Objects, Senses and the Material World of Schooling SWG invites submissions to ISCHE 40 Conference. Deadline: Jan. 31, 2018

ISCHE Standing Working Group “Objects, Senses and the Material World of Schooling” 

Call for Papers for ISCHE 40 (August 29th-September 1st 2018), Berlin / Germany

The Nature of Objects

Convenors: Kazuhisa Fujimoto (Japan, Keio), Ian Grosvenor (UK, Birmingham), Noah W. Sobe (USA, Loyola University Chicago) and Mirian Warde (Brazil, UNIFESP)

The ISCHE Standing Working Group “Objects, Senses and the Material World of Schooling” (Established 2015) invites proposals for papers that examine the various ways that objects have been incorporated into teaching.   The “object lesson” or the “intuitive method” was a significant nineteenth and early twentieth century pedagogical innovation in many settings around the globe yet it has generally speaking not yet received systematic, concerted history of education research attention. Of particular significance are the ways that ideas and practices related to teaching through/with objects and in relation to the senses circulated trans-nationally.  In many settings around the globe, object teaching was praised for its modernizing qualities, its alignment with the child´s nature, as well as for its effectiveness in improving teaching practice.  Yet, there is much we need to better understand about object teaching – including how objects interlace with the senses and sensorial experience of education, as well as the role they play in constituting the material world of schooling.

In addition to panels that examine the nature of objects employed in teaching, in recognition of the ISCHE 2018 Education and Nature theme, we plan to hold joint panels with the ISCHE Touching Bodies in School SWG.  Thus we seek submissions that take up historical questions concerning distinctions and interplay between the Human and Nonhuman, as well as the Animate and Inanimate.  For these panels we seek papers that examine materializations in pedagogy, classrooms and other educational practices of the intersections between “bodies” and “objects”.  Possible topics include educational histories of classroom pets, didactic specimens, plant care, gardening, bacteria, germs, and school meals.  The intent of these jointly convened panels is to surface issues arising as “bodies” and “objects” come into contact with, and are mediated by, one another.  The SWG organizers particularly wish to foreground and problematize the ways that distinctions between Human and Nonhuman, living and non-living have historically played out in educational practice.

Abstracts must be a maximum of 500 words including bibliography. The deadline for the submission of proposal is January 31, 2018. Applicants will be notified of the acceptance or rejection of proposals by March 15, 2018.

All proposals for this SWG must be submitted directly to the convenors and not through the ISCHE 2018 general submission system.  Please submit your proposal by email to mjwarde@uol.com.br and nsobe@luc.edu.