Network Meeting 2015, Budapest

Minutes of the network meeting at ECER 2015

The network meeting was attended by about 30 network members and was held by the Link Convenor of Network 9, Wilfried Bos, in co-operation with his co-convenors Eugenio Gonzalez, Martin Goy, Sarah Howie, Monica Rosén and Jana Strakova. Six main topics were addressed:

1. Network 9: Convenors and participation
After a brief overview of the convenors group in Network 9 Wilfried Bos addressed the modes of participation in Network 9. The constitution of the European Educational Research Association prevents that single networks of EERA may have formal individual membership. EERA is the European umbrella organization of the national societies of educational science in Europe. The individual members of these national organizations are, via this structure, individual members of EERA as well if the national society has joined EERA. Therefore networks cannot formally award an individual member status and have to find other ways of applying the concept of “membership”. In Network 9 someone is considered a member if s/he participates in the Network 9 program at ECER. Network 9 keeps a mailing list of the contributors (i.e., authors, chairpersons, discussants etc.) to the network’s ECER conference programs of the past years to communicate with the network members. This list, however, is also open to further colleagues interested in the work of the network (for instance members of the audience of the network program). To give an impression of the size of the network, Wilfried Bos reports that currently the mailing list contains slightly more than 1000 names. Network 9 uses this mailing list mainly for announcements (e.g., calls for papers, announcements of conferences and workshops of interest for the network members etc.). The network distributes information also via the network website hosted as part of the EERA webpages. The website is mainly used for documentation purposes (e.g., statements of the aims and scope of the network, names of convenors and reviewers in the network, annual reports, records of the history of the network, etc.).
Wilfried Bos announced his intention to step down from the position of Link Convenor of Network 9 in the foreseeable future (in 2017 at the latest). A new Link Convenor will be appointed by the group of convenors in Network 9.

2. Network 9 program overview

For a detailed account of the submissions in Network 9 see the above sections of this report.
In the course of giving a brief overview of the contributions to Network 9 for ECER 2015, Wilfried Bos reported a rejection rate in Network 9 of 18 percent and stated that there have been similar rejection rates for contributions to this network (slightly below or slightly above 20 percent) for a number of years. The rejection rate (while higher than the ECER average across all networks) is quite low when compared to other conferences such as the conference of the American Educational Research Association. This comparatively low threshold for network contributions could be interpreted partly as the result of the aim of Network 9 to use ECER as capacity building events which in turn has meant that review decisions might have been to some extent more liberal towards contributions which at the point of submission have not been developed to high standards. Wilfried Bos announced that Network 9 now aims to gradually raise the standards for submissions that will be considered acceptable for presentation in the network’s conference program. This will be done by further detailing information on minimal requirements for acceptable submissions in Network 9 to be transferred into additional guidelines for authors and reviewers in the network.
Wilfried Bos addressed further the issue of capacity building in the network. While research workshops such as the workshop on the topic “Using the international large-scale student assessments’ databases for secondary analysis” held in Network 9 at this ECER are great learning opportunities and highly welcome additions to the conference program, Wilfried Bos pointed out that – in accordance with the perception of the workshop organizers – such sessions should be placed as whole-day events in a preconference setting as is common practice at other research conferences. Since years Network 9 has requested from EERA the opportunity to organize full-day workshops for capacity building or professional development of researchers on the day or on the two days preceding the ECER Main Conference. However, the repeated requests in this respect have been denied by EERA. As one of the main reasons not to allow organizing these workshops it was stated that such workshops would, if implemented, compete for audience with the Emerging Researchers Conference. Against this background Wilfried Bos expressed that he was obviously a bit surprised to learn that the World Education Research Association (WERA) was given the opportunity to organize workshops parallel to the Emerging Researchers Conference at ECER 2015. Wilfried Bos stated that in his perspective the WERA workshops can be considered an excellent precedence for conducting research workshops for capacity building and professional development in the time before the ECER Main Conference and proposed asking EERA to be given the same opportunity as WERA to conduct such workshops. The network members agreed with this proposal.

3. Acknowledgements of reviewers, chairpersons, and discussants
Network 9 is indebted to the commitment of the numerous chairpersons and discussants included in the ECER 2015 program of Network 9, and also to the colleagues who support the network by participating in the review process for the ECER conferences. The network convenors sincerely thanked all chairpersons, discussants and reviewers for volunteering their valuable time and expertise, and for contributing to the conference organization and the quality of the research and scientific discourse in Network 9. The names of the chairpersons and discussants are listed in the conference program. In order to make the effort of the reviewers visible as well, and to make the review procedure transparent, an acknowledgement of the reviewers for ECER 2015 will be published on the Network website.
 
4. Network activities
4.1.    Capacity building and inter-network collaborations at ECER
Wilfried Bos reported that Network 9 promotes capacity building at ECER, for instance by recruiting experienced colleagues to act as reviewers and chairpersons for the Emerging Researchers’ Conference and by hosting research workshops. At ECER 2015, Network 9 also followed once more the recommendation by EERA to increase inter-network collaborations at the conference. This year, three symposia and one paper session have been arranged in this joint manner. Details on these activities are provided in the overview of the Network program (see above).
4.2.    Spring schools on Advanced Methods in Educational Research
Wilfried Bos gave a short retrospect on five one-week spring schools on advanced methods in educational research that were held from 2011 till 2015 at the Universities of Dortmund (in 2011, 2013 and 2015), Gothenburg (2012) and Oslo (2014). These spring schools have been jointly organized by five European universities – Cyprus, Dortmund, Gothenburg, Oslo and Oxford – and have been coordinated by Wilfried Bos (Dortmund) and Monica Rosén (Gothenburg). The schools aim to bring together European and international emerging researchers (PhD students and post-docs), train them on methodological topics, promote the exchange of research and offer the opportunities for capacity building and international research collaborations. Wilfried Bos pointed out that the spring schools do not only mean great learning opportunities for young and emerging researchers but also provide them with chances to meet some of the “big names” on research fields of Network 9, for instance Richard Shavelson (Stanford) and Mark Wilson (Berkeley) at the 2015 school.
Based on the success of the first five spring schools, Wilfried Bos announced the plans to continue with a sixth spring school in 2016. This spring school will include Todd D. Little from Texas Tech University as a lecturer [Note: The topic of the 2016 Spring School was named ‘Longitudinal Structural Equation Modeling’ (working title) after ECER 2015]. The spring school will be held April 18–22, 2016, at the Centre for Educational Measurement at the University of Oslo (CEMO). A call for proposals and a deadline for applications will be announced in fall 2015 in the section “network activities” on the network’s website. The call will also be distributed via the Network 9 mailing list and via the website of the spring school (http://www.springschool.eu/).
4.3. Publications
Over the past years, researchers from Network 9 have published a number of peer-reviewed special journal issues based on symposia held at ECER (a list of these journal issues is available on the network website). A further recent publication from the context of Network 9 is an edited volume on “Educational Policy Evaluation Through International Comparative Assessments” (Eds. Rolf Strietholt, Wilfried Bos, Jan-Eric Gustafsson and Monica Rosén). Wilfried Bos encouraged the researchers present at the network meeting to continue with such publications based on work presented at ECER 2015 and pointed out that especially for young and emerging researchers ECER can mean great chances to engage with international colleagues (for instance via symposia) as the basis for planning and realizing the publication of research contributions (e.g., special journal issues). To give a current example for such endeavors, Wilfried Bos highlights the two joint symposia between Networks 9 and 16 held at ECER 2015. Contributions from these two symposia will be prepared for publication in a special journal issue on the topic “Teaching and learning with ICT and students’ computer and information literacy from a European perspective. Findings from ICILS 2013”.
4.4 ECER and IRC
Biennially, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) holds an International Research Conference (IRC). Wilfried Bos pointed out that there are a number of colleagues in Network 9 that attended both ECER and the IRC regularly. Wilfried Bos explained the policy in Network 9 towards papers to be submitted to both conferences: As the general audience between both conferences differs, it is acceptable for Network 9 that an IRC conference proposal is submitted similarly also to Network 9. Such contributions will however still be subjected to the regular double-blind peer review process in Network 9. Further, authors should be aware that differences in the submission requirements and procedures between both conferences apply.

5. Refugees
Wilfried Bos reported from the Link Convenors meeting held on Wednesday at ECER 2015 that some networks are involved in planning direct action with the aim of helping refugees in Hungary. Wilfried Bos stated that while he was personally concerned about the refugee situation and can find personal ways to participate in relieving the situation, he would, from the viewpoint of a researcher, consider it neither professionally suitable for himself to take direct actions in the course of this conference nor would he, in his capacity as Link Convenor, find it structurally sound to urge the network members to do so. To point out an option for supporting humanitarian aid for the refugees Wilfried Bos highlighted the call for donations to the Hungarian Red Cross that has been sent to the ECER participants by EERA.

6. Questions and feedback
From a member of the audience a question was raised regarding the (perceived) emphasis on the topic of “classroom assessment” in the program of Network 9. Sarah Howie as co-convenor of Network 9 replied that this topic would not be exclusive to Network 9 nor would this topic be particularly emphasized; research on classroom assessment, however, would be a regular topic of contributions to Network 9. Sandra Johnson, Honorary Member and first Link Convenor of Network 9, reports that papers on the topic of research on assessment practices in classrooms (e.g., summative and formative assessments) have been presented in Network 9 for a long time. Both Sandra Johnson and Sarah Howie added that further elaborate research on this issue might be encouraged and presented in the network at ECER.