Call for papers

The 17th AFDECE colloquium will take place

from Tuesday October 25 to Friday October 28 at the University of Havana.

You can propose a communication until June 1, 2022.

The Faculty of Foreign Languages of the University of Havana (Cuba)

is organizing the 17th AFDECE(French Association for Comparative Education and Exchanges); International Colloquium from

Tuesday October 25 to Friday October 28, 2022, 

at the Faculty of Letters, University of Havana, Cuba in collaboration with

 - the Education, Discourse and Learning Laboratory EDA (EA 4071) of the Université Paris Cité ;

 - the CRILLASH Laboratory of the University of the West Indies;

 - the Centro de Estudios de Género, Technological Institute of Santo Domingo-INTEC

Crossed looks on inequalities in education in the world: what actions to reduce them?

The 2022 colloquium is a continuation of the 2014 one  which focused on the issue of gender inequalities in the family, at school and at work and of the one of 2019 which focused on the issue of languages in relationship with sustainable development in its ecological, social, solidarity and environmental aspect.

The 17th AFDECE colloquium focuses on the issue of inequalities in relation to sustainable development. For us, the same concept of sustainable development implies development that respects social needs, the environment and ethics, that guarantees the well-being of individuals and that undertakes not to compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is about organizing the planet to allow it to exist in the long term. “Development” must be sustainable, inclusive and equitable. This means that we must first interrogate the question of inequalities. How should inequalities, and particularly in education, be reduced to allow genuine sustainable development?

The symposium will focus on all forms of inequalities in education: inequalities between the countries of the North and the countries of the South in terms of education, social and ethnic inequalities (and in particular inequalities linked to families), inequalities linked to gender, spatial inequalities (different quality of education depending on the country where you live, the urban neighborhoods or the villages where you live), inequalities related to disability, inequalities in terms of mother tongue or foreign languages, inequalities in terms of technologies communication, information, digital and IT (unequal understanding of the societal challenges of communication, information, digital and IT technologies)…

We will examine the modes of governance for the reduction of inequalities, at the macro level (educational policies) and micro level (establishments, civic actions, associations, etc.). More generally, we will examine the concepts of “governmentality” (Foucault, 1978) and “good governance”. If we want to move in the direction of sustainable human development, should we not encourage interactions between the State, the private sector and civil society to develop educational policies that reduce inequalities?

The comparative framework established by the AFDECE, as well as the intercultural perspective of this 17th colloquium, offer a particularly favorable ground for rigorous and constructive exchanges around our theme.

These exchanges should lead to proposals for concrete actions.

This symposium concerns researchers, decision-makers, trainers and teachers.

Papers may be presented in French, Spanish or English.

The speakers will be invited to rely on a slide show in one of the two other languages of the colloquium, different from the one they will use to make the oral presentation.

Papers are due by 01-06-2022

The work of the symposium will be organized as follows:

 Plenary sessions, in the form of conferences and round tables followed by debates;

 Papers in thematic workshops in the form of individual presentations made on the basis of proposals for contributions accepted by a scientific committee.

 Proposed workshops:

 -1. Inequalities in education: what educational policies should be implemented in different countries to reduce inequalities between students? Inequalities in education between countries of the North and the South: how can we reduce them and offer quality education to all?

 -2. Social inequalities: what is the influence of the social origin of students on their success at school, their choice of work and their social success? Inequalities linked to families: how to bring schools closer to families? How can we offer everyone the same chances of success at school, regardless of their social origin?

 -3. Ethnic inequalities: how does the ethnicity of students influence heir success at school, their choice of work and their social success? How can we give everyone the same opportunity to succeed in school, regardless of their ethnicity?

 -4. Gender inequalities: How does gender influence students' success in school, in their choice of work, and in their social success? How can we give everyone the same opportunity to succeed in school, regardless of their gender?

 -5. Inequalities linked to disability: why is inclusion necessary? How can we really implement it?

 -6. Inequalities in relation to communication, information, digital and computer technologies: how to remedy that? What training, what teaching devices, what learning can be implemented from kindergarten to higher education? Why and how can we encourage reflection on the societal challenges of communication, information, digital and computer technologies?

Instructions for authors

Your paper proposal must be in line with one of the workshop themes presented above. 

Your communication proposals must be sent to AFDECE exclusively in digital form no later than June 1, 2022.

The text of the proposal should not exceed 3000 characters including spaces.

The following must be included in a legible manner

• The title of the communication
• The name and surname of the author
• The institutional affiliation
• The position
• The email address

The proposal must be in line with one of the proposed themes.

 It will include :

• four to six key words
• a research problematic,
• the methodology used
• the essential results
• a short bibliography of the authors cited in the proposed text.

It should be sent in Word format to the following address: info@afdece.com

 Responses to accepted papers will be sent starting 01-07-2022

 The complete texts to be published must be sent before the conference, at the latest on 15-10-2022 (15 000 characters including spaces maximum).

 Instructions for oral presentations

Papers may be presented in French, Spanish or English. Speakers will be requested to use a slide show in one of the two other languages, different from the language used for the oral communication.