International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) 2013 in Riga: Education and power

Education per se is power, or so educators truly believe. Education is able to influence politics, the business environment, faith, teachers and parents, as well as the media.

Throughout time, power in the field of education has been attempted to be realized, demonstrated, proven and imposed by a variety of actors: politicians, public figures, the clergy, businessmen, warlords, teachers, parents, and the mass media among others. The power structure has changed according to the political system, market economy, tradition, and even fashion.

Therefore, ISCHE 35 will focus on the following issues: how does power – usurped or self-proclaimed, appointed, democratically or naturally won – act upon the field of education? How has power affected teachers and their education? How does teacher education affect power? How has power and education affected childhood and adolescence? How is power reflected in curriculum, textbooks, and teaching aids? How do the educational sciences serve power, and how are they legitimate power? How possible in the field of education is it to support, restrict, stimulate and deny through power?

Conference sub-themes:
1. Power and educational policy

2. Power and the teacher

3. Power and childhood and youth

4. Power and curriculum, textbooks, and teaching materials

5. Power and educational sciences

6. Power and gender education

Keynote speakers:
Prof. Maris A. Vinovskis – University of Michigan, U.S.

Prof. Marc Depaepe – Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Prof. Tatjana Koķe – University of Latvia, Latvia

Organizers: Baltic Association of Historians of Pedagogy, University of Latvia