[EDLING:376] CFP: Discourse Power Resistance

[Francis M. Hult]

Discourse Power Resistance Conference
Faculty of Education, University of Plymouth, UK
Monday 21 – Wednesday 23 March 2005

http://www2.plymouth.ac.uk/conf/dpr

Advance Notice and First Call for Papers

Aims of the Conference
Resistance, in education as elsewhere, can be draining, tiring. It often seems
easier in the short term to conform: to go along with a system which we know is
geared to the interests of groups remote from the learners themselves. All of
us involved in education - learners, teachers, managers or policy-makers - can
find ourselves worn down and learning to comply.

In the first three DPR conferences we’ve thought and talked about this,
recognised the issues and offered a sustained critique. But how is that
critique sustained? Sustaining resistance means more than simply not giving up;
it also means finding resistance sustaining. Resistance can be brilliantly
exciting, challenging and creative. Education then comes alive again; and stays
alive, sustained through informed critique of the powerful discourses working
to coerce us into dull conformity.

Discourse, Power, Sustaining Resistance (DPR4) will continue that critique so
as to recover and maintain learning that matters and that meets learners’ real
needs. We will pay special attention this year to issues around sustaining
resistance; and we will associate with the conference a major exhibition in the
visual and performing arts, showing the links between resistance and creativity.

Key Speakers: Guy Claxton, Satish Kumar, Maggie MacLure, Vandana Shiva

Call for Papers, Works for Exhibition, Performances, Workshops
We want to encourage a range of presentations on the theme of ‘discourse,
power, sustaining resistance’: papers, posters, symposia and workshops,
together with work for exhibition and presentations in the visual and
performing arts. Exhibitors will be encouraged to open discussion of their work
as part of the conference programme.

Offers of papers, work for exhibition and other presentations should be in the
form of abstracts of between 150 - 250 words, and should make clear the
intended format. Abstracts should be submitted in PC format via email or disc
to: Cath Geden, Conference Administrator, Faculty of Education, University of
Plymouth, The Tower Room, Seale-Hayne Campus, Newton Abbot, TQ12 6NQ.

Email: cgeden at plymouth.ac.uk or dpr at plymouth.ac.uk.

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is Friday 14 January 2005.

If you would like to discuss anything to do with the conference please contact
the conference organiser, Jerome Satterthwaite, University of Plymouth, Faculty
of Education, Mary Newman Building, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA. Tel: 01752
232332 or 01752 823091. Email: jsatterthwaite at plymouth.ac.uk.