The European Conference on Educational Research, EERA's annual meeting, took place recently in Slovenia. As usual it was well attended by researchers from all over Europe and in particular from Britain. Absent panel members were fewer in number this year. Networks are becoming the engine of the Conference and through their membership organization, refereeing procedures, symposia and convenors, distinctive approaches and projects can be developed in educational research. Networks include Social Justice, VET, Youth at Risk, Teacher Education, and Philosophy and new ones have been proposed in History of Education, ICT and Research Partnerships.
Networks have the potential to be organizers of new directions in European educational research.
The growing strength of the Networks is reflected in the new demands by the EERA Council upon them. Their role in the organization of ECER and the creation of a European conversation in their area has altered the purpose of paper submission. In future one of the categories by which a submission must be judged will be its capacity to enable a European conversation to develop. There is a tendency for some submissions to be cast within a particular national debate or event rather than projected into a European conversation. The distinctiveness of ECER comes from its creation of new space in Europe in which the desirability and obligations of collaboration and dialogue are being encouraged.