Annual Report 2013, Istanbul

At ECER 2013 Network 8 had all in all 16 sessions and about 50 papers, and attendance was 10-25 people in each session. All the sessions went well, with few no-shows and no cancellations. The thematic focus was on implementation and professional development/competences, including the following: two joint sessions on Health Education and Education for Sustainable Development – on governance and professional competences; a number of sessions on participation and learning and professional competence development in Health Education; and a number of sessions on sustainable school development and transformative perspectives in ESD. Network 8 was hosting the papers for the new network Environmental and Sustainability Education Research and was involved in its inaugural symposium. We had 1 joint network activity with network 18 - Research in Sport Pedagogy and network 15 - Research on Partnerships in Education. The theme was Policy, Practice and Partnership: Teaching physical activity for health in schools. The session was a good opportunity to discover the shared research interests between the networks, and to get to know people from the other networks.

The Network meeting was scheduled and conducted as a session within the conference programme. It was carried out in two different groups: the Health Education Research group and group that from next year will establish the Environmental and Sustainability Education Research Network. The discussion in the Health Education Research group focused on the session formats and content, and the network descriptors: We discussed the ECER 2014 programme with more varied session formats, using the round table format, adding a discussant to all paper sessions, and having more session with 2 presentations, allowing for longer discussion among participants. In relation to the content sessions based on conceptual discussions was suggested. The existing network descriptors focusing on schools, health and learning/competence development was found giving a good coverage of the kind of research we want to see presented the network, but it was suggested that research concerning professional competence development should be included. The sessions in 2013 was evaluated as having a general good coherence between presentations in the different sessions. Not all presenters included essential information in their presentation (following the abstract format of aims, methods, results etc.), so this should be emphasized in the information for presenters next year (not all participants have read the abstracts). The co-convenor of the network took part in the network convener’s evaluation meeting, where the idea of introducing a session 0 in the programme was discussed, an opening meeting for all presenters and people who are interested in joining the network. To invite for an opening meeting could be very beneficial for our network at the conference in Porto, since we are quite new, the Istanbul was only our third ECER year. The network meeting was concluded with some ideas for joint network sessions with Inclusive Education, Urban Youth, and of course, with our colleagues in the new network. A list of people who volunteered to review abstracts submitted to network 8 at the 2014 ECER conference was established.