Graduate Student Conference on Philosophy and Education

We are pleased to invite proposals for the 8th annual meeting of the Graduate Student Conference on Philosophy and Education. This year GSCOPE will be held at the The Ohio State University from October 10rd – 11th, 2014 in the historic Ramseyer Hall, a former Dewey-inspired lab school that now houses the OSU Philosophy of Education program. The keynote address will be sponsored by the Boyd H. Bode Memorial Lecture and will take place on October 10th. The Memorial Lecture will be held by a preeminent philosopher of education yet to be determined.

Two powerful cultural forces shape education today. The insatiable, ever-evolving needs of the marketplace demand that students enter the workforce with specific cognitive skills and habits of thought, and the educational system is expected to deliver on this demand. Rigid structures of accountability – from high-stakes, standardized tests to value-added teacher evaluations – are implemented to guarantee that students have indeed acquired the necessary competencies. Yet there exists another force in our society which may challenge the rigidity of accountability structures, just as it has challenged our way of interacting with the world in general. Community-based internet technologies have begun to bore their way into classrooms around the world, and educators, reformists, TED-Talkers and enthusiasts, not to mention entrepreneurs and businesses, have hailed their arrival. But what do philosophers and theorists of education have to say about these technologies? Can blogs, forums, wikis, tweets, apps, i-pads and Google Glasses break down the rigid structures of accountability that have sprung up since the enactment of No Child Left Behind? Can they provide students with new, democratic modes of interaction, cooperation and dialogue? Can they liberate teachers from the antiquated teaching styles that perpetuate student disengagement? Or do these technologies have the opposite effect? Are they yet another example of the market’s usurpation of educational aims? Do they narrow students’ interaction and coordination with the people and things in their immediate environment? Do they offer teachers’ all-too-tempting forms of “edutainment” so that rigid, unimaginative curriculum persists under a sleek and colorful guise? Do they foster technological fetishism? And if these sets of questions are too one-sided, how then are we to use technology in the classroom appropriately for our liberal educational aims?

The proliferation of educational technologies in contemporary education gives us cause to revisit some of the fundamental questions of educational philosophy, political theory and sociology. Applicants are encouraged to broach these types of questions in their research as well: What kind of dialogue is necessary for a flourishing democracy? What role should the consumer market play in education, and who ought to participate in setting educational aims? How should we conceive of educational aims in general? What is the relationship between students’ interests, motivation, academic challenge and care? Finally, what philosophers and theorists should we look to for educational inspiration?

GSCOPE would like to invite graduate scholars in philosophy of education, curriculum theory, cultural and social foundations of education, as well as in related fields such as philosophy, sociology, history, anthropology, feminist studies and comparative literature to join in the conversation on improving education today. We welcome quality submissions on all topics in philosophy and education.

Proposals may be submitted through the Open Journal System at: http://journal.tc-library.org/index.php/gscope. Instructions for submission can be found at the bottom of the website. Submissions may include either (1) a manuscript (not to exceed 3500 words), (2) a presentation proposal (between 500-1000 words), or (3) a panel proposal (not to exceed 750 words). All submissions must include a cover sheet with author’s name, phone number, email, institutional affiliation and program, type of submission (manuscript, presentation, or panel), title, a 120-150 word abstract, and 3-5 keywords. The deadline for submissions is July 1, 2014. Presenters will be encouraged to deliver the key arguments and ideas from their manuscripts or proposals at the conference, rather than reading from them. Please direct all questions concerning GSCOPE 2014 to officer.gscope@gmail.com or yacek.1@osu.edu. For general information about the conference and its history, visit our website: www.gscopeconference.org.

To register for the conference, please send an email to officer.gscope@gmail.com with “GSCOPE 2014 Registration” in the subject line and your name, phone number, email address, and institutional affiliation and program in the body of the email. Please register by August 1st, 2014.