The Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) is a Nordic conference for educational research.
NERA strives to promote educational inquiry and supports the use of research to enhance education. It aims to strengthen the visibility of education as a discipline in the Nordic societies and to provide a platform for Nordic researchers as well as collaboration between them and the international community.
Education for a better and just world
The theme for the NERA 2025 conference Pedagogy of Hope: Gratitude, Diversity, and Sustainability in Education is essential in contemporary educational research and practice for several reasons. First, it reminds us of the meaning of why societies should value education: the hope for a more equal and just world. Second, the theme hopefully also seeks to challenge ready-made answers and assumptions about what education is for. In the Nordic countries, we must defend our values of a democratic, just society and our hope in its continuum; this is why educational research and theorising matter, perhaps more now than ever, because of market economy values gaining more and more grounds.
We think that hope also closely relates to gratitude. By encouraging children, young people, or whoever we educate, to be thankful for what can be justified as good these days – like good regarding equality, fairness and democratic values – then we can say we have hope for their futures and that the next generations are worth the same thing. If succeeding, this can promote a sense of empathy and belonging amongst people living in a world where we are not alone, raising questions about flourishing and vulnerability.
Therefore, we encourage asking what the perspective of hope requires from education. Furthermore, we think/assert that diversity supports empowerment through (the cultivation of) critical thinking. We can, for instance, ask ourselves what we mean by inclusion, equity, social justice, and respect. As we see it, sustainability can be about the interrelation of social, economic, and natural realms. It can also address critical and complex questions about climate change, environmental depletion, or the despair these themes foster within people. Hope is not to give up but to seek change; education is the most promising tool.
Abstract submission was open from Oct 10 - Nov 15, 2024