Coordenators:
Eva Gonçalves [Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa]
Lia Pappámikail [ESE Santarém]
Susana Batista [NOVA FCSH]
In a context marked by ongoing and interconnected crises, persistent inequalities, rapid technological transformations, and democratic tensions, education emerges simultaneously as a promise and as a field of controversy, being called upon to create or transform possible futures (UNESCO, 2022).
More than simply one sector among others within the complex machinery of society, education — particularly public schools — can be understood as a project for the future, rooted in a complex historical trajectory shaped by tensions, ambivalences, and disputes over its purposes, forms, and responsibilities. Between expectations of social redemption and structural limitations, schools continue to be invested with a central role in addressing collective problems — from social cohesion to sustainability, from citizenship to innovation — even though, as Dubet and Duru-Bellat (2020) underline, many of the problems manifested within schools originate outside their sphere of intervention, making any promise of an exclusively school-based solution (or educational, if this discussion includes the educational field in a broader sense), necessarily incomplete.
Within this framework, the relationship between education and society constitutes a privileged domain through which to question the quality of contemporary democracies. As Biesta (2019, 2025) argues, the tensions between political and educational discourses reveal not only different conceptions of what education should be, but also broader disputes concerning the directions of collective life and the futures that societies seek to imagine, reproduce, or transform. The pressure placed on education to respond to multiple — and at times contradictory — mandates intensifies its character as a field in constant reconfiguration, where continuous public policy intervention coexists with new investments, new forms of education, and a growing diversity of actors.
Thus, thinking about education today implies recognising it as a continuously expanding process that extends beyond the boundaries of the school and is embedded within a broader ecosystem of practices, institutions, and temporalities. By producing critical knowledge about these dynamics, the sociology of education plays a fundamental role in understanding these transformations, identifying their constitutive tensions, and problematising their promises. Rather than offering closed answers, it contributes to sustaining an informed and plural reflection on the possible paths of education as a collective project for the future (Neves & Justino, 2018).
In this sense, the Thematic Section on Sociology of Education invites the submission of paper proposals from sociologists and other social scientists, arising from research and/or professional practice developed within the educational field. While acknowledging the differences between more academic and more praxiological forms of work, proposals should clearly explain their methodological approach and be grounded in work/interventions that innovate in the production of knowledge.
Proposals should include a theoretical framework, objectives, methodology, main results, and conclusions. Contributions of a professional nature may take the form of experience reports, including context, objectives, actors involved, methodologies, activities developed, and key learnings.
Proposals should make a relevant contribution to the discussion of the Congress theme and, more specifically, to this call, focusing on the role of the sociology of education in producing scientific and technical knowledge capable of informing public debate, supporting collective decision-making, strengthening democratic life, and reflecting on current processes (such as recent transformations in access to the teaching profession, the datafication of schools, new educational actors and territories, essential learning frameworks, etc.), with a view to contributing to the construction of educational and training futures.
Proposals must be submitted via the personal area by the deadline specified in the submission guidelines.
Proposals may be submitted in Portuguese, English, Spanish or French.
The maximum length of the abstract is 2,500 characters (excluding spaces).
Evaluation will consider the clarity of objectives, methodological adequacy, relevance of results, and the overall quality of the proposal.
The Congress will take place in person at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Algarve, in Faro, from 23 to 25 March 2027, and may include online sessions on 22 March. At the time of submission, authors must indicate whether they intend to participate in person or online.
All the authors will be invited to submit the full papers for publication in the Congress Proceedings.
References
Biesta, G. (2019). What kind of society does the school need? Redefining the democratic work of education in impatient times. Em Studies in Philosophy and Education, Dordrecht, 38 (6), p. 657-668, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-019-09675-y
Biesta, G. (2025). The future of education in the impulse society: Why schools and teachers matter. Prospects 55, 335–343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-025-09723-1
Dubet, F. & Duru-Bellat, M. (2020). L’école peut-elle sauver la démocratie? Paris, Seuil.
UNESCO. (2022). Reimaginando os nossos futuros juntos: um novo contrato social para a educação. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381115
Neves, M., & Justino, D. (2018). Todo o projeto educativo é uma opção moral. Em Neves, M. & Justino, D. (Coord.). Ética Aplicada. Educação. Edições 70.
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