BAICE 20th Anniversary Symposium – Call for Abstracts

SUSTAINABILITY, PEACE AND EDUCATION –
exploring promise and practice

Hosted by the Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE)

Sustainable development and education’s role within it is an important contemporary priority for Comparative and International Education. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) now command widespread global attention. Sustainable development has risen up the global agenda. At the same time actors across educational institutions and community settings, have responded creatively to the social and environmental challenges of sustainability with innovative programmes, practices and pedagogies. Over the course of the day we will explore multiple perspectives on the interface between theory, policy and practice for sustainability in education through a mixed format of keynote  presentations and interactive parallel break-out sessions.

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE), the one-day symposium will bring together diverse perspectives on education and sustainability, including those drawn from the study of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), sustainability within development studies, and sustainable peace. The Symposium aims to critically interrogate the SDG agenda, but also to explore the creative possibilities through which educational policies, practices, pedagogies and processes might embody or enable improved sustainability.

Plenary speakers include:
Professor Arjen Wals, UNESCO Chair in Social Learning and Sustainable Development, Wageningen University
Professor Leon Tikly, University of Bristol
Dr. Hilary Cremin, University of Cambridge

Date: Thursday, 3 May 2018
Location: School of Education, University of Bristol
Convenors: Julia Paulson and Angeline Barrett
Registration: FREE

Call for abstracts for quick-fire (5-8 minute) and poster presentations

We are inviting abstracts from student and full members of BAICE for short ‘quick fire’ 5-8 minute and poster presentations that will stimulate debate and discussion in parallel break-out sessions. We are particularly interested in papers that succinctly present a key idea that is central to new research, work-in-progress and/or a practice-based innovation. We welcome contributions from experienced researchers, early career researchers (including postgraduate researchers), school and community educators, with a determination to promote peace, sustainability and social cohesion and an awareness of the influence of international agendas on local, geographically specific change in education.

Please send abstracts indicating the parallel session you would like to be considered for to n.avilesnunez@bristol.ac.uk .

Deadline for abstracts: 5 pm GMT, 26 March 2018

Registration is free. Please register at: eventbrite .

Parallel sessions

Education, inequalities and sustainability

The aim of reducing inequalities (including those based on socio-economic status, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion and language) to a good quality education and to the benefits that flow from this lie at the heart of SDG4 and cuts across the targets relating to different sub-sectors of education and training. In this breakout session, critical contributions will be invited that consider how inequalities are conceptualised and measured. We also invite contributions that examine the role of education as a mechanism for reducing inequalities in disadvantaged and marginalized populations, that examine successful practice and offer critiques of this potential relationship.

People-centred sustainability: Wellbeing and mental health in education

The closely related issues of wellbeing and mental health are addressed directly and indirectly by at least two of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. However, the implementation of mental-health and wellbeing policies and practices at national and local levels can be challenged by the myriad ways in which the concepts are understood. This breakout session invites contributions that address ways of defining and researching wellbeing and/or mental health in education and those that explore the role of wellbeing and/or mental health within the sustainability agenda.

Sustainable peace: exploring key ideas

Peace has many definitions, including a utopic ideal, a state of inner harmony, the absence of violence, or the outcome of a negotiation between conflicting parties. Sustainable peace is as urgent as it is ambiguous – it is a concept rising on international agendas while peace, in all its definitions, becomes ever more elusive. This breakout session invites contributions that explore key ideas in defining, understanding and critiquing the relationship between education and sustainable peace and exploring how these relate to other processes like reconciliation, peacebuilding, and work towards social justice.

Sustainable peace: promising practice

Sustainable peace requires peaceful and sustainable practices that promote participation, equality and social justice for all members of society. We seek contributions from individuals who are researching or engaging in promising practices that aim to promote social cohesion within and across communities. This may include;peace education programmes, community interventions that support the rights and needs of minority groups and research that challenges policy initiatives.

ESD: creative responses and promising practice

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in schools, universities and communities can be a radical alternative to neoliberal curricula focused instrumentally on skills and qualifications for the ‘labour market’.  Through linking theory to practice, ESD goes beyond learning about sustainability to challenge learners to better understand their own values and beliefs and develop skills to create positive change. In this session, we will explore creative responses and promising practices that aim to embed ESD in institutions and communities.

Sustainability, peace, inequalities and higher education

UN development goal 4 focuses on equality and education including higher education. In addition to setting goals for equitable access to higher education, the SDG outlines the need for ‘the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.’ We invite contributions that focus on these topics in the context of higher education, including widening participation, addressing inequalities, marginalisation and diversity, decolonisation/decoloniality, curriculum change, global and local citizenship and education for sustainable development initiatives.