Educators in Context and Community (ECCO)

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW:  This is the 4^th annual ECCO Conference—where undergraduates present alongside University faculty, graduate students, professional teachers, and administrators—to learn from each other the complexities of teaching and learning in context and community.  The ECCO Conference is an integral part of the annual Educators in Context & Community (ECCO--formerly PCC) learning community program. 

The conference kicks off on Friday night, March 22, 2013 (6:00pm-11:00pm) with a Keynote Address, followed by the viewing of a significant documentary (oftentimes chosen by the Keynote speaker).  Then, on Saturday, March 23, 2013 (8:00am-5:00pm), conference presentations will be made by participants. 

The Conference is open and free to the general public.

CONFERENCE THEME:  The ECCO Conference welcomes presentations on any issue facing the field of education so long as the presentations are attentive to the impact of context and community on what is taught and learned.  We expect that conference presentations will help us better understand educational issues, tools, and concepts by placing them in context(s). 

We discourage decontextualized presentations—those that share insights and information  without sharing the circumstances surrounding their creation, that are overly general or abstract, strictly theoretical, or objectifying (or whose style of presentation is based on Freire’s “banking model”).  Instead, we prefer presentations which help participants make meaning and make connections between where, how, and when things happen; who they happen to, who takes action, who benefits, who doesn’t, etc. 

ECCO and the ECCO conference are motivated by the goal to become better educators/students/people (a) by exploring the commonalities and complexities of teaching and learning in multiple and diverse communities (both in- and outside the classroom; in rural, urban, and suburban settings, as well as the public, private, online, homeschooling, unschooling, formal, informal, and higher education within those settings), and (b) by being attentive to the impact of context (including but not limited to cultural, economic, historical, legal, political, and social contexts) on what is taught, learned, and experienced by all participants in those settings as well as those  impacted by those settings.

Click to download the 2013 Call for Abstracts—Due, Friday, February 22, 2013

Click to download the 2012 Conference Program