Network Sessions

Each ICSEI network will host a special session during the 2022 Congress, as described below.

The Crisis Response in Education Network Session

Crossing Boundaries to Promote All students’ Learning and Wellbeing During the Pandemic: Lessons Across Sectors

The disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous challenges and has led to increasing education inequalities in many countries while offering an opportunity for education systems to do things differently (Chapman and Bell, 2020). Examples of such areas of opportunity are how to reconnect with families and communities, how to think of approaches to assessment that are more holistic and how to implement more supportive approaches to school accountability and inspection. When schools were closed, new types of relationships emerged and have led to a rethinking of professional collaboration (Campbell, 2020). During this period of a global health emergency, both established and new approaches to collaboration have been central to the response of teachers, schools and systems to the challenges of the pandemic (Campbell, 2020). According to the OECD, professional networks have formed a crucial mechanism for supporting teachers in responding to the challenges of school closures and sharing their knowledge (OECD, 2020).

This session explores these networks through the perspectives of different stakeholders involved; including professionals from other sectors (e.g. health care), parents and students. Our session will focus on how various actors have been able to work collaboratively and the conditions that promoted actors within and among sectors to engage in collaboration and find value and support for developing new ways of working. Our intention is to capture some of the lessons learned in how to imagine new roles, relationships, and practices that allow educations systems to improve and become more equitable.

We invite three organizations from the public, private and third sectors (understood here as the voluntary sector, independent sector, civic sector, or just non-profit or NGOs) to explore the following questions:

How the pandemic has changed the ways in which they partner with other organizations/sectors,
How their notions and collaborative practices have evolved or enriched due to the pandemic and
What tensions, challenges and new opportunities emerge due to the Pandemic in order to sustain the wellbeing and learning of all children and students?

The Data Use Network Session

Data Use Panel Discussion: Balancing the risks and rewards of data use and artificial intelligence (AI)

Data use and AI are promising levers for educational effectiveness and improvement. It can help focus attention on what divers learners need, it can help strengthen the quality of learning and instruction and it can be an important driver for educational change. However, issues of data ethics, privacy, unequal access to digital sources or lack of data literacy can contribute to and strengthen inequalities in education. In this panel discussion, experts in the field will address these topics and invite the audience of practitioners, researchers and policy makers for an engaging discussion.

Panel: Mei Kuin Lai (New Zealand), Ellen Mandinach (US), Kim Schildkamp (the Netherlands), YinYing Wang (US)

The Early Childhood Education and Care Network Session

Defining and Sustaining Innovative Practices in Early Childhood Education and Care

Finding sustainable ways to improve education and care for young children is a global challenge. The ECEC network session aims to explore innovative practices in ECEC, based on narratives from a variety of national local contexts. The narratives address how innovative practices may be located, structured and supported, and how they may be examined and shared in collaborative ways.

As a participant, you will be invited to listen and reflect upon a narrative and participate in the session by sharing how the narrative inspires you in relation to your own local context.

The session will include presentations from network members with different perspectives and experiences of the topic.

The Education Leadership Network Session

Leading in Times of Uncertainty – Problems and Possibilities
Building on network activity throughout 2021, participants in this ICSEI Network Special Session will have the chance to share insights, experiences, research, and ideas in relation to educational leadership in times of uncertainty. Through networking, and sharing, network members and friends will be able to consider possibilities for collaboration and shared learning at ICSEI 2022 and beyond.

The Methods of Researching Educational Effectiveness and Improvement (MoREI) Network Session

More details on this session coming soon!

The Professional Learning Networks Network Session

Professional Learning Networks for Educational Equity, Quality and Sustainability

Over the past few years we have worked together as a network to ‘conquer’ the research map that resulted from the first network book and from input at ICSEI conferences. Together, we have discussed, presented, and published on the PLN concept, PLN processes and outcomes of PLN learning for both teachers and students; in a variety of contexts. ICSEI presentations, newsletters, special issues and the book series include many great examples of members’ work all over the world. Still, we can identify areas for improvement, both in terms of research and impact. In this era of hybrid education, social media, and growing concerns for equity and impact for all students, we see the need of discussing research methodology and PLN impact more than ever.

In this session, we would love to get to know you and your PLN work (further), and present and discuss some cases with innovative plans, approaches and/or results in terms of studying PLNs and their effects.

The Policymakers, Politicians, and Practitioners (3P) Network Session

On-line learning or blended schooling? Towards 21^st century classrooms

This session from the 3PN will focus on how the responses of schooling systems to maintain provision during the COVID-19 pandemic may in fact have accelerated a shift in how, where and when schooling occur using technology, AI and lateral thinking to reframe learning and classroom practice.

This interactive session will be facilitated by Anton Florek and Sara Romiti, 3PN co-coordinators, and will include breakout rooms for participant discussion and feedback.

Featured Speaker: Maria Ranieri, Full Professor at University of Florence and expert in educational technologies