2nd announcement and Call for papers

DEAR COLLEAGUES,

You are hereby invited to the 37th Annual Congress of the Nordic Educational Research Association which will take place from the 5. to the 7. of March 2009. The congress will be held in Trondheim, Norway, and is hosted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

To illuminate and discuss the congress theme, Literacy as Worldmaking - A Challenge to Educational Research, we have invited five excellent scholars as keynote speakers and three equally excellent scholars participating in a panel discussion. Furthermore, you have the opportunity to discuss and reflect on the congress theme and related topics in the different parallel sessions. We hope you will find the academic programme inspiring and intellectually stimulating!

A congress is also a social meeting place, and we invite you to participate in the social activities. We offer a varied social programme which you can sign up for, and during the congress you will have the opportunity to experience some cultural performances we hope you will find inspiring.

We want you to have some interesting days in Trondheim as you attend sessions, engage in fruitful conversations and enjoy the university and the city. We hope that you will receive lots of intellectual impulses and enjoy the cultural experiences.

Welcome to Trondheim in March 2009!

On behalf of the Organizing committee
Hans Petter Ulleberg, Chair

CONGRESS THEME

Literacy as Worldmaking. The NERA Congress in Trondheim 2009 will focus on literacy and on how educational research may contribute to its promotion.

Literacy is here understood as communicative practices that shape the world we live in, determine how we read and write the world, how we see, understand and shape the relationship between ourselves, nature and our communal life. Literacy thus means empowerment for the individual and is a precondition for a functioning democracy.

Rather than being a means, literacy becomes the medium of self-invention and self-definition.

The quality of literacy and thus of communicative practices are gaining importance as modern society is faced with unprecedented challenges with respect to ecologically sustainable ways of life, with respect to cultural diversity and with respect to a just share of rights and responsibilities within society, between states and different parts of the world.