Dear all members of NERA Network 22 Post-approaches to Education
It is our pleasure to invite you to the pre-conference for NERA 2020 in Turku, Finland.
The pre-conference is a direct continuation of the pre-conference at NERA 2019 in Uppsala, Sweden, where work on a special issue focusing on Posthuman1 Conceptions of Change in Empirical Educational Research was decided upon.
At the pre-conference, we will be discussing and developing papers that relate to, but do not necessarily have to respond to, the call for papers for this special issue. You will find the call for papers at the end of the invitation. There will also be inspirational lectures from senior colleagues that are grappling with these issues already. We invite junior (PhD/doctoral students) and senior scholars interested in, curious or critical about the posthuman approaches to education to join the pre-conference.
The purpose of the pre-conference at NERA 2020 is to strengthen the research network around post-approaches to education in the Nordic countries, and to allow for meetings and academic debate between PhD/doctoral students and seniors.
Preliminary program for the pre-conference
March 3
13.00 Intro
13.30 Lecture: Camilla Eline Andersen, Pd.D., Stockholm University: “Grappling with the world: responsibility, subjectivity and transformation”
14.30 Paper 1 (with response and discussion)
15.15 Pause
15:30 Dialogical lecture: Pauliina Rautio, Ph.D. University of Oulu & University of Helsinki & Riikka Hohti, Ph.D., University of Helsinki: “(Post)Human Nature? And other questions multispecies inquiry asks from us”.
16:30 Paper 2 (with response and discussion)
17.15 Paper 3 (with response and discussion)
18.00 End day 1 and dinner
March 4
9.30 Paper 4 (with response and discussion)
10.15-11.00 Conclusion
1 Posthuman involves all the ‘posts’: new-materialisms, feminist materialisms, ANT and post-ANT, speculative realism, science and technology studies, and, and, and…
Participating with paper
Participants that wish to have their idea for an article/book chapter/analysis discussed, have to send in a paper (the form and size of which is for the author to decide) no later than February 15, 2020 via mail to Sofie Sauzet: sosa@kp.dk. From the list of papers, we receive, we will organize the final program. Paper sessions are organized as followed: 15 minutes presentations, 15 minutes prepared response, and 15 minutes discussion amongst the participants.
If papers are responding to the call for the special issue of Researching Educational Research Methodology, they must also be e-mailed to: simon.ceder@konstfack.se
Participating without paper
Deadline for registration is February 15, to Sofie Sauzet: sosa@kp.dk
The warmest of welcome,
Martin Hauberg-Lund Laugesen, Simon Ceder, Virpi Valtonen and Sofie Sauzet
———-
Special Issue of Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology
(RERM)Posthuman Conceptions of Change in Empirical Educational Research
Special issue editors: Sofie Sauzet, Simon Ceder & Linnea Bodén
Change is at the heart of the educational project. Mostly, the subject of change is described as the individual learning subject – the student – changing from ignorant to knowing, from not able to able. Critical pedagogies emphasize change as the student becoming empowered. However, education is also thought of, and used as, a means changing at-risk groups, or societies at large. Posthuman (or new materialist, feminist materialism, post-ANT and so on) theory implies being part of the world, embedded, entangled and always becoming, with the ever-unfolding movements of the world.
Thus, change is not the change of the individual subject, particular groups or systems, from one state to another. Rather it is about “giving to the world the power to change us, to ‘force’ our thinking.” (Stengers 2008, p. 57). Posthuman approaches questions ideas of change from a relational ontology and an ontology of movement. It is not only humans who change; rather, the world is in constant change – an intra-acting absolute movement – and the focus is the ongoing becomings that constantly transforms the world (Deleuze & Guattari, 2013). From this ontology, change is ongoing in all aspects of life and learning. Distinguishing the transformative capacities for change, transformation, or differences can thus be difficult. How can posthuman approaches to change be studied and materialized in empirical educational research? What is being changed, who is being changed, how does change happen, and for what purpose? How can posthuman research engage in, argue for, and manifest changes to educational practices?
With this special issue, we wish to address posthuman conceptions of change in empirical educational research working with posthuman theories and methodologies. We look for contributions that address and explores education as a question of change, transformation, quantum leaps, worldings, transitions, cuts, development, shifts, revolution, evolution, transposition, innovation or learning. We look for contributions with an empirical ambition within educational or pedagogical studies from a posthuman/new materialist perspective. The special issue will be a multidisciplinary collection of articles addressing change in education through posthuman approaches with a focus on empirical research. We invite article contributions to this special issue through a range of possibilities. Here we name but a few:
• Posthuman view on transformation in empirical research
• Change through educational experiments
• Learning as change
• Worldling as change
• Aesthetic learning processes
• Change through affirmative critique
• Affective engagements in education
• The role of change in action research and practice based research
• New approaches to emancipation and critical pedagogy
• Transformational informal learning processes
• Change in organisations
• Leadership and management as change
• Change in eastern western indigenous education
• Climate change and education
• Measuring change
• How the empirical changes the researcher
• Which change is “better” and an improvement, and for who/what
Timeframe:
• 1st of December: Deadline for 150-word abstracts
• 15th of December: Response on abstracts
• 15th of February, 2020: Deadline for papers. (Papers are max 5 pages, and somewhere between the abstract and a finished article)
• 3rd or 15th of March, 2020: Response on papers from SI editors (either at NERA Network 22 pre-conference or as written response)
• 15th of June, 2020: Deadline for full articles
• 1st September, 2020: Response on full articles
• 1st of November, 2020: Deadline final article.
• 15th of February 2021: Publication date
Please send the abstract to simon.ceder@konstfack.se
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact sosa@kp.dk, simon.ceder@konstfack.se or
linnea.boden@buv.su.se
References
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (2013). A thousand plateaus. Bloomsbury
Stengers, I. (2008). Experimenting with refrains: Subjectivity and the challenge of escaping modern dualism. Subjectivity, 22(1), 38-59.