International Conference on Critical Realism and Education
Institute of Education, London
July 18, 19 and 20, 2008
The organizer of this conference is Professor Roy Bhaskar, currently World
Scholar at the University of London Institute of Education, and founder of
the philosophy of critical realism.
This conference is designed to lay the basis for the development of an
International Centre for Advanced Studies in Critical Realism and Education.
In recent years there has been growing interest in the interface between
critical realism and education, which makes this conference especially
timely. Education is central to the critical realist project. On the other
hand, critical realism is still, relatively speaking, a newcomer in the
field of education and education studies, and only too rarely explicitly
utilized in research or thematized in teaching.
The conference aims to begin to repair this situation with a large part of
the first day being given over to a short course, led by Roy Bhaskar,
developing the basic principles of critical realism, with education
especially in mind.
Among the topics discussed in this short course will be basic critical
realism in the philosophy of science and social science; the development of
critical realism, including dialectical critical realism and the philosophy
of meta-Reality; applied critical realism and interdisciplinarity; critical
realism in and for education; and the ends of education. This part of the
conference programme will include working parallel sessions in which
conference participants can learn about or refresh their understanding of
critical realist ideas and concepts.
The bulk of the conference will address the development of a mediating level
of theory and description between philosophy and the day-to-day concerns of
educational practice. Throughout, the conference will attempt to initiate,
develop and enrich a two-way interaction between critical realist philosophy
and educational research and practice. Parallel workshop sessions, in which
individual participants present and discuss their papers, will be interwoven
with plenary sessions, in which distinguished speakers from the fields of
critical realism and education studies will address topics of interest to all.
Plenary speakers will include Michael Apple, Margaret Archer, Rom Harré,
Karl Maton, Richard Pring, Chris Sarra, David Scott and Brad Shipway.
Among the topics highlighted in the plenaries will be comparison of critical
realism and social realism; consideration of explicit ex ante versus
implicit critical realism; the topology of educational studies; the
relationship between quantitative and qualitative methods; the nature of
educational practices and the tension between the emancipatory orientation
and the contemporary marketization of education.
The strands in the parallel sessions will embrace: philosophy and the ends
of education; research methods; interdisciplinarity; sociology of knowledge
and education; Bernstein, Bourdieu and implicit critical realism; history
and historical sociology; geography and education; education for
sustainability; business and economics education; special and inclusive
education; gender, ethnicity and education; education and emancipation; the
development of critical realism, including dialectical critical realism;
meta-Reality; science education; religion and education; peace education;
Marxism; Piaget and Vygotsky.
Call for Papers
The Critical Realism and Education Conference 2008 calls for papers in any
subject area which bears on critical realism, on the one hand, and
education, on the other. Please send abstracts by June 30 and any queries
concerning the call for papers to Roy Bhaskar at : [log in to unmask]
At the end of the first day, there will be a conference reception and at the
end of the second day, a conference dinner. Accommodation is available by
advance booking in student halls of residence and a number of reasonably
priced hotels nearby.
To register and for further information and details of accommodation, please
go to the conference website:
www.ioe.ac.uk/conferences/criticalrealism
or contact James McSean at:
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