The ECER conference in Nicosia was another good year for NW27. In comparison to the ECER conference in Glasgow, 2023, there were less submissions, 67 in total, due obviously to travel costs, green travel restrictions, and climate matters. The rejections rate was 28 %, which is among the highest for ECER, but still in line with the established reviewing routines of the network. 8 papers and 3 posters were withdrawn. The final program comprised 6 symposia, 54 papers, 22 sessions, and 4 posters. Submissions showed a strong focus on students learning, knowledge and skills, literacy and language learning, and digitality/IT.
This year there was no Tuesday morning workshop on didactic research, but it will be continued from 2025 onwards due to positive feedback in 2023 and the possibility to gain more NW 27 members. The workshop will further focus on research questions specific to didactics, teaching and learning, methodology, maybe with the support of invited guests. The round table ‘Connecting with Cypriot Research in Didactics’ had four papers with a wide range of educational and didactic approaches.
The network members discussed future core topics of the network. ‘Didactics in times of uncertainty’ was intensely discussed and agreed on, as it frames different dimensions: teachers’ coping with uncertainty, students’ development and the enhancement of life skills, consequences of societal change and uncertainty for didactic, its teaching and learning, and the impact of uncertainty to theoretical frameworks and research methodology. The colleagues further discussed the possibility of symposia or round tables concerning the concept of Bildung and associated research methods (in contrast to evidence-based methods), the core concepts on didactics and methodology, to showcase how didactic research captures data in a concrete way.
The network also discussed the challenges of conferences that are too far away from middle Europe. Travel costs, green travel restrictions and climate aspects play an important role regarding the participation of European researchers (see Yerevan and Nicosia). The network asks to take this into consideration when deciding on future conferences.
Overall, this was another good conference for Network 27. There is a strong interest in didactics across the European community of researchers, and the N27 members are looking forward to the next ECER.