The network developed through parallel, and partly joint research activities on the themes of interest funded by European and national research programs. These activities resulted in common work and meetings that consolidated the network and contributed to the development of a common framework. Also, an attempt to support the network leaded to the presentation of a research proposal to a European program devoted to support, and enhance the participation of early researchers, and of researchers from the Mediterranean and East European Countries. Finally, a book series proposal on the network topics was presented to a major international publisher.

 

Future plans of the network

The network will work on a special website that will host some basic information (main focuses, network associates, joint activities, etc.), and the paper-room where power point presentations, and papers may document and accumulate the work done.

Further, the network agreed to explore the possibility of planning a special issue on EERJ on network topics that may contain the most telling contributions of network participants. It was planned to have the Special Issue ready for the end of the next year. The network will also promote the organization of a mid-term meeting to develop the work of the special issue. This workshop is aimed at presenting contributions, comparing the analysis, and to develop a common framework on the network focus. If possible, the network will apply to EERA council to support this project.

Finally, the project of collaboration among European journals of sociology of education will develop by trying to consolidate the network ofjournals by including also journals from the North, the Central, and East Europe. Additional exchanges will concern the preparation of the symposium for ECER at Istanbul that will be focused on the role of journals in the circulation of knowledge of the European sociology of education. Some attempts at creating concrete collaborations in common editorial work will be explored as well.

 

Upcoming ECER

The network confirms its focus for the next ECER, and welcomes contributions on the following themes: sociologies of common school, state-less sociologies of education, sociologies of learning, sociologies of comparison. The network will invite, by following the same framework of ECER Cadiz, a prominent scholar that may promote the sociological imagination, and the renewal of sociological eyes. The network will restrict its size – as it was already decided – in the first three years of activities and will organise two symposia for the next year that may be relevant to network topics. A symposium will be organised by the editors of the emerging network of European educational journals. The other symposium will be organized by assessing the proposal the network will receive from conference participants.

 

Updated list of convenors

Link Convenor:

Paolo Landri, CNR-IRPPS, Italy. Email: p.landri@irpps.cnr.it

 

Convenors:

Romuald Normand, Laboratoire Triangle, Ecole Normal Supérieure de Lyon, Institut Français de l’Éducation, France. Email: romuald.normand@ens-lyon.fr

Eric Mangez, Institut Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. Email: eric.mangez@uclouvain.be

Estzer Neumann, University of ELTE, Budapest, Hungary. Email: eszterka@gmail.com