51st OCIES CONFERENCE SAMOA NOV 2023
14th – 17th November 2023

THEME: QUALITY EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE FUTURES:  COMPARATIVE DIALOGUES

Quality education for a sustainable future is an important global goal due to rapid global educational, economic, social and cultural changes affecting all nations today. Education in developing and Third World countries is vulnerable due to limited human and physical resources.

As present and future educators, we acknowledge that education is a powerful avenue to overcome economic, political, social, cultural and educational hardship. To be educated is to be empowered with the skills, knowledge and wisdom to make choices so that individuals, families, nations and the world can sustainably experience happiness and enrichment and develop solutions to today’s societal issues.

Collaboration and sharing knowledge for sustainable solutions helps educators learn from each other, and work towards solutions to common problems. The 51st Annual Conference of the Oceania Comparative and International Education Society (OCIES), to be hosted by the National University of Samoa (NUS) in November 2023, will bring together keynote speakers, participants, and collaborators from all over the world to dialogue on current and future educational research and perspectives to guide quality and sustainable education for the future.

The dream for many individuals is for children to acquire global knowledge as security for their future. The question that many of us ask, is why is education an important factor in our lives? If we tend to respond from a Samoan perspective based on missionary educational influence, then we will have to say that we have seen education as a productive and effective invention towards creating a world for sustainable lives. When missionaries arrived in Samoa in 1830, they introduced Samoans to basic formal types of education, such as basic English speaking and writing, and simple mathematical applications (Tuia, 2013; Tuia, 2019; Esera & Tuia, 2021). 

Education today in Oceania is vulnerable and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that we provide quality education for all. Ongoing challenges with the quality of education represents issues with which many countries grapple regardless of their level of national income or development status. One of the biggest questions that academics are asking today is how to plan for and implement quality education for future generations. Comparative dialogue between nations advances the dialogue on this question.  The 51st Annual Conference of OCIES, in collaboration with the National University of Samoa, is our platform for bringing together researchers and educators from all over the globe to share, collaborate and propose solutions to drive quality education for a sustainable future.

Presenters are encouraged to align their abstracts/ session proposals to the conference theme, within one of the following sub-themes.

  1. Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education
  2. Values and Relationality in Education
  3. Climate Change and Sustainable Development
  4. TVET and Youth Education
  5. Teachers’ Voices, Perspectives and Motivation

We appreciate your taking into consideration the above ideas and thoughts for the preparation of your conference abstracts/ session proposals.

TYPES OF ABSTRACTS/ SESSION PROPOSALS

OCIES 2023 invites abstracts/session proposals that connect to the overall theme in either general or specific terms. Proposals can be submitted in the form of the following.

INDIVIDUAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS (can include up to two co-authors/presenters)

All individual papers (from one or two authors/presenters) will be programmed according to topic with no more than three other individual papers in a 90-minute session. Each presenter should plan a 15 – 20-minute individual presentation (slideshows welcome but not necessary). Each paper session will have an assigned Chair who will moderate and keep presenters to their allocated time. Submissions should contain:

Panel Sessions

Panel sessions provide an opportunity for in-depth discussion relating to the conference theme by a group of presenters. A panel of three will be allocated 60 minutes, and a panel of four to five presenters will be allocated up to 90 minutes. These sessions are to be facilitated by a nominated Chair and can include a Discussant. Abstracts should include the following:

Tok Stori / Talanoa / Roundtable Presentations

Tok stori /  Talanoa / Roundtable sessions are designed to allow for maximum interaction among presenters and between presenters and attendees. We will consider two types of Tok stori / Talanoa / Roundtable proposals:

A single-session Tok stori / Talanoa / Roundtable will be allocated 90 minutes and be chaired by the person submitting the proposal who will be knowledgeable about the focus of the session and who will have invited 4-6 presenters to participate. The chairperson will be responsible for facilitating interaction and participation throughout the session. Each presenter will be allocated 5-7 minutes to be followed by collective discussion between designated presenters and with other attendees. Single session Tok stori/Roundtable/Talanoa abstracts should include the following:

Multi-session Tok stori/Talanoa/Roundtable will be allocated two 90-minute sessions to allow for interlinked conversations around the same theme/topic. The same person may chair/mediate more than one of the linked tok stori/talanoa sessions or each may have a different chairperson. Chairpersons should be knowledgeable about the broad focus of the session(s) and the tok stori/talanoa process. The proposer/chairperson-mediator will be responsible for setting the conditions for participation and inviting participants. It is expected that as well as the stated number of participants who will address the topic, these sessions will be open to attendees, primarily there to listen and learn but who may be included in the tok stori/talanoa as the chair/mediator determines.   Multi-session tok stori / talanoa / roundtable proposals should include the following:

Workshops

Workshops will be practical in approach and allocated 60 minutes. Workshop abstracts should include the following information:

Exhibition

Exhibition is an excellent way to present work in progress for those who are working on a project. Your exhibition will be displayed in a way that you think addresses the aim of your exhibition. You are also expected to respond to participants’ questions during the viewing time of the materials in display. The exhibition must correlate with the theme of the conference. Examples of exhibitions include poster presentations, visual/audio/other type of exhibition.

Exhibition abstracts should include the following information:

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Abstract submission closes on July 31, 2023. Extended to 18 August 2023.

SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL

Complete an abstract / session proposal following the guidelines above and the cover sheet and send both as Word documents in English to: 2023ociesconferencesamoa@nus.edu.ws before the deadline listed below.

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

Please register to attend the conference to complete your abstract submission. You can register online by clicking HERE.

Please visit www.ocies.org to download a hard copy of the conference registration form if preferred.

KEY DATES

May 15, 2023 International early-bird registration opens Local registration opens Call opens for abstracts/session proposals
July 31, 2023 Deadline for abstracts/ session proposals Abstracts/session proposals will be reviewed as they come in, with notification of acceptance or otherwise within two weeks.
August 11, 2023 Preliminary conference programme available
August 16, 2023 International early-bird registration closes
August 17, 2023 International standard registration begins
October 7, 2023 International standard registration ends
October 15, 2023 Final conference programme available
November 14-17, 2023 51st CONFERENCE of OCIES, National University of Samoa, SAMOA.