A European Space for Educational Research and Dialogue

A European Space for Educational Research and Dialogue

EERA is celebrating 30 years in 2024, and as part of our anniversary celebrations, we have invited people who have been at the heart of the association to share their memories and reflections. In a series of blog posts, which will run throughout 2024, we will share those precious memories, from the people who helped foster the global EERA community.

In this blog post, Past Secretary General of EERA, Professor Lisbeth Lundahl reflects on the importance of EERA as an open and welcoming space for educational research and discourse.

Without a doubt, EERA has provided the most important access to and guidance for my journeys through the European and international research landscape. These journeys started in 1995 with a walk uphill to the University of Bath with my then five-year old daughter to the second European Conference on Educational Research (ECER).

By then, I had already attended a couple of gigantic conferences arranged by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) at the end of the 1980s. As a junior researcher, I found them fascinating, but the presentations were often difficult to relate to, at least those addressing education politics and policies. The American policy arena seemed quite different from the one I had analysed in my doctoral work on Swedish education politics. The European presentations at AERA were the ones that spoke to me directly, and the most substantial contribution of those early AERA conferences to my professional development was probably that they prompted me to start engaging with European educational policies and the associated research community.

The Bath ECER was followed by many others that fuelled my interest in positioning Swedish and Nordic education policy and politics in the European context. Network 23 (Policy Studies and Politics of Education) of the EERA became (and remains) a kind of European scientific home for me, facilitating countless professional exchanges and collaborations with international researchers, several of whom have also become personal friends over the years. For example, together with some 20 colleagues in Network 23, I participated in the large EU-funded Educational Governance, Segregation, and Inclusion in Europe (EGSIE) research project (1998- ), led by Sverker Lindblad at Uppsala University (later Gothenburg University). EGSIE offered extraordinary opportunities to deepen our understanding of educational policies in a range of European countries.

 

EERA Secretary General – and moving the EERA office to Berlin

In 2005, wishing to repay (at least partly) the EERA and colleagues for all that I had experienced and learnt from ECERs and Network 23, I accepted the position of EERA´s Secretary General for some years to come. One duty during this period particularly comes to my mind: managing a move of the EERA office from Glasgow to Berlin in 2007 – 2008 together with EERA´s President Ingrid Gogolin (University of Hamburg) and Treasurer Wim Jochems (Eindhoven University of Technology). This was a high-stakes project that aroused substantial nervousness in me, not least because the annual ECER had to be planned and conducted as professionally as usual in parallel with the move. It succeeded thanks to a combination of factors, including good collaboration within the EERA presidium, the organisation´s well-maintained finances, and generous support from the Glasgow office of the University of Strathclyde, the new host (Free University of Berlin), and the German Educational Research Association. We were also exceptionally fortunate when recruiting new staff to the Berlin office. Angelika Wegscheider and Daniela Preis (the first employees) have played and still play crucial roles in EERA’s stability and development. The present office team is a major component of the foundations that enable EERA to fulfil its intellectual missions.

 

The importance of EERA – promoting open dialogue and collaborations in an uncertain world

Developing a European dialogue on education and educational research is a central aim of EERA and its networks. The importance of this aim will not diminish. In an uncertain and threatening world, a core element of EERA’s mission is to enable open and critical analysis of possible and desired contributions of educational research. Stimulating new research collaborations, in many cases multi-disciplinary, to help efforts to meet the growing challenges of climate change and social crises is another key task.

Helping development of a European dialogue is a central aim of EERA and its networks, which they have now been pursuing for 30 years. I am confident that professional, respectful, and stimulating dialogue will continue, and that new younger researchers will experience EERA as a scientific home as I did and still do.

The EERA Office – The view from within the spaceship

Angelika Wegscheider explains what it is like to steer the ‘spaceship’ of the EERA office, the changes she has seen over the years, and the lessons she’s learned from her time with the organisation.

A European Space for Educational Research and Dialogue

Past Secretary General of EERA, Professor Lisbeth Lundahl on the importance of EERA as an open and welcoming space for educational research and discourse.

20 Years a-going – Reflecting on two decades with EERA

Past President, Professor Joe O’Hara takes a walk down memory lane to celebrate EERA’s 30th anniversary, and reflects on the developments and achievements of the organisation.

Twenty years of participating in EERA’s 30 years

In this blog post, Professor Emeritus of Educational Sciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and previous EERA president, Dr Theo Wubbels reflects on his involvement in EERA over the years, and where the organisation’s future lies.

My EERA story – from novice doctoral researcher to ERG Link Convenor

ERG Link Convenor Dr Saneeya Qureshi looks back on her journey, from her first conference, to her professional and personal growth with EERA, and the friendships made along the way.

Establishing Network 27 – and trends in didactics of learning and teaching over the past decades

Professor Emeritus Brian Hudson on the establishment and development of Network 27, and the associated trends in didactics of learning and teaching over the past few decades.

EERA’s unique buzz – and the lessons I’ve learned

Professor Emeritus Terri Seddon explains why the European Conference on Educational Research became her ‘first-choice’ academic conference, and worth the long-haul flights from her home in Melbourne. 

Experiences and benefits from collaborating in the international ethnography network

Four long-term Network 19 members, currently serving as network convenors, share their stories and insights into what the network means to them.

Developing an EERA Network Identity – NW 20 through the years

As part of our 30th anniversary celebration, Professor Raimonda Brunevičiūtė reflects on her EERA journey, and the development of Network 20, Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environment.

Growing (with) EERA Network 14

As part of our 30 years of EERA celebrations, Dr Joana Lúcio reflects on her time as Link Convenor of Network 14, and her professional and personal growth.

Pleasure, confusion, and friendship – 30 years of EERA

EERA’s first Secretary General and founding editor of the EERJ, Professor Martin Lawn, looks back at the sometimes rocky road of EERA, the developments into the organisation it is today, and considers where the journey should go next.

Improving the quality of education – EERA Network 11 through the years

To celebrate EERA’s 30th anniversary, Dr Gento takes a look at the activities of Network 11 to improve the quality of education, within EERA and in the wider educational research community.

Serendipity in Action: Being a link convenor for the ERG was a vibrant thread in the vast tapestry of my academic life

For the 30th anniversary celebrations of EERA, Dr Patricia Fidalgo reflects on her time as Link Convenor of the Emerging Researchers’ Group, and the joy this fulfilling role brought her.

A Transformative Journey: Nurturing Emerging Researchers at the European Conference for Educational Research.

In our blog series celebrating 30 years of EERA, Professor Fiona Hallett reflects on the sense of belonging within a supportive community of scholars.

Professor Lisbeth Lundahl

Professor Lisbeth Lundahl

Senior Professor at Umeå University in Sweden

Lisbeth Lundahl is a senior professor at Umeå University in Sweden, served as the Secretary General of EERA from 2005 to 2008. Her research primarily focuses on education policy and governance, youth policy, and the educational trajectories of young people.

She has been the Principal Investigator for several large research projects, with the most recent being ‘Moving On: Youth Attending an Introduction Program and Their Career Support in Varying Local Contexts’ (2018 – 2023). Lundahl is a co-founder of the Swedish Educational Research Association (SWERA), established in 2013.