The aim of the special issue is to discuss the potentials, empirical findings, challenges and desiderata of conventions theory in education research (from early childhood, kindergarten, schools, to higher and further education, including special education across all segments). Conventions theory brings in an institutionalist and pragmatist perspective, and, this way, contributes a profound social science approach to education research. This social science approach to education research emphasizes situations and settings organized through conventions. For this reason, individualist perspectives on education are not in focus. Life course research can be addressed, but a certain distance from it (or an alternative analytical focus) is offered by the consistent situational analysis of educational decision-making and behavior. This compels an understanding that goes beyond individual actors in social contexts, but profoundly reconstructs life-course relevant situational contexts. Because situational analysis focuses on the interpretative co-performance of social actors oriented towards conventions, there are also limits to quantifying analyses of educational transitions and trajectories. Rather, the social governance of the latter comes into analytical view.
Research questions to be discussed in articles may primarily concern, but are not limited to:
- How can individual, organizational and / or systems issues in education research be dealt with more convincingly in terms of conventions theory than with "traditional" theories (from economics, education, sociology, etc.)?
- How can conventions research approaches be made fruitful for addressing current challenges / problems in education (e.g., Kindergarten, school or university worlds, educational regimes, inequality orders, tests/examinations)?
- In particular, how can understandings of meritocracy and (always contested, ambiguous and uncertain) processes of assessment in educational contexts be rethought and analyzed by conventions research?
- What methodic and methodological challenges and consequences arise for the empirical implementation of the theory-led conventions research project?
- How can international comparative educational research benefit from conventions research?
- How can the relationship between scientific research and educational practice be rethought and reshaped by conventions research?
For more information, please read the offical Call for Papers (236 kB).
Deadlines and timeline:
- Deadline for abstracts: 1 November 2023
- Decision to authors to submit a full paper: until early December 2023
- Deadline for articles (first versions): 30 March 2024
- Peer-review until early-May 2024
- Deadline for articles (final versions): mid-October 2024
- Publication: Spring 2025 (earliest date)
Please submit your proposal (approx. 900-1,300 characters, including spaces; also, please include 3-8 keywords) as a PDF file by 1 November 2023 to c.imdorf(at)ish.uni-hannover(dot)de and schneijderberg(at)incher.uni-kassel(dot)de.
Before submitting your abstract, please have a look at the manuscript guidelines for HSR: https://www.gesis.org/en/hsr/publish-with-us/manuscript-guidelines.