ANZHES Conference 2026- CALL FOR PAPERS

EXTENDED: New Deadline 18 September

Education and Democracy: Past, Present and Future

10-11 December 2026, University of Newcastle

Questions about the state of democracy are intensifying across the world, including concerns about democratic backsliding, the slow erosion or rapid collapse of democratic norms, and debates about how agonistic a democracy can be, or how much social cohesion it requires. Technological transformations and artificial intelligence have now entered these debates, threatening on some accounts to weaken critical thinking and the fabric of civic life.

Education continues to be routinely cast as an enabler and protector of democracy. In his famous linking of democracy and education, John Dewey expressed a sense of democracy’s fragility observing that ‘Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife’ (1916).  Human rights advocate and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander man Thomas Mayo (2026) recently argued that democracy is ‘not something inherited once and kept forever, but something built, repaired, and defended together every day. It rests on truth’, he continues, and ‘the Australian brand of it needs an honest settlement with the First Peoples of this land’.

Calls to mobilise education to defend or renew a fragile democracy, a democracy in crisis, also contend with histories of the well-documented harms, injustices and failures of democracy – with education fully implicated. In Aotearoa New Zealand, for example, current challenges to the Treaty of Waitangi, including how it is implemented in schools, underline threats to Māori sovereignty that are also advanced in the name of democracy. And as decades of research have shown, in settler colonial societies, the imposition of democracy was at best conditional if not damaging for Indigenous and minority peoples.  Ann Curthoys and Jessie Mitchell’s Taking Liberty (2018) brilliantly explored the ways in which ‘the peaceful establishment of self-government and democracy’ in Australia was inseparably and causally linked to the ‘tragedy of Aboriginal dispossession and displacement’.

This call for papers seeks to hold in clear view the ‘double gestures’ and complex history of the relationship between democracy and education. It welcomes papers from a range of angles and critical positions. We invite participants to reflect on how insights and perspectives from histories of education can contribute to debates about democracy, education and citizenship—past, present, and future.

In what ways has education been or continues to be vital to sustaining democratic societies? Are older formulations of education as a protector or essential foundation for democracy still relevant? How do these histories shed light on current concerns about democratic erosion?  How has education been harnessed towards undemocratic ends or been part of and sustained political projects of disenfranchisement, dispossession and marginalisation? How have the responsibilities of education to foster ‘good citizens’ been differently and differentially expressed and enacted; and who gets to count as a citizen? In what ways has education been mobilised to challenge exclusions from citizenship? What can we learn from earlier crises, challenges to and failures of democracy? What historiographical, conceptual, and cultural resources might the history of education bring to bear?

Abstracts are invited for a range of formats and presentations– single papers, symposiums, roundtables, workshops. We welcome papers across a range of topics, including but not limited to:

• Education and democratic citizenship: historical formations and transformations
• Historical crises of democracy and educational responses
• The ‘double gestures’ of democracy and education
• Democracy, education and citizenship across Oceania
• Curriculum and democracy
• Citizenship and civics education
• Indigenous, settler-colonial and decolonial histories of education and democracy
• Relationships between schooling, civic life, and political participation and exclusion
• Education and social cohesion
• Feminist and gendered histories of citizenship, democracy and education
• Democracy and reparative histories of education
• Education and notions of the public, commons, and ‘public good’
• Technology, media, and democracy
• Comparative and transnational perspectives on education, citizenship and democracy
• The legacies of key thinkers for contemporary debates

Please submit abstracts of up to 350 words using this form.

Abstract submissions close: 4 September 2026   New deadline: 18 September

Notification of Outcomes: 18 September 2026   Outcomes announced: 2 October

Any questions? Please email [email protected]

The 2025 ANZHES Symposium – Education Histories Now – will be held at the University of Melbourne, from 11-12 December 2025.

Symposium Details

Registration and Pricing

ANZHES members – $35
Non-ANZHES members – $40
Graduate Students – free
ANZHES membership ranges from $75 (unwaged) to $90 (waged) per year

Please click here to register (link directs to EventBrite website for ticket purchase)

Program (detailed program download here)

1.30pm-3.00pm – Landmarks in the History of Education, Chair: Julie McLeod

• Alison McKinnon, ‘Love and freedom: Professional women and the reshaping of personal life’ Kay Whitehead, and Jo May
• Marjorie Theobald and R.J.W. Selleck, Family, School and State in Australian History (1990) Helen Proctor and Lyn Yates
• Judith Simon and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, A Civilising Mission? Perceptions and Representations of the Native Schools System. Frances Kelly and Julian Rawiri Kusabs

3.15pm-4.00pm – Launch of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander School Teachers and Australian Settler Colonialism: A History (Routledge: 2026), by Emeritus Prof Kay Whitehead (UniSA), launched by Beth Marsden

Contact

beth.marsden [at] unimelb.edu.au

December 3^rd – 6^th 2023

Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland

Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand

Education in states of exception

Recently, Karin Priem (2022) argued that ‘a state of exception – a radical preliminary halt and a feeling of unease toward the world around us and how we live our lives’ can prompt a questioning of political or economic regimes that appear monolithic, or which prioritise endless human progress and growth (Priem, 2022, p.1). The unease engendered in times of significant disruption, like that experienced during the recent Covid-19 pandemic or extreme climatic events in Australia and Aotearoa, has potential to enliven reassessment of what the priorities of education are – or could be.

Taking the idea of education in (or after) states of exception as a starting point, this conference invites papers that explore education in emergency or during significant disruption to existing ways of life, including indigenous ways of being and living. What shifts are prompted by the state of exception? What traces of disruption or agency endure in historical sources or material remains – what stories charting the impact of change on communities have been told and retold? What faults in the system become apparent in times of crisis? What experiments or educational alternatives result?

Scholars engaging in historical enquiry and historians of education and higher education are encouraged to reflect not only on these questions and the challenges provoked in/by states of exception, but also to highlight opportunities for systemic change, critique, resistance, or agency.

Papers could range from (but are not limited to):

• Education during conflict, war, colonial violence or invasion
• Education and the environment; education in the climate crisis
• Educational responses to epidemics, pandemics or health crises
• Education against the grain
• Diaspora, displacement and education
• Case studies of possibility (Fielding and Moss, 2011) involving experiments in education
• Education and alternative economies; anti-capitalist movements and education; affirmative critiques
• Emergency education schemes; temporary education
• Education amid change
• Shifting sites of education; making do and repurposing materials of education
• Silence and sound in ‘states of exception’

Abstract submission: please send abstracts of around 350 words by 11 August 2023 to:

Frances Kelly [email protected]

Barbara Grant [email protected]

Contact: Dr Frances Kelly, Critical Studies in Education, Faculty of Education and Social Work, Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland

History of Knowledge in the History of Education

Deadline: January 31, 2023

About the SWG

In recent years, the history of knowledge has emerged as a new and vital scholarly field examining the production, mediation, circulation and contestation of different forms of knowledge in society. From a disciplinary perspective, the history of knowledge has primarily developed in relation to the history of science and ideas, but issues concerning the distribution of different forms of knowledge, as well as the institutions and actors that shape knowledge, have long been of interest for educational historians.

The new ISCHE Standing Working Group (SWG) History of Knowledge in the History of Education (HKHE) will explore how history of knowledge can inform new research practices of educational history. By bringing researchers from these subfields of historical inquiry together, our aim is to develop the growing research in the history of knowledge and education and to develop new perspectives that may enhance our understanding of knowledge and education in the past.

In particular, the Standing Working Group seeks to integrate new sources, new methodological approaches and theories into the history of education. Thereby, the SWG can add to a wider theoretical discussion on where history of knowledge, cultural and material histories of education, discourse history, history of ideas, history of science or learning differ and in turn clarify the specifics of all these perspectives. Further, we suggest that histories of knowledge may work to broaden the scope of research on institutions, teaching and learning structures to include less formal arenas of education, actants of teaching and forms of instruction and knowledge outside of academia.

We want to ask and continuously work on the question “What does history of education have to offer for the history of knowledge and vice versa?” and specifically focus on knowledge practices (the emergence, usage, and distribution/circulation/transfer of educational and institutional knowledge) in different settings. We further want to attempt to assemble methods and methodologies of history of knowledge, clarify underlying beliefs and popularize this approach in history of education research. What does it mean to write histories of knowledge and in which ways is this a specific approach/methodology?

The Standing Working Group would like to initiate and invite debates and scholarly exchanges on different forms of educational knowledge, their production, dissemination, consumption, application and entanglements as well as the means of analyzing knowledge(s) and their intersections. For the upcoming ISCHE we invite scholars from various disciplines to submit proposals dealing either specifically with (new) sources for a history of knowledge or papers exploring histories of knowledge in/and education more generally.

Call for Papers for ISCHE 44 in Budapest

The proposals for ISCHE 44 in Budapest (2023) may either address the thematic section “Sources for History of Knowledge in History of Education”, or the open section “Exploring Histories of Knowledge”.

1. Thematic: Educational Sources for a History of Knowledge Approach

This thematic section welcomes proposals that address various sources, archives, and collections that can enrich research in the history of knowledge and education. We welcome papers that present audiovisual sources, objects, archival material or published sources while focusing on their empirical value and the methodological challenges they pose for histories of knowledge.

2. Open: Exploring Histories of Knowledge

This open section welcomes proposals that discuss theories, new methodological approaches, or empirical cases of knowledge circulation within different educational settings and institutions. Contributions may address broader methodological questions concerning the history of knowledge as well as the relationship between knowledge and power in the history of education, the agency of children and other learners, the connection between the production and mediation of knowledge in the history of education, educational spaces important for the circulation of knowledge

Submission process

Proposals should be no longer than 500 words, excluding bibliography. The deadline for submission of papers to the SWG is January 31, 2023.

Please submit your proposal through the ISCHE electronic submission system by selecting the respective SWG in the Abstracts area.

Participants will be informed by March 20, 2023.

Convenors:

Jona T. Garz, Universität Zürich, Switzerland

Fanny Isensee, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

Joakim Landahl, Stockholm University, Sweden

Björn Lundberg, Lund University, Sweden

Daniel Töpper, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

Australian & New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES) Conference 2022

University of Sydney

Wednesday 7 December – Friday 9 December 2022

Final program available here: 2022 ANZHES Conference Program_Final

Australian & New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES) Conference 2022

University of Sydney

Wednesday 7 December – Friday 9 December 2022

Register HERE

Full program will be available soon!

Australian & New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES) Conference 2022

University of Sydney

Wednesday 7 December – Friday 9 December 2022

Conference convenors: Kellie Burns, Yeow Tong Chia, Jing Dang, Meenakshi Krishnaraj, Zhihang Li, Remy Low

Conference theme: Connections and relations

“We are really sorry for you people. We cry for you because you haven’t got meaning of culture in this country.” In 1995, a senior traditional lawman of the Ngarinyin people in the West Kimberley, Western Australia, addressed a gathering of white people in his County. Broadcast on ABC Radio as “An Address from David Mowaljarli To The White Inhabitants Of This Country”, he went on to say:

We have a gift we want to give you. We keep getting blocked from giving you that gift. We get blocked by politics and politicians. We get blocked by media, by process of law. All we want to do is come out from under all of this and give you this gift. And it’s the gift of pattern thinking. It’s the culture which is the blood of this country, of Aboriginal groups, of the ecology, of the land itself.

Warraimay historian Vicki Grieves, picking up on the work of Mowaljarlai, explains the affinities of this “pattern thinking” with the thought of other First Peoples in Australia, New Zealand, and North America. It entails a lived spirituality – not merely a nice idea or belief, but a way of being in the world – that “derives from a philosophy that establishes the wholistic notion of the interconnectedness of the elements of the earth and the universe, animate and inanimate, whereby people, the plants and animals, landforms and celestial bodies are interrelated”.

According to the philosopher David Tacey, who had received permission from the late David Mowaljarlai to explore Aboriginal Spirituality and Law, there was an element of desperation in latter’s appeal to non-Indigenous inhabitants of these lands today called Australia. Why? According to Tacey, “[Mowaljarlai] felt he was running out of time.”

Today, coming up to three decades since Mowaljarlai’s address, we might suppose that a part of that desperation was also because he foresaw that we were running out of time – those of us who continue to live in a world organised along relationships of domination, exploitation, neglect, and forgetting. What Mowaljarlai and other First Peoples’ insights offer is both a reminder of the fact that we are inextricably interconnected and interrelated, and a call to attend to how we have hitherto organised those interconnections and relations. In this way they deepen and advance the work of historians who have explored systems and relations of power, capital, knowledge, and so on. They also contribute to the historical work underway across the globe to retrieve forms of traditional ‘non-western’ educational thought that existed prior to European imperialism and colonialism.

For ANZHES 2022, we invite all scholars who are engaged in historical inquiry in education to present their work with regard to the themes of interconnectedness, relationality, and ways of being – visible or hidden, laudable or otherwise. We invite participants to consider their role and responsibilities as historically engaged education scholars in pattern thinking, especially by highlighting how certain people, processes, policies, and institutions have affected our relationships to:

• Our selves – professional, political, personal, bodily, etc.
• Human and/or nonhuman others
• The Earth and its inhabitants
• Institutions and communities
• Peoples and places near and far
• Generations past, present, and future

In keeping with the spirit of ANZHES and of the conference theme of ‘connections and relations’, we look forward to welcoming you to the 2022 ANZHES conference for a few days of collegiality, scholarly exchange, and friendship. We especially welcome the participation of postgraduate and early career scholars. We also extend our invitation to those who may not think of themselves as ‘history of education’ or ‘history education’ scholars, but whose work may speak to topics of relevance to such scholars.

Timeline

Abstracts due by: 12 August 2022

Outcome of abstract submissions by: 26 August 2022

Abstract submission: Please send abstracts to the conference committee by email attachment to [email protected]

Please watch the ANZHES website for updates: https://anzhes.com/

There will not be a dedicated conference special issue, but presenters will be invited to submit their worked-up papers to History of Education Review for consideration after the conference: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/her?id=HER

The present five-year term of the current editors of History of Education Review is due to expire at the end of 2022.

Proposals from prospective editors or editorial teams for the five-year term 2023-2028 are invited to be submitted to the honorary secretary of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES) by 31 August 2022.

If you think you might be interested in taking this on, whether alone or in a group, please contact the current editors who will be able to offer more back-end information about the journal and about the work involved in editing it. Our best initial contact addresses are:

Helen Proctor ([email protected])

Julie McLeod ([email protected]).

Proposals should include:

1. An outline of relevant experience.
2. Resume/s including list/s of recent and/or significant publications.
3. A statement (a page or so) of plans for the journal’s future, including any proposals for the mentoring of new and/or emerging scholars in the field.

Editors should be financial members of ANZHES during their term.

Please email proposals to ANZHES Honorary Secretary Dr Remy Low by 31 May ([email protected]).