Theme:

The theme for this conference which celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Transformative Learning Centre, is "Lifelong citizenship learning, participatory democracy and social change: local and global perspectives." This conference builds on three conferences held recently at OISE/UT: the first international conference on Social Movement Learning (March 2001), the fourth international conference on Transformative Learning (November 2001), and the third forum of the Citizenship Education Research Network (May 2002).

Topics:

Among some of the possible topics and concerns for discussion in this conference are the following:

• lifelong learning: dominant and counter-hegemonic discourses, policies and practices
• the contestation over citizenship and democracy; feminist and indigenous perspectives
• domestication or emancipation? A Freirean reading of citizenship education
• local governance, democratization of the state, citizen engagement in municipal governments
• connections between citizenship learning, participatory democracy and social change
• pedagogical dimensions of participatory democracy
• learning democracy by doing it; experiential civic and political learning
• acquisition of civic values, attitudes, knowledge and competencies
• citizenship education for neoliberal globalization or for humanist planetarization?
• citizenship learning throughout life in formal, non-formal and informal settings
• nation-states and supranational entities: implications for citizenship
• global citizenship, universal human rights, issues of equality and difference
• ecological citizenship; ecopedagogy and eco-justice; the Charter of the Earth
• citizenship education in multicultural societies; intercultural curricula;
• civic engagement and political learning of immigrants and refugees
• bridges between global education and local community development
• workplace democracy and co-operatives: learning deliberation and decision-making
• digital democracy; pedagogy of virtuality; peopleüs journalism
• citizen engagement and learning in healthy communities,
• public spaces and the commons; pedagogy of the city
• citizenship learning in healthy communities, educating cities and multiple democratic spaces
• substantive and formal democracy; issues of inclusion and exclusion
• deliberative practices, conflict resolution, education for a culture of peace
• gender, race and class issues in citizenship learning and participatory democracy
• representative and participatory democracy: theoretical and practical issues
• social movement learning; participatory action research
• popular education; legislative theatre
• citizenship, individuation and cooptation
• citizenship education, indoctrination and critical thinking

This conference was made possible by a generous contribution from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). This work was also carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.