05 September 2023

Call for Contributions

 

Call for Contributions to a Special issue on 
Equity and Access to Higher Education: Perspectives from Central Asia 

Aliya Kuzhabekova, University of Calgary, and Juldyz Smagulova, KIMEP University 

Guest editors 




Achieving equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are becoming increasingly important in higher education reforms of many countries around the world. However, the discussions of EDI in the context of post-Soviet Central Asia remains rather limited. Most of the current discourse circulates around the inclusion as an extension of international development initiatives and government policies aimed at expanding access to education for students with special needs. Meanwhile, what is missing is a broader discussion of access and the values of EDI, as well as their relevance to higher education in the multicultural societies of Central Asia, which are increasingly diversifying along linguistic, economic, and cultural lines. This special issue intends to fill the existing gap by creating a space for scholars from within and outside the region to discuss these issues together, as well as to bring attention to the important issues and to their work via a focused collection of papers on the topic. 


The issue is open for paper submissions of analytical, theoretical, and empirical nature, using any theoretical and methodological approaches. Comparative explorations of the topic are particularly welcome. In general, papers addressing the following questions would be of greatest relevance: (1) How are access and EDI are understood within the policy and organizational context in the region? (2) What are the barriers and opportunities in access to employment and education at universities for individuals from various underrepresented backgrounds (along the lines of socio-economic status, gender, country/urban/rural residence, ethnicity, language ability, physical and mental abilities, LGBTQ+ status, etc.)? (3) What are some of the attempted policy and organizational approaches, which have demonstrated effectiveness in addressing access issues and promoting the values of EDI? (4) How the local conceptualizations of EDI differ from other international conceptualizations (for example, Western conceptualizations)? (5) Should we critically reconsider the EDI values when applying them in the contexts of Central Asia? To what extent the values might be a part of the external neocolonial agenda? 



The timeline for the preparation of this special issue is as follows: 


October 15, 2023 - 500 word abstracts should be submitted to the editors by email (aliya.kuzhabekova@nu.edu.kz and juldyz@kimep.kz). 

January 31, 2024 – drafts of invited papers should be submitted via the journal submission system with the indication that the paper is a part of the special issue. 

December, 31, 2024 – special issue will be ready for publication online. 

Any questions about the special issue and additional instructions can be requested by writing to Aliya Kuzhabekova at aliya.kuzhabekova@ucalgary.ca. 

19 February 2023


Call for Papers Special Issue on EdTech and Changing Education Governance 

Guest editors: Dr. Katariina Mertanen (University of Helsinki), Dr. Kristiina Brunila (University of Helsinki), Dr. Pekka Mertala (University of Jyväskylä)

The landscape of education governance is under major changes in different fronts. Political and economic imperatives have triggered novel governing regimes in education, which lead to diverse degrees of intertwinement with the market, development of network-based relationships, and integration of other sectors, disciplines, and interests into education (e.g. Brunila et al., 2020, Candido et al., forthcoming). The shift from education to learning, and the understanding of education as skills are promoted by major global actors such as the OECD and the EU (Mertanen, Vainio & Brunila, 2021; Mertanen & Brunila, 2022; Robertson, 2022).

Amidst abovementioned changes, technology poses a major turning point in education governance, primarily with the increasing use of digital platforms and apps in and for education, but also with the advancements of algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) concerning education, which accelerated worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent increment of remote schooling and learning (Ball & Grimaldi, 2021; Teräs et al., 2020; Williamson et al., 2020). Education technology, or EdTech, is considered as one of the fastest growing global industries, and thus brings in new possibilities and goals to education (see World Bank, 2020). These changes in education governance convey novel arrangements of education, where new partnerships, agendas and transnational networks are involved (Brunila et al., 2020; Mertanen et al., 2021; Cone & Brøgger, 2020). 

This Special Issue of European Education "Ed-Tech and Changing Education Governance" aims to widen the knowledge about relations between EdTech-industry, education policy-making, and new networks of private and public actors, and about how such relations (re)arrange education on global, national and local levels. Following an approach to education governance that is rather 'diagnostic' than 'descriptive' (Wilkins & Olmedo, 2019), this Special Issue examines governing from open and critical perspectives that include presuppositions, assumptions, exclusions, naiveties and knaveries, regimes of vision and spots of blindness (Rose, 1999:19) enabled and enacted by EdTech and the powerful networks of commercialization in eduction. 


Deadlines

March 15, 2023 - Abstracts (250-300 words) should be submitted to guest editors
September 15, 2023 - Full copies of selected papers should be submitted

Guest Editors Contact Information
Dr. Katariina Mertanen (University of Helsinki) katariina.mertanen@helsinki.fi 
Dr. Kristiina Brunila (University of Helsinki) kristiina.brunila@helsinki.fi
Dr. Pekka Mertala (University of Jyväskylä) pekka.o.mertala@jyu.fi 

























27 September 2022

New issue: Trust in Educational Settings. European Perspectives

Trust in Educational Settings. European Perspectives


Trust in Educational Settings - What It Is and Why It Matters. European Perspectives

Inka Bormann, Sebastian Niedlich & Iris Würbel 

Home-School Interaction: A Vignette Study of Parents' Views on Situations Relevant to Trust

Inka Bormann, Dagmar Killus, Sebastian Niedlich & Iris Würbel 

Parental Trust in Teachers and Children’s Interest in Reading and Math: A Longitudinal Study

Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen & Eija Pakarinen 


Trust in Finnish Education: A Historical Perspective

Jussi Välimaa

Cross-national Analysis of Education and Trust: Context, Comparability, and Causal Mechanisms

Sebastian Niedlich

Students' Autonomous and Controlled Motivation in Different School Contexts: The Role of Trust

Mieke Van Houtte

(Re)-Building Educational Trust: Young NEET and the Importance of Trust Relations

Anne Görlich

Bohumíra Lazarová & Milan Pol

Inka Bormann, Sebastian Niedlich & Iris Würbel 




05 July 2022

Call for Contributions to a Special issue on Comparative perspectives on school attendance, absenteeism, and preventive measures in Europe and beyond

 

Call for Contributions to a Special issue on

 Comparative perspectives on school attendance, absenteeism, and preventive measures in Europe and beyond

 Guest editors: Susanne Kreitz-Sandberg & Ulf Fredriksson (Stockholm University)

 School non-attendance has been described as an underresearched problem (e.g. Kearney, 2008; Dannow, 2018), but as researchers in the field we have witnessed increasing interest in recent years. The causes of absenteeism are heterogeneous, dimensional, and multi-factorial (Gregory & Purcell, 2014), and a lack of attendance is better described as a symptom of many other underlying problems than as a clearly defined, monodimensional phenomenon. School attendance problems come in many different forms, labeled for instance as school refusal, truancy, school withdrawal, and school exclusion (Heyne, et al. 2018). We know that school attendance problems mirror social inequality in society and the school system (Klein et al., 2020). Recent studies taking into account the perspectives of pupils, parents, and teachers have shown, for example, that it is important for students that schooling be organized in predictable ways (Warne, et al., 2020). A positive school climate was also important for facilitating students’ willingness to attend school regularly (Karlberg, et al., 2020).

International comparative studies on school attendance are rare. Using data from the PISA study, Keppens and Spruyt (2018) were able to show that absence can be related to the specifics of different school systems. However, much more research needs to be done if we are to understand the relationship between truancy and the characteristics/organization of the educational system. A scoping review of literature during the period 1980-2020 on school attendance and related problems shows a dominance of publications from the US, Australia, the UK, and Japan, but also lists articles from India, China and Singapore, as well as European countries like the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, and Sweden (Heyne, et al., 2020). The field is definitely international, but this does not necessarily mean it is sufficiently represented through comparative studies. Comparative education studies can search, for example, for the reasons behind why certain problems find their expression in attendance problems. Investigating school attendance through a comparative perspective will help shed light on differences and similarities in the educational systems of Europe.

We are interested in qualitative and quantitative studies that can shed new light on attendance and absence, their backgrounds, and measures and policies for counteracting related problems. Understanding, for example, children’s perspectives or parents’ experiences, or teachers’ or other stakeholders’ views, is in line with what we hope to present to readers in order to gain new understandings of related problems. Quantitative data offers other options and opens up for broad understandings, for example of the relevance of school belonging or the role positive relationships in school play in high attendance. We are hoping for articles that allow new insights into educational policy, instructional practices, issues of organization, and management of the educational system and the importance of these aspects in relation to school attendance.

We invite researchers to suggest articles that take up questions related to school attendance from international and comparative perspectives. All articles should explicitly develop how and/or why the chosen comparative perspective contributes relevant knowledge on school attendance. The dimension of comparison – speaking with Bartlett and Vavrus (2017) – can follow horizontal, vertical, or transversal dimensions, including comparison between different countries or cases, apply different actors’ perspectives, dig into historical dimensions or take specific institutional organization and much more into account.

Please submit methodological, theoretical, and state-of-the-art contributions to the knowledge in the field of school absenteeism, its backgrounds, and how to prevent and deal with the problem. Each contribution should contain 5,000-7,000 words.

 

Submission Deadlines

The deadline for abstracts is 15 September 2022 (150-300 words). Full articles are due 15 January 2023, and will undergo rigorous double-blind review. The publication of the special edition is planned for Autumn 2023.

Please send your abstract to one of the following E-mails:

susanne.kreitz-sandberg@edu.su.se 
ulf.fredriksson@edu.su.se

 

About the guest editors

The idea for this special volume has grown out of an international comparative research project on structural, relational, and individual dimensions of school attendance. We want to address researchers from the field of international and comparative education and other relevant areas. The main criteria for articles to be included in this special issue will be the quality of the article and its contribution to research on school attendance, absenteeism, and preventive measures in Europe and beyond, with focus on methodological and theoretical questions in the international and comparative education field.