Education, Politics and the State

Congress of the Swiss Society for Educational Research and the Swiss Society for Teacher Training 2018

Wednesday 27 June until Friday 29 June 2018 at the University of Zürich

All fields of the education system have been affected by the educational political reforms of the last 25 years: preschool, primary school, small classes for children with special needs, vocational education, secondary school, the colleges and universities, and further education – to name just the most important ones. Educational demands and expectations have changed, new governance instruments and committees have been implemented and the relationship between the federal government, the cantons and the municipalities have to a certain extent been redefined in the field of education due to international opening. Yet opposition has also developed against some of these different reforms in the public.

Against this backdrop, the 2018 Congress of the Swiss Society for Educational Research and the Swiss Society for Teacher Training would like to critically analyse the relations between education and politics or, rather, between education and the state and enable people to present and discuss their research results from this subject area. The starting point for our thematic focus will be the increased attention for educational issues in the public.

The changes in the relations between education and politics or, rather, between education and the state will be examined with reference to three sets of questions: Firstly, the general developments and fundamental issues of the relations between education, politics, and the state shall be discussed. Secondly, specific fields of educational politics shall be focussed on, ranging from preschool to universities and from policies of inclusion to further education and training. Thirdly, the “instrumental” side of educational politics shall be brought to the fore, for example the practices of education administration, school management, and supervisory boards, but also the changes in selection processes, evaluation practices, or accreditation procedures.

For further information, check out the Call for papers