At ECER in Dublin 2005 a great deal of high quality sessions and interesting papers were presented in Network 10. A couple of the sessions attracted more than 50 people, and the majority attracted between 10 and 20 people.
In total there were 73 presenters posted in the program, in paper session, round table, and two symposiums. Unfortunately several of the presenters did not show up, and a system for giving notice of this beforehand evidently did not work. This is something we will have to look into for coming conferences. Both the other presenters in the session and people coming to listen get disappointed when this happens.
Unfortunately also some of the chairs that had been assigned did not show up - this is also something we hope it is possible to prevent from happening, since the message given out when this happens is not desired.
Some 75 proposals for ECER 2005 were submitted to Network 10 - slightly down on the record number for the Crete Conference. Redirections were minimal. Rejections numbered 5 and the main reason for rejections were:
Not followed guidelines - 2
Research question not clear/too descriptive - 2
Not research - 1
A broad range of themes were evident in the proposed papers and symposia and these allowed careful planning and grouping. The principal themes are highlighted below:
- Pre-service Teacher Education
- Induction/mentoring
- Teachers as role models
- Student Early Years Teaching emphasis
- Teacher competence and standards
- Effective Teaching
- Teacher professionalism
- Reflective teaching
- Teachers as researchers
At ECER 2005 three new Convenors were introduced to the job by Pat Mahony who is withdrawing. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Pat for the tremendous work she has done for the network. The three new convenors are Jim O'Brien, Scotland, Halvor Hoveid and Marit H. Hoveid from Norway, with Marit functioning as Link-Convenor. Our hope is that we will be able to keep up the good work Pat has laid down for the network over the last years. With all the papers directed to our network we know there is a need for sustaining and developing the strong foundations established by Pat and previous Convenors.
Network 10 is attracting a great variety of presenters. Over the years it has been sort of a loose network without a very stable membership.Not having a stable membership has the advantage of attracting people from a diversity of areas, on the other side it is challenging when trying to keep the network together as a network. A challenge for the network, also in the future - is getting some more stability in the group, which would enable us to build up a little bit more of organisation around the network. For 2006 in Geneva we hope to be able to invite all to a business meeting (which we have not succeeded in doing yet) and to arrange a dinner one evening so we could meet to socialize and get to know each other better.
For Geneva 2006 the conference theme is "Transforming Knowledge". One proposal that we would like to invite people to consider is to direct their papers and presentations to the transforming of knowledge in teacher education. Is there a transforming of knowledge in teacher education or is teacher education merely reproducing whatever knowledge base there is or applying to a set of standards? We would like to invite presentations from teacher education to reflect on these questions within a European context and do look forward to meeting old and new colleagues in Geneva in September 2006.