Annual Report 2012. Cadiz

Network 7 received proposals from all over Europe and from others parts of the world like  Australia, Canada, the Middle and far East. This year network 7 accepted 75 papers, 6 posters, 1 roundtable and 8 symposia. Some sessions had 3 papers in them, while others had 4. There were  joint symposia with Philosophy of Education,  with Ethnography  and with  Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education.
The topics of the contributions focused on intercultural education and social justice.  There were conceptual contributions and more empirical studies into the practice of education.  Contribution on formal and non-formal education were accepted.  All aspects of education were included like politics, the goals of education,  curriculum, teachers’ professionality,  didactics, parents and community; school culture and  pedagogical concepts. Like every year special attention has been paid to issues of Roma and Travellers education; gender issues and language issues. Also, like in previous years there were studies into citizenship education which were explicitly linked to issues of identity development and cultural and social justice .  The sessions titles were: Conceptualisations of the migrant pupil and of intercultural education; diversity as a challenge;  Intercultural learning in non-formal education;  Intercultural education through literature and folktales;  Intercultural education and school culture; Intercultural change; pupils views on diversity;  Teachers’ views on intercultural education; Teachers and intercultural education;  Travellers and intercultural education; Intercultural case-studies ;  Culturally diverse schools;  Schools for democracy and social justice;  Meaningful  learning in an unjust world; Pupils views’ on social justice; Social justice (outcomes);  Migrant education; Gender sensitivity; Gender issues; Language and culture; Pedagogical approaches; Global European citizenship

The topics of the symposia were: The education of Roma and Travellers;  Research methodology and children’ participation; Methodology  and the impact on children, young people and researchers; intercultural philosophy;  Tracking, inequality and civic engagement.

The network meeting was well attended. This included colleagues and some Phd students from different universities and countries from the north, south, west and east of Europe.  The evaluation of ECER 2012 was in general positive about the quality of the contributions. There was some dismay about no shows and sessions which had no hand outs, no papers/summaries and no slides.  The important point was raised that for newcomers and those who do not speak English as a first language it might be helpful to have at least a bibliography to take away. The increasing use of emails and the web were found to be responsible for the lack of copies of papers in circulation. This year the posters were not seen by all. They were exhibited in another building of the university. Plain posters are not generally liked. It was suggested that it would be good to have posters discussed during an extended session or with wine and cheese during lunchtime.