Researches on Education and Training: Issues and Challenges today

In recent decades, research on education and training has been expending significantly to support, in particular, the processes of economic development (the need to have a more and more trained labor in the post industrial economy) as well as to respond to a political and social demand (democratization and uniformisation of education) (De Landsheere, 1986). Issue of a national importance, research in education has also reached that an international level during the second half of the 20th century. Commissions, international conferences have been organized to confront the results, launch new themes and organize research in education on a global scale (International Meeting of Experts in Pedagogical Research, Atlantic City, 1956, 29th International Conference of Public Education, Geneva, 1966, The Organization of Pedagogical Research, UNESCO Institute for Education, The Role of Educational Research faced to pedagogical changes, International Conference on Educational Research, May 1967 in Melbourne). In the current context, arguably the globalization one (AMSE-AMCE-WEAR conference in 2008), we may be lead to believe that research in education and training will play an importantly increased role.

That is why, the organizational committee of the 17th AMSE-AMCE-WAER Conference have chosen it theme as such: the issues and challenges of researching education and training in a globalised world (see 15th AMSE-AMCE-WEAR conference). Without pretending to cover all the possible dimensions of this issue, the committee has devised 4 sub-themes to allow an in-depth exploration of some of the question raised by the conference’s theme. The aim is to raise burning questions and try to shed light on missed points. The committee tried to achieve this by writing the themes around issues, likely to be researched on different levels:

- the disciplinary references (Educational research, such as history, sociology, psychology, economy, law, epistemology of science, professional or disciplinary didactics, communication, information and language sciences…),

- the object or the open field as it will enable the analysis of the challenges of researching the concept of “school” in the largest sense (the preschool offer, the ‘basic’ school, secondary and higher education)…
- the research on the type of education (technical and/or professional education, scientific education, training/alternation…)
- the research on the training of educational and socio-educational staff (teachers, management staff, doctors, school nurses, social workers…),
- the research on the situations and practice of teaching and/or training
- the research on the building of knowledge and the process of learning and teaching
- the research on the use of computers during teaching and training, their effects in terms of appropriation, class/lesson management, effects also on the research on the practice of knowledge and skill acquisition off school,
- the research on class management, authority, violence, incivility, inequalities, &helli

- the type of research or approach (experimental research, praxeological research, nomothetic, interpretive, evaluative, collaborative, basic researches …)

For each of the following sub-themes, we expect communication/symposium proposals grasping one or the other issues through any research in the field of education and training.