European Conference On Educational Research Research Articles

Liveable life, educational theory and the imperative of constant change

This article is based on a keynote paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), University College UCC, Copenhagen, 22–25 August, 2017. In this paper, I problematise the idea that we live in an era of constant change with respect to education and educational research. I claim that what presents itself as change on supra-national as well as national levels, or even in classrooms, more often than not has to do with adjustments within a given reality rather than of a radical and profound change of this same reality. The response to this situation I will suggest is to mobilise radical forms of theory that address the inherent emancipatory and transformational character of education. This kind of theory, I argue, actually also addresses the central characteristics of a truly pluralistic democracy. Drawing on Jacques Rancière and Judith Butler the paper will lay out some arguments for resisting an anti-democratic and anti-pluralistic tendency within what I will call ‘pre-Sophist’ educational trends and instead promote an education that is concerned with a ‘liveable life’ for all.

Interview with Iveta Kestere

Iveta Kestere is a Professor at the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art, University of Latvia and an expert in the history of education at the Latvian Council of Science. Her current academic interest is in the research methodology for the history of education and education under dictatorship, including history of school reality and history of teaching profession. She is the author of numerous articles devoted to the history of education and the author or co-editor of nine books, among them The Visual Image of the Teacher (2012) and History of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences in the Baltic Countries from 1940 to 1990: an Overview (2013). She was a guest researcher and lecturer at the KU Leuven, Belgium. She is included in the editorial board of academic journals in Lithuania and Italy. She is a co-convenor of 17th Network (history of education) at The European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) and the Board member of the Baltic Association of Historians of Pedagogy.

Introduction to the EERJ dossier

After the Second World War, the OECD promoted the idea – which had begun to emerge between the wars in various European countries – that the creation of a comprehensive school system, bringing together all children from age 6 to 15 or 16, was the precondition for the democratisation of society and economic progress. This model was implemented very differently from one country to another. The ideal has now ended in disenchantment. Almost everywhere, the schooling of 11 to 15-year-olds is seen as the weak link in educational systems, a site of violence and suffering for pupils and teachers. A new system is being put in place, which some call post-comprehensive. Without abandoning the concern for equality, the international organisations are foregrounding a new system of reference based on performance obligations: skills standards, international comparisons through which each country’s performance can be judged in a context of competition. The debate has moved on: the American New Right places its hopes in the market; the European texts propose several readjustments of the social-democratic compromise: an equality of performances which takes the form of the definition of key skills; an attempt at compromise between the ideal of redistribution, the imperatives of performance and the creation of a collective consciousness in pluriethnic and pluricultural societies which takes the form of the idea of inclusive societies. The comprehensive school and the debates surrounding it are liable to be overtaken before being analysed. A retrospective analysis seems necessary to do justice to the efforts that have been made. The way societies organise their educational system is a key element in the production and transformation of the social. This special double issue of the European Educational Research Journal examines the current state of the comprehensive model in Europe and formulates the hypothesis of a post-comprehensive era; in so doing, it addresses the fundamental problem area of the relationship between education and society(ies). It was this aim of retrospective analysis that inspired the organisation, at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Porto in 2014, of a symposium on “The emergence of a post-comprehensive school in Europe? The role of social science journals in constructing a reflexive and critical analysis”. This was followed by a call for contributions for this EERJ dossier, “Re-examining the comprehensive school project in Europe.” The aim of that invitation and of this ensuing double issue is to offer a European perspective on the question of the comprehensive school. There were 21 responses to the call; ten articles were selected after review. Together they provide a wide-ranging view of the situation.

A panel discussion: the European Educational Research Association’s role in Europe – now and in the near future

The panel discussion at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in September 2014: ‘EERA’s role in Europe – now and in the near future’ with the authors of this report, took as its point of departure the article ‘EERA: a participant or an agent in European research policy?’ (Moos and Wubbels, 2014). In this article, we stated that the European Educational Research Association (EERA) is an agent in the Europeanization and internalization process, working – intentionally or not and willingly or not – on harmonizing educational research internationally, all over Europe and in the European Union (EU). Furthermore, the EERA has been working on influencing research politics internationally, in Europe, in the EU and at the national levels for the past decade. The links between global development and local practices in universities and schools have become tighter over the past two or three decades through transnational agencies such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the EU. They are important players in the

A Space for Critical Research on Education Policy: ECER Paper Sessions and the ‘Policy Studies and Politics of Education’ Network

The activities of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and the yearly European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) are mainly organised in standing networks. Through the example of the Policy Studies and Politics of Education network, this article takes a closer look at network activity and the ways in which it contributes to the development of educational research. Since most network activity is focused around the yearly conferences, the first part of the article discusses the conference session space, its forms and its links to the broader community of educational researchers. The second part of the article traces the origin and development of the Policy Studies and Politics of Education network, emphasising how the network has provided a space for critical analysis and discussion of education policies and forms of governance being pursued by national and trans-national actors in and beyond Europe.

A ‘Moot’ for Educational Research in Europe?

For many years the EERJ Roundtable has been a standing event within the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). In a discursive style it addresses issues related to contemporary relationships between educational research and educational policy in Europe. The changing educational landscape, together with shifting practices and discourses of educational research, prompted researchers to discuss the need for increased self-governance. It was taken up as the topic for the 2013 EERJ Roundtable and couched as a question: What is the possibility of a ‘moot’ for educational research in Europe? This article reports on the 2013 Roundtable. Its three short presentations and subsequent audience discussion have been summarised and reflected upon to make a case for a moot: a self-governing space for educational research. It reveals ECER, and particularly the EERJ Roundtable, as a scholarly and a political arena where the interplay between research, policy and larger patterns of social change can be reviewed, interrogated and appropriated critically into the disciplinary logics of educational research.

Mobile Sociologies of Education

This special issue of the European Educational Research Journal collects articles from the sessions organised by the newly launched sociologies of education network (network 28) of the European Education Research Association (EERA) at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) held in 2012. Scholars who contributed to the sessions as presenters or commenters from the audience argued that there is a need to reconsider the methodologies, missions and the traditional themes of the sociology of education in an era when the institutions of education and learning practices are being profoundly re-shaped by the processes of globalisation. A core part of this reflection is to expand sociological imagination and to think beyond fixed and nation-state bound categories in which sociology of education had traditionally understood education, policy and society. This issue collects articles that have, to lesser or greater extent, gained inspiration from the Latourian version of actor-network theory (ANT) and experiment with socio-material understanding of educational processes because they all argue that many newly emergent education policy and practice phenomena can be better grasped as a genuinely fluid, networked and mobile process. While the articles all engage with the idea of developing a mobile sociology of education, they altogether do not attempt to offer a homogeneous programme but rather invite the readers for discussion about renewing the sociological vocabulary and for reflection on the potentials of a new perspective sensitive of mobilities and assemblages.

Self-Regulated and Technology-Enhanced Learning: A European Perspective

Self-regulation of learning, learning to learn, and their potential stimulation by specific information and communication technologies (ICTs) are main topics in European policy. This issue of the European Educational Research Journal (EERJ) focuses on research to develop, integrate and evaluate self-regulation of learning and the potential and actual uses of ICTs in educational practice. In this issue, the authors introduce five articles on self-regulated and technology-enhanced learning representing development and research conducted in preschools, primary and secondary schools, and universities of various countries. This research was presented at two symposia of the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Cádiz (2012). The symposia were part of the ECER network 16 ‘ICT in Education and Training’. The research exemplifies three different models of ICT-based learning, ranging from ‘traditional’ via ‘more flexible’ to ‘optimal’ learning. The authors discuss the main characteristics and outcomes of the five articles. They conclude with theoretical and methodological aspects that may promote further development and research of self-regulated and technology-enhanced learning in a European perspective.

Knowledge and Policy: Research — Information — Intervention

At the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland, the EERJ Roundtable focused upon the relationships between information, research and intervention. These relationships could be understood as a circular flow of decontextualising and recontextualising terms, concepts or ‘knowledge’ according to the respective needs and prevalent textures. Theoretically and methodically reflected research, well-organized information via databases, or legitimate and well-justified political decisions for interventions indicate reference contexts according to which terms and concepts get their specific shape. The supposedly neutral information becomes converted into research knowledge restricted by its constructional trait and this knowledge becomes loaded up with constitutional or political norms serving political interventions. One cannot separate, but analytically distinguish respective types of ‘knowledge’ in order to analyse forms and modes of transformations. At present, traditionally differentiated and ramified educational research communication is under pressure through attempts to govern educational research into the direction of politically desired and needed ‘practical’ and applicable research on education by means of research management and funding. The basically underlying assumption of these attempts is a linear transfer from educational research governance, to educational research, to educational practice, and back again. In addition, the claim of rational governance leads to an increasing demand of reliable information providing ‘certainty’ for structurally uncertain decisions and their consequences. ‘Good decisions are informed decisions’ is one of the great promises of modern concepts of rationality. Provision of useful and reliable information is intended to be used for political decisions to improve education. Furthermore, the mentioned assumption also implies that the quality of decisions would increase with the amount of good and ‘cumulative’ information

TURKISH YOUTH IN THE EUROPEAN KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

ABSTRACT Globalisation and Europeanisation are complementary and partly overlapping processes that identify the increasingly supranational context in which political and educational systems are operating. This article explores how Turkish youth in two German and English secondary schools relate to the European knowledge economy, and how their political identities are shaped by school dynamics (ethos, curriculum and peer cultures) and social class positioning.1 Drawing upon mainly qualitative data, the paper indicates that when the concept of Europe is allied to multiculturalism, there is the possibility of including minority ethnic groups like the Turkish Muslims and giving them the opportunity of relating to the European knowledge economy. If, however, Europe is understood as a white Christian concept, then Turkish teenagers will struggle to relate positively to Europe as a political identity. The article not only gives voice to young Turkish Muslims in Europe but also assesses the potential for Europe to be a common ground for all youth to negotiate their identities. 1An earlier version of this paper was presented to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Dublin, September 2005. The presentation was highlighted in the Times Educational Supplement, 16 September 2005 (No. 4652).

Didactics — Learning and Teaching in Europe

The place of didactics, learning and teaching has been the subject of discussion within the European Educational Research Association (EERA) for several years. Significant steps were taken in 2006 at the conference in Geneva to advance this work through the organisation of an Invited Plenary Panel and an Opening Symposium as the first steps towards establishing a new EERA Network in this field. These initiatives received strong support and led to the establishment of Network 27 on Didactics – Learning and Teaching. The articles in this special issue of EERJ are based on contributions made by the authors to the Opening Symposium and Plenary Panel at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Geneva in 2006. Whilst issues related to teaching, learning and subject content are central to pedagogical practices, associated discussions have tended to be fragmented. This fragmentation can be reinforced by institutional structures, particular policy initiatives, the strength of some discourse communities and the relative weaknesses of others. EERA Network 27 on Didactics – Learning and Teaching has been established with the aim of providing a space for dialogue for integrating such discussions, and this issue of EERJ is intended to provide a record of the starting point and to support the process of widening the debate. We hope this space will attract interest from educational researchers with interests in pedagogical practices, curriculum, student learning and the teaching of specific subject areas. This issue of EERJ comes at a time of growing interest in teaching and learning at an international level, including particular interest in questions related to associated research and scholarship. Against this background are the long traditions within continental Europe when it comes to such questions. For example, the tradition of Didaktik can be traced back to John Amos Comenius in the seventeenth century though there is little discussion of didactics as such in the English-speaking educational community. Discussions about the nature of didactics, learning and teaching have taken on different characteristics in different national contexts and development has been especially strong in the domain of subject didactics. Furthermore, associated ideas have influenced the development of teacher education significantly in several countries within continental Europe over recent years. For these reasons we believe that it is timely to create a space for dialogue in order to share perspectives and questions collectively as an EERA community in relation to the advancement of research and scholarship in the field of didactics, learning and teaching. This issue includes articles based on the presentations made at the ECER in Geneva by Stefan Hopmann, Michel Caillot, Yves Chevallard, Brian Hudson, Kirsti Klette and Meinert A. Meyer. Stefan Hopmann traces the origin of Didaktik back to the ideas of students’ activity (Socrates), in a disciplinary setting (Hugh of Saint Victor), with a certain order of knowledge (Thomas Aquinas) and necessary choice of subject matter (Comenius). In the German context, Didaktik, in its different forms, can be described as systematic reflection about how to organise teaching in a

Neo-Liberalism and Marketisation: The Implications for Higher Education

This article is based on a keynote paper presented to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), University College Dublin, 5–9 September 2005. The massification of education in European countries over the last 100 years has produced cultures and societies that have benefited greatly from state investment in education. To maintain this level of social and economic development that derives from high quality education requires continual state investment. With the rise of the New Right, neo-liberal agenda, there is an attempt to offload the cost of education, and indeed other public services such as housing, transport, care services etc., on to the individual. There is an increasing attempt to privatise public services, including education, so that citizens will have to buy them at market value rather than have them provided by the state. Europe is no exception to this trend of neo-liberalisation. Recent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports, including one on higher education in Ireland, (2004), concentrate strongly on the role of education in servicing the economy to the neglect of its social and developmental responsibilities. The view that education is simply another market commodity has become normalised in policy and public discourses. Schools run purely as businesses are a growing phenomenon within and without Europe, and there is an increasing expectation in several countries that schools will supplement their income from private sources, even though they are within the state sector. In this article, the writer presents both a critique of the neo-liberal model of marketised education and a challenge to academics to work as public intellectuals both individually and with civil society organisations to develop a counter-hegemonic discourse to neo-liberalism for higher education.

Evidence and Policy Research

The EERJ roundtable took as its point of departure the experience of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) in carrying out policy research. CERI has conducted four reviews of national educational research and development (in New Zealand, England, Mexico and Denmark), and has run a number of meetings specifically on the use of evidence-based policy research (in the USA, Sweden and the Netherlands). Tom Schuller, Head of CERI, presented some conclusions from these and other CERI activities. Responses were made by Wim Jochems, Open University of the Netherlands, Lejf Moos, Danish University of Education, and Agnes van Zanten, Observatoire Sociologique du Changement, CNRS, Paris. The EERJ Roundtable was an opportunity to return to the issues raised in the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) 2003 Hamburg Roundtable on the ‘OECD Examiners' Report on Educational Research and Development in England’ ( European Educational Research Journal, 3(2), 2004, pp. 510–526) in a wider context and as part of a trend to evaluate the quality and organisation of educational research, and its contribution to educational policy.

The University and the State in a Global Age: Renegotiating the Traditional Social Contract?

This article is based on the Keynote Address to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Dublin, Ireland, 7–10 September 2005. It argues that we are facing the simultaneous renegotiation of the major post-war social contract (concerning the welfare state) in Europe and the renegotiation of a smaller-scale modern social pact: the pact between the university and the nation-state. It suggests that the current, and especially future, transformations of the university are not fully clear outside of the context of transformations to the state (and to the public sector) under global pressures. These pressures, both directly and indirectly, will not leave the university as an institution unaffected. Thus it is more useful today than ever before to discuss the future of the university in the context of the current transformations of the state. The study is divided into four sections: a brief introduction; a section on the university and the welfare state in Europe; a section on the university and the nation-state in Europe; and tentative conclusions.

New Modes of Reproducing Social Inequality in Education: The Changing Role of Parents, Teachers, Schools and Educational Policies

This article is based on the Keynote Address to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Crete, Greece, 21–25 September 2004. One of the most consistent results in sociology of education research has been the existence of inequalities in school results and educational trajectories related to social factors. Despite an important increase in number of years of schooling for all children in most European countries in the post-war period, research still shows important differences between social and ethnic groups and even a widening of the gap between the most advantaged and most disadvantaged in some countries. Factors shown by previous studies to account for these differences are still at work, but many of them are influential in new ways. In addition to this, new factors have to be taken into account. Using available sociological literature on European countries, while focusing specifically on France as an exemplary case, this article presents some of the new constraints on and opportunities for action by parents, teachers and schools that result from both economic, cultural and educational changes and recent policy orientations.