The ESA RN10 Mid-term conference that took place thanks to hospitability of the University of Applied Sciences in Dusseldorf, gathered together over 140 participants from 17 countries including  Australia, Austria, Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, Israel, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, and was organized by the UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair in Social Pedagogy, in collaboration with ESA*, IKA**, and the Deutsche Korczak-Gesellschaft e.V.

Amongst the presenters and co-organizers the Maria Grzegorzewska University was represented by Prof. Anna Odrowąż-Coates with the opening Keynote: Educating for Truth and Freedom: Janusz Korczak’s Pedagogy in the Era of Cognitive Conflict, followed by a presentation by Dr Maria Cecilia Zsögön (Limiting children’s voices: reservations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child), and Prof. Anna Perkowska-Klejman ( When Children Co-Create School: Agency and Learning in Alternative Education).

The Polish delegation included representatives of the Institute of War Losses (Dr Bartosz Gondek, Prof. Damian Markowski) and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Prof. K. Segiet, Dr. M. Kiszka, Dr. Urszula Tokarczyk-Bar) as well as the Korczak University (Katarzyna Kania).

Apart from 50 research papers and live presentations the conference included a poster session, a performative board, workshops and a film festival presentation of 3 successful youth productions from the KorFilm Festival, which were very well received by the audience.

The conference was preceded by the visit to memory site, located at the university premisses. https://www.hs-duesseldorf.de/about/alter-schlachthof-memorial-site

The book of abstracts is available here:

*The Sociology of Education Research Network (RN10) within the European Sociological Association (ESA) is the largest European network for the study of education from a sociological perspective. The network brings together researchers and professionals worldwide to explore educational systems' dynamic challenges and transformations.

**The International Korczak Association promotes the pedagogical thought and educational philosophy of Dr Janusz Korczak, to support social and academic initiatives related to his legacy, to preserve his achievements from being forgotten, and to disseminate his ideas internationally. It comprises 48 organizations from around the world, including Korczak Associations from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, the USA, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine, England, Israel, Japan, Tunisia, and others.

 

We are looking forward to releasing of a special issue of the Polish-Ukrainian journal The Journal of Vocational and Continuing Education https://czasopisma.aps.edu.pl/index.php/ezu with the conference proceedings early next year.