2020 Keynote Speakers
Dorothy Edith Smith
Dr. Smith is recognized as the founder of the sociological sub-disciplines of feminist standpoint theory and institutional ethnography. Dr. Smith argues that sociologists and scholars need to acknowledge the social experiences that we all bring into the field. She considers that all knowledge is produced from a ‘particular stand-point’, hence, she calls attention to everyday concrete social relations that constitute lived experiences. Dr. Smith argues that sociology marginalized women’s knowledge and to recognize their experiences and knowledge, she advocates for qualitative research methods including interviews and ethnography.
Dr. Smith’s research interests include sociology, educational studies and women’s studies, as well as sub-fields of sociology including feminist theory, family studies and methodology. She has authored several highly cited books including The Everyday World as Problematic (1987), The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Power (1990) and Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People (2005). She will share her insights as a social scientist and a researcher, and guide us to imagine ways to move forward collectively and envision the futures of education to prepare a more capable and equal world.
Noah W. Sobe
Noah W. Sobe is Professor of Cultural and Educational Policy Studies at Loyola University Chicago where he also directs the Center for Comparative Education. His research examines the global circulation of educational policies and practices with a particular interest in the ways that schools function as contested sites of cultural production for the making up of people, peoples, societies and worlds.
Prof. Sobe has served as President of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) (2017-2018) and on the Executive Committee of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) (2012-2018). He is an active member of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Comparative Education Society of Europe (CESE), the US History of Education Society (HES), the International Standing Conference on the History of Education (ISCHE), and the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES).
Professor Sobe is on the editorial boards of Paedagogica Historica, Educational Policy Analysis Abstracts EPAA, Espacio, Tiempo y Educación (Spain), Cadernos de História da Educação (Brazil), Journal for Educational, Cultural and Psychological Studies (Italy), Pedagogia Oggi (Italy) and the Hungarian Educational Research Journal. He is also a series editor of Studia Educationis Historica(Peter Lang) and Global Histories of Education (Palgrave).
At present, Prof. Sobe is working as a Senior Project officer for Education Research and Foresight at UNESCO on a project entitled “Futures of Education: Learning to Become.” UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative aims to generate global engagement and debate to reimagine learning and knowledge in relation to the multiple possible futures of humanity. Prof. Sobe will share his insights and help us to rethink education and educators’ role to shape the futures that are grounded on the principles of equity, peace, and sustainability.