The international meeting “Education, Social Transformation and Global Citizenship: debates, paths, and meanings of the political” will take place on the July 6th-7th, 2023, at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto. In a joint initiative of the Sinergias ED project and CIIE, under the Chair in Global Citizenship Education of OEI/CIIE-FPCEUP, in partnership with the Inducar Network, this event is part of the International Meetings “Synergies for Social Transformation”, that have taken place since 2016.
The present context challenges us in the search for a renewed look at the world and its social, environmental, political, and educational realities. A look that disassembles us and places us in a learning and dialogical logic vis-à-vis the world and its tensions, and that inspires us in the construction of an educational praxis that reconciles education, social transformation, and global citizenship.
The last decade brought a reinforcement of national and international agendas and political strategies that reinforced the relevance of several Education for…, namely, Education for Development and Global Citizenship, Sustainability, Peace, Environment, Human Rights, Interculturality, Gender Equality, Social Transformation.
Uninstalling the present to build the future, this meeting intends to be a space that promotes dialogue and reflection on the political from different debates, paths, and collective meanings of this political dimension of education and the transformation of our world.
Being open to different actors from academia, civil society, and governmental entities, the meeting intends to bring together professionals, researchers, teachers, educators, artists, or collectives that work on issues related to the political dimension and policies of Education, Social Transformation, and the construction of a Global Citizenship, as fundamental for fairer, more equitable, democratic, and sustainable societies.
The central element of the meeting is the valorization of the diversity of knowledge – traditional, local, technical, artistic, scientific – and of the ways of constructing and sharing it that go beyond written expression and call upon other languages and expressions, as well as different ways of sharing knowledge.
The meeting will be held in Portuguese, with working moments in English and/or Spanish.
Axes of work
Thinking about the political dimension and policies that seek social transformation through education is essential in the context in which we live. As such, the present call for proposals to present at the meeting intends to help create and deepen an uninstalled look at the present from four axes of work, which will help to explore educational processes and practices, cultures of work and policies that put education, social transformation, and global citizenship in dialogue.
The axes presented below are understood as procedural axes, rather than thematic axes. In this way, we intend to approach the political and policy dimension of an education committed to social transformation and global citizenship, from 4 lenses that can be transversal to different educational themes, policies, and educational systems.
Following a logic of valuation of the diversity of knowledge, by presentation proposals, here we understand any kind of knowledge produced – a pedagogical resource, a scientific article, a pedagogical installation, an art installation, a performance.
The current postmodern context, with its characteristics of vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, requires a constant search for coherence – in educational policies and practices, in work cultures, in established relationships – in the face of contradictions and paradoxes that emerge from current tensions. These tensions are, to a great extent, the result of the logics that have sustained modernity: the idea of infinite progress, technocratic rationality, the overvaluation of theory over experiences, the profound inequalities between people and groups as natural, the defense of dichotomous visions, the erosion of the collective over the individual. These contradictions and paradoxes permeate relationships, processes, systems, and educational policies. This thematic axis intends to receive paper proposals that help to analyze, (re)know, explore different educational practices, debates, reflections, and policies that assume these contradictions and paradoxes as a starting point and challenge for social transformation.
In the current moment of crisis, several are the suppressions and silences that are shaping our world and our relations as members of the same humanity and the same natural ecosystem. Relationships that make invisible people, knowledge, cultures, and life as a whole, in all its forms. Relationships that are constructed, deconstructed, maintained, or questioned by the educational processes and learning that we have throughout our lives. This thematic axis intends to receive paper proposals that help to analyze, (re)know, explore different pedagogies, practices, experiences and policies about these suppressions and silences and their impacts on the construction of an education that generates a global citizenship.
The systemic crises of capitalism and their consequences on human and planetary life demand an educational praxis and the existence of public policies that respond to the needs of social transformation and the construction of distinct and alternative futures. Many are the movements that, from discomfort and disobedience, are opening cracks, searching, and creating educational alternatives for the construction of a more equitable, sustainable, fair, and democratic future. This thematic axis intends to receive presentation proposals that help to analyze, (re)know, explore different perspectives, practices, experiences, and political strategies that help us to better understand the zones of obedience and disobedience, of comfort and discomfort of an ethical and political learning, committed to change and social transformation and the questioning of power relations.
The growth of extremism in societies, the rise of populism in several areas of the world and in several democracies, the increasing polarization in political discourses, the denialist movements, lead us to look critically at the polarizations and barriers that are being built in the current context. This thematic axis intends to receive proposals for presentation that help to analyze, (re)know, explore different pedagogies, practices, experiences, and policies that combat these polarizations and barriers and that are enhancers of dialogue and collaboration.
Call for presentation proposals
The presentation at the meeting is open to professionals, researchers, students, educators, teachers from all levels of education, artists, collectives, political actors, and other professionals who work in the fields of formal and non-formal education and community intervention.
The following presentation modalities are available, for the various axes of work:
- oral communication, open to the sharing of research work, practices, or reflections (15 minutes);
- thematic panel, open to the sharing of research work, practices, or reflections having an organizing theme (3 communications, with a maximum duration of one hour per panel);
- workshop: presentation of a methodology, puzzle, game, educational resource, with a practical and interactive character (maximum duration of 1 hour);
- (de)installations: presentation of an image, map, video, poster, artistic object, performance, with the possibility of interaction between authors and participants of the event (15 minutes).
A thematic issue of the journal Sinergias – educational dialogues for social change will be organized with papers from the meeting. Authors with accepted proposals, in any of the modalities and who wish to do so, are invited to send their complete proposal to the journal, after the meeting. For this proposal, different languages can be used (e.g. text, video, podcast, descriptive memoir…).
- Delivery of full proposals to the journal: until September 30th, 2023
- Notification to authors of decision: until October 31st, 2023
- Delivery of full proposals after peer review: November 30th, 2023
- Publication (estimated): January 2024
