Unresolved Global Dilemmas in Education: Emergent Contested Complexity

Across continents and cultures, emergent contested complexity is increasingly misrecognized within education as a social institution, set of organizations and set of interrelated professions. A reluctance to carry out critically-framed studies, develop novel theory and utilize advanced modes of inquiry has led to disconnects between explanations of contemporary complexity (See Keywords) and policy ‘debate’ that has increasingly tenuous connections to societal need. In education, in general and Finland’s education system in particular, terms like internationalization, multiculturalism, immigration and diversity are daily mixed-up, confused and conflated by actors who no longer realize that the methodological nationalism(s) they are trapped within allows no substantive, theoretical, methodological nor empirical traction on emergent contested complexities. Comparatively speaking, the common feature of distinct forms of methodological nationalism(s) is that they are built upon decades of unquestioned assumptions and their unintended consequences. This session features four provocative studies and approaches that are breaking new ground in reconnecting critical inquiry – concerning education – to societal needs.

Keywords: Access; Comparative and International Education; Equity; Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Intersectionality; Migration; Mobilities; Social Inclusion; Stratification

Session Organizer: Internationalization, Intersectionality, Mobility and Migration Research Team, Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä

Session Chair: David Hoffman, Senior Researcher, Finnish Institute for Educational Research

Schedule

09:15 - 09:45 Towards global responsibility in higher education (Elina Lehtomäki & Josephine Moate)
09:45 - 10:15 Encounters and experiences motivating migration research; old issues, new challenges (Sirpa Korhonen & Katarzyna Kärkkäinen)
10:15 - 10:45 Break/Discussion about SI/Book proposal edited by host research team
10:45 - 11:15 Can you come with an empty pot: vulnerability and anxiety of conscientious academia (Anatoly Stikhin)
11:15 - 11:45 Comparatively Viable Critical Inquiry: Conceptually Problematizing and Empirically Illuminating ‘the Invisible’ (Blanca Torres-Olave, David Hoffman & Cecilia Rios-Aguilar)