Posted: Friday, 29th June 2012
ACADEMICS will be examining how where we come from affects our chances in life at an international seminar in the Faculty of Education next week.
Over 40 speakers from all over Europe will be discuss the bearing that where we live, where we study, where we come from and where we feel we belong has on our education and the direction our life takes.
From graduates and PhD students to very established academics, speakers will be presenting previously unpublished research investigating these questions of how space and place impact on fairness and equality at the seminar which is entitled ‘Space, place and social justice’.
All educational sectors from kindergarten to higher education will be represented at the seminar which aims to explore everything from micro issues like the school bus journey to macro issues like cross-border educational policy in Eastern Europe.
Access to research funding
Jointly sponsored by MMU’s Education and Social Research Insititute the European Education Research Association (EERA) and the British Education Research Association the seminar was the brainchild of research associate Geoff Bright and is being co-organised by senior lecturer in Geographical Education, Sue Bermingham.
Geoff, who is a network co-ordinator for EERA, said: “The idea came from a conversation I had at a conference in Helsinki last year about space and place, and I and some other researchers decided that this seminar would be a good way to respond to the issue.
And he says where we come from also affects our ability to conduct research.
“EERA have provided funding which has allowed us to make bursaries available for attendees from lower GDP European countries which will increase the European impact and the dissemination of all of this new research.”
“The variety of papers being presented, from immigration success rates in Denmark to the way indigenous people engage in education in Argentina, means that this seminar will be of interest to a wide range of people from education professionals and academics to cultural and human geographers.”
For more information or to register for the seminar visit http://www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/space/index.php