ECER Theme: Learning Communities and Shared Futures in Education

The ECER conference invites researchers from the broad remit of educational research to address ways in which various forms of learning are conceptualized, organized, and justified in education. Learning is central to education, often portrayed as a transformative process that supports the growth, development and participation of individuals in society. At the same time, learning is influenced by wider societal changes, including intensified digitalization, shifting governance arrangements, and growing challenges to democratic systems. These dynamics call for critical engagement with how learning is understood, valued, and governed.

Learning as a concept refers to individual as well as communal processes and to how both human and more-than-human relations shape learning environments. It encompasses cognitive, emotional, and embodied aspects happening individually and in communities. Systems-oriented and organisational theories highlight ways of learning that involve networks, institutional structures, and hybrid forms of cooperation that underpin learning communities. 

While human learning in education is often described as an individual process, the community aspects of learning cannot be overlooked. Learning in education, as an educational process, takes place within communities and this always adds something extra, to a lesser or greater extent, to the individual as well as to the communal learning process. The feedback processes between individual and community-based learning are important and pivotal for the social impact of education and it is important to theorize about and research these processes, particularly under conditions of global change. The social and communal nature of learning can be seen in any form of learning: in formal, non-formal and informal learning communities; in workplace learning communities; and in our most basic communities where humans grow up. Yet, learning within communities is never neutral: it generates belonging but can also create boundaries and exclusions. Power dynamics, cultural assumptions and institutional norms influence whose knowledge is recognised, whose voices are heard and who is left at the margins

Today, the sustainability and democratic legitimacy of how learning is addressed -theoretically, politically and practically in education - should be critically examined. Learning is inherently linked with teaching in its various forms, purposes, and professional practices. In creating good learning environments in their classrooms, teachers play an important role in mediating between individual and communal learning. Also, technology has a significant impact on learning and learning environments. The influence of technology on learning prompts educational research to reconsider what learning is, where it occurs, and how it happens. 

At the same time, debates on learnification and datafication highlight how learning is increasingly framed as an individual process to be optimised and monitored through metrics, platforms and large-scale assessments. As educational purposes and relationships are translated into the language of outcomes, performance indicators and data flows, questions of what is learned, for whom and to what end may be narrowed to issues of efficiency and self-responsibilisation. While data analytics support reflection and improvement, they can also establish restrictive norms of “success”, and make some learners and communities less visible and included.

The conference invites contributions that explore theoretical and practical aspects of learning in education, as well as its political, societal, and governance implications. ECER 2027 particularly welcomes contributions that focus on the complex relationships between individual and community-based aspects of learning and that examine their role in supporting democratic and sustainable futures for education.