Network 10 enjoyed a successful conference in Hamburg! We received over 250 submissions and through the first and second round of reviews maintained our acceptance rate while supporting early career researchers and ensuring the inclusion of a wide range of voices from different theoretical perspectives and geographical regions.
We continue to welcome colleagues to the reviewing process and this year 65 reviewers were engaged in the process providing feedback on submissions. Having more reviewers’ means that the network can be more active, more responsive to European wide projects and calls and engage colleagues from more institutions across a wider geographical area.
The Network 10 Meeting was opened by the link convenor ML White, the co-convenors Susann Hofbauer and Itxaso Tellado were also present. Anna Beck was not able to attend ECER 2019 in person but contributed via Twitter! The convenor group welcomed more than 50 members from across Europe and beyond – Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, England, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia to name a few.
The focus of the meeting this year was to discuss and reflect on network activities in order to plan and direct future network actions. A summary of discussions/suggestions raised in the meeting is provided below (this is presented by theme/focus for organisational purposes):
Networking
- Organise a network dinner
- Organise a network lunch
- Offer a lunch slot or a session where more specific themes are divided into so that we can find others to network with
- Network meeting to take place earlier in the week – this would be helpful to get to know people and find out more about work that will be shared
- Arrange more opportunities to collaborate with colleagues across Europe and opportunities for discussion in sessions
- Arrange more networking events and updates throughout the year
- Offer more informal and evening network events
- Meet on the first day to be introduced to others (perhaps in a speed dating style)
Organisation and support (including conference app)
- Include the ability to search the programme by key words and theme on the app
- Offer network specific resources to help presenters organise their presentations (perhaps in an early network meeting)
- Organise more joint sessions with other networks and special calls
- Keynotes to be filmed so that they can be viewed again or viewed if you have attended another session
- Provide more sign posting on the app regarding sessions
- Provide additional and NW10 specific reviewer guidance
- Refreshments – especially coffee to be nearer the session rooms!
- Round table and workshops to be in flat rooms to enable discussion
Programme
- Please arrange for a teacher educator to give a keynote
- Offer a workshop on quantitative research methods in education
- Limit the number of sessions on the same topic
- The special call was very helpful for devising proposals and identifying relevant presentations. More like this please.
- Network 10 sub themes need to be more narrowly defined
- More workshops
- Writing retreat was wonderful. Lets’ now have a talking retreat!
Points of note from ECER2019:
The pre-conference writing retreat was well attended and feedback was very positive with participants asking for longer future sessions. We are grateful to EERA for funding this activity and hope to arrange another session in Glasgow @ ECER2020. Further details can be found here (link to report, feedback and pictures).
Additionally Itxaso and Anna arranged a writing workshop which was successfully led by Liz Todd and Rocio Garcia-Carrion, and well attended (19). The feedback was very positive with participants enjoying the tips and recommendations as well as the opportunity for networking. (picture of workshop)
Our thanks to Jean Murray, a board member from the Journal of Education for Teaching (JET) who ran a getting published workshop for the second time. This was well attended and resources from this session can be found here (link to PDF of presentation).
The second networking breakfast took place and will become a regular feature of our conference!
As is usual practice we have a process for selecting Convenors and a Link Convenor to coordinate the Network and the Convenors and in 2020 we will put ourselves forward for re-election and encourage other members to join us. This process focusses on the principles of transparency, legitimacy, openness, trust, and continuity and further details can be found here (link to https://eera-ecer.de/networks/network-procedures/elections-and-mandates/
Actions from the network meeting:
- We will plan NW10 meeting on Wednesday (day 2) of conference.
- As suggested last year we will continue to organise the programme by theme and not use session titles.
- We will continue to arrange a number of informal meetings opportunities for network members including before the opening of the conference, a networking breakfast, and a network dinner.
- We will explore how the papers from the Special Call might be published in a special edition and communicate opportunities via the mailing list.
- We will hold an election/re-election of network convenors.
Thank you!
Finally, it is important to note that in addition to the preparation and efforts of presenters, the quality of the conference experience is directly related to the excellent work done by the reviewers of the network and chairpersons (mobilised mostly from the reviewers’ list) in supporting and guiding discussions. This year we will again list all of the colleagues involved on the EERA Network’s website as a mark of our gratitude but also to engender future collaboration and connection. As a network we are grateful to all those involved in ensuing the success of the conference. And if you are not yet involved in the reviewing process but would like to be …. Please get in touch!
ML White