how about lunch, Little Miss Elusive ...

On 25 Jul 2007, at 11:53, Jutta Nikel wrote:

> Hi Alan,
> shall we have a talk about this over coffee later.
> Jutta
>
> Alan Reid wrote:
>
>> REMINDER - SUBMISSIONS CLOSE 2 AUGUST 2007 - apologies for cross   
>> postings, please circulated to interested colleagues
>> ==========================================
>>
>> Participatory approaches and ecological and environmental  
>> education:  Theory, policy, practice, progress?
>>
>> Call for Proposals, AERA Annual Meeting, New York, Monday, March  
>> 24 -  Friday, March 28, 2008
>>
>> AERA Ecological and Environmental Education Special Interest  
>> Group  (EEE-SIG) - Deadline 2 August, 2007
>>
>> ===================================================================== 
>> === ============
>>
>> Participation, which is also a form of intervention, is too  
>> serious  and ambivalent a matter to be taken lightly, or reduced  
>> to an amoeba  word lacking any precise meaning, or a slogan, or  
>> fetish, or for that  matter, only an instrument or methodology.  
>> Reduced to such  trivialities, not only does it cease to be a  
>> boon, but it runs the  risk of acting as a deceptive myth or a  
>> dangerous tool for  manipulation. To understand the many  
>> dimensions of participation, one  needs to enquire seriously into  
>> all its roots and ramifications,  these going deep into the heart  
>> of human relationships and the socio- cultural realities  
>> conditioning them. (Rahnema, 1992, p.126) *
>>
>>
>> Building on the theme for the AERA Annual Meeting of “Research on   
>> Schools, Neighbourhoods, and Communities: Toward Civic   
>> Responsibility,” the EEE-SIG invites the submission of proposals  
>> for  the 2008 meeting that expand our understandings of critical  
>> issues  concerning participatory approaches and ecological and  
>> environmental  education. Concerned with both the possibilities  
>> and challenges of  participatory approaches and their implications  
>> for theory, policy,  and practice as suggested by Rahnema (1992),  
>> and interested in  exploring whether progress has been made over  
>> the past 15 years; we  encourage attention to such themes and  
>> questions as:
>>
>> -    what do we know about participatory approaches in ecological  
>> and  environmental education settings, programs and processes, and  
>> how do  we know this; and relatedly, what do we now need to know,  
>> and how  else might we know this?
>>
>> -    how might we better theorize, practice and understand  
>> diverse  forms of participation in ecological and environmental  
>> education,  e.g. their rationales, effectiveness, and  
>> shortcomings, and relation  to schools, civic responsibility,  
>> neighbourhoods or communities  (human and more-than-human)?
>>
>> -    does the ecological or environmental make a difference to   
>> participatory approaches in education in general, or to   
>> sustainability- or well-being-related education in particular;  
>> for  example, in focusing on and addressing relations of power  
>> between  humans and nature and between different groups or  
>> communities?
>>
>> Proposals are welcome from a variety of ontological,  
>> epistemological,  methodological, disciplinary and cultural  
>> perspectives. We  particularly encourage submissions on these  
>> themes and questions  related to international and collaborative  
>> scholarship that seeks to  promote dialogue and forge linkages.  
>> Similarly, proposals that pursue  connections between local and  
>> global issues, and between diverse  settings, are especially invited.
>>
>> Proposals can be for paper, symposium, and innovatively  
>> interactive  presentation formats. Online submission procedures  
>> and session  formats are detailed at www.aera.net/Default.aspx? 
>> id=2966. The  deadline is August 2, 2007. All proposals are peer  
>> reviewed. High  quality submissions from researchers and scholars  
>> whose work does not  clearly fit with the above is also welcome  
>> and will be considered for  paper or roundtable discussion sessions.
>>
>> It is not necessary to be a member of the SIG to submit a proposal  
>> or  to present a paper; however, we do encourage membership of the  
>> EEE- SIG to help increase the presence of environmental and  
>> ecological  education at AERA. Dues are $5 for one-year and $15  
>> for three years.  For information about the EEE-SIG, please  
>> contact the SIG Secretary:  Amy Sloane, University of Wisconsin- 
>> Madison, [log in to unmask] We  encourage all members  
>> (particularly research students) of the SIG to  sign up as a  
>> proposal reviewer for the annual meeting.
>>
>> For further information, please see the EEE-SIG website -   
>> www.bath.ac.uk/cree/eeesig, or contact:
>> Program Chair - Alan Reid, University of Bath, +44-1225-386294,   
>> [log in to unmask]
>> Program Co-Chair - Robert Stevenson, University of Buffalo,   
>> 716-645-2471 x 1093, [log in to unmask]
>> SIG Chair - Amy Cutter-Mackenzie, Monash University,  
>> +61-3-990-44638,  [log in to unmask]
>>
>> * Rahnema, M. (1992) Participation, in: W. Sachs (ed), The   
>> Development Dictionary. Zed Books, 116-131.
>>
>
> -- 
> Dr Jutta Nikel
> Centre for Research in Education and the Environment (CREE)
> Department of Education
> University of Bath
> Bath, BA2 7AY
> United Kingdom
>
> Tel. 	0044 (0)1225 385622
> Email: 	[log in to unmask]