Call for Proposals: 31st Annual Ethnography in Education Forum

"Creativity, Crisis, and Qualitative Research: Re-imagining Education in a Changing World"

31st Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum is now accepting proposals!

We live in an era of rapid changes, and this year has had especially dramatic ones: a global economic crisis, the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States, and the massive popularization of iPhone-type mobile web devices, to name a few.In U.S. education, for example, charter schools and more and more public schools are experimenting with new ways of doing teaching and learning, from online course formats to "small school" models to ways of making do with smaller budgets and staff.How have the social, economic, cultural, and technological changes of our time influenced our ways of teaching and learning, inside and outside of school, as well as our "ways of knowing" as researchers and practitioners? And how do we create new ways of teaching, learning, researching, and knowing, amidst change?

There has been much talk of change in our societies, from suggestions of a post-racial era, to predictions of minority-majority demographic shifts and class mobility, to initiatives for financial reorganization and school accountability. In such times of crisis, or opportunity, ethnographers and qualitative researchers are uniquely positioned to be able to find, understand, and share creative new ways of learning and knowing. At this 31st annual Ethnography in Education research forum, we hope to hear about and share creative re-imaginings and new ways of doing education, with an eye towards the future of education reform, research, and practice.

Plenary speakers:

  • Samy Alim, University of California at Los Angeles
  • Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Boston College, and Susan Lytle, University of Pennsylvania
  • Doug Foley, University of Texas at Austin
  • Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia

All proposals must be submitted online.

Types of presentations

Proposals are requested for presentations in the following categories:

  1. Individual Paper (Traditional or Work-in-Progress)
  2. Group Sessions (Traditional or Work-in-Progress)
  3. Data Analysis Consultation

Practitioner Inquiry: For Individual Papers and Group Sessions, you may choose to designate your presentation as PRACTITIONER INQUIRY.Practitioner Inquiry presentations focus on research by teachers and other practitioners in educational settings (e.g., school principals, counselors, non-teaching aides, parents, students, and other members of school communities). Practitioner Inquiry presentations are particularly featured on Saturday, known as Practitioner Inquiry Day.

  1. Individual Papers (15 minutes)
    Individual papers by one or more authors.Either final analyses, results, and conclusions (Traditional) or preliminary findings and tentative conclusions (Work-in-Progress) may be submitted. Indicate Practitioner Inquiry by selecting the appropriate submission track, if you so choose.
  2. Group Sessions (75 minutes)
    A full session of no fewer than three, and no more than six presenters, including a discussant. These sessions may vary in organization: a set of individual papers, a panel discussion, a plan for interaction among members of the audience in discussion or workshop groups are possible formats.Either final analyses, results, and conclusions (Traditional) or preliminary findings and tentative conclusions (Work-in-Progress) may be submitted.Indicate Practitioner Inquiry by selecting the appropriate submission track, if you so choose.
  3. Data Analysis Consultation (35 minutes)
    Presenters offer their own un-analyzed data along with questions about analysis for consultation with expert researchers and conference participants. Data analysis consultation is by definition Work-in-Progress.

Proposals should state questions about data analysis and identify the data to be addressed. This is designed as a "workshop format" where you quickly present relatively un-analyzed data. The majority of the session is dedicated to the panel of data consultants giving advice on how to approach this data.

Please adhere to the following guidelines for your proposal:

  • State two or three questions about data analysis that will be addressed. Questions should be narrowly defined and intimately tied to the data being presented.
  • Identify the specific data that will actually be used in the presentation. Data to be shared may include field notes (maximum two pages), interview transcripts (maximum one page), audio and/or video tapes (maximum one minute), and archival and site documents.
  • Presenters should not plan to present preliminary conclusions. Rather, their purpose should be to seek advice on data analysis.
  • Please note audiovisual equipment needs in your proposal.

Proposal evaluation criteria

  1. Significance for education
  2. Conceptual orientation
  3. Methodology
  4. Interpretation
  5. Quality of analysis
  6. Depth and clarity

Format of proposals

Everyone must submit:

A. Abstract (limit 100 words)

This should be a brief overview of the work to be presented.

B. Description (limit 1500 words)

Selection is based on the description.A detailed description of the work to be presented should be submitted including conceptual orientation, data collection and analysis methods, data interpretation, and significance to education.Please indicate if it is a Work-in-Progress in the body of your Description.

Special Instruction for Group Sessions

Submit Abstract and Description of the session overall, as specified above.If the session consists of a set of individual papers, the group session proposal must also include a description for each individual presentation.

All proposals must be submitted online.

Questions

If you have any questions, please email the Center for Urban Ethnography.