This year's event will be held under the theme "Global Solidarity for Education in the New Era.”
The COVID-19 pandemic took the world by surprise and cause immense change to all aspects of human society. The shutdown or scale-down of educational services affected millions of pupils. For almost 168 million children globally, all in-person schooling was closed completely for an entire year. Due to COVID-19 lockdowns, approximately 214 million children globally have missed more than three-quarters of their in-person learning(UNICEF, 2021). The pandemic, both its immediate health impact and the modifications made to institutions and businesses because of it, shed light on inequalities in our society, most notably in the uneven impact to secure and reliable access to education. Resources (including financial) that would allow meaningful educational opportunities were not equitably allocated or effectively used for many of our pupils and schools. At the same time, the pandemic illustrated how a shared and well-defined purpose, along with meaningful leadership, solidarity, and collaboration could bring together stakeholders at all levels of responsibilities (parents, teachers, administrators, governments, ...) to set up innovative and efficient solutions that kept students engaged, even those in difficult situations and for whom resources were scarce.
The pandemic put the spotlight in inequities, even exacerbating those, but it also, in places, triggered global awareness and the emergence of collective responsibility, shifting education worldwide.
In the most uplifting situations, educational systems around the world came up with collaborative solutions to engage students in learning. In K-12settings, developments in online learning, TV/radio classes, WhatsApp group lessons, and many other alternative forms of learning expanded opportunities. In higher education settings, with lockdowns in place and international travel curtailed, online and asynchronous learning on multiple platforms grew quickly filled the gap to keep academics connected. This shift is well captured in the following statement by Fernando Reimers, professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a member of UNESCO's Commission on the Futures of Education: “The pandemic has given us that opportunity for profound empathy with other humans. And certainly, in our field of work in education, I do think the pandemic gave more teachers than the number that normally has, the opportunity to be curious about what's happening in other countries, to experience collaboration with peers in other places, to become themselves, global educators, to see the value of global collaboration, to see the value of learning from what was happening elsewhere.”(Anderson, 2022)
This conference is open to all students who are interested in sharing their work, either with colleagues in person in Champaign or in virtual and hybrid spaces. For students who wish to present, the deadline to submit your research abstract is Monday, January 30, 2023. For more details, please check the submission requirements.
Abstract submission deadline: January 30, 2023
Conference Date: March 3, 2023
Please contact gsc@education.illinois.edu if you have any questions.
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