Annual Report 2008, Göteborg

In network 14 the ECER´08 was a real success. Re-designed and scoped network description proved to be workable. The number of proposals increased significantly compared with previous years in network’s history. At this year we received 38 paper presentation proposals, 2 symposium proposals, 1 workshop and poster proposals (total number of proposals were 42). We had also first time the full programme (11 sessions) to organise. Total number of accepted papers was 27 and in addition we had one symposium (6 papers) and poster presentation. The quality of accepted papers was also advanced and the scope of presentations was more coherent than previous years and clearly connected to the network’s main themes.

Presentations covered widely the main interest areas of network 14. On the basis of the presentations there can be found four main themes and contexts:

1. Young people and schooling: social and cultural contexts,
2. Research in rural schools and communities:  analytical frameworks, educational strategies and community influences,
3. Home – school transitions and learning outside the school and
4. Family-school-community partnership strategies for children’s development and school achievement. 

As a whole within these themes international perspectives were actively reflected.

It seems that ECER´08 was some kind of turning point in network’s history. The main aim of the network is to discuss and reveal the influences on education in and between these different contexts (communities, families, and schools) and be an arena for discussing the European relevance of this research.
Now there is promising and potential variation in the fields of community-, family- and schooling research.
But even more significant notion was that there are increased number of studies and researchers who are interested in interrelations between community, family and/or schools from the perspective of educational transitions, teaching and learning in different kinds of pedagogical environments (especially in unusual or atypical conditions, e.g. place-based education) and not only formal institutions of education. By continuing this discussion there are realistic possibilities to construct international research projects or databases and support the development of multidisciplinary research in this field.

Each session gathered 18-25 participators and presentations raised relevant theoretical and/or methodological issues for the discussion. All participants brought up that local organising committee and facilities were excellent. In Business Meeting participators discussed about the scope of the Network 14, especially there were discussed should we expand or narrow the scope of network in the future. We decided to continue at least the next year with this newly updated description.