IPFREC2021

Call for Papers

Welcome to the 2021 International Practice-Focused Research in Education Conference (IPFREC), the first to take place.

The inaugural IPFREC, sponsored by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), is taking place in conjunction with the ETF’s annual Practitioner Research Conference, now in its sixth year. The two conferences are organised and delivered by the University of Sunderland Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (SUNCETT) in partnership with the ETF, the government- backed national workforce development body for the Further Education (FE) and Training sector in England.

IPFREC 2021 will be held at the University of Sunderland’s premier, riverside Sir Tom Cowie Campus .  This international conference is dedicated to encouraging international, disciplinary and interdisciplinary discussion and debate about the relationship between practice, theory and research across  the discipline of education and in education-related disciplines including, philosophy, sociology, psychology and policy development.

Conference Dates

5 - 6 July 2021: Beginning Researchers’ Conference

6 - 8 July 2021: Main Conference on Practice-Focused Research in Education

2021 Conference Theme

Shifting Horizons of Educational Practice, Theory and Research

International Conference Aims and Objectives

The intention of the first International Conference in Practice-Focused Research in Education 2021 is to bring together teachers, researchers and educators across the professions, as well as members of the policy community, interested in educational evaluation, curriculum development and the improvement of educational practice.

To date, debates in the field of education about the relationship between educational practice, theory and research have tended to rely upon simplistic binary positions that have led to unhelpful divisions. These are in danger of closing down the spaces in which new partnerships and configurations of educational practice, theory and research might flourish. This first Practice-Focused Research in Education conference challenges such binary narratives and offers alternatives that can contribute to the building of new forms of practice in education and new relationships in educational practice, theory and research conducted in a shared social space.

“Practice is improved, modified and transformed by its genuine practitioners and it advances only so long as they maintain a commitment to extend and develop it.”

Participants are invited to interrogate the role, nature and value of practice-focused research in education and in other disciplines and subjects in order to examine its potential as well as its limitations in improving practice, contributing to the development of theory and extending understandings of different forms of educational research.

This international conference encourages teachers, researchers, academics, policy and education professionals working in the UK, Mainland Europe, the United States, Asia and across the globe to share ideas and research at the intersections of practice, theory and research in education and in related disciplines. The event aims to facilitate partnerships across national and disciplinary borders through international, disciplinary and interdisciplinary discussion and debate in order to: tackle challenges, develop professionally, share opinions, find solutions, explore opportunities and identify possibilities in moving ideas and understandings of educational practice forward.

A further aim of the conference is to reposition the place of practice-focused research in current debates about what constitutes worthwhile educational research and expose inevitable tensions between approaches to education which start from the top-down and move from outside-in.

One of the conferences main objectives is to begin to shift horizons of understanding about the nature of educational practice, theory and research. The nature of practice in the conduct of any form of life, including education, is complex, routinely under-researched and often profoundly misunderstood. Practice is made by people and it is changed by people over time. It is improved, modified and transformed by its ‘insiders’, its genuine practitioners and it advances only so long as they maintain a commitment to extend and develop it.

From this perspective, taking education as an example, far from teachers being passive consumers of educational knowledge produced by others (often in the form of ‘recipes’ for good practice), teachers are in fact creators of new knowledge as well as - in some cases - generators of and contributors to educational theory. This is one of the reasons why the relationship between educational research and educational practice cannot be reduced to the simple application of knowledge, gained from research conducted by others.

In addition, the new learning involved in putting an idea, concept or theory from educational research into educational practice is a process of inquiry and therefore an important and legitimate form of educational research. What is perhaps distinctive about educational practice is that it has a moral dimension which at its best aims to change the world we live in for the common good.

In this context, practitioner-researchers in education have the potential to contribute to the development of educational theory and the improvement of educational practice through their engagement in educational research. They might also provide resources to help us to think in different ways, imagine and realise new solutions to educational problems in practice. Additionally, practitioner-researchers in other disciplines, vocations and subjects have the potential to contribute to the improvement of practice and the development of theory, through engagement in research in the sites and contexts in which they work.

Call for Contributions

Prospective authors are invited to contribute to and to help shape the conference through submission of research abstracts, papers and posters. High quality research contributions describing original and unpublished results of conceptual, constructive, empirical, experimental or theoretical work in all areas of practice-focused research are warmly invited for presentation at the conference. Selected high quality papers will be invited for publication in a Peer Reviewed Book of Conference Proceedings

Keynotes, Speakers and Special Events

Monday: Keynotes 

Paul Kessell-Holland Education and Training Foundation

Dr Gary Husband (Visiting Professor for the University of Sunderland)

Tuesday: Keynotes 

David Russell CEO Education and Training Foundation 

Professor Gert Biesta, University of Edinburgh

Wednesday: Keynotes 

Dr John Johnson ArtEZ University of Arts , Netherlands

Dr Tony Charles Platform A Art Gallery, Middlesbrough

Thursday: Keynotes

Professor Maggie Gregson, University of Sunderland 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstract Submission Deadline: 7th May 2021

REGISTRATION

Registration opens NOW!

Conference price is now only £70

The IPFREC Conference Committee invites researchers, teachers, education and policy professionals and education leaders to submit proposals in the following topics...

Topic 1: Challenging Dichotomies in Education

• Vocational Academic Divide
• Theory Practice Divide
• Educational Evaluation - Education Improvement
• Thought action
• Education Training
• Learning Assessment

Topic 2: Relationships Between Practice, Theory and Research

• The Role of Practice in Developing and Challenging Theory
• The Role of Theory in Developing and Challenging Practice
• The Nature of Practice and Craft
• Skill Development
• Practical Knowledge 
• Theoretical Knowledge

Topic 3: The Nature of a Practice and the processes and the stages in which a practice improves.

• Practice focused Educational Research
• The practice of Research 
• The Practice of Scholarship
• The Practice of Theorising
• Joint Practice Development (JPD)
• Reflective Practice

Topic 4: Assessment in Practice

• Formative Assessment in Practice
• Summative Assessment in Practice
• Theory Practice Divide
• Questioning
• Use of Creative Media and Technology in Educational Assessment
• Multi Media Assessment
• Closing the Gap techniques in Assessment

Topic 5: Curriculum design and development in practice focused Education

• Curriculum Theory
• Curriculum Design
• Curriculum Development
• Outcomes Models of the Curriculum
• Process Models of the Curriculum

Topic 6: Educational Evaluation and  Educational Improvement

• Standard Educational Evaluation
• Democratic Educational Evaluation
• External Educational Evaluation
• Illuminative Educational Evaluation
• Modes of Counting Professional Development (CPD)

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