AERA SIG

Philosophical Studies in Education (76)

Announcement

SIG Philosophical Studies in Education 2006 UPDATE

Dear SIG Members, Dear SIG Presenters,

Due to unforeseen circumstances we will not be able to host a business meeting in San Francisco. In this e-mail we give you an update on SIG matters. If you have any questions, suggestions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Gert Biesta, SIG Chair    [ g.biesta@exeter.ac.uk  ]
Craig Cunningham, Program Chair   [ Craig.Cunningham@nl.edu ]
Deron Boyles, Secretary/Treasurer   [ dboyles@gsu.edu ]

We will have 6 sessions:

Friday 7th April, 4.05pm-6.05pm, Moscone Centre West, 2nd Floor, Room 2008
Expanding Our Ground-Maps: Philosophers of Education Reflect on Experience (Paper Session)

Saturday 8th April, 8.15am-9.45am, Moscone Centre West, 2nd Floor, Room 2011
Philosophy as Praxis: Thinking and Doing as Philosophers of Education
(Paper Session)

Saturday 8th April, 1.15pm-1.55pm, Moscone Centre West, 3rd Floor, Room 3005
Philosophical Investigations Motivated by 20th-Century Thinkers
(Paper Discussion--formerly known as Roundtables)

Sunday 9th April, 8.15-9.45am, Moscone Centre West, 2nd Floor, Room 2014
Reconstructing Enlightenment: Philosophers of Education Consider Their Influences (Paper Session)

Monday 10th April, 8.15am-10.15am, Moscone Centre South, Esplanade Ballroom, Section 302
Four Enduring Philosophies of Education and the Challenges Facing Teachers Today: An International Symposium

Monday 10 April, 12.25-1.55pm, Moscone Centre West, 2nd Floor, Room 2000
Soliciting Eros: Desire's Role in Education
(Symposium)

Our business meeting was scheduled for Friday 7th April, 6.15pm-7.45pm. You may instead wish to attend the John Dewey Society Annual Reception (Moscone Center West, 2nd Floor, Room 2002), which is scheduled for the same time and where you will be likely to meet many of our SIG members.

[2] Important: Changes in the allocation of sessions for AERA 2007
It is likely that AERA will introduce a new system for the allocation of program slots. In the past the number of sessions each SIG received was exclusively based on membership numbers. We have been doing well with our membership (currently 141) and as a result we have been able over the past years to have a good presence at AERA. Under the new system the allocation of sessions will be based on a combination of number of submissions and membership. On top of the allocation based on submissions, SIGs with a membership between 100 and 200 will receive one extra session. It's therefore important to keep up the membership figures as well. (If we ever go over 200 we will get another extra session!) This means that it is very important to have as many good quality submissions as possible for next year's program in order keep up our presence at AERA. Please make sure that you submit for 2007 and please spread the word to colleagues and friends!

[3] SIG website
The other bit of good news is that our SIG now has a dedicated webspace on the AERA website. You can find it by going through the AERA website, click on SIGs and then on our SIG - or go directly to http://www.aera.net/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=1168. If you have any messages or announcements you would like us to put on the website, please send them to g.biesta@exeter.ac.uk

[4] Secretary/Treasurer Report
After talking at length with the AERA office in Washington, D.C., our membership is currently at 141 members.  We are going by AERA counts since the reports they send to the SIG do not appear to accurately reflect our membership. That is, the reports we receive list numbers and amounts added to the treasury. From July 1, 2005 to December 30, 2005, for example, we had two entries by quarter (47 and 18 respectively).  The amount posted to our account after each of those numbers was $307.00 and $90.00.  If, however, each member pays $5, 47 members should yield only $205.00 and 18 members should yield $90.00.   I haven't pointed out this aspect of our account to AERA and do not intend to do so until I get a better understanding of their counting procedures.  There is, the membership should know, two links on the AERA page that SIG officers can access to find out data on the SIG.  The problem is that neither link provides data on totals.  One link connects to monthly activity (requiring twelve separate investigations and hand calculation) and the other link provides a scrambled and incoherent listing of members, but without numbers, thus requiring a hand count.  I am working with the central office to find out if these links will change after the submission + membership policy shift takes effect.

The treasury has $2,835.14.  Annual expenses in the recent past have only included refreshments for the Business Meeting.  Since that meeting is cancelled this year, we will keep those funds (~$150.00) for next year's meeting.  AERA also takes $225.00 for a "management fee."  The $2,835.14 reflects our total after the fee was subtracted.

GB/28th March 2006