GRADE Sustain

DGfE ESD Commission Conference 2022

"Ecological, social and individual upheavals and their relevance for education for sustainable development"

The DGfE ESD Commission Conference 2022 will take place at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main from 05.-07.09.2022, with a Pre-Conference on 04.09.2022.

The following questions will be the focus of the conference:

  • What is the significance of diagnoses of ecological, social and individual upheavals and transformation processes for ESD research? What significance should corresponding diagnoses have in theory development and the conception of research projects?

  • To what extent do theoretical and empirical ESD studies react to ecological, societal and/or individual upheavals already? And how are these conceptualised and, if necessary, operationalised concerning their inherent complexity, simultaneity, unpredictability and high temporal dynamics?

  • At the same time, ESD is associated with the claim to actively work towards conditions for desired upheavals in the desired socio-ecological transformation processes and shape such transformations or at least actively promote them. Concerning this desired form of upheavals, the question arises: How do the theories and concepts of ESD normatively justify upheavals, and how are upheavals empirically researched and theoretically conceptualised? Are transformational educational processes or transformative learning processes in the context of sustainability characterised as processes of personal upheaval, and if so, how are they described (cf., e.g. Nohl 2016)?

  • To what extent can upheavals, desiderata or continuities be identified with regard to the guiding epistemological interest in various ESD research projects, e.g. postcolonial perspectives? What role do upheavals and, if applicable, continuities play in the (sub)disciplines such as subject didactics or the subject matter of individual research fields of ESD research, such as school development research? Which methodological upheavals and developments can be identified in individual currents, such as competence orientation?

The conference will explore these and other questions.

A pre-conference is also planned for 04.09.2022, primarily aimed at emerging researchers.

An overview of the programme you will find here

Supported by the Faculty of Educational Sciences and the GRADE-Center Sustain.