The Educational Theory Summer Institute 2016
Ecologizing Education: Philosophy, Place, and Possibility

The Seventh Annual Educational Theory Summer Institute (ETSI) was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from August 14-16, 2016. The journal Educational Theory and the Department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership co-sponsored this event.

This 2016 theme was Ecologizing Education: Philosophy, Place, and Possibility. Educational Theory commissioned a team of leading international scholars to produce fresh and substantive contributions for a special issue on this theme, which will be published in volume 67 of Educational Theory. The 2016 participants were:

• Deborah Bird Rose, University of New South Wales
• Sean Blenkinsop, Simon Fraser University (co-director)
• Ruth Irwin, University of Fiji
• Clarence Joldersma, Calvin College (co-director)
• Huey-li Li, University of Akron
• Gregory Lowan-Trudeau, University of Calgary
• Suzanne Rice, University of Kansas
• Andrew Stables, University of Roehampton

During the first two days of the institute, participants workshopped each other's papers in internal sessions with Educational Theory staff. The Institute culminated on Tuesday, August 16, with an all-day open conference, that featured the scholars above and the following area scholars: Robert Markley, Karl Hostetler, Lucinda Cole, and Jodi Byrd. The conference included four panels:

1. Heidegger Meets Climate Change: Implications for Educational Philosophy (Joldersma and Irwin)
2. Beyond the Categories: Rethinking Vulnerability and Binary Oppositions in the Context of Educational Discourse (Li and Stables)
3. Eating and Acting: Bringing the Natural World into Education (Rice and Blenkinsop)
4. Animism, Indigeneity, and Educational Research (Rose and Lowan-Trudeau)

Educational Theory is committed to bringing philosophical scholarship in education to a broader audience of educators, policymakers, and concerned citizens. ETSI was established to foster new theoretical perspectives on timely questions of educational policy and practice. It brings leading scholars to the University of Illinois to collaborate on a special issue of Educational Theory and, along with area scholars, to participate in a public conference. ETSI alternates between open calls for proposals and invited cohorts. We have held four successful institutes previously (click on the links below for more information): • State Intervention and the Regulation of Parenting (2009) • What Makes a Public School Public? (2010) [invited] • Plural Societies and the Possibility of a Shared Civic Vision (2011) • Sex Education and Value Conflict in the Liberal State (2012) • Humane Education: Recovering the Humanistic Dimensions of Teaching, Learning & Research (2014) [invited] • Technologies of Reading and Writing (2015) • Contesting Public Education: Opting Out, Dissent, and Activism in Education Policy (2017) • The Hazards and Potential of Open-Mindedness in Post-Truth Conditions (2018) [invited]