Annual Report 2015, Budapest

Considering the first reviewing period, NW14 received 92 proposals. Sixteen reviewers participated in the process, and we used a double-review system. Of those original proposals, 69 (72%) were accepted,11 (12%) were rejected and 12 (17%) were redirected to other NWs. As compared to the previous year, in 2015, NW14 experienced an increase of 33% in the number of proposals received. For the second reviewing period, NW14 received twelve proposals, redirected from other Networks. Of those 12, we accepted four proposals (33.3%) and rejected the other eight (66.6%).

Before programme planning started, NW14 had 72 presentations, including: 59 papers, 4 posters and 9 symposia. Of those 59 papers, 4 of them were submitted within topic 1 (schooling in rural and urban settings), 8 were submitted under topic 2 (place-based education), 17 were submitted within topic 3 (school-related transitions within a life course perspective), 19 were submitted within topic 4 (family education and parenting), 6 were submitted within topic 5 (policies and actions related to co-operation and dialogue among social actors) and 5 were considered as not fitting any of the topics.
One of the symposia was submitted under topic 1, three were submitted under topic 2, two under topic 3, two under topic 4 and one under topic 5.
One of the posters was submitted under topic 4, another under topic 5 and the other two were considered as not fitting any of the topics.

During ECER2015, NW14 hosted 25 sessions, including one Interactive Poster Session and two Joint Sessions (symposia).

As had already been the case in previous years, our geographical spectrum was fairly broad.

The Network Meeting took place on Thursday, September 10th, at 12:45H. It was chaired by the NW's Link Convenor and had an attendance of around 40 people.

Participants at the NW Meeting agreed that the Conference had been of high quality, with very few last minute issues, no significant problems with the venue (with the exception of a few issues with IT), good social events and useful support staff.

In preparation for this year’s Conference, a reminder was sent to all presenting authors, about the importance of handouts. Following up on the discussion at last year’s meeting, a suggestion was made for authors who wished to make their handout available online (thus substituting the need for printed copies), to upload it to a Dropbox archive. No major concerns with handouts were expressed during the meeting.

For ECER2015, Network 14 issued a special call, on “The City as a Learning Experience: a multidisciplinary approach to learning in and from urban spaces", proposed by Joana Lúcio (NW14's link convenor) and Sven De Visscher. This special call resulted in a 3-part symposium proposed by the authors of the special call, as well as several paper sessions and one of the joint sessions. Participants in the Network Meeting noted the great response to the special call, which resulted in very well-attended and successful sessions.

NW14 hosted two joint sessions during ECER2014: a symposium with NW24 – Mathematics Education Research, on the theme of “Mathematics for All: Interactive and Dialogic Strategies to Success in Primary Mathematics”, and a symposium with NW30 – Environmental and Sustainability Education Research, with the title “Transitions and Links in Urban/Rural Place-Based Learning”. Both sessions had a good attendance rate (over 10 people in both cases) and were assessed as successful. For ECER2016, NW14 should pursue further joint ventures.

For the third consecutive year, NW14 hosted an Interactive Poster Session (IPS). This year, as part of the network's participation in a pilot regarding poster sessions (along with Networks 8, 22 and 29), posters were not displayed in the general poster area, but instead remained in display in one of the rooms allocated to NW14, for the duration of the conference. Two weeks before ECER2015, authors of poster presentations received an email containing information about this session. Of the four posters accepted by NW14 for ECER2015, only one group of authors did not attend the IPS. The participants in this session agreed that it was successful, and a good opportunity for authors, in terms of the visibility of their work. It was agreed that Interactive Poster Sessions should be pursued in the future.

It is worth noting that, having received no submissions for ECER2014, Topic 2 received 15 proposals for ECER2015, which may be due to: 1. A rephrasing of the topic, and 2. The network’s special call, that explicitly mentioned the issue of place-based and place-conscious education. As that change in phrasing had only been implemented in the submission system, it should now be made definitive in the Network’s descriptors

Regarding other planned activities, the authors of ECER2015's special call are currently co-editing a book publication, to feature over 15 contributions authored by participants in that special call.