Triennial ESREA Conference-2016
ESREA: 8th Triennial European Research Conference
Imagining diverse futures for adult education: questions of power and resources of creativity
We wish to kindly invite you to participate in a major international conference on adult education and learning. It is taking place between the 8th and 11th of September 2016 at Maynooth University, Ireland.
This event is the 2016 Triennial Conference of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) and it will bring together researchers and scholars from across Europe and beyond to discuss learning, power and creativity.
There has been fantastic interest shown in the conference and we are certain it is going to be an exciting and stimulating event. We very much look forward to meeting you at Maynooth.
Conference Programme
We are looking forward to meeting participants in Maynooth the full programme can be seen here.
The Phd pre-conference
This will take place on the 7th and will begin at 10 am and finish around 4pm. This will consist of open fora for discussion between graduate students and masterclasses with leading adult education researchers. Places are limited so please book soon.
Conference themes
In the era of lifelong learning adult education has acquired a new prominence. Across the world the amount of time adults spend in education has steadily increased and new policy imperatives – often linked to notions such as the ‘knowledge economy’– has made adult education and adult learning major topics of research. Within the body of research which has emerged from the dynamic and diverse field of modern adult education – in vocational, further, community, continuing and higher education as well as in civil society – power has always been a major concern. In particular there is a longstanding interest in the relationship between education and progressive social change. In a period of crisis characterised by deepening inequalities, a rise in racism and xenophobia, and in which we face grave ecological threats these questions of power and change have acquired a new urgency and relevance. We invite participants to submit papers on these themes and also to investigate a range of other questions related to power.
Discussions and analyses of power in society and education can lead to a sense of private powerlessness in the face of seemingly intractable public issues. Resources of hope, however, reside in our capacities for reflexivity, imagination and creativity; capacities which allow us to question and trouble the givens of public discourses that limit our thinking, feeling and acting. Therefore we also also wish to invite contributions on creativity in adult education and learning.
By exploring questions of power and identifying resources of creativity we hope to create a collaborative, critical and imaginative space in which participants can envisage and discuss a diverse range of futures for adult education.
Please click on the link to download a Pdf of the which gives a more detailed overview of the conference themes.
Proposals for papers, poster sessions, symposia, roundtables and workshops are invited from scholars and practitioners engaged in the broad field of adult education (lifelong learning, community education, higher education, further education and adult vocational education etc.) and related interdisciplinary fields.
Conference Dates
The conference will be held from 8th to 11th of September.
Other key dates
Deadline for submission of abstracts 12th February 2016
Acceptance of abstracts will be confirmed 14th March 2016
Deadline for early bird registration (If payment has not been received by this date, the higher fee will be applicable) 8th April 2016
Final deadline for registration and payment of the conference fee 15th June 2016
Final papers must be submitted 15th July 2016
Date of 2016 Phd pre-conference 7th September 2016
Conference Themes
Imagining diverse futures for adult education: questions of power and resources of creativity
In the era of lifelong learning adult education has acquired a new prominence. Across the world the amount of time adults spend in education has steadily increased and new policy imperatives – often linked to notions such as the ‘knowledge economy’– has made adult education and adult learning major topics of research.
Within the body of research which has emerged from the dynamic and diverse field of modern adult education – in vocational, further, community and higher education as well as in civil society – power has always been major concern. In particular there is a longstanding interest in the relationship between education and progressive social change. In a period of crisis characterised by deepening inequalities, a rise in racism and xenophobia, and in which we face grave ecological threats these questions of power and change have acquired a new urgency and relevance. We invite participants to submit papers on these themes and also to investigate a range of other questions related to power. Including: how does power work in and through adult education? What is shaping and driving policy and what impact can adult education hope to have on socio-cultural, economic and political inequalities? How have shifts in economics, technology, work, migration and culture reconfigured adult education? How is the ‘necessity’ to learn through the lifecourse affecting how students and educators think about education and how has the new language of standards and outcomes, which has become ubiquitous, reshaped conceptions of learning? And in the light of these changes and the complex, often ambivalent and fraught nature of student and practitioner experiences in contemporary adult education do we need new theories and different approaches to research?
Discussions and analyses of power can lead to a sense of private powerlessness in the face of seemingly intractable public issues. Resources of hope, however, reside in our capacities for reflexivity, imagination and creativity; capacities which allow us to question and trouble the givens of public discourses that limit our thinking, feeling and acting. Therefore we also wish to invite contributions on creativity in adult education and learning. This of course includes types of political agency but we mean more than this. We are interested in the various uses and sources of creativity and how this operates on different scales. How is, and can, creativity be used in classrooms, institutions and research? How can creativity – in language, practices and relationships – in formal and informal settings enhance adult learning? Where are the new paradigms of practice and inquiry in adult education that combines the critical and the creative and challenge to epistemologies and psychologies that erase the endless complexity and intrigue of subjectivities? In particular the conference wishes to foster conversations which explore how arts and narrative-based methodologies and new media are being used in adult education research and practice.
Participants may wish to explore either of these themes separately but the organisers especially welcome contributions that analyse and explore the relationship between power and creativity in adult education together. The overall aim of the 2016 ESREA Triennial conference is to create a rich and layered dialogue about possibility and power, and to identify agentic ways to engage with our field? This dual focus brings us to the third and overarching theme of the conference – the future of adult education. Contributions which explicitly address this topic are also sought. By exploring questions of power and identifying resources of creativity we hope to create a collaborative, critical and imaginative space in which participants envisage a diverse range of futures for adult education.
Abstracts
Guidelines for abstracts
Researchers on adult education and adult learning from various sectors and disciplines are invited to submit abstracts addressing the conference themes. Contributions from colleagues outside of Europe are very welcome.
The conference will feature a range of discussion and presentation formats including plenaries, papers, symposia, roundtables, workshops and poster sessions. In submitting an abstract, please clearly specify at the beginning of the abstract whether it is a 1) paper 2) a poster session 3) a symposium 4) a workshop or 5) a roundtable that is being proposed.
Paper and poster presentations proposals should be no more than 500 words and include information on aims/objectives; main perspective or theoretical/conceptual framework; methods, research design, mode of inquiry; data sources or evidence; results and/or conclusions; significance in connection to the conference themes.
A Symposium should include a 500 word summary of the overall proposal specifying aims/objectives; main perspective or theoretical/conceptual framework; significance in connection to the conference theme, and a description of how the session will be structured, and a 200-250 word description of each individual presentation.
A Workshop proposal should include a 500 word summary describing the objectives, the target audience, planned activities, significance in connection to the conference theme, a description of how the session will be structured, and a list of equipment or room set-up requirements.
A Roundtable proposal should include a 500 word summary of the overall proposal specifying aims/objectives; a description of how the session will be structured; a 100 word description of the contribution of each participant; and significance in connection to the conference themes.
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 12th February 2016.
The Scientific Committee of ESREA 2016 is responsible for the selection of the submitted abstracts. Latest notification of acceptance is 14th March 2016. Please submit abstracts in two separate files: one including the title, type of session, the name, address, e-mail of each author; and the second one including the paper title and abstract. Please send your abstract in RTF-format. Abstracts should be submitted to esrea2016@mu.ie. Details of the membership of the Scientific Committee will be posted in November 2015 on this website.
Criteria for Review of Abstracts
Abstracts for papers and other types of sessions are welcome from all fields of research on adult learning.
The criteria used in reviewing each abstract will be as follows:
Should be connected to the education and learning of adults;
Should make reference to a theoretical framework, involve systematic inquiry of an analytic or empirical nature;
Background, method, results and implications should be set out clearly in a manner which is accessible to an international audience.
The same criteria will be used for workshops, symposia and roundtables as well as an additional criterion:
Clear description of the format and rationale for the session.
Language
The abstract, the paper and its presentation should be in English. Simultaneous translation will not be available in plenary sessions. However, where possible, in line with the ESREA language policy, efforts will be made to provide some translation in the parallel sessions. Please bear in mind when presenting a paper that you are speaking to an international audience, the majority of whom may not be familiar with your own country let alone its adult educational system. Please avoid the use of acronyms and do not use expressions which relate to your adult educational system/learning setting without providing a contextual explanation.
Key Note Speakers
John Field
John Field is an emeritus professor at the University of Stirling and honorary professor at the University of Warwick.
He chairs Scotland’s Learning Partnership, the national organization representing the interests of learners and providers in Scotland, and is a member of the research committee of the German Institute for Adult Education. His research interests include social, historical and policy studies of further, higher, vocational and adult education. He has authored seven books, including the highly influential Lifelong learning the New Educational Order, edited ten books, and published many papers in scholarly journals. His most recent book is Working Men’s Bodies, a study of British work camp systems before 1939.
For more about John Field and his work go to http://rms.stir.ac.uk/converis-stirling/person/11573
Lene Tanggaard
Lene Tanggaard is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Communication and Psychology at the University of Aalborg, Denmark.
Here she serves as director of the QS-research group (30 members, VIP), advisor for several Ph.D.-students, Co-director of The International Centre for the Cultural Psychology of Creativity (ICCPC), and co-director of the Center for Qualitative Studies, a network of more than 90 professors and researchers concerned with methodology and development of new research tools (http://www.cqs.aau.dk/). She is regional editor of The International Journal of Qualitative Research in Education. Recent publications include Glaveanu, V., Tanggaard, L. & Wegener, C. (2016). Creativity – a new vocabulary. Palgrave Macmillian. Tanggaard, L. & Stadil, C. (2014). Showering with Picasso – how to spark your creativity and imagination. London: LIU Publishing and Glăvenu, V. & Tanggaard, L. (2014). Creativity, identity, and representation: Towards a socio-cultural theory of creative identity. New Ideas in Psychology. 34 (2014) 12–21.Lene will discuss ‘On the edge of creativity – what’s in it for adult education?’ at the 2016 ESREA Triennial.
To find out more about Lene Tangaard’s research visit http://personprofil.aau.dk/101324?lang=en
Dr. Antonia Darder
Dr. Antonia Darder is a distinguished international Freirian scholar. She holds the Leavey Presidential Endowed Chair of Ethics and Moral Leadership at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles and is Professor Emerita of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
She was inducted as an American Educational Research Association Fellow in 2015. Her scholarship focuses on issues of racism, political economy, social justice, and education. Her work critically engages the contributions of Paulo Freire to our understanding of inequalities in schools and society. Darder’s critical theory of biculturalism links questions of culture, power, and pedagogy to social justice concerns in education. In her scholarship on ethics and moral issues, she articulates a critical theory of leadership for social justice and community empowerment. Darder also has a longstanding interest in participatory media and arts. She is the author of numerous books and articles in the field, including Culture and Power in the Classroom (20th Anniversary edition), Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy of Love, A Dissident Voice: Essayson Culture, Pedagogy, and Power and Freire and Education. She is also co-author of After Race: Racism After Multiculturalism; and co-editor of The Critical Pedagogy Reader, Latinos and Education: A CriticalReader, and the International Critical Pedagogy Reader.
To read more about Antonia Darder please go to http://soe.lmu.edu/faculty/directory/antoniadarderphd/
Graduate student bursaries and prizes
As a way to support graduate student’s participation in the conference, there will be several bursaries available in the form of free accommodation during the entire conference. To be able to apply, one needs to be a graduate student (e.g. doctoral student, Masters student); a member of ESREA (either individual or covered by an institutional membership) and have had a paper accepted for the main conference.
Applications or questions regarding the application procedure should be directed to esrea2016@mu.ie. Please include the words 'Bursary Application' in the subject line.
ESREA will also award a prize for the best paper presented by a PhD student at the triennial conference. The prize include both guidance on how to get the paper published from an experienced scholar and money. If you wish to have your paper considered for this prize you will have to indicate this in the appropriate part of the conference registration form at the time of registration.
Pre-Conference event for Doctoral students
We welcome graduate students participation and we wish to invite graduate students to submit proposals and participate in the main conference. A pre-conference for Phd students will be also be held on 7th September 2016 and this will include open fora and masterclasses on methodology, theory and publishing led by leading scholars in the field of adult education. Affordable budget accommodation will be available for doctoral students attending the conference.
Papers
Completed papers and other contributions should be submitted by
15th July 2016 and sent to: esrea2016@mu.ie. Please send your paper in RTF-format. The final paper should be
5000 - 7000 words. Papers which are submitted as part of a symposium or roundtable session should not be more than 4000 words.
Publication
Submitted papers will be made available electronically on a password protected site shortly before the conference. The Scientific Committee and conference organizers intend to select a number of papers/contributions for inclusion in an edited collection for publication(s).
Scientific Committee
Associate Professor Laura Formenti
Professor Henning Salling Olesen
Dr Rosanna Barros
Professor Jean-Michel Baudouin
Professor Andreas Fejes
Adjunct Professor Karin Filander
Professor Aiga von Hippel
Associate Professor Marcella Milana
Adrianna Nizińska
Senior lecturer Emilio Lucio-Villegas
Dr Barbara Merrill
Dr Georgios Zarifis
Professor Andrew Loxley
Dr Anne Walsh
Dr Bernie Grummell
Dr Ted Fleming
Dr Leo Casey
Dr Fergal Finnegan
Dr Dave McCormack
Dr Brid Connolly
Conference Fees
ESREA-members:
Early Bird [registering before 8th April 2016]
€180
Registering after 8th April 2016
€250
Non-members:
Early Bird [registering before 8th April 2016]
€230
Registering after 8th April 2016
€280
Phd students:
Early Bird [registering before 8th April 2016]
€100
Registering after 8th April 2016
€150
Conference Dinner (per person)
€40
The conference fee includes conference pack, refreshments and light lunches
Becoming an ESREA member
For further information on becoming a member of ESREA please click on this link ESREA Members