Invisible College 2027 Call for Proposals
Invisible College for Research on Teaching Theme: Making Space
We invite you to join us for Invisible College.
Call for Papers:
Dear members of Invisible College for Research on Teaching,
We invite you to join us in Toronto, Canada, for Invisible College.
This year, Invisible College for Research on Teaching will be held on TBD, in Toronto, Canada. The theme is Making Space. (Please note that the location of Invisible College is yet to be determined.)
Invisible College for Research on Teaching invites stories that make space for what we value in education.
“a longing for a different, and better way of living, a reconciliation of thought and life, desire and the real, in a manner that critiques the status quo without projecting a full-blown image of what future society should look like” (Gardiner, 2000, p. 17).
As the current educational world that we inhabit within schools gets ever more complex, we strive towards capturing the moments that connect what is human within us with the work we do.
Modern complexities that we are challenged with include “an accelerated pace of life, accompanied by a compression and even a dissolution of geographical distance” (Parking & Craig, 2006 p. 9) as continually driven by the a-synchronicity of time of our work which is mediated by technology and a computer screen. Our work has begun to lose many of its established structure, rhythms (Clandinin & Connelly, 1986), and traditions.
- Increasingly, personal communications are replaced with Emails that pour into our already full Inboxes flooded with communiques demanding our immediate attention, each announcing its arrival with a “ping” as if a reminder of our ongoing connection to technology was needed.
- More and more responsibilities are thrust upon educators that lie beyond their initial job descriptions. Duties once performed by a staff member whose position now sits empty fall upon individual faculty who now wear many administrative hats, as finances flow upward, and responsibilities fall downwards.
- Technology and AI integration in many aspects of teaching and learning require faculty navigation.
This intensification is often also troubling because of the ways in which these tasks are often far from what we know are the basis of good teaching. The vacuum of our time spent on what educators value is a characteristic of demoralization, (Santoro, 2021) or an inability to see and realize ‘the good’ in the work we do, as we seek for avenues to reclaim our ‘best-loved professor’ selves (Craig, et al 2023).
As we strive to continue find the potential in the “everyday” of our work (Highmore, 2004) where we can create space for:
- human interactions and collaborations
- reclamation of our time to support self-reflection and reflexivity
- quality not quantity of interactions
- we can take control over the pace of our lives
- where we can focus on ‘self-artistry’ and examine ‘new possibilities of living’
Understanding that rejecting the efficiency standards of education will require both internal practice by those wishing to reject it, but also a reminder that real learning, growth and “wisdom is really delayed gratification” (Weinstein, 2026) that needs to be modeled by those who remember how it is practiced.
We offer an opportunity for conscious re-storying (Craig, 2000) to reclaim the most important of what has been lost to the current culture of educational efficiency.
Submissions may include your stories retold, your choices about what you most value about what you do and how that is modeled for our students. And how we are managing the “ethics of time” (Melucci, 1998), whereby our consciousness both constitutes and is constituted by time (Manoussakis, 2017).
References:
Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1986). On narrative method, personal philosophy, and narrative unities in the story of teaching. Journal of research in science teaching, 23(4), 293-310.
Craig, C. J., McDonald, D. M., & Curtis, G. A. (Eds.). (2023). Learning, Leading, and the Best-Loved Self in Teaching and Teacher Education. Palgrave Macmillan.
Craig, C. J. (2000). Stories of Schools/Teacher Stories: A Two‐Part Invention on the Walls Theme. Curriculum inquiry, 30(1), 11-41.
Elkind, D. (1989). Miseducation: Young children at risk. Pediatrics 83 (1), 119-121.
Gardiner, M (2000). Critiques of Everyday Life, London, Routledge.
Highmore, B. (2002) “Homework: Routine, social aesthetics and the ambiguity of everyday life’, Cultural Studies, 18 (2), 306-327
Manoussakis, J. P. (2017). The ethics of time: A phenomenology and hermeneutics of change. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Melucci, A. (1998). Inner time and social time in a world of uncertainty. Time & Society, 7(2-3), 179-191.
Parkins, W., & Craig, G. (2006). Slow living. Berg.
Santoro, D. A. (2021). Demoralized: Why teachers leave the profession they love and how they can stay. Harvard Education Press.
Claxton, G. (2006). Thinking at the edge: Developing soft creativity. Cambridge journal of education, 36(3), 351-362.
Weinstein, B., & Heying, H. (Hosts). (2026, October). Ancient Crimes in Modern Times: The 346th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying. In The DarkHorse Podcast. You Tube.
Please submit your proposal by extended deadline of March 1st for consideration for the Invisible College for Research on Teaching. Proposals may follow the conference theme or be of your own choosing.
*Note: If you are unable to submit the Google Form, please email your proposal to invisiblecollege4teacherrsch@gmail.com by the extended March 1st deadline.
Please include the following in a word document or pdf.
Your name:
Title of Session Proposed:
Participants (names, affiliation, contacts)
Corresponding Author Name and Email:
Proposal should contain:
- 150 word Abstract of your session: (For inclusion in the Conference Program)
- < 500 word description of the session
Please share this information with colleagues that may be interested in sharing their work.
We look forward to seeing you in Toronto!
Invisible College for Research on Teaching
Registration Fee: $TBD
Why Choose Invisible College for Research on Teaching?
Invisible Colleges were initially formed as extra-institutional groups of scholars who met together to forward ideas. Each year we would like to posit a theme as a reflective device that may guide our work.
*Note: If you are unable to submit the Google Form, please email your proposal to invisiblecollege4teacherrsch@gmail.com extended deadline to March 1, 2027.