Introduction
Transformative Educational Research and Sustainable Development (TERSD) is a scholarly forum that aims to conceive, enact and flourish the depth and scope of transformative capabilities, collaboration, embodied practice and praxis in education and research. Kathmandu University School of Education (KUSOED), Nepal, hosted two previous international conferences on Transformative Educational Research and Sustainable Development (TERSD). The first conference, held in 2016, promoted theoretically informed discussions on the need for relational ontology and multi-paradigmatic epistemologies in education and research. The second conference, held in 2018, focused on collective transformation through context-responsive wisdom and knowledge heritage. Both conferences contributed to expanding awareness of our situatedness and created a harmonious space by strengthening and enlarging an international network of transformative practitioners.
TERSD-2022
The 3rd International Conference on Transformative Educational Research and Sustainable Development (TERSD-22), scheduled for 2.5 days, will bring together researchers and practitioners to share scholarly narratives about their transformative educational research and pedagogical practices. Scholarly narratives of the predicaments of the status quo, especially hegemonic power misuse in educational processes and systems, will point to the need to expand conscious awareness of our situatedness in the world to critically understand who we are and who we might become as individuals and communities. Our conference seeks to expand the horizon of transformative educational research and practice, considering how local people, communities and practitioners can sustain and thrive their educational research and practice in these challenging times and contexts.
We will explore ways in which research and educational practices, especially in this time of Covid-19, are being framed by the hegemony of technical rationality which upholds a narrowly conceived view of research as proving and educational processes as a chain of cause-and-effect linearity. The agenda of technical rationality is to be found in ongoing policy decisions that frame curricula, pedagogies and assessment practices in both school and higher education. In this socio-political context emergent post/humanistic research and educational practices are being overshadowed and narrowly restricted. The conference will be a place for us to critique this narrowness and cultivate a vision of greater openness. Our notion of openness seeks to promote equity, empowerment and enhanced meaningfulness in educational research and practice.
The conference offers the community of transformative scholars, practitioners and researchers a platform to share their innovative praxis-driven educational research and pedagogical practices in overcoming challenging socio-political contexts. In particular, we consider the present time to be a unique moment to challenge the central thesis of anthropocentric human development and to reimagine the survival of the planet as dependent upon the wise, the benevolent, the caring and the enabling. The wisest person is one who allows their ego to turn into themselves. True human nature goes deep inside to explore answers to pressing questions such as: Who am I during this current isolation, exhausted as I am by the unrelenting news on social media and television channels?
The main theme of the conference emphasizes everyday life lessons learned from the pandemic experience for overcoming adversity and challenge. We are bringing together transformative experiences and visionary practices that can enhance the process of living life in informal and un/structured ways, accepting g/local changes of human relations and ecosystems. Overall, the conference aims to give a consolidated experience of transformative research and practice for organic solidarity.
The conference will inspire courageous, sustainable and thriving coalitions among citizen scholars by means of a transdisciplinary professional development space that fosters reflexivity, change and hope. Practitioners of multiple disciplines will be invited to illustrate ways in which they are challenging discriminatory and disempowering policies and practices and are moving towards developing a transformative research culture. Epistemological tensions of inequity and injustice are expected to be addressed through individual and collective presentations (paper, video, and poster), workshops, symposia, and other creative forms of storytelling. We welcome epistemological pluralism via collaborative inquiry, cooperative inquiry, participatory inquiry, arts-based inquiry, and indigenous inquiry methods.
Delegates’ body mindfulness will be fostered throughout the conference and beyond. We shall contemplate and take empathic action through exploring meaningful questions to transform self, others and social formations; questions such as: Who are we? What challenges are we facing in this time and context, and why? How can we respect diversity individually and sustain equality and justice in our educational institutions and communities? What are our best policies and practices for sustaining and thriving to ensure equality and social justice? How can we unite with researchers, practitioners and citizens across multiple academic fields and disciplines to address the urgent challenges of our educational and social problems?
KUSOED is delighted to announce that it will host the Third International Conference on Transformative Education Research and Sustainable Development (TERSD-2022) from November 4-6, 2022. “Sustaining and Thriving Transformative Educational Research and Practice in Challenging Times and Contexts” is the main theme of the conference. It aims to provide scholars, practitioners, and researchers with an opportunity to share their perspectives on local wisdom and knowledge in education.