Call for Contributions! NORRAG Special Issue 10: Education for Societal Transformation: Alternatives for a Just Future
Context
NORRAG, an Associate Program of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, invites contributions to a NORRAG Special Issue (NSI) on
Education for Societal Transformation: Alternatives for a Just Future
We invite submissions of short written articles (typically around 1200-1500 words) that can speak to a wider global audience of policymakers, academics, researchers, civil society organizations, and other actors working in education. Articles should be submitted in and will be published in English. If you wish to send one in a different language, please let us know.
We seek a good balance of articles from diverse contributors in different regions. As a first step, please indicate your interest by sending us a short abstract (up to 250 words) by 15 September 2023. We will advise authors by 15 October 2023 whether or not to submit a full manuscript. The drafts of full manuscripts are due by 15 January 2024. Papers will then be peer reviewed with feedback provided by 1 March 2024. Revised manuscripts should be submitted by 1 April 2024 to meet the publishing goal of this Special Issue by 1 September 2024. We also plan to organize sessions highlighting Special Issue contributions at the Comparative and International Education Society annual conference in March 2025.
Background
This Special Issue has been developed and will be edited by members of The Alternatives Project (TAP). TAP is a diverse, transnational collective of progressive academics, union members, civil society activists, and social movement participants concerned with building a global collective critical voice oriented towards education and societal transformation. TAP envisions and works towards a radical rethinking of education and society globally.
The current social, economic, political, and educational arrangements reproduce relations of power that perpetuate profound inequities and ultimately threaten life on the planet. We need alternative pedagogies and just, regenerative education systems that will support the social transformations required to create a more equitable and sustainable world.
Co-existing and interrelated global crises are pushing humanity and the living planet towards social, political, economic, and ecological collapse. These crises – currently seen in the pandemic, structural inequalities, police brutality and racism, entrenched patriarchy, accelerating climate chaos, and the constant threat of wars – are driven globally by capitalism and militarism. We must seize this unique historical moment to reconceive and radically change public education as an entry point for deeper societal transformations.
We can learn from the struggles and lessons from organized students and teachers, the trade union movement as a whole, democratic community-based organizations – including associations of minorities, migrants and refugees – as well as independent media, organizations, and professionals that are committed to advancing justice in the flawed, real societies in which we live. The goals of alternative education for societal transformation address one or more of the following dimensions of justice: social, environmental, economic, and political. (For further details on the context, see the TAP “Statement” which will open the Special Issue.)
Call for Contributions
We invite authors to draw on the theoretical imaginaries and practical experiences of researcher-educators and on diverse scholarly traditions that characterize the societal crises that we face as well as the education alternatives that could contribute to addressing these crises by transforming local, national, and global structures. Specifically, we are interested in non-reformist reforms (NRR) that pose a challenge to underlying structures. Without debating what makes a “NRR,” we hope contributors will focus on alternatives that they believe are NRRs.
Of relevance are manuscripts about alternative curricula, pedagogies, and community relations in education at the preschool, primary, secondary, and tertiary levels as well as in nonformal programs organized for youth and adults, including those connected to worker organizations and social movements.
We hope to include visions and practices for educational alternatives that promote societal transformation in various contexts in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, North America, and the Pacific Rim. We are particularly interested in manuscripts authored or coauthored by individuals from the Global South.
This NORRAG Special Issue will include two interrelated sections that will highlight certain themes. Authors should indicate where their contribution fits within the following outline:
Projected Outline
- Societal Alternatives for Social, Climate, Economic, and Political Justice
- Theoretical models for transformed/just societies
- Examples of efforts to build transformed/just societies
- Education Alternatives for Societal Transformation
- Alternative theoretical or practical examples in PreK-Higher formal education (e.g., anti-racist education, anti-patriarchal education, climate/environmental crisis education, cosmopolitical learning, critical multicultural education, critical pedagogy, democratic schools, holistic education, indigenous education, peace education, social justice education, spiritual education)
- Alternative theoretical or practical examples in nonformal education
Note: Table of Contents to be agreed between the Guest Editors and NORRAG based on themes that emerge from the contributions (usually 5-6 sections).
Guest Editors (feel free to contact anyone listed to discuss a contribution)
Frank Adamson, California State University-Sacramento, adamson@csus.edu,
Maria Ron Balsera, Center for Economic and Social Rights, MariaRonBalsera@hotmail.com
Rezan Benatar, Independent Consultant, rebenatar@yahoo.com
Michael Gibbons, American University, gibbons@american.edu
Mark Ginsburg, University of Maryland-College Park, mginsbur@umd.edu
Steven Klees, University of Maryland-College Park, sklees@umd.edu
Giuseppe Lipari, Scuola Normale Superiore, giuseppe.lipari@sns.it
Carol Anne Spreen, New York University, spreen@nyu.edu
Deepa Srikantaiah, University of Maryland-College Park, dsrikant@umd.edu
Submission of Abstracts and Full Manuscripts
Please submit to Mark Ginsburg (mginsbur@umd.edu)
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 September 2023
Deadline for first draft of full articles: 15 January 2024