The 2019 EuroACS conference will be held from 7th-8th June at Maynooth University. The conference comes at a time when curriculum studies as a field is arguably burgeoning, fuelled by the proliferation of new discourses and practices about and around curriculum. This is evident, for example, at a supra-level through the publications of transnational organisations such as the EU, UNESCO and OECD; at a macro level through the ongoing emergence of new forms of curriculum policy addressing such transnational and local forces; and at meso/micro levels as teachers and other practitioners are increasingly expected to become engaged as professional curriculum makers, rather than as technicians delivering policy products. In short, conversations about curriculum are back where they should be – at the heart of educational discourse and practice.
All of the above raises important questions, which have shaped the inter-related themes of the EuroACS 2019 conference: curriculum origins, curriculum trajectories and curriculum practices. Inquiry into origins encourages us to consider where curricula come from. What are their intellectual, conceptual and empirical foundations? What are the past socio-political influences that shape their present conception and development? And importantly what can we learn from such previous currents of thought and practices, which might better inform how we develop future curricula? Inquiry into trajectories might explore the development of competing and complementary ways of thinking about curriculum, their realisation through policy development, and the enactment of curricular practices in school, other educational institutions and non-formal educational settings. Such inquiry seems especially pertinent, for example, given recent international debate and divergence about knowledge-rich versus competence-based approaches to defining national curricula, or the historical development of curricular paradigms such as the reconceptualist movement. Inquiry into practices allows us to focus on a multifarious range of issues, including policy development processes, learning and teaching, and organisational issues such as provision and access.
Please submit your propoposal through our online portal by 14th January 2019.