Call for Chapters - Edited Volume on Theory and Method for Educational Research in Post-Socialist Contexts - Reimagining Utopias: Theory and Method for Educational Research in Post-Socialist Contexts

Call for chapters in an edited book tentatively titled Reimagining Utopias: Theory and Method for Educational Research in Post-Socialist Contexts.  The editors – Iveta Silova (Lehigh University), Noah W. Sobe (Loyola University Chicago), Alla Korzh (Columbia University), and Serhiy Kovalchuk (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) – invite researchers to submit case studies and conceptual pieces that address fieldwork dilemmas and the complexities of conducting research in post-socialist contexts.  This project builds on a series of webinars and conference panels sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Eurasia Special Interest Group, however we welcome new submissions and request that new chapter proposals be submitted by May 15, 2014. We plan to hold a webinar for contributors in June 2014 and require that final drafts of chapters be submitted by October 1, 2014.

Educational change in post-socialist contexts has received extensive scrutiny and examination from researchers from a range of disciplines, yet the Comparative and International Education field lacks a work that hones in on the fieldwork dilemmas and the ways that theory and method need to be mobilized to better understand education in post-socialist contexts.  Four key questions frame the project:

(1) How do we reconcile the appropriation of Western theoretical frameworks and methodological tools for research in post-socialist region(s); and how do these frameworks and tools complement or limit our research imagination?

(2) What methodological problems do we encounter in conceptualizing and conducting research on post-socialist education transformations? How can we creatively mobilize theory to address methodological problems in the field?

(3) What counts as knowledge(s)? How do we validate knowledge(s) that our research produces in post-socialist spaces? What are the dynamics of Western and indigenous knowledge production? What are the alternative ways of producing and validating knowledge?

(4) What is the purpose of our research beyond its contribution to existing scholarship? What are the intellectual, ethical, and political dimensions of doing research in post-socialist education spaces?

By advancing a conversation about the specific dilemmas, contours, and features of doing research in post-socialist contexts, this volume aims to become an essential reference point for scholarship on post-socialist education.  Through individual case studies, conceptual pieces, and synthetic editorial essays, the volume will bring clarity to the broad range of the theoretical and methodological challenges that confront scholars during research design, data collection and analysis, as well as in the presentation and dissemination of research findings. These challenges range from accessing research sites, to building rapport with participants, to negotiating positionality in the post-socialist context, to dealing with IRB issues. The volume will also treat the political, social, cultural and ethical dilemmas that arise when the new and old utopias of social science confront the new and old utopias of post-socialism.

Contributors are invited to foreground their own fieldwork experiences and research dilemmas as part of taking up one of several of the above questions.  Manuscripts should be no longer than 8,500 words including references.  Please direct proposals and queries to Iveta Silova (ism207@lehigh.edu), Noah W. Sobe (nsobe@luc.edu), Alla Korzh (ak2875@tc.columbia.edu), and Serhiy Kovalchuk (serhiy.kovalchuk@utoronto.ca).

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Noah W. Sobe
Associate Professor, Cultural & Educational Policy Studies
Program Chair and Graduate Program Director, Cultural & Educational Policy Studies
Director, Center for Comparative Education
Co-Editor, European Education
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Loyola University Chicago
820 North Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611  USA
Tel: +1 312-915-6954
Email: nsobe@luc.edu  Twitter: @noahsobe
Faculty Website: http://www.luc.edu/faculty/nsobe/index.shtml
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Center for Comparative Education Website: http://luc.edu/cce
Center for Comparative Education Blog: http://blogs.luc.edu/cce
European Education: http://www.european-education.org

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