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PhD Programme in Pedagogical, Educational and Training Sciences – University of Padua
If you’re doing research in education, or just starting to figure out how, the next few months at FISPPA are worth paying attention to. The SPEF PhD Programme has put together “The Open Seminar Series” running through April and May that cover a lot of ground: qualitative methods, speculative and futures-oriented approaches, embodied methodologies, discourse analysis, participatory research with children, and the ongoing debate around open science.
The lineup pulls in scholars from Gothenburg, Wrocław, Rome, and beyond, alongside people already working within the department. It’s free, and most events are hybrid.
Here’s what’s coming up:
7 April | 15:00–18:00 — Qualitative Methods for Educational Research in Technology-Mediated Contexts Prof. Juliana Elisa Raffaghelli & Dr. Maria Valentini | Hybrid
This session sits within the Research Methods in Education course of the Master’s in Management of Educational Services, but PhD candidates are welcome. The focus is on doing qualitative research in contexts shaped by digital and emerging technologies, think postdigital environments, social robotics, and the messiness of studying education when the tools keep changing.
16 April | 09:30–12:30 — Childhoods in Dialogue Dr. Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak, University of Wrocław | Hybrid PhD SPEF Open Seminar Series – Coordinated by Prof. Marnie Campagnaro
Dr. Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak is Associate Professor of Literature at the Institute of English Studies, University of Wrocław, where her work spans children’s culture, new materialism, and posthumanism. She comes to Padova in the context of Seen and Heard: Young People’s Voices and Freedom of Expression (2023–2026), a project for which she serves as University of Wrocław academic lead. The session draws on that work to explore participatory, creative, and activist approaches to research with children — what it looks like in practice to treat young people as agents in the research process, not just its subjects.
21 April | 10:30–17:30 — Unsettling Methods: Exploring How We Produce Knowledge in Educational Research Prof. Giulia Messina-Dahlberg (University of Gothenburg) & Prof. Francesco Fabbro (Università di Roma Tor Vergata) | Hybrid Coordinated by Prof. Alessio Surian
A full day, two speakers, two very different but complementary lenses. In the morning, Prof. Messina-Dahlberg works through embodied and reflexive approaches to research: what it means to sit with discomfort, to take positionality seriously, to think about knowledge production from a decolonial standpoint. In the afternoon, Prof. Fabbro introduces Critical Discourse Analysis: how to read the power structures embedded in educational language, texts, and policy.
19 May | 10:00–12:00 — Reframing Open Research in Education: European Perspectives and Italian Developments Fully Online Keynote: Prof. Christopher Schindler (EERA Network 12) | Chair: Prof. Juliana E. Raffaghelli Discussants: Prof. Marcella Milana (Università di Verona), Diego Di Masi (Università di Torino)
Open science in education generates a lot of policy documents. What it generates less of is honest conversation about what’s actually changing on the ground, around open data, research evaluation, doctoral training, and what it all means if you’re early in your career. This roundtable, organised with the SIPED working group on empirical research methods, takes that conversation seriously. Prof. Schindler, who coordinates EERA’s Network 12 on Open Research in Education, gives the keynote, with discussants bringing both Italian and broader European perspectives to the table.
Note:
All events are free. Keep an eye out as each date approaches.
Written and Edited by: Bakhtawar Khosa
