Maria Pacheco Figueiredo
Maria Pacheco Figueiredo is an Associate Professor of Educational Sciences at the School of Education of the Polytechnic of Viseu, and a Researcher at the Centre for Studies in Education and Innovation (CI&DEI/IPV). She has played key leadership roles in educational research: since 2017 she has been on the Board of the National Association for Educational Sciences (SPCE), and has been on the Executive Board of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) since 2016, as Secretary-General. Maria also holds positions in the Polytechnic, as Pro-President for Pedagogical Innovation, and she serves as one of the Directors of the European University for Customised Education (EUNICE). She has significant experience in research supervision, at Masters and Doctoral level, and has been invited as external examiner by several programmes, nationally and internationally. Maria’s research experience has allowed her to successfully bid for EU and national funding programs.
Educational Research in Europe and beyond: responsibility and reciprocity
Being an educational researcher has grown in complexity as our practices and identities are inextricably linked to how educational and research processes are performed, experienced, negotiated and valued at different levels and arenas. By definition, our area of research encounters a wide variety of forms and contexts in which identities are embodied, imagined, performed and owned. Another level of complexity comes from the connections and framings of our metier with Europeanisation and globalisation – of both education and research – that influence values and practices across broad landscapes and local scales.
European Educational Research Association (EERA) has been a safe space for educational researchers to face and shape the challenges and opportunities created by these movements. Through its activities, the European Educational Research Association strives to further high quality educational research for the benefit of education and society, seing high quality as research that not only acknowledges its own context but also recognises wider, transnational contexts with their social, cultural and political similarities and differences.
Navigating these complexities requires an intricate balance between individuality and interdependency to which, we contend, educational research associations or networks are crucial. Taking as an object of analysis experiences within the EERA, this talk will explore how educational researchers’ responsibilit