Annual Report 2006. Geneva

The annual conference is – as always – the main raison d’etre for the EERA Philosophy of Education Network. During the year we have some contact through the e-mail list, distributing information about events, publications and posts for philosophers of education and, occasionally, putting questions and trying to give answers to each other. We have been very pleased to have an increasing number of participants and people interested in our work; currently our list has a total number of some 250 individual members plus links to other international philosophy of education lists.

At the conference in Geneva a total of 59 papers were presented in 21 partly parallel and serialized sessions dedicated to the following topics:

• Moral Education;
• Systematic issues in historical perspectives (Herbart, Dewey, Pestalozzi, Heidegger, Condircet, Adorno);
• Citizenship and Education;
• Education between Technology, Authenticity and Deception; Systematic Problems of Adult Education;
• Constructivism and Educational Theory;
• Looking at Schools with a Philosophical Perspective; Politics and/in Education;
• Education in the „Knowledge Society“;
• Educational Research and Methodological Problems.

Nearly all our sessions had been frequented very well (between 20 and 60 participants) though due to some short noticed cancellations some of them had fewer.
 

In 2006 for the Geneva Conference we tried once again to satisfy some conflicting demands: we tried to be as inclusive as possible because we wanted to ensure wide participation; and we also tried to ensure that the papers presented were of high quality. Our solution for this difficult situation was to provide a mixture of presentation formats: we had a two part symposium exclusively dedicated to the congress-theme dealing with „Environmental concerns and the transformation of knowledge“ which was organized, introduced and summarized by Paul Smeyers.

A second symposium on „Phenomenology in Education“ was not only a transnational but a transcontinental one which had been organized by Gloria Dall’Alba from Australia bringing together colleagues from Sweden, America and Australia. For some years we have started the conference with a special invited-speaker-openning-session; this year we were very glad to have Professor Dr. Jürgen Oelkers from Zürich University as invited speaker delivering an inspiring presentation on „The relevance, role and function of philosophy of education within present day educational science“.

The main topic for our annual network-meeting was the transition within in the group of convenors. We are very happy that during the last years the number of people who are willing to engage themselves and to take over responsibility has continually increased. We take this to be a good sign that newtork 13 will not be „lost in translation“ but renewed under new leadership. We have three outgoing and four incoming convenors: Eliane Ricard-Fersing, David Bridges and Volker Kraft will leave from the convening stage and Sharon Todd (Sweden), James Conroy (UK), Roland Reichenbach (Germany) and Paul Smeyers (Belgium) will replace them. They will join two current convenors Zdenko Kodelja (Slovenia) and Lena Kakoori (Finland) to provide a very international team. The link-convenor who will be responsible for preparing the next conference will be Roland Reichenbach (Germany). To put it shortly: there is a good team leaving and another good and strong team to follow up.

The philosophers of education are not only well known for the intellectual seriousness of their contributions but also for their outstanding annual network dinner bringing together as many people as possible embedded in the relaxing athmosphere of a nice restaurant and usually followed by singing or the presenting of poems. It is not very easy to find a comfortable and suitable restaurant (at moderate prices in Geneva!) or to make arrangements within two days to host roundabout 5o persons. This task always is a kind of severe reality-test for each kind of philosophical reflection. Once again David „Bridges“ succeeded in a more than brilliant manner in crossing these „ troubled waters“, and we spent a convivial, animated and even tuneful evening in a place which seemed to have been waiting for us to arrive: „Le Café des Philosophes!“ Thanks to everybody who supported us and contributed to make this year’s conference such a successful event (including special thanks to the Geneva organizing committee and the EERA-office) and good luck for the future!

All of us are very much looking forward to meet again in Ghent for further conversations,the outgoing convenors:David Bridges – Volker Kraft – Eliane Ricard-Fersingas well as the new team:James Conroy – Leena Kakkori – Zdenko Kodelja - Roland Reichenbach – Paul Smeyers – Sharon Todd.