Call for papers and aims 

This conference proposes, according to Gérard Vergnaud's work, to reconsider the issues of education and training with a view to the development of human beings by and for themselves. His scientific practice has the merit of going against the grain of a commercial orientation of education and training systems that have shown their failure (alarming disaffection for the education profession, massive recruitment of contractual workers, for example). On the one hand, we are moving towards scientific practice guided by the demand for truth in order to shed light on the conditions for the development of human beings with and for human beings; on the other hand, we are reducing human beings to a market value by shaping them to be profitable. Within the framework of neoliberal policies, societal issues are locked into technical models of consultancies that serve the subjugation of people. The lack of interest in scientific approaches is matched by a propagandistic drift of education and training in the service of the market.

We therefore propose to debate the concepts and theoretical frameworks of education, training and the transmission of experience in formal and informal spaces that place the human being at their centre.

Three main lines are proposed:

• The place given to the development of the human being by and for himself in education and training:

What are the aims of education and training systems? Are these systems exclusively geared towards the acquisition of knowledge and/or skills? What consideration is given to the autonomy and emancipation of the child, of the human being, in learning, education and training activities? In what forms?

• The epistemological foundations of education and training systems

What links are built between training actions and their conceptualisation? What are the disciplinary crossovers at work in the design of the systems? Why do they do this? In what way and how do they question formal and informal education and training spaces?

• The relationship between trainers, researchers, learners and learners:

What are the forms and tools for taking subjects into consideration in education (development of critical thinking, equal opportunities, inclusion and prevention of discrimination, etc.)? In what way and how do the evaluations of practices, educational projects, knowledge and skills respond to the new challenges of society? In what way do they concern the development of the human being? What is the place and the social responsibility of the researcher, the trainer and the traineress in the accompaniment of the development of subjects? What is the relationship between the development of subjects and institutions or territories?

Different types of contributions are possible:

These themes constitute supports for reflection on thorny social and educational issues such as the place left to the human being in education and training systems, inclusion processes, teaching and learning in multicultural contexts, the transmission of professional expertise and the dissemination of pedagogical innovation, the intergenerational link, the harmonious combination of different spaces for the construction and dissemination of knowledge, abuse in education and training, or the use and place of digital technology in learning.

In addition to the conferences, lectures, posters and round tables, there will be spaces for various forms of communication to encourage exchanges between practitioners, decision-makers, researchers and policy-makers: discussions based on the screening of short films, the participation of new actors from the social and solidarity economy, associations or think-tanks (e.g. Make Sense Education, Scholavie, Vers le Haut), the possibility of presenting a research show or other forms of presentation and discussion of science (further details will be provided shortly).