EERJ Roundtable 2010

The contexts of education research across Europe are changing, partly as a consequence of institutional restructuring or mergers, new knowledge institutes and research funding programmes.
Sub disciplinarity, inter-disciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity seem to be emerging as offering diverse futures for education research contexts. The reduction of isolated disciplinary power has been growing in different ways in EU policy for several years and a focus on inter-disciplinarity [furthering expertise through common developments] and trans-disciplinarity [leading to radical epistemological rethinking] is aimed at ‘overcoming traditional disciplinary clustering’ [European Research Council].

In what ways will education research be produced in the future in Europe?

Leena Koski, Department of Sociology, University of Joensuu, Finland

Leena Koski is a Professor of Sociology (especially sociology of education and learning) at the University of Eastern Finland. Her field of interest is the historical formation of the moral orders in education. Her research focuses on the internal orders of the university, the gender and class differences in the ideals and practices of vocational and general education, and the construction of the learning society.

Rudolf Tippelt, Co-Coordinator of Munich Centre of Learning Science, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

Rudolf Tippelt is Professor of General Education and Empirical Educational Research, President of GERA (2006 - 2010), and a member of the expert group of Large Scale Assessment in Germany for the Conference of Cultural Ministers and Federal Educational Ministry, Research Focus: International Educational Development, Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, Drop out in Education.

Paul Smeyers, Ghent University

Paul Smeyers is Research Professor for Philosophy of Education at Ghent University and part-time Professor at K.U.Leuven. He teaches philosophy of education and methodology of the Geisteswissenschaften (Qualitative/Interpretative Research Methods). He has a wide involvement in philosophy of education (more than 250 publications). He holds, or has held several positions in the International Network of Philosophers of Education (President since 2006).

The Roundtable rules are that each speaker gets a chance to explain their argument, approximately 15 minutes, then a brief chance to respond to other speakers if they wish, and then questions from the audience. The session is 90 minutes in length.