Borders & Boundaries 2018: Debating the limits and possibilities of Education Lancaster University Lancaster, UK, July 3-4, 2018

The Department of Educational Research invite international speakers every summer, and this year we are opening the event up to invite critical interdisciplinary scholars to engage in a range of events which bring together our three research centres: Higher Education Research and Evaluation; Technology Enhanced Learning; and Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education. 

This year’s theme is Borders and Boundaries, which will be unpacked by our internationally renowned speakers and a programme of conference presentations on 3^rd and 4^th of July in the historic city of Lancaster.

Borders and Boundaries: Debating the limits and possibilities of Education

Borders and boundaries is an important theme in educational research and practice, having multiple meanings and interpretations. At one level, this notion reflects critical conceptualisations of place, territories and educational (im)mobilities which have come to the surface in recent years as a response to political and policy changes that seek to limit the movement of people and ideas. Alternatively, borders and boundaries may be taken to refer to theoretical demarcations and interactions, and the increasing emphasis on interdisciplinarity within research, and the associated instability of categories such as academic, practitioner, researcher and educator in the context of efficiency and structural changes within schools, universities and other institutions. This theme also has analytical value for framing debates about the perceived fluidity of formal and informal educational space in the digital age, simultaneously democratising knowledge and blurring the boundaries between professional and personal identities for many educators and academics. Finally, we envisage the theme of borders and boundaries as providing a way into discussions about social distinctions and emotional separations, which shape educational experiences, transitions, and outcomes in a broad range of ways.

Submission Guidelines

We invite abstracts of no more than 250 words that speak to the themes outlined above.  We welcome contributions from every career stage, including PhD students, and from people working within a range of education contexts and across disciplines.  

The event is designed to be an opportunity for critical discussion, expansive debate and boundary breaking.  As such, after the paper presentations of Wednesday, we invite participants to join us in a social excursion to the beautiful Lake District for less bounded discussions (additional fees apply).

Costs and Online Registration

List of Topics

We particularly welcome submissions that echo the research themes currently under investigation within the 3 research centres housed within the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University.  These include;

• The Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation;
• The Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education; and
• The Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning.

Further information regarding the research themes under each research Centre can be found at http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/

Invited Speakers

Prof Prudence Carter, UC Berkeley, Graduate School of Education, USA
Prudence L. Carter’s research focuses on causes of and solutions to enduring social and cultural inequalities in schools and education.  Her expertise ranges from issues of youth identity and race, class, and gender, urban poverty, social and cultural inequality, the sociology of education and mixed research methods. Specifically, she examines academic and mobility differences shaped by the effects of race, ethnicity, class, and gender in the United States and global society.  Her award-winning book, Keepin’ It Real: School Success beyond Black and White (Oxford University Press, 2005), debates various cultural explanations used to explain school achievement and racial identity for low-income Black and Latino youth in the United States. It was the 2006 co-winner of the Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award by the American Sociological Association, and a 2005 finalist in the C.Wright Mills Book Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems.  Her more recent work includes Stubborn Roots: Race, Culture and Inequality in U.S & South African Schools (2012) and Closing the Opportunity Gap: What America must do to give every child an even chance (2013), co-edited with Dr. Kevin Welner.

Dr Shanthi Robertson, Institute for Culture & Society, Western Sydney University, Australia
Dr Shanthi Robertson is a Senior Research Fellow (ARC DECRA) at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University in Australia. Her research interests are broadly around the social and cultural consequences of globalisation, with a specific focus on transnational migration, citizenship, multiculturalism and urban social change within the Asia-Pacific region.  Her book, Transnational student-migrants and the state: the education-migration nexus, was published in 2013.

Dr Derron Wallace, Brandeis University, USA
Derron Wallace is an Assistant Professor of Education and Sociology at Brandeis University.  He specializes in cross-national studies of inequalities and identities in urban schools and neighbourhoods across global cities. His current research examines the educational outcomes of working class and middle class Black immigrants in London and New York City.

A/Prof Therese Keane, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
A/Prof Therese Keane is the Deputy Chair of Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships in the Department of Education at Swinburne University.  Her research interests are associated with computing education, and the use of technology in schools for teaching and learning purposes. 

Committees

Program Committee

• Dr Nicola Ingram, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.
• Dr Kirsty Finn, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.
• Dr Gemma Derrick, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.
• Prof Paul Ashwin, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.

Organizing committee

• Dr Nicola Ingram, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.
• Dr Gemma Derrick, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.
• Mrs Kathryn Doherty, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.
• Mrs Alice Jesmont, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.
• Dr Rebecca Marsden, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.

Venue

The conference will be held at Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom, LA1 4YX.

Contact

Alice Jesmont a.jesmont@lancaster.ac.uk  +44 (0) 1524 592685