Transform Research Cultures: The Role of Doctoral Inquiry in Age-Inclusive Knowledge Production
This lecture argues that doctoral research has a vital role to play in transforming educational research cultures with childhood. Despite growing commitments to participation, dominant research traditions often remain grounded in adultcentric assumptions that marginalize child perspectives and children’s contributions. Through a childist lens, the lecture highlights how doctoral-level inquiry can expose these epistemic exclusions and contribute to reimagining research as a more intergenerational, relational, and justice-oriented practice. Centering children not as subjects but as co-constructors of knowledge challenges disciplinary norms and expands what is recognized as legitimate knowledge. Doctoral researchers are uniquely positioned to lead this shift—by questioning inherited methodologies, engaging with lived experiences, and cultivating new ethical and epistemological standards for research across fields.
About Tanu Biswas
I'm an interdisciplinary philosopher of education working to challenge the historical marginalization of children by transforming scholarly and social norms. My research spans childism, pedagogy, decoloniality, children’s rights, and intergenerational justice. I’m an Associate Professor in Pedagogy at the University of Stavanger and I co-direct the international, independent, research programme called The Childism Institute.
EERSS 2025 Dates
Applications
15 November 2024 - 15 January 2025
Information on acceptance
1 March 2025
Registration/Payment
2 - 31 March 2025
Summer School
2 - 6 June 2025
Contact
Academic questions:
Prof. Dr. Volker Bank
TU Chemnitz
volker.bank(at)phil.tu-chemnitz.de
Organisational questions:
Doretta Dow
EERA Office
dow(at)eera.eu