Overview on past ECER
Network 28 organized 13 sessions in ECER 2014. In particular, the Network had 9 sessions and 4 symposia. The Network attracted 65 proposals; however, it selected 45 presentations, and redirected 24 proposals (6 proposals was directly rejected). The sessions were very well attended (between 20 and 50 participants per session). The quality of the discussions, and of the exchange of knowledge and experiences reveals a consolidation of the network. Moreover, the increase in the acceptance highlights an improvement in terms of the selection of the research contributions the network is interested in. Only 5 decided to withdraw before the Conference started. The Network sessions had the keynote speaking of Agnes Van Zanten who accepted to give a speech on how sociology studies educational choices. The sessions were organized around the following themes: a) Governing by Data and Standard b) Standards, Knowledge and Assessment c) Knowledge Production among Actor, Institutions and Communities in Education Policy d) The Governance of Education e) Elite Education, Intergenerational Transmission of Education and Inequality f) Comprehensive School and Inequality in France and Italy g) Sociologies of Mobile Students and Teachers h) School Rethinking i) Investigating the Capacity to Aspire. The symposia covered four broad themes: 1) How to tame Monsters: Encounters among standards and deviants 2) The Post-Comprehensive School in Europe 3) NPM and the Modernisation of Education in Europe 4) Europeanization and educational knowledge/practice. Symposia on standards and on NPM was realised in collaboration with Network 9 (the symposium on standards) and 23 (the symposium on NPM) as a result of the emergence of common issue of interest during the planning of joint network activities
The Conference in Porto represented a telling confirmation for the Network. The project of starting a network with clear foci of research interest, and of establishing a meeting point for encounters among sociologies of education was realized. The network is contributing to develop a ‘niche’ in the ecology of the Conference, by attempting to elaborate a framework (in terms of sessions, number of papers, foci of research interests, etc.) that offer high quality selection of paper contribution as well as good quality of discussion and confrontation among peers. Overall, the Network started to ‘give life’ to new scientific enterprises, and contributed to support the development of new sociological knowledge on education. The Network decided to launch a call for paper on standardization of education that attracted two sessions and a symposium. A symposium on post-comprehensive school in Europe kept the initial project of establishing joint collaboration among journals of sociology of education; other two simposia were added concerning NPM and the modernization of education in education and the relationship among Europeanization and educational knowledge. Joint activities in terms of the realization of two simposia were realized with Network 9 and Network 23. Here, the quality of the participation confirmed promising collaborations and possible projects to develop in the future. In particular, the Network welcomed the launch of the Laboratory for International Assessment (international-assessments.org), an ‘inter-disciplinary network that brings together academic researchers, testing agencies, policy makers and the end users of international educational assessment data’. The Network completed the envisaged Special Issue of EERJ ‘Mobile Sociologies of Education’ (edited by Paolo Landri and Eszter Neumann) and realized the first book of the Routledge serie ‘Shaping the European Education’ (edited by Martin Lawn and Romuald Normand). Additional books in preparation are: 1) a book on New Public Management edited by Roberto Serpieri, Emiliano Grimaldi and Heln Gunther and 2) a book edited by Romuald Normand and Jean Louis Derouet on ‘How to think the European politics in Education? A Dialogue between Sociology and Political Sciences’ that is expected to be the result of a Conference that will take place at the University Picardie Jules Verne of Amiens on 17th, 18th and 19th November 2014.
Network Meeting
The Network Meeting included new participants interested in the development of the network agenda and its projects. The overall comments on the sessions were positive. An emergent advise was to favouring the participation of young reseachers, by inviting theme to present their research and by working closer with the emergent young researcher network. Further it will be facilitated the exchange of information among network participants. Finally, it was agreed to prepare a call for paper for ECER 2015 that may provide a framework for potential proponents, but also for easing the work of the reviewers in the process of selection.
Upcoming ECER
The Network has elaborated a special call for the ECER 2015 in Budapest. The call for paper will be on ‘Can we live together ? Problematizing Europeanization’ and will invite papers which consider the theoretical and the practical possibility of the development of a common world of European education. The Network plans joint sessions (probably 2) with other networks that may be related to the call for paper.
Network Publications
The Network has links with journals in sociology of education all over Europe. A specific project coordinated by Jean Louis Derouet is to create a common space of reflection among European journals, 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. The project includes 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. Each year the project organizes in ECER a symposium on common theme of interest hosted by the Network. The Network invites regularly paper presenters to submit their work to EERJ, or to national journals of sociology of education. Moreover, a Special Issue of EERJ ‘Mobile Sociologies of Education’ has been edited by Paolo Landri and Eszter Neumann) and a the first book of the ‘Shaping the European Education’ edited by Martin Lawn and Romuald Normand has been published. An already open Routledge serie is part of the Network output, and will host a set of book that delevop the main foci of research. A forthcoming special issue on ‘Post-comprehensive school in Europe’ has been editing by Jean Louis Derouet, Luciano Benadusi and Eric Mangez, and it will be published on EERJ.
Other network activities
The Network has a website (socedu.irpps.cnr.it/socedu), and a mailing list for circulating information on common areas of research interest. The network develops 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. During the course of the year, the Network finalised the editing of the Special Issue on ‘Mobile Sociologies of Education, published at the beginning of 2014, and concluded the editing of the first book of the Routledge serie. Others proposals for future books has been elaborated. The special issue on EERJ circulated inside the network, and the work of selection and editing is progressing towards the publication envisaged in the next year. Finally, members of the network are also organizing at the University Picardie Jules Verne of Amiens on 17th, 18th and 19th November 2014 a colloquium about the topic: “European social sciences of education and training and the globalization of education and training: toward a reflexive and critical framework ?” (socedu.caae2014.org).
Future Plans for Network
The Network will prepare the upcoming ECER 2015 Budapest, by elaborating a Call for Paper. The network envisages in ECER Budapest to assign to the call for paper 2015: a) the introductory session (with a keynote); b) 10 sessions (3 papers per session) and c) a symposium. Moreover, the Network will work a) to complete the Special Issue of EERJ on Post-Comprehensive School and b) for the realization of the second book of the Routledge serie in the next year. In particular, the Network will develop a collaboration with ERG of EERA to encouraging participation to network activities. It is also envisaged the possibility of apply for funding network activities by the EERA Council: the Network is planning to present a project for a summer school. Finally, the Network will consolidate its website and will advertise network participants projects and publications.
Convenors:
Link Convenor: Paolo Landri, CNR-IRPPS, Italy. Email: p.landri@irpps.cnr.it
Romuald Normand, Laboratoire Sociétés, Acteurs et Gouvernement en Europe(SAGE), Faculté des Sciences Sociales, France, Email: rnormand@unistra.fr
Eric Mangez, Institut Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. Email: eric.mangez@uclouvain.be
Estzer Neumann, University of ELTE, Budapest, Hungary. Email: eszterka@gmail.com