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<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class=""><span lang="FI" style="font-size: 14pt;" class="">CFP</span></b><span lang="FI" style="font-size: 14pt;" class="">: International conference, <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="FI" style="font-size: 14pt;" class="">University of Helsinki, Finland<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="FI" style="font-size: 14pt;" class="">31 August-1st September 2017</span><span lang="FI" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class=""><span lang="FI" class=""> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class=""><span lang="FI" style="font-size: 16pt;" class="">Criticality in Education (Research): <o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class=""><span lang="FI" style="font-size: 16pt;" class="">Definitions, Discourses and Controversies<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b class=""><span lang="FI" class=""> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><i class="">“I and my public understand each other very well: It does not hear what I say, and I don’t say what it wants to hear.” (Karl Kraus)<o:p class=""></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i class=""> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-GB" class="">“A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-GB" class="">(Confucius, The Analects, Ch. 14)<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class="">Plenary speakers<o:p class=""></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class="">Adrian Holliday</b>, <span style="color: rgb(66, 66, 66);" class="">Canterbury Christ Church University</span>, UK.<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class="">Li Xi (Cecilee)</b>, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class="">Razmig Keucheyan</b>, <span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">University of Bordeaux (Centre Émile Durkheim), France</span><o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class="">Invited panel discussion</b> led by Etta Kralovec, <span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">University of Arizona South, USA</span><o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class="">***<o:p class=""></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The words <i class="">critical</i> and <i class="">criticality </i>are increasingly omnipresent in educational institutions around the world (curricula, course objectives-outcomes, assessment criteria, etc.).
They have also become part of decision makers’ daily bread and butter. However, what these words mean in education, but also in research on education, is very unstable, polysemic and, sometimes, empty. <i class="">We all claim to be doing criticality but we
are not always sure what we mean by it – and if we mean the same</i>. <span lang="EN-GB" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Although one might be able to draft a list of criteria for what criticality entails, not everyone would agree with them. What is more many of these criteria are often used to ‘imagine’
the other and to place self on a pedestal (or often vice versa in the ‘periphery’), leading to the nightmare of <i class="">a-critical criticality</i>. This is the case of discourses on ‘Chinese’ / ‘Asian’ students who are often relegated to the position of
‘uncritical learners/scholars’. Judged against imagined ‘Western’ superior skills to be critical, the ensuing moralistic judgements about these learners lead to discrimination, essentialisation and obsolete culturalism. Unfortunately, these discourses are
also used by the ‘victims’ themselves to define themselves (“<i class="">we are Confucians so we lack criticality”)</i>. </span>In their 2011 article entitled <i class="">Critical thinking and Chinese university students: a review of the evidence</i>, Jing
Tian and Graham David Low discuss the apparent lack of Chinese students’ CT skills. They question the usual argument that Chinese culture does not allow ‘criticality’ and show that the students’ previous learning experiences have an influence on their level
of CT. <span lang="EN-GB" class="">In teaching-learning and research this leads to epistemological and ethical issues that need clarifying. <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Another issue relating to criticality concerns the increasing importance given to international league tables of school performance like the OECD’s PISA studies or the studies produced by the World Trade Organization
in education (research). These contribute to creating educational ‘utopias’ and ‘dystopias’, global discourses about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ systems of education, without being criticized systematically by teachers, researchers or decision makers. These studies also
contribute to the hype around certain terms such as happiness, equality/equity, etc.<b class=""> </b>These terms would deserve to be deconstructed rather than taken for granted. In his ‘social psychology’ of PISA (and ‘similar phenomena’), Biesta (2016) claims
that <o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-align: justify;">The most visible way in which systems such as PISA are seductive is in that they seem to provide clear, unambiguous and easy to digest and to communicate information about the apparent quality
of educational systems, particularly with regard to their ‘performance’. <o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Be it in education or research on education, the adjectives “clear, unambiguous and easy” need to be critiqued…<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Finally, i<span lang="EN-GB" class="">n many countries where discourses about the importance of criticality are omnipresent, threats to academic freedom have emerged. Some academics have been stopped from delivering
lectures; some students have sued lecturers for using certain words or phrases and have become censorious; intellectual ‘safe places’ are being created to protect individuals from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own, etc. This all makes the very
notion of academic freedom increasingly unstable and rhetorical.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">This conference discusses the definitions, discourses and controversies related to the topic of criticality in education (research). All levels of education are of interest. The following
questions are asked:<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
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<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span>What does it mean ‘to be critical’ in education (research)? How do critical theories and/or approaches come-into-being in education (research)? What is/are the relevancies and significances
of critical theories/ approaches in education (research)? <o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span> How do we define the contested idea of criticality in order to make it useful? Is it a disposition, a skill and/or a habit of mind? Can it be learnt? Can it be defined?<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span>Can we work from definitions of criticality that avoid creating hierarchies between learners from different ‘cultures’? Can we <i class="">once and for all</i> avoid falling into the
trap of giving the privilege of criticality to the ‘Western world’?<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span>What conceptions (note the plural?) of critical thinking could we use to do so? Are there examples of alternative approaches to criticality being fed into education (research)?<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b class="">The following topics are of interest:<o:p class=""></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Archaeology of criticality in education (research);<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Criticality and (spatial, linguistic, social etc.) differentiation
in education (research);<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Teaching (about)/developing criticality;<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">The avoidance of controversy and academic freedom;<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Use of/ and critique of critical theories (Queer, Feminist,
Post-Colonial, Marxism, etc.);<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Assessing criticality;<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Criticality and actions (social justice; contradictions
between private and professional engagements);<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Criticality as a tool for oppression (ethnocentrism,
western-centrism) and/or liberation; <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">The relationship between discourses of criticality and
imaginaries;<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">The consequences, dangers and benefits of criticality; <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Discourses of critical thinking (e.g. international students
vs. local students; clash between academic tribes);<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Criticality towards criticality in education (research);<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Forms of ‘pseudo-criticality’, commonsense (<i class="">doxa</i>)
and ‘reinventing the wheel’ in education (research);<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Research hoaxes; <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Institutional pressure on criticality (use of social
media by institutions/scholars to promote themselves and circulate ideas; education export industry; political pressure; publishing policies);<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Combining critical micro and macro-approaches to education
(research); <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Tools to do critical analytical work in education (research)
(e.g. forms of discourse analysis);<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span>Criticality and international league tables of school performance;<span lang="EN-GB" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Lack of criticality in the use of fashionable words such
as</span><b class=""><span lang="EN-GB" class=""> </span></b><i class="">creativity, equality/equity, global-mindedness, happiness, citizenship, democracy, multi/intercultural</i>, etc. in education (research) (Cf. <i class="">Myths in Education, Learning
and Teaching </i><i class="">Policies, Practices and Principles</i> (2015), Editors: Harmes, M., Huijser, H., Danaher, P., Haq, M.U.).<span lang="EN-GB" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<div class=""><span lang="EN-GB" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">The objective of the conference is not to come to a universalistic agreement about what criticality is or is not in education (and beyond) but to allow participants to enter into
a dialogue on criticality in education (research). <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<div class=""><span lang="EN-GB" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Submitting a proposal<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">We invite submission of proposals by <b class="">15<sup class="">th</sup> February 2017</b>. Abstracts should be submitted by email to </span><a href="mailto:criticalityineducation@gmail.com" class="">criticalityineducation@gmail.com</a><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Paper and colloquia proposals are invited.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class=""> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Individual paper proposals</span></b><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class=""> (100-150 words; duration: 30 minutes including a twenty-minute
presentation, with an additional ten minutes for discussion).<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class=""> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Colloquia proposals</span></b><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class=""> (200 words for the colloquium concept and 100-150 words on each paper,
duration: 3 hours, max. 5 participants – conveners and discussant included)<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Abstracts will be reviewed by the scientific committee<b class="">.</b><o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Following the conference, a blind peer-reviewed volume and/or journal issue will be published.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Decisions about the submitted proposals: <b class="">1<sup class="">st</sup> March 2017</b><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Questions should be sent to the conference coordinator <b class="">Ashley Simpson</b> (<a href="mailto:criticalityineducation@gmail.com)" class="">criticalityineducation@gmail.com)</a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Registration: </span><u class=""><span style="color: rgb(56, 110, 255);" class=""><a href="http://blogs.helsinki.fi/CRITICINED" class="">blogs.helsinki.fi/CRITICINED</a></span></u><span lang="EN-GB" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class=""> </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class="">Conference chairs<o:p class=""></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Fred Dervin, University of Helsinki, Finland<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Ashley Simpson, University of Helsinki, Finland<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class=""> </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class="">Scientific committee<o:p class=""></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Marie-José Barbot, Université de Lille, France<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Julie Yu-Wen Chen, University of Helsinki, Finland<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Patrick Danaher, USQ, Australia<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Xiangyun Du, Aalborg University, Denmark<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Andreas Jacobsson, Karlstad University, Sweden<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Zhao Ke, SHUFE, China<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Etta Kralovec, University of Arizona South, USA<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Anne Lavanchy, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Heidi Layne, University of Helsinki, Finland<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">John O’Regan, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Marie-Anne Paveau, Université Paris 13, France<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">John Preston, University of East London, UK<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Anna-Leena Riitaoja, University of Helsinki, Finland<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Heather Smith, University of Newcastle, UK<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Xianlin Song, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Tom Woodin, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK<o:p class=""></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b class=""><span lang="FI" class=""> </span></b></p>
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