Description

Talking Circles offer an opportunity to meet other delegates with similar interests and concerns. Delegates self-select into groups based on broad thematic areas and then engage in extended discussion about the issues and concerns they feel are of utmost importance to that segment of the Research Network. Participation is open, encouraged, and supported.

How Do They Work?

The Talking Circles are grouped around each of the conference themes so discussions can focus on the specific areas of interest represented by each theme. 

How to Begin:

Allow members of the group to briefly introduce themselves. 

The facilitator should encourage open dialogue and ensure a collegial and respectful conversation. 

Starting Questions to Assist Discussion

Talking Circle: Who are we?

What is the territory, or scope, or landscape of this thematic area?

What are the burning issues, the key questions for this theme?

What are the forces or drivers that will affect us as professionals, thinkers, citizens, and aware and concerned people whose focus is this particular theme?

What are the future directions (in research, in theory-building, in practice) for this thematic area?

2024 Special Focus - People, Education, and Technology for a Sustainable Future

Today's world, increasingly global and interconnected, faces a series of challenges related to the use of technology, education, the creation and management of knowledge, inequalities, and environmental impact. To approach these challenges and turn them into progressive opportunities, it is necessary that we reflect on pathways to a more advanced, inclusive, and sustainable future—pathways from the university and society through research, education, and debate.

This conference aims to be an open and dynamic, multidisciplinary, and international forum to address these challenges from various standpoints, critically examining the tools of technology and knowledge. The debate at the conference is organized around four major themes, raising fundamental issues of our current society and addressing in a transversal way: 1) Histories of Technology; 2) Knowledge Makers; 3) Social, Cultural, and Intercultural Realities; and 4) Curriculum, Evaluation and Technologies in Education. The conference will be a meeting point and a collaboration framework so that people advance, with the help of knowledge, education, and technology, towards a more productive, fulfilling, and sustainable life.