ECER (European Conference on Educational Research) 2010 in Helsinki

ECER is a wide ranging conference held by the European Educational Research Association (a confederation of more than 20 national and regional educational research associations). This year Helsinki University hosted around 1800 participants in the centre of town. Presenters, inspired by the surrounding dramatic architecture (the green and gold domes on Helsinki Cathedral glittered brightly when the sun came out) gave a range of presentations including papers, panel discussions and symposia. Whilst the main theme to the conference and focus for the four keynote speakers was education and cultural change, in all, there were around 1,000 presentations themed by 27 subject networks that addressed other themes such as policy, assessment, curricular innovation, inclusion, leadership, social justice and cultural change. I have only listed a few here as examples, there is much more information at the conference website here.
Initial reactions were that it was all somewhat overwhelming but soon the pattern with the network themes became clear. Network sessions that I attended included Research in Higher Education, Teacher Education Research, ICT in Education, Didactics - Learning and Teaching where she was delighted to hear from both new colleagues and old friends with new ideas. However, it was papers in the network of Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures that challenged my current thinking about the comparative roles of both formal and informal education that had the greatest impact. There was much associated discussion amongst the participants over the role of schools and accreditation within European educational systems.
The conference was scheduled pretty much full-time over three days with evening receptions on the first two however there was opportunity to explore Helsinki and even take a 15 minute boat trip to nearby islands. During the poster session on the final day we were pleased to receive much support for ESCalate’s work from the UK education community and interest from several international colleagues in how ESCalate resources could be used in their contexts/situations.