Upcoming Conference

Network 14 is cooperating with Network 19, in order to organise a joint session, which will take place at ECER 2012, and will be focused on methodological, as well as ethical, issues.

The substantial research themes of NW 14 are often related to learning and teaching in unusual or atypical conditions of schooling, outside the mainstream:

1. Schooling in rural and urban settings.
2. Place based education – the community active school and environmental sustainability.
3. School related transitions within a life course perspective (between home and school, phases of school or school and community/adult life)
4. Family education and parenting – cultural, technological and multicultural aspects of school, family community partnerships.
5. Policies and actions related to co-operation and dialogue among social actors to promote home-school-community links.

 
The network‘s view of research methods is pragmatic. Therefore we invite studies with  a variety of approaches to research and analysis, whether this involves large- or small-scale studies, qualitative or quantitative data, single in-depth or comparative, multiple case studies and longitudinal studies in changed regional, societal or pedagogical situations.

There is an interest among network members to have a yearly workshop on methodological issues during the ECER. Dr Janne Pietarinen, professor Marta Soler and professor Aitor Gomez will follow up this project. As these workshops will be announced researchers from other networks might be interested and attend. Example of possible themes could be e.g. Methodology of single compared with multiple case studies; Studying life course transitions – challenges in applying qualitative methods. Perhaps the first workshop will be announced for ECER Berlin?

Some of the workshops on methodology could be developed as a joint project with other networks. But before this can happen we have to come further with our own process developing a workshop on research methodology. More realistically a joint workshop would be possible at the ECER after Berlin.