Mission Statement
The theme of the 18th annual EGSS Conference at McGill University is Theory and Action: Learning in the Modern World. The aim of this conference is to provide all graduate students within the Faculty of Education opportunities to promote the importance of their research, to enhance their professional academic skills (e.g., integrating research, preparing presentations, facilitating discussions), and to engage with a community of motivated learners comprised of other students, researchers and educators. To address the aim of this conference, the EGSS Conference Committee sought out the opinions of the student body to help generate an appropriate and meaningful conference theme. We had countless significant conversations. We listened to your interests, motivations, and concerns regarding the annual EGSS conference and thematically integrated your ideas, which when taken together provided the inspiration for this years’ conference theme.
The first part of our theme, Theory and Action, is a response to many of the students who expressed interest about the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world practices. From all of the educational disciplines, students spoke about the lack of integration they saw between research and reality. They keenly noted how theory and research are essential for refining knowledge, informing best practices, and developing interventions, but students additionally highlighted that there is a dual need for attention to real-world practices and applications.
The second part of our theme, Learning in the Modern World, responds to a call from students to diversify the definition of “education” by integrating all of our various perspectives to broaden our current, collective understanding. From political interests to mental health, from second language learning to nutrition and athletics, and from cross-cultural issues to technology development, there are unique issues within each educational field in the modern world, yet they are all connected by a shared foundation in learning.
To ensure our aim is clear, the 18th annual EGSS conference will host several relevant and dynamic leaders who, by engaging in critical discussions and demonstrations with students and representatives, will help to integrate relevant research across the disciplines within the Faculty of Education at McGill University. As the conference theme highlights research that bridges gaps between theory and action, it is our objective to bridge the gaps between the disciplines. As such, we invite submissions of research or practice that are relevant to traditional or innovative educational contexts in the modern world.
Education Graduate Students' Society 