Theme

The theme of this year's conference, "Education in the 21st Century: Designing a More Inclusive Future" emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to meet the needs of learners tackling complex global issues. Envisioning a more inclusive future creates space for intuition, collaboration, and compassion as we create and innovate toward more humanizing approaches to teaching and learning.

Sub-themes

We invite submissions that span both research and practice, covering a variety of theoretical, methodological, empirical, and technical approaches related to education. The following sub-themes are a guide, but the conference is open to all submissions that are committed to improving learning and instruction:

1. Compassionate Design: Investigating the integration of compassion in design thinking as a tool to foster understanding and address inherent biases, leading to educational solutions that prioritize diversity and inclusivity.
2. Diverse Perspectives in Language and Literacy: Understanding the interconnectedness of language and culture in educational settings. Embracing linguistic and cultural diversity to offer meaningful learning experiences.
3. Critically Examining Policy for an Inclusive Future: Evaluating educational policies to ensure and advocate for inclusive frameworks that accommodate diverse needs and backgrounds.
4. Intentional Technologies for Diverse Futures: Examining how technological tools and platforms can be harnessed to support diverse learners in STEAM and interdisciplinary contexts, ensuring that everyone has equal access to the benefits of innovation.
5. Inclusive Assessments: Adapting assessment methods to cater to diverse learning needs and styles, experiences, and backgrounds, ensuring fairness and understanding in evaluation.
6. Honoring the Knowledge and Practices of Communities: Integrating  community-driven knowledge and local perspectives into interdisciplinary curricula to foster  more rooted and contextually relevant  epistemologies.
7. Diverse  and Innovative Perspectives on Education in the 21st Century: Exploring how bringing varied cultural, historical, and societal viewpoints can enhance and deepen educational experiences towards holistic meaning making.

Presentation Formats

Research projects at all stages of development are welcome to participate in the conference. To accommodate researcher preferences and conference needs, a variety of presentation formats are available.

Submission Overview

Abstract submissions of 250–400 words (excluding references) will be evaluated for clarity and organization. Abstracts should include the following components: a statement of the main argument and rationale for research, research questions, an overview of methodology, [anticipated] findings, implications, keywords, and references. Please note that work-in-progress research projects are welcome.

Eligibility

This conference is open to all graduate students who are interested in sharing their work, either in-person with colleagues or in virtual and hybrid spaces. The pre-conference poster session will be held in-person only.

For questions or accommodations, please reach out to the GSC Committee at gsc@education.illinois.edu.

Deadline

The deadline to submit proposals is Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 11:59 pm Central time.