This year, Network 7 continued to contribute meaningfully to the discourse on social justice and intercultural education, foregrounding themes such as inclusivity, active citizenship, dialogue, multilingualism, and education for living in diversity. A key focus has been on decolonizing pedagogical approaches and addressing the intersections of critical race theory, youth and children at risk, and qualitative research methodologies. This approach values personal narratives, biographies, and life stories, embracing person-centered perspectives in studies of social justice within education. These discussions contributed to times of uncertainty and political movements at European level, prompting us to rethink and address new challenges and opportunities in education. Bearing this challenge in mind, three highlights stand out from this year’s ECER 2024 program:
- Opening Workshop on “Learning to Talk in/with Research: Recognition and Power in Consultation-Conversational Methodologies” organised by Eunice Macedo (Porto University, Portugal), and Hanna Ragnarsdóttir (University of Iceland, Iceland) with Sofia A. Santos (Porto University, Portugal) and Ghazala Bhatti (University of Oxford, United Kingdom) as discussants. This workshop underscored the role of communication/consultation/conversation as a research method that allows deepening personal and joint production of data. It emphasized the importance of human relations and power dynamics among researchers, advocating for a humanized communication approach where all voices have space to express themselves and be heard. The session was well-attended, with active participation from PhD and post-doctoral students from emerging conference, fostering connections and setting the stage for meaningful interactions throughout the conference. For some participants this workshop was an entry point into the main conference. It acted as an invitation to share experiences, build on prior knowledge and develop a more thoughtful way to approach research subjects. Some of the participants of the workshop were inspired to attend our network’s business meeting mainly because they felt their voices would be heard and acknowledged.
- Another important moment was the joint special call titled “In/exclusion, Migration, and Sustainability,” organized by Network 07 in collaboration with Network 04 Inclusive Education and Network 30 Environmental and Sustainability Education Research, ESER, which resulted into five sessions featuring 19 presentations, including 15 papers, one poster, one ignite talk, and two symposia. The sessions brought together research on inclusive education, intercultural education, and education for sustainable development to address environmental and societal crises beyond mainstream discourses, exploring complex intersections of environmental injustices.
- Furthermore, NW 7 organised an Opening session, titled “Greek Discourse on Migration and Education” hosted by Anastasia Kesidou (Aristotle Uni of Thessaloniki, Greece) and Ghazala Bhatti (University of Oxford, United Kingdom). This opening session had two contributors- one a local community expert, Haris Kyriakidos who informed us about the historical and cultural significance of Cyprus due to its geographical position at the crossroads of three continents. Our main guest speaker Dr Anastasia Kesidou shed light on the educational challenges that the Greek Education system has faced over the years. She drew attention to the ways in which demographic changes impact and continue to open new opportunities to build on prior knowledge and to act with flexibility and sensitivity to challenges posed by migration of young people and their families to Greece.
In terms of the overall programme, NW 7 received over 114 proposals for ECER 2024, resulting in 77 papers and 4 symposia. In line with the trend in all networks, there was a slight decrease in submissions this year compared to the excellent numbers in Glasgow. All submissions to the network went through a rigorous double-blind review process, with convenors and external reviewers contributing, including Helen Avery, Ábel Bereményi, Ghazala Bhatti, Carl Emery, Sandra Girbés-Peco, Francesca Gobbo, Eunice Macedo, Carola Mantel, Dana Moree, Isabella Pescarmona, Hanna Ragnarsdóttir, Lisa Rosen, Sofia Santos, Seyda Subasi Singh, Kerstin von Brömssen. The sessions were well attended and participated in, providing engaging debates and international approaches. During the network meeting, participants gave positive feedback on the structure of three parallel sessions in each time slot, as well as the good grouping of papers within the network sessions.
On the occasion of this year’s network meeting, new members joined as convenors, warmly welcomed and supported by the existing convenor team. Both were previously selected by the convenors (see the minutes of the Hamburg ECER 2019 network meeting for the details of this procedure: https://eeraecer.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/Networks/NW07/NW_07_Network_MeePng_Minutes_ECER_2019.pdf). Ábel Bereményi (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain), researcher on social inequalities, children/youth and ethnic minorities (Roma/Gypsy), mainly in the domains of (higher) education and labour market. Also Sofia Almeida Santos (Porto University, Portugal), a research Fellow on citizenship education, gender studies, refugees and social justice joined the team. Ábel Bereményi takes over from Sandra Girbés-Peco from Spain and Sofia Almeida Santos, who is coming in, will shadow Eunice Macedo from Portugal in 2024 and replace her in 2025. The introduction and welcome of the new Convenors took place at the Convenors' meetings during the conference, where they were briefed on the various steps and plans of the network and encouraged to collaborate, propose and present activities. This moment fostered team cohesion and active engagement.
Their inclusion was also shared during the NW meeting session, attended by several researchers, PhD students, and members from other networks interested in the 7 NW’s topics and dynamics. This session served as an opportunity to discuss potential collaborations, joint activities for the coming year, and plans to strengthen 7 NW presence at the Emerging Researchers’ Conference.