This conference follows on the discussions started at Congresses of the AISLF, AFEC and EERA. Several research units, journals and learned societies wished for further in-depth reflection on the changes affecting social sciences educational research and their repositioning. Since the Second World War at least European policies and sciences have been dominated by a project of democratization supporting the establishment of a Welfare State aiming at equality of opportunity, the setting-up of a comprehensive school system gathering all children from five to sixteen, measures offering citizens improved opportunities for access to post-secondary education, etc. It is now commonplace to consider that this model is in a state of crisis but it is much more difficult to provide evidence about the policies implemented after it. Diverse approaches can be observed but they do not seem to be organised into a coherent project: there is a plurality of principles of justice deployed in the governance of education and in particular those of equity and recognition of differences; growing knowledge economies, the development of standards and new political technologies of accountability, the advent of new scales and temporal and spatial dynamics linked to globalization, the emergence of a European area of lifelong learning, etc The terms post-Welfare State, post-comprehensive school are only harbingers. These changes call for a new conceptual and methodological framework for social sciences which have to make a relevant account of the new state of the world: to shift analytical frameworks and reformulate classical questions, to generate new questions and issues, to reflect on a pluri-scalar nature of governance and world-wide public policies, etc
Globalisation tends to legitimate assessment tools and rankings which align the evaluation and the quality of research findings and publications on standards external to the academic community. To find a place in this new environment, European social sciences of education have to examine both the required conditions for knowledge production and their influence on educational policies. Thus, the conference aims to debate on three issues which are as many aspects of the same object:
• Elaborating a new framework to show the new state of the world, characterised by a parallel restructuring of forms of justice and forms of State in a globalised context.
• While building a new framework, keeping high theoretical standards and a « critical » stance (insofar as it seeks to shun normative ideological discourses) supported by European traditions.
• Keeping epistemological and linguistic pluralism in dissemination and validation tools
The conference will tackle these issues at all levels : school education, higher education, vocational training, lifelong learning, etc
Call for proposals and informations on the submission of the contributions
Reflexions and discussions will mainly focus on Europe. Nevertheless, the Associations and Journals committed to the event are developping in spaces which extend far beyond European borders : the whole of the English-speaking world for English associations and journals , Africa and Northern America for French-speaking ones, Latin America for Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking ones, etc. Thus, the conference is largely open to participants speaking French, Portuguese, Spanish, etc. who come upon the same issues as their European counterparts.
The proposals must be sent to sarah.croche@u-picardie.fr
They should not exceed 4000 characters (a page, a page and a half long) and clearly show the object of the presentation (empirical data, methodology, theoretical frame, results and conclusion, bibliography, etc.) and informations on the contributor (email address, university, etc.). Proposals for papers that are still in progress and have not, at the time of submission, reached final conclusions or research findings, are also welcomed. At the time of submission, you are expected to indicate the Working Group you would prefer to present your paper at. The abstract should as a general rule be written and delivered in French or English.
There are conference fees covering access to plenaries and workshops, hand-out documents, lunches and coffee-breaks on the three event days, cocktail. Their amount is 200 euros for all participants and 100 euros for doctoral students.
Publication
The colloquium is supported by several journals and editors-in-chief. It will lead to several publications : multi-authored books, files in journal in varied languages. The scientific Committee and the working groups responsible will formulate proposals after the conference. All the good articles will be published.