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]