Annual Report 2012, Cadiz

ECER 2012 was the first Conference where network 28 (Sociologies of Education) accepted submissions. The network was very focused and selected only the appropriate proposals in relation to its aims. That choice intended to stimulate the accumulation of knowledge, and the opportunities of discussion and reflection among participants by promoting also the quality of knowledge production. The network attracted 62 paper proposals, yet accepted, after the review, 21 submissions. The rejected paper proposal were overall 7, and those redirected to other networks were 34. We had 11 sessions, and the network covered the following topics: New perspectives of European inequalities, Beyond PISA: Social and Ethical Aspects of Key-Competences; the Post-Comprehensive School; the Post-Welfare Reforms, Spaces, Socio-technical Assemblages and Learning, Academic Regimes, Citizenship, Cultures and Practice. The network sessions were introduced by the welcoming speech of Martin Lawn, and by a keynote presentation of Terri Seddon. The title of her speech was: Reconsidering Sociological Practice for Global Times: Reflections on Transnational Research Knowledge Architectures and the Space for Sociologies of Education. The sessions had a good attendance; the sessions had up to 30 participants for each group of session. The network attracted the attention of researchers from different disciplines and from different countries. Few participants decided to withdraw their contributions. The presentations maintained an overall good quality standard, and the framework of the sessions (focused network; appropriate selection: little group) favoured generative discussions. Participants preferred to use their ppt presentations, and few distributed hands-out to audience. The network had also participants among early researchers that presented their paper, or attended the sessions, also by preparing a poster (the network accepted one poster).

Network meeting had a good attendance as well (20 participants). Participants acknowledged the benefits of a focused network, and suggested to deepen and develop the focus on the network building on this first Conference. Further themes and in particular suggestions for the next conference will be: exploring the sociologies in each country trying to get an understanding of what a transnational sociologies of education should look like

i)     the social reproduction of sociologists sociologies of non-sociologists (practitioners, etc.). The network meeting agreed also to circulate power point presentations among those attending the sessions, and agreed to receive information about the network. A website with an ECER presentation room might be a place for accumulating knowledge, stimulating reflexivity, and for shaping gradually the network. Finally, the network expresses a commitment to solicit the production of short papers from participants to be circulated before the next Conference in Istanbul.

The network hosted also a meeting proposed by Jean-Louis Derouet aimed at starting a collaboration among European journals of social sciences. The meeting was attended by representatives of seven journals: Scuola Democratica, Educacao, Sociedade e Culturas, Globalisation, Education and Society, Education et Sociétés, European Educational Research Journal, Italian Journal of Sociology of Education , Revista Lusofona de Educacao.   The aim of this initiative is to create a common space of reflection among European journals, to develop a network that may help in making visible the plurality of education circles of knowledge producers in the world of academic globalization, to reflect on the specificities of the European sociologies of education without reproducing methodological nationalism, to create exchanges among editorial boards, among articles, etc. to produce generative interferences among knowledge productions and editorial work. It was agreed to reinforce the collaboration by inviting other journals from the north, the east and central Europe, and prepare a symposium for the next ECER in Istanbul.