Call for paper

The AFDECE 2024 international symposium follows on from those held in 2023 and 2022 (IFASIC, Kinshasa, August 2023, and University of Havana, October 2022), which addressed the issue of education in the context of crisis, educational inequalities around the world and the actions needed to reduce them. They looked at inequalities in education between countries in the North and South, social inequalities, ethnic inequalities, gender inequalities, spatial inequalities, inequalities linked to disability, inequalities in terms of mother tongue or foreign languages, inequalities in terms of information, digital and computer technologies...

As a follow-up to this reflection, the 20th AFDECE symposium looks at how these issues can be tackled jointly by researchers, practitioners and decision-makers, for better problem-solving and adaptation to different contexts.

Starting from the premise that Education must be a common good for all mankind, we will ask ourselves the following central question: How can we ensure that all the world's citizens have equitable access to education? 

Today, the planet is sick, a victim of the mistreatment we are inflicting on it, with the consequences of this human unconsciousness being global warming and the desertification of certain parts of the world, leading to the inexorable flight of their populations to more hospitable lands, at least from a climatic point of view.

Today, the planet is experiencing a glaring disparity in terms of wealth distribution and access to well-being. How long can we continue to accept that 1% of the world's population holds half of all wealth, and that the richest 20% own 95% of the world's assets? The consequences of this mismanagement of the planet are hunger, migration... and pandemics that exacerbate social inequalities. And what can we say about the wars that add to this apocalyptic picture?

Education has a central role to play in these crisis situations. What can be done to ensure that all young people have the right to a quality education, and that the 244 million children worldwide (UNESCO) who are not in school attend school? What can be done to reduce "learning poverty" (cf. UIS-UNESCO indicator 4.1.1.), which has increased by a third in ten years in the countries of the South? How much longer can we accept the fact that 70% of the world's 10-year-olds are unable to read a simple text? But isn't this constant, glaringly obvious in the countries of the South, also the case in certain countries of the North, where student populations are very heterogeneous in terms of their social expectations? How can we manage education in the current crisis without better political management of these problems at global and local level? How can we reduce the glaring inequalities in economic resources and education, so that all our children can have access to a quality education?

What can be done to ensure that all ethnic groups benefit from quality education? How can we reduce the glaring inequalities in educational outcomes between pupils from different ethnic groups? What educational policies should be implemented to reduce linguistic inequalities? Should we develop bi-lingual schooling - or generalize it where it exists - to reinforce linguistic skills in the mother tongue and in the language of instruction when this is not the mother tongue?

What educational policies should be implemented to give girls and boys on this planet, at last, the same social hope, which starts with self-confidence, to enable girls to avoid self-elimination (Bourdieu), and to give everyone the same chances of social success?

How can we provide disabled children with an education that meets their specific needs?Does school education always meet their needs, whatever their disability?

How can we ensure that the universal right to digital technology becomes a reality in terms of infrastructure, equipment, resources and uses, particularly for education, training and learning?

How can we revisit and transform our education systems to adapt them to tomorrow's world?
How can these questions be tackled jointly by researchers, practitioners and decision-makers, for better problem-solving and adaptation to different contexts?

These questions will be addressed at the 20th AFDECE symposium, to be held at the INSPE de Cayenne, Guyana, from January 16 to 18th, 2025. The comparative framework established by AFDECE, as well as the intercultural perspective of this 20th colloquium, offer a particularly fertile ground for rigorous and constructive exchanges around our theme. These exchanges should lead to concrete proposals for action.

The symposium will be attended by researchers, decision-makers, practitioners, trainers and teachers.

At the close of the symposium, the Dominique Groux prize will be awarded for the best thesis in comparative education, published in French in 2023-2024.

Deadline for proposals is August 31st 2024

Answers will be sent by September 30th 2024 

Registration will close on December 15th 2024