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Call for Papers: Education and the Future

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First International Conference on Anticipation
November 5-7 2015
University of Trento, Italy

Anticipation is coming to the fore as an emerging field of study that is influencing a wide variety of disciplines. This international conference will explore the interaction among anticipation, uncertainty and complexity. Visit the conference website for further details.

We are now accepting paper abstracts for a stream on ‘Education and Anticipation’

Deadline: April 30, 2015

Education has long been understood as one of the primary mechanisms by which societies and individuals have sought to tame the future by acting on the present: future needs are forecast, educational interventions are designed, human capabilities and certificates that can act as talismans against future insecurity are achieved. In a morphogenetic society (Archer, 2012), in which radical novelty and unpredictable change are the norm, however, this linear model of projection and intervention is far from adequate. John Dewey once even argued that ‘the ideal of using the present simply to get ready for the future…omits, and even shuts out, the very conditions by which a person can be prepared’ for one (1938). How, then, might we begin to reconceptualise an educational system that is able to build personal, collective and societal capacity to hope and to create better futures in conditions of ongoing and radical disruptions? What new educational structures and practices – both inside and outside conventional schools and universities – are emerging in these conditions? What new conceptions of ‘being educated’ are emerging in these conditions and which should we be working towards?

This session invites proposals that provide a robust analysis of the contemporary situation and that also begin to identify sites of possibility and examples of potential change. We are interested in proposals from across the full range of disciplines, from sociology to computer science to philosophy.Papers might be interested in exploring issues that include but are not limited to:

The ‘Educated human’ in the morphogenetic society (What does being ‘educated’ mean in conditions of radical change?)

Prefigurative practice (the role of schools, universities and informal educational spaces as sites for the embodiment and development of ethical, reflexive anticipatory practices)

Technologies for democratisation (How/are new institutions, new technologies constructing the potential for more democratic and distributed forms of anticipatory educational practice?)

Who are the teachers & professors? (What new sites of expertise and insight are emerging that can build human anticipatory potential? How do these differ from existing patterns of professional development?)

Proponents

  • Keri Facer (University of Bristol)
  • Sarah Amsler (University of Lincoln)

Relevant information To submit an abstract to this workshop send a mail to both Keri Facer (keri.facer@bristol.ac.uk) and Sarah Amsler (samsler@lincoln.ac.uk).

  • Further information on the conference www.projectanticipation.org
  • Session’s speakers should register and pay the conference fee:
    • Early registration (before 1 September 2015): € 150
    • Late registration (from 1 September 2015): € 200

Important dates• Abstract submission: 30 April 2015
• Acceptance notification: 15 May 2015
• Final program: 15 June 2015
• Early registration: Before 1 September 2015
• Deadline registration: 20 October 20

Alternative Ways of Thinking the University

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Last month, Dr. Sarah Amsler and Joss Winn presented papers at the EU-funded UNIKE conference: Universities in the knowledge economy: Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific and Europe. Their panel focused on panel focused on ‘Alternative Ways of Thinking the University’ and the overall theme of the conference was as follows:

“What is the place of universities in the emerging ‘ecology’ of higher education systems that straddle industry, government and the public sphere? How are universities negotiating the demands placed upon them to compete in the global knowledge economy? What new subjects and spaces are emerging under the new conditions of existence for universities? How do academics, students, managers and policy makers make sense of these changes? Are there alternative ways of organising the university and its relations with society and if so, where are these being developed?”

You can read Joss’ paper on his blog and read Sarah’s paper here.

Critical Knowledge and Praxis

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May 13th 2015, 3.30-6.30pm. Marconi Building room 104, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford Campus.

Critical Knowledge and Praxis

The seminar will explore the fate of critical knowledge and praxis and how it might have a role in progressive politics and revolutionary struggles against current injustices created and exacerbated by the violence of capitalist abstractions: Money, the State and its other institutional forms, e.g. the neoliberal university.

A key issue for the seminar will be the extent to which it is possible to operate as a critical scholar within a neo-liberal university, and to what extent it is necessary to develop other social institutions to carry through with the implications that form the substance of our work.

Reading

Amsler, S. (2014) For feminist consciousness in the academy, Special Issue on Materialist Feminisms against Neoliberalism, Politics and Culture. Sarah’s new book ‘The Education of Radical Democracy‘ will be published in April.

Neary, M. (2014) ‘Making with the University of the Future: pleasure and pedagogy in higher and higher education’.  In: J. Lea (Ed.) (2015) Enhancing Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: engaging with the dimensions of practice. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Winn, J. (2015) The co-operative university: Labour, property and pedagogy. Power and Education, 7 (1).