The 4th Barcelona Conference on Education (BCE2023)

19–23 September, 2023 | Held in Barcelona, Spain, and Online


Welcome to The 4th Barcelona Conference on Education (BCE2023), held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, Japan.

For those of you who attended an IAFOR conference before COVID appeared from over the horizon, you will remember the calibre of research presented, the thrill of listening to engaging keynotes, discussions with respected plenary speakers, and socialising with like-minded scholars from across the globe. The opportunity to not only meet with old friends from previous IAFOR conferences, but also to introduce new minds into your intellectual network.

So what about conferences under the “new normal” COVID restrictions in effect across the world? IAFOR saw very quickly that the online and hybrid conferences were the only way to keep the heart of the academic community beating, and adapted their activities to suit this rare situation with finesse. Of course, nothing can substitute the dynamism of in-person conferences, but the IAFOR online experience not only maintains the superb quality one expects of an IAFOR conference, it surpasses, by taking advantage of innovative and exciting and new formats that could only have been envisioned in the wake of a global crisis. How about a face-to-face conversation between two experts, writers, filmmakers, from countries thousands of miles apart? Experts who otherwise would have been unable to meet due to geographical or political adversities– a magnificent opportunity indeed.

There are more reasons than ever before to join BCE and BAMC in Barcelona. The era of the online and hybrid conference is strange and unfamiliar, but also revolutionary and liberating, opening doors and allowing its speakers’ words to be heard across the world.

The Barcelona Conference on Education (BCE2023) will be held alongside The Barcelona Conference on Arts, Media & Culture (BAMC2023), and many of the sessions will concentrate on areas at the intersection of education and the arts and humanities. In keeping with IAFOR’s commitment to interdisciplinary study, delegates at either conference are encouraged to attend sessions in other disciplines. Registration for either conference will allow delegates to attend sessions in the other. We expect the resultant professional and personal collaborations to endure for many years, and we look forward to seeing you in Barcelona and online!

The BCE2023 Programme Committee


IAFOR Journal of Education (Scopus Indexed Journal)

This conference is associated with the Scopus and DOAJ listed IAFOR Journal of Education.
 

Key Information
  • Venue & Location: Held in Barcelona, Spain (and online)
  • Dates: Tuesday, September 19, 2023 ​to Saturday, September 23, 2023
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: May 03, 2023*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: July 05, 2023
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: August 10, 2023

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.


Present, Publish, Participate On-site or Online

Continued excellence in service, wherever you are

Over the course of the global coronavirus pandemic, our commitment to you; academics, scholars and educators around the world, was to continue to run conferences where and how possible, developing and innovating systems that would allow our attendees to engage online and in hybrid spaces, allowing those who chose not to travel, or who could not travel, opportunities to present, publish and participate online.

Flexibility

For us at IAFOR, the pandemic has allowed us to reimagine the conference, respecting the best of both onsite and online engagement, and the integrity of each format, and while respecting the coherence of the conference offering previously unavailable opportunities for flexibility.

Even though global policy restrictions addressing travel are loosening we will be as flexible as we can our side to allow delegates to choose between registration types between “on-site” and “online” up until six weeks before the conference, so that you can be assured that whatever your situation, you can present, publish, and participate.

ALL – A Response to the COVID-19 Virus-->


About IAFOR’s Education Conferences

IAFOR promotes and facilitates new multifaceted approaches to one of the core issues of our time, namely globalisation and its many forms of growth and expansion. Awareness of how it cuts across the world of education, and its subsequent impact on societies, institutions and individuals, is a driving force in educational policies and practices across the globe. IAFOR’s conferences on education have these issues at their core. The conferences present those taking part with three unique dimensions of experience, encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating heightened intercultural awareness and promoting international exchange. In short, IAFOR’s conferences on education are about change, transformation and social justice. As IAFOR’s previous conferences on education have shown, education has the power to transform and change whilst it is also continuously transformed and changed.

Globalised education systems are becoming increasingly socially, ethnically and culturally diverse. However, education is often defined through discourses embedded in Western paradigms as globalised education systems become increasingly determined by dominant knowledge economies. Policies, practices and ideologies of education help define and determine ways in which social justice is perceived and acted out. What counts as "education" and as "knowledge" can appear uncontestable but is in fact both contestable and partial. Discourses of learning and teaching regulate and normalise gendered and classed, racialised and ethnicised understandings of what learning is and who counts as a learner.

In many educational settings and contexts throughout the world, there remains an assumption that teachers are the possessors of knowledge which is to be imparted to students, and that this happens in neutral, impartial and objective ways. However, learning is about making meaning, and learners can experience the same teaching in very different ways. Students (as well as teachers) are part of complex social, cultural, political, ideological and personal circumstances, and current experiences of learning will depend in part on previous ones, as well as on age, gender, social class, culture, ethnicity, varying abilities and more.

IAFOR has several annual conferences on education across the world, exploring common themes in different ways to develop a shared research agenda which develops interdisciplinary discussion, heightens intercultural awareness and promotes international exchange.


Call for Papers

The BCE Organising Committee welcomes papers from a wide variety of interdisciplinary and theoretical perspectives, and submissions are organised into the following streams:

  • Teaching & Learning
  • Educational Structures
  • Community & Society
  • Language & Culture
  • Psychology, Mind & Brain
  • Innovation & Technology
  • Special Themes and Areas of Focus

About IAFOR

“Inspiring Global Collaborations”

Founded in 2009, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is a politically independent non-partisan and non-profit interdisciplinary think tank, conference organiser and publisher dedicated to encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating intercultural awareness and promoting international exchange, principally through educational interaction and academic research. Based in Japan, its main administrative office is in Nagoya, and its research centre is in the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), a graduate school of Osaka University. IAFOR runs research programs and events in Asia, Europe and North America in partnership with universities and think tanks, and has also worked on a number of multi-sector cooperative programs and events, including collaborations with the United Nations and the Government of Japan. Read more about IAFOR.