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Dear OCIES members,

The OCIES Executive Committee and OCIES 47th Conference Convening Team thank you for your support in maintaining your registration for the OCIES Conference in Apia, postponed from last year because of the measles outbreak.

We are pleased to confirm that the conference will now take place at the National University of Samoa, Apia between June 29 – July 2, 2020.

Accepted abstracts of reconfirmed participants will be programmed in the 2020 conference. Abstracts do not need resubmission. However, minor necessary changes relating to co-presenters etc. can be requested by e-mailing the conference convener at: 

47thociessamoaconfese@nus.edu.ws

Call for new abstracts

If you wish to submit new abstracts for the conference, please go to: https://ocies.org/online-proposal-submission-2/

Please circulate this information in your circles and direct them to the OCIES website for information and the Eventbrite site link for registration: www.ocies.org

Reconfirmation of attendance

We anticipate that all participants still registered will attend. However, please reconfirm 2020 conference participation by 31 March 2020 via oceaniacies@gmail.com 

Registered participants unable to attend should contact oceaniacies@gmail.com  by 20 March 2020 for a refund less administration charges. After this date, no postponement related refunds will be possible. 

Registration fees

For new registrants, the 2020 conference fees are at 2019 fee levels. Fees are due on registration via the OCIES website. Samoa-based NUS participants can register and pay fees via the conference convener at NUS.

We wish you well in organising flights and accommodation and look forward to seeing you in Apia.

OCIES Executive Committee and Conference Convening Team

Venue: Melbourne Graduate School of Education

Date: 13 March 2020

Register: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/86883850937

Hosted by the Melbourne Graduate School of Education & Oceania Comparative and International Education Society

We’d like to invite you to a discussion with Michael Crossley, AcSS, Professor of Comparative and International Education and Director of the Research Centre for International and Comparative Studies, as well as the Education in Small States Research Group, at the University of Bristol, Graduate School of Education, UK, and Adjunct Professor of Education at The University of the South Pacific.

Professor Crossley will reflect on his 30+ years of comparative education research, with a focus on what we can learn from education in small island developing states who live at ‘the sharp end’ of environmental sustainability.

Professor Michael Crossley’s address will be followed by an interactive panel discussion with other eminent comparative education researchers and practitioners. A light lunch will be provided, followed by a session on getting published and a discussion about the future directions of our regional society, OCIES. The seminar will end with an opportunity for networking over drinks.

Please register your interest and we’ll be in touch with further details in the new year.

Dear OCIES members,

Happy 2020! I hope you’re enjoying your first month of the new year!

After some delay, the 2019 December issue of the OCIES Newsletter is finally published! Please visit https://ocies.org/newsletter-archive/ to take a look at the newsletter.

We look forward to seeing you at the postponed OCIES conference in Samoa!

Regards

Wendy Choo

OCIES members might want to save the date for the 3rd WCCES Symposium, which will be held in Lisbon, Portugal from 6-8 July! For more details check out WCCES main website: www.wcces-online.org

The advent of Wikipedia, Google, and several online learning institutions is challenging the conventional role of a teacher, who hitherto acted as a “sage on the stage”. Information is literally at the fingertips of learners, nevertheless the challenge of converting it into actionable knowledge still remains. Even artificial intelligence systems today are not advanced enough to replace the human teacher. It is highly likely that several components of teaching delivery may be taken over by technology in the times to come, however the role of a human teacher as a mentor, guide, and researcher is hard to be replaced. In the current global context, teachers at all levels of the education system face formidable challenges, such as the need to help future generations of citizens develop humanist values, dealing with rapid technological changes that affect their roles, identities and work, freeing themselves and their students from the grip of consumerism fueled by world markets. In the framework of comparative education, this symposium aims to attract views, experiences and insights from research on the teaching profession from different parts of the world, with an eye on these challenges. It would indeed help in understanding the multi-faceted role of a teacher today and tomorrow from varied cultural, linguistic, political and geographical perspectives.

Questions for Consideration

• How can the teaching profession rise to the call in the SDGs towards the promotion of the idea and requirements to nurture shared values caring for our local and global, social and physical environment in recognition of our common humanity?

• How can the teaching profession and teachers in the framework of comparative education promote and uphold common values recognizing our mutual dependence?

• What processes are taking place and/or can be envisioned to leverage the constructive impact of the education systems in different parts of the world?

• How can the technology be conceived as an effective tool that can help achieve the humanistic values and goals?

• What role can comparative education/educators/researchers play in protecting and fostering teachers’ freedoms when these are threatened?

• How can autonomous and critical thinking be applied in teaching and research to overcome the challenge of sustaining and promoting academic freedom?

• Can cross-national comparisons of values education be performed from the lower to higher levels of education systems?

• What are the implications for gender equity and values education as in many national contexts there is a gendered structure of the teaching profession characterized by a feminization of the lower levels while the upper levels, especially in the universities, are dominated by the male teachers and researchers?