Theme: Cultivating Togetherness: Envisioning Transformative Pedagogy for a Shared Future
Friday, March 21, 2025 | 11:30 a.m. onwards | Room 310, Scarfe Building
Download a copy of the EGS 2025 poster
The Education Graduate Students (EGS) Conference, an annual event organized by the students of the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, is set to take place once again. We welcome and encourage participation from all departments within the Faculty of Education. The main purpose of the conference is to showcase the work undertaken by graduate students in all its diversity of subjects and conceptual approaches to theory and practice. This event is also intended to provide a community space for participants to receive feedback from peers, and an opportunity to practice in preparation for national and international conferences.
The theme for this year’s conference is Cultivating Togetherness: Envisioning Transformative Pedagogy for a Shared Future
What does it mean to be together, to think together? In a climate of socio-political divisiveness, hyper-individualism, and violence (of varied kinds), how might we imagine togetherness intentionally and educationally, especially when “living together, however difficult it may be, remains an ethical and political imperative” (Butler, 2015, p. 27)?
This year’s theme of ‘Cultivating Togetherness: Envisioning Transformative Pedagogy for a Shared Future’ invites us to examine as much as imagine the role of education and of teachers in building communities of resilience, hope and change, built on foundations of justice, equity and solidarity. Drawing from but not limiting to UNESCO’s (2024) vision of transformative education, the 12th EGS Conference seeks to explore how education can be a powerful tool to bridge divides, amplify marginalized voices, and strengthen collective well-being.
Togetherness implies relatedness, a being in and with the world that is crucial to educational work, particularly as it increasingly becomes inseparable from any vision for a shared human future. Envisioning the future, and not only preparing for it, requires us to bear witness to the past and the present it has shaped in particular ways, and attempt a reflective leap of imagination, which can “defamiliarize the familiar taken-for-granted and allow us to see it in a different light” (Greene, 2007, p. 2). In doing so, we interrupt and disrupt the status quo and our “worn indifference”, and create authentic openings to become otherwise, and engage in transforming ourselves and the world. As we weave our educational efforts to confront world challenges, the Conference represents an opportunity to explore pathways for embedding sustainability, critical thinking, and ethical responsibility into educational practices.
References
Butler, J. (2015). Notes toward a performative theory of assembly (1st ed.). Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674495548
Greene, M. (2007). Imagination and the healing arts. Maxine Greene Institute Library. https://maxinegreene.org/uploads/library/imagination_ha.pdf