The Childism Institute

Aiming to stimulate childist research

The aim of the programme is to stimulate childist research across the academy, test and evolve the concept of childism, and inform childist social and political justice processes. It does so by developing a range of projects including colloquia, workshops, conferences, speakers, collaborative publications, opinion pieces, special issues of journals, edited volumes, and books. It includes children and youth as appropriate in these initiatives. In addition, it formulates workshops and consultations for local, national, and international organizations run by both adults and children to understand how childism could inform – and be informed by – their work.

These cross-currents of theory development, scholarly investigation, and practical engagement enrich one another. In this way, the Childism Institute strives to develop an ongoing generative conversation about the lives of children that organically evolves new ideas and perspectives over time.

Tanu Biswas (University of Stavanger), Annette Hellman (University of Gothenberg), Serena Serena Iacobino (University of Brussels)  and Emiliano Macinai (University of Florence) co-convene the project titled Childism and Decoloniality in European Education Research.

The theoretical rationale follows from the premise that the ‘figure of the child’ as primitive and inferior not only influences how intergenerational relationships between children and adults play out in educational systems, but also how Euro-centric coloniality is taught and learned.

The central aim of the project is to convene, consolidate and cultivate research at the intersection of adultism and Euro-centric coloniality within the context of education in its broadest sense. The critical research advancements will inform how the intersection of childism and decoloniality might develop as a transformative intervention in theory and society.

UiS Network

• Research Programme DEMCI: Democracy and Citizenship: Participatory Research and Inclusive Education
• Læringsmiljøsenteret (Prof. Natalia Kucirkova)

International Network

• Chair for Epistemology, University of Bayreuth, Germany
• Global Childhood Network, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• Education, Culture and Society, KU Leuven, Belgium
• Network on Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education International (RECE)
• Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA)
• The Belgian-Dutch Association for the History of Education (BENGOO)
• The Belgian Francophone Collaborative Association for Educational Research (ABC-Educ)
• The Department of Children’s Worlds (German government organization), Berlin, Germany
• The Department of Education (CRSE) Centre de Recherche en Sciences de l’Education (CRSE), Free University of Brussels, Belgium
• The Department of Education, Languages, Intercultural Studies, Literature and Psychology (FORLILPSI), University of Florence, Italy
• The Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University (Libera Università Maria Ss. Assunta), Rome, Italy
• The Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Italy
• The Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society University of Udine
• The Italian Society of Pedagogy (SIPED)
• The Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA)
• The Nordic Educational Research Association’s Network 25 on Critical Race, Racism and Whiteness in Education
• The Portuguese Society of Educational Sciences (SPCE)
• The Human Restoration Project, USA
• The Doctoral College for Intersectionality Studies (PKIS), University of Bayreuth, Germany
• The Decoloniality Collective, Reading Circle, South Africa - Finland

List serv:  childism_institute@email.rutgers.edu