Over 100 proposals for ECER 2004 were submitted to Network 10 – a record for us. We were not sure whether this represents a dramatic rise in Teacher Education research or a desire to grab the last of the summer sun in beautiful Crete!
We redirected 30 proposals to other networks where we believed they would be better located and received a small number of redirections ourselves. Where proposals were rejected it was on the grounds that the research question or problem and the methodology were unclear (or in some cases absent altogether) or because the significance of the paper was national.
The quality of the papers that were accepted and the standards of presentation were, on the whole, high. Again this year, Petra and Pat had met for a day in May to organise the programme so that coherent sessions could be built from papers on the same theme. This was successful where presenters had not dropped out nor asked for their papers to be rescheduled. Only two people failed to turn up.
The Network sessions were well attended, usually with about 30 people in each session. The quality of the discussion was enhanced where people contributed perspectives from their own contexts which included: Australia; Belgium; Brazil; Canada; Czechoslovakia; Croatia; England; Estonia; Finland; Germany; Greece; Ireland; Netherlands; Norway; Portugal; Scotland; Spain; Sweden and Taiwan.
Next year we aim to develop the Network by increasing the number of convenors, by holding a Network meeting to discuss possible themes for the following year and to identify realistic ways of developing our activities.
