Cal for Papers: Values in History, Social Sciences and Human Geography Education – Challenges for schools and teacher education

On June 12th-14th 2024, the 8th International Conference of International Research Association for History and Social Sciences Education (IRAHSSE) will take place at the Department of Teacher Education – Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. The conference aims to: 

  • stimulate academic and critical exchange and debates on research results or research status
  • open debates on projects in progress and project ideas 
  • encourage the establishment of international, disciplinary and cross-disciplinary project cooperation between individual researchers and/or research groups

We aim to reach these ambitions by facilitating academic exchanges organized along the following axes:

  1. State or institutional regulations on values content in history, social sciences or human geography teaching and learning. Such contributions could focus on school curricula, legal prescriptions and regulations, on course content or institutional regulations of teacher education programmes.
  2. Specific values content, including its impact on school textbooks and other learning resources, or on actual teaching and learning in schools and teacher education.
  3. The role or impact of public debate and formal/informal groups promoting or resisting teaching and learning on values content in schools and teacher education. 
  4. An axis open for academic presentations and debate on matters outside the conference main theme.

Contributions focusing on ontological or epistemological challenges induced or strengthened by specific values or made relevant by major current or historical public debates or societal developments might fall into all the axes.

Contributions may be contemporary or historically oriented or geographically situated. Contributions can be discipline or school subject specific or cross-disciplinary. Both individual contributions and fully organized sessions might be exploratory oriented, for instance aiming at organizing special interest groups or project groups.

Contributions might for instance focus on individualism vs collectivism, societal or group values on gender or sexuality or values related to distinctions or relations between social groups and categories. 

Values connected with different conceptions of citizenship, different political systems, different modes of power or hegemony, or connected with war, political conflict or co-operation are also within the scope of the conference. Taking present debates on themes as for instance the real (or perceived) presentism of our times or colonialism/post-colonialism or ideas on a more or less predestined future as points of departure, would also be relevant. Likewise, we welcome contributions that consider the debate about the feasibility or desirability of value-free teaching.

Researchers in early stages of their career, including PhD-candidates and junior scholars, are much welcome to participate, and in so doing build a network.

The conference will be bi-modal, i.e. open for both on-site and online participation. We invite submissions of proposals both for full sessions in different formats (roundtable discussions, panels bringing together individual presentations with or without commentators) and single presentations. We aim at two-hour sessions.

Abstracts on conference contributions must be submitted by e-mail to roar.madsen@ntnu.no and with copy to Denise.Bentrovato@up.ac.za by November 25th 2023. Submissions should indicate whether the presenters opt for on-site or online participation.

All abstracts must be either in English only or in French and English. Conference presentations must be either in English or French

Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words for single presentations and 1200 words for full session proposals and should be accompanied by a brief CV.

Full session proposals must indicate the session typology (roundtable discussion or panel of individual presentations with discussions) and should include the name of the session chair. They should also list the contact details and a brief CV for each contributing academic and specify the name of the main responsible for the session. 

The Scientific Committee reserves the right to decide on the order of presentations, to regroup proposals or to change the session format of full session proposals. A decision for or against acceptance will be made by mid-January 2024.

We hope to receive numerous exciting proposals and look forward to welcoming as many colleagues as possible in Trondheim in June 2024.