Network 7 hosted 7 paper sessions and 1 symposium on Social Justice and Global Citizenship. The convenors tried to organize sessions by putting different papers together around a common concern that run through them. The effort did not always work, partially because some of the speakers asked to be moved to a different session, some did not come or came late. The majority of sessions were well attended; people were the most at the opening afternoon session, in the others attendance varied from 10 to 15/20 up to 30. Early morning sessions were the least attended.
Themes around which papers were grouped ranged from "Students at risk", "Aspects of ethnic identity", "Multicultural education", issues of "Peace Education", "Gender, language and social change", "Math learning", "Adult perceptions of schooling". Methodology varied also, from historical research to ethnography, life story approach, curriculum development and evaluation.
In all the sessions people's participation was usually high although some non English speakers complained that when the paper presented concerned British education and there were English speaking researchers in the room, the discussion tended to become a bit exclusive. For the non British persons it was difficult to relate to problems and policies that were taken for granted by the others. It was also sometimes the case that native English speakers spoke too quickly or too quietly for those having to follow the material in a second or third language. Some sessions were not successful as others due to problems of language understanding and translation. Nevertheless, all presenters made an effort to present their paper in English, even when it was not so announced.
The German research on mathematics hosted very interesting discussion on the conceptualization of cultural diversity in classrooms. Mathematics attracted an audience different from the usual audience this network attracts.
It was noticed that some paper presentations were constrained by the lack of time, especially when there were four papers to present and discuss. In such conditions, it seemed extremely difficult for the presenters to keep exactly on schedule and to leave space for questions.
Every room seemed adequate for the purpose of presentation with sufficient facility for darkening it for projection. Technical backup was good with helpers on hand and data projectors available as ordered.
