PHILOSOPHY of EDUCATION SOCIETY

October 2006 Update

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Message from the president: Susan Laird

Besides offering us an early breath of springtime in March this year, Atlanta will also offer us some much needed inspiration during these difficult and depressing times.  Obviously, I am not thinking of Coca-Cola and CNN, both of whose global headquarters are there.  Far more importantly, it is the home of Martin Luther King, Jr., other prominent Civil Rights leaders in the USA, and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, not to mention its many fine institutions of higher education.  Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record there in 1974, and at age eight Gladys Knight won the Ted Mack Amateur Hour and established her singing group there in 1952.  Rich with the sound of the blues and classic jazz and with African and American visual arts, the city of Atlanta was the site of peaceful sit-in demonstrations for desegregation of restaurants and other businesses in 1960 and began peaceful desegregation of its schools in 1961.  We can learn much in Atlanta, from the city itself no less than from one another.

Please pay special attention to Hospitality Chair Deron Boyles’ message about our February 13, 2007 deadline for making room reservations.  Look forward to much fine food this year, included in the registration fee, with the warmest possible welcome to new and old members.

Meanwhile, we are much looking forward to our George F. Kneller Lecturer, Richard Shusterman, Pragmatist philosopher of art and aesthetics, who has deep interdisciplinary and multicultural interests in education and youth culture.  Between now and March, as you look forward to the opportunity of visiting with him, you may want to read and discuss with your colleagues and students one or more of his latest books: The Range of Pragmatism and the Limits of Philosophy, Surface and Depth, and Performing Live, or his earlier Practicing Philosophy, Pragmatist Aesthetics, or Analytic Aesthetics.  I also particularly recommend two of his papers posted online at http://www.artsandletters.fau.edu/humanitieschair/somaesthetics.html and http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/hypatia/v018/18.4shusterman.html.

Do read this entire Update, too.You will find that Barbara Stengel and Jeff Milligan, their committees and other committees, are planning a dynamic and varied program featuring your own yearbook articles during the days and other program highlights in the evenings as well as opportunities for more intimate dialogue in sessions over your working papers.  Susan Birden and Wendy Kohli have put together a session that will conversationally engage several educators and philosophers from around the world who have studied 1981 PES president Jane Roland Martin’s educational thought as translators and authors.  If you have authored a book recently yourself, do take note of Nance Cunningham’s invitation below, for she is organizing special PES authors’ sessions as part of this year’s book fair.

As we look forward to meetings and meals with one another at the 2007 conference, we owe profuse thanks in advance to our gentle Executive Director, Sasha Sidorkin, for his prudence and efficiency; to our diligent Executive Board, for their timely and sage advice; and to our many sponsors, for their unprecedented generosity to the PES:  the University of Oklahoma, Georgia State University, Florida State University, University of Northern Colorado, SUNY-Buffalo State, and Millersville State University.

Submit your papers, evening session proposals, working paper proposals, and book-fair session proposals in order to become part of the 2007 program.  Check out http://www.atlanta.net/Visitors/jumpPage_multicultural.html, make your hotel and airline reservations now, and we’ll see you in Atlanta—Bon Appetit!

News and notes about the program: Barb Stengel

It’s time . . .

...to get serious about submitting a proposal for our 63rd annual meeting in Atlanta!   The Open Journal System is ready and waiting for you to register, then log in (http://ojs.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/index/login), and submit a paper proposal, a proposal for an alternate session or a proposal for a work in progress informal session.   We know it works because the first submission is already in!   Submission deadline is 5:00 pm, November 1, 2006.  (Because this is the first time we have used the Open Journal System, there are bound to be a few wrinkles in implementation. 

NOTE WELL: If you are already registered in the OJS system (for example, if you are an author or reviewer for Ed Theory), you will not need -- or be able to register again. When you click "Register" and are taken to the registration screen, click at the TOP of that screen where it says " Click here if you are already registered in the system, click here." That will take you to a screen where you can log in and list yourself as an author for Philosophy of Education 2007. If you have difficulty, or are unable to remember your user name or password, please email Joyce Atkinson (atkinson@uiuc.edu).

As you prepare your proposal, you may want to take a look at the reviewer’s rating sheet (A link is provided in the Call for Papers and Proposals on our web site).  Those who submit a proposal can expect an up or down decision on their submission no later than January 10th.   You will have readers’ comments and your respondent’s name no later than January 20th.   We will ask you to complete any revisions and provide your respondent with a final copy of your paper no later than February 10th.   This timeline will enable us to be ready for our early conference date.

Planned program highlights include both the sublime and the ridiculous:

  • Richard Shusterman’s Kneller Address, focused on “self-knowledge, self-examination, and self-cultivation”;
  • President Susan Laird’s “Presidential Honors Project” session (hopefully beginning a new tradition) featuring Jane Roland Martin and an international panel of scholars who have been influenced by her work;
  • “Primary Colors,” this year’s version of the Presidential Follies to be served up at the Presidential Luncheon; and
  • dancing at the Presidential Reception on Sunday evening.

We think there will be plenty to stimulate and amuse you.

NOTE: I ask that all those willing to add their names to the “potential respondents list” please email me (barbara.stengel@millersville.edu) of your interest, your area(s) of expertise, and your contact information between January 1st and January 20th.

Embedded/Evening Conference

My fellow evening conference committee members John Covaleskie and James Stillwagon and I are eagerly anticipating your proposals for what we hope will be a particularly interesting program of evening sessions at our Atlanta meeting. President Susan Laird has challenged us to think beyond our usual lineup of alternative sessions to craft an “embedded conference” that will attract the interest of local educators at all levels by demonstrating the many creative and important ways that philosophy of education and educational practice inform and enrich one another. Florida State University has generously offered financial support that will enable us to reach out to the educational community in Atlanta and make our evening program an intellectually stimulating and professionally rewarding experience for ourselves and our fellow educators in Atlanta. So, if you have not already submitted your evening session proposals, get busy! There is still time to take part in what promises to be an exciting alternative program. 

Registration for the 2006 Conference: Sasha Sidorkin

The registration is available on-line; the fee can be paid both by credit card and by check. The Executive Board has raised the meeting registration fees from $100 to $140 for regular attendees, and from $40 to $50 for students and unemployed members; stipends to student presenters and subsidized rooms for all students will still be available. This was done in an effort to cover higher than usual cost of food and beverage. The cost is higher, in part, because we have made an error in signing the contract with Sheraton. A full account of this complicated story will be offered at the Business Meeting. The Executive Board made every effort to resolve the issue, including seeking professional legal help, but the hotel has refused to renegotiate the contract. I want to thank the Executive Board and Deron Boyles for working hard on solving the problem.

PES Registration fees have always been much lower than those of our peer organizations. For example, GBPES charges 190 pounds, AERA - $175, AME - $270. We hope the new fee structure will not change our previous attendance patterns and encourage everyone to come to what is going to be an outstanding and innovative conference. To support the new program initiatives, we were able to raise $12,000 in institutional support.

Hospitality Committee Announcement: Deron Boyles

Atlanta looks forward to welcoming PES in March of 2007.  One of most exciting aspects of coming to Atlanta is the location of our hotel, the Sheraton Colony Square Hotel.  Located in pedestrian-friendly Midtown, the hotel is a gateway to many of the city’s delights.  PES members will be able to walk to Piedmont Park (Atlanta’s version of Central Park), the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, the Atlanta Symphony, the recently expanded High Museum of Art, and the Alliance Theater.  The 14th Street Playhouse is directly across the street from the hotel (featuring multiple independent and smaller productions) and fine dining is located two blocks away on famed Crescent Avenue. PES members can take MARTA's rapid transit system to see the Georgia Dome, The Carter Center, Centennial Olympic Park, The King Center, the new Georgia Aquarium - the world's largest aquarium, Atlantic Station - Atlanta's new retail and entertainment district, and more quirky and eccentric areas like Cabbagetown and Little Five Points.
In order to secure this great location, our contract stipulates that we need a high occupancy rate. We also need to meet the deadline for registrations: The “cut-off date” for accepting reservations into our room block at the negotiated price is February 13, 2007. The room rate is $149 per night.  There will be a special hotel web site for making our reservations, published on PES Conference Website very soon. We will also have subsidized graduate rooms available.

Those flying to Atlanta can take MARTA directly from the airport (for $2) to the Arts Center Station and be two blocks from the hotel.  Those wishing to take a cab for the 12 mile journey should expect to pay $37.  Parking at the hotel is $20.
Beyond these details, we look forward to sharing southern hospitality in a city known variably as the “City among the Trees,” the “City too Busy to Hate,” and “HOTlanta.”  Plan now and we look forward to seeing you in March 2007.

Book Fair call for submissions: Nance Cunnigham

Throughout the conference, the Book Fair will showcase your book at a special PES Members’ Book Table. In addition, PES will be hosting Authors’ Brown Bag Sessions, as part of the Book Fair. If you would like to put your book in the on-going display or if you would like to participate in a Brown Bag Session, you are encouraged to bring a copy of your book to the fair for display OR have your publisher send a copy. Please find registration details here.

Executive Director's page: Sasha Sidorkin

  • The new on-line registration system has been working great, and relieved me from much of the routine work such as entering data manually into the database. However, this means we now have two databases, and the transition will take some time and errors are possible. Please verify your dues status by logging into the PES portal. And if you find out you have not paid the 06-07 dues yet, please do so promptly. We do need your support, especially this year; see the conference registration section.
  • I am working with Blackwell Publishing on having a direct access to our on-line journals through the membership portal we are using to pay dues. It will eliminate the need to login to Blackwell's site, and remember another set of passwords.
  • If you are reading this on-line, and will also receive a hard copy, please rethink your obstinacy and opt out of receiving hard copy updates.
  • I became a full-time administrator at the University of Northern Colorado. If you're perversely curious about life on the dark side, see my blog.

Election results

Election Committee: Barbara Applebaum (Chair), Suzanne Rice, Jim Garrison, Paul Farber, Daniel Vokey, Jim Giarelli, Al Nieman. Congratulations!

Announcement of the 2008 Conference time and site: Michael Katz

President-elect Michael Katz is pleased to announce that the PES 2008 conference will be held the 2nd weekend in April, April 11-13, 2008 at the Cambridge, Hyatt Regency Hotel, overlooking the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts--a great location.  The room fee will be $139 a night. 

I encourage you to get these dates on your calendar and invite as many people you think might be interested in coming as possible to reserve the dates. I especially encourage you to try to get our European colleagues, our regional PES colleagues, and other philosophers and educators with an interest in philosophy of education to come. Ronald Glass is the program chair; you can engage in email dialogue about the conference with him at rglass@ucsc.edu.   

One of the highlights of the conference will be honoring Denis Phillips at the luncheon with some kind of creative "roast"; Denis has been such a magnificent contributor to many joyful events that I felt it would be appropriate to let him feel our collective appreciations for his entertainment contributions.  Susan Verducci will be responsible for this event.  

New books by PES members

Calls for papers, and other items of interest

  • A job at University of Washington, Seattle
  • CALL FOR PROPOSALS

    It is my pleasure to invite proposals for the 2007 annual meeting of the Canadian Philosophy of Education Society (CPES), to be held as part of CSSE and the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, May 26-29, 2007 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

    The 2007 conference theme, Bridging Communities: Making Public Knowledge – Making Knowledge Public, should give the philosophically minded much food for thought, but proposals unrelated to the conference theme are also welcome. Common formats for CPES sessions have been single- and multi-authored papers and topical symposia, but if you would like to propose an alternative format, such as a book launch or a working session for instructors of philosophy of education courses, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

    CPES welcomes contributions from a variety of philosophical approaches. While there will be room for conceptual analysis, ethical inquiry, questions of an epistemological nature, and contributions addressing critical thinking and applied logic, we recognize the increasing interdisciplinarity of academic work. Philosophical methods and sources are used in, and in conjunction with, cultural studies, women’s studies, political theory, postcolonial critique, and more. We look forward to interdisciplinary submissions that include philosophical methods or sources and that address educational questions and issues.

    All proposals must be submitted through the central CSSE on-line submission system at http://www.csse.ca/Conference/Conference.htm Since CPES is a special interest group of the Canadian Association for Foundations of Education (CAFE), please clearly mark your submission “CPES,” and make sure you tick “CPES” in the on-line membership and submission process. (Otherwise, the submission will be sent to CAFE). If you also email me when you have submitted your CPES proposal, I can make sure no proposal is missed. Deadline for submissions is November 17th. Please note that all authors of accepted presentations must be CSSE members in good standing for the year of the conference.

    A final word for those of you who are interested in participating in the CPES conference but are not sure what to expect in Saskatoon: Don’t be fooled by Saskatoon’s relative anonymity! Having lived in Saskatoon, I can promise you not only a thought-provoking program and stimulating dialogues, but also beautiful trails along the South Saskatchewan river (where, by late May, the pelicans will have arrived) and the opportunity to continue conversations more informally in many bars and restaurants.

    I look forward to meeting many new CPES members!

    Claudia Ruitenberg, program chair
    claudia.ruitenberg@ubc.ca

  • Education, Knowledge & Economy is a new, international, peer-reviewed journal which aims to facilitate the dissemination of high quality theoretical advances and empirical research, and to serve as a forum for debate in all areas of education, business, economics and management, with particular emphasis on education policy and social enterprise/entrepreneurship.
    The Journal consciously promotes an interdisciplinary approach to intellectual endeavor in these related areas, and is research-focused and critically orientated.
  • The Philosophy of Education section at the Institute of Education has now produced its latest Research Newsletter (No.28). You can access this at: http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=12449&12449_0=12891. Much of this issue consists of tributes to Terry McLaughlin, Professor of Philosophy of Education and our head of section, who sadly died at the end of March after a short illness.
    Our Research Newsletter is now in its twentieth year. This is the first issue in which we have been able to include colour photographs. These comprise several taken during the inauguration of the new Richard Peters Collection – including pictures of Richard himself - and one concerned with the Books for Africa initiative.
    -By Judith Morrison (J.Morrison@ioe.ac.uk)
  • The Journal of Educational Controversy announces a special issue that will go online January 2007 on the upcoming Supreme Court case on the use of race as a factor in public school admissions.  Articles will also address the concerns raised by Jonathan Kozol, who has written the prologue for this issue, and to whom the issue is dedicated.  Please also check out our "call for papers" for the following two issues at: http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/
    -By Lorraine Kasprisin [Lorraine.Kasprisin@wwu.edu]
  • XIII World Congress Comparative Education Societies 3-7 September 2007 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Theme: Living Together, Education and Intercultural Dialogue. The Congress will be hosted by the Mediterranean Society of Comparative Education (MESCE).

CONTACT: PES Executive Director Jeff Milligan
850-644-8171; milligan@coe.fsu.edu