Call for Papers & Panel Proposals | University of Helsinki, Finland, Working Group 11: Reawakening Consciousness, Submission Deadline: 30 November 2025

Call for Papers & Panel Proposals | University of Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮
Working Group 11: Reawakening Consciousness — Pedagogies of Hope and Participatory Learning for Transformative Futures

Working Group Coordinator and Chair: Abirlal Mukherjee

📅 Submission Deadline: 30 November 2025
📧 Email: research.abirlal@gmail.com

In a world witnessing ecological collapse, deepening inequalities, and fragile democracies, education remains our most vital site for collective imagination, solidarity, and transformation.

I’m pleased to coordinate Working Group 11: Reawakening Consciousness: Pedagogies of Hope and Participatory Learning for Transformative Futures at the upcoming Development Days Conference 2026 (University of Helsinki).
This online working group invites scholars, educators, practitioners, and activists to explore how pedagogies rooted in hope, sustainability, and participation can reawaken collective consciousness and nurture transformative futures.
Inspired by Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of Hope and informed by feminist, decolonial, and Indigenous frameworks, this forum seeks to bridge theory and praxis through participatory, community-based, and creative methodologies.

🌱 Suggested Themes (not limited to):
– Community-based sustainability & participatory action learning
– Climate pedagogy, ecological literacy & environmental justice
– Storytelling, art & performance for social transformation
– Decolonial, feminist & Indigenous approaches to pedagogy
– Digital & AI-driven learning futures
– Pedagogies of care, empathy & emotional literacy
– Education, social justice & human rights in digital/physical spaces
– Collaborative, experiential & crisis-responsive learning
– Narratives of resistance, hope & renewal

🗓️ Important Dates
– 7 Nov 2025 – Call Opens
– 30 Nov 2025 – Abstract Deadline (max 300 words)
– 8 Dec 2025 – Notification of Acceptance
– 30 Dec 2025 – Full Paper/Proposal Submission
– 12–15 Jan 2026 – Registration
– 25 Feb 2026 – Pre-conference Events
– 26–27 Feb 2026 – Development Days 2026 (Online participation for this group)

We warmly welcome interdisciplinary, intergenerational, and Global South collaborations that engage with participatory, community-based innovations in education. Let’s reimagine learning as a site of hope, care, and transformation.

📩 Submit your abstracts and inquiries to research.abirlal@gmail.com