Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr)

International Conference
"Theatre/Drama & Inclusive Education"
Athens 21-23 of March 2025

To celebrate 10 years of the project "it could be me; it could be you"
and the completion of the project "Theatre Makes Politics"
an IDEA regional conference
International Drama in Education Association
Conference languages: Greek, English


Call for Papers or Workshops

Conference Theme

The Hellenic Theatre/Drama  & Education Network (TENet-Gr), in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in Greece, the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA), universities, and other academic, educational, and artistic organisations in Greece and abroad, is organising the International Conference "Theatre/Drama & Inclusive Education” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the project "It could be me, it could be you" a project for raising awareness about human rights and refugees (2015-2025), and to mark the completion of the project "Theatre Makes Politics" (TMP, Erasmus+ 2022-2025).

Submit your proposal

The aim of the 2025 International Conference "Theatre/Drama & Inclusive Education" is to serve as an international interdisciplinary meeting for the exchange of pedagogical, artistic, and socio-political practices and research in the fields of inclusive education and applied performing arts. Its goal is to serve the values of equality and justice and to promote education without exclusion for all students and learners regardless of their identities, their vulnerabilities, and their ethnic, cultural, religious, or linguistic background.

Furthermore, the purpose is to combat hate speech, xenophobia, and racism in any form through the emergence of new applied artistic practices that connect theatricality, embodied practice, and new audiovisual technologies with pedagogical and social action.

 

Conference main strands

The following strands serve as guiding principles for the conference's discussions, presentations, and workshops, aiming to advance knowledge, exchange ideas, and inspire action in the field of inclusive education through theatre and the performing arts:

1. Promotion of inclusive education: exploring strategies and practices to ensure educational opportunities for all learners, regardless of their background, identity, origin or vulnerability.

2. Artistic expression and social justice: examining how performing arts can be utilised to address social issues, promote empathy, and foster social change.

3. Interdisciplinary collaboration: encouraging collaboration between educators, artists, researchers, and community members to develop innovative approaches to inclusive education.

4. Advocacy and policy: discussing the role of advocacy and policy-making in promoting inclusive education and combating discrimination and marginalisation.


Conference Fields/Topics of interest

Conference will cover a wide range of topics, including:

  • Inclusive Education
  • Education for Diversity
  • Intercultural Education
  • Anti-Racist Education and combatting xenophobia
  • Education for Gender Equality
  • Education for Global Citizenship and International Solidarity
  • Human Rights Education
  • Peace Education
  • Critical Education
  • Education on Refugee Issues
  • Education for Students with Refugee and Migrant Backgrounds
  • Active Citizenship education
  • Education for Vulnerable Social Groups
  • Education for Roma Inclusion
  • Education for Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities
  • Education to combat religious fundamentalism
  • Education to combat fake news and conspiracy theories

through practices as:

  • Theatre/Drama in Education
  • Applied theatre/drama
  • Community theatre
  • Intercultural theatre
  • Devised theatre
  • Documentary theatre
  • Theatre of the Oppressed
  • Puppet & shadow theatre
  • Inclusive dance and embodied educational practices
  • Intermediary and digital performance
  • Music education
  • Audio-Visual education

And other approaches to Performing Arts in education.

The above-mentioned genres can be seen as pedagogical and teaching methodology, as forms of art, as means of social intervention, as research methodology in education and social sciences.

These topics and practices reflect the diverse challenges and opportunities in promoting inclusive education and addressing various forms of discrimination and exclusion within educational settings and society at large. They will be examined regarding their application in formal preschool, primary, secondary, and tertiary education, adult education, non-formal education, curricula and policies. 

For whom

Conference aims at teachers of all levels and specialties, academics, researchers, theatre educators, theatre scholars, artists working in both formal and non-formal education, university students, youth facilitators, social scientists, and anyone involved in the field of research and practice in Performing Arts in education.

Conference includes

  • Keynote speeches
  • Workshops
  • Artistic events
  • Paper presentations (opinion papers, research papers, papers on good practices, art projects or teaching proposals)
  • Special Interest Groups / Panels

IMPORTANT DATES


1 September 2024: Deadline for proposal submissions (papers or workshops)
10 October 2024: Authors of submitted proposals will be notified of the acceptance or rejection
20 October 2024: Conference registration opens
9 January 2025: Registration for participation in workshops and Special Interest Groups starts
10 January 2025: Deadline for submission of final texts for the conference book

Communication / Info: www.TheatroEdu.gr / info@theatroedu.gr/ +302106541600

About the "It could be me, it could be you" project: 2015-2025

The “It could be me, it could be you" project aims at raising awareness within the broader educational community in Greece about human rights and refugee issues through experiential activities, theatre techniques, and educational drama. It has been designed and implemented since February 2015 by the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr) in partnership with UNHCR with a view to promote empathy, understanding and refugee inclusion. The project includes a) training seminars and workshops for teachers, as well as for university students, youth facilitators, aid workers and members of the local community, b) drama workshops for school students, c) interactive forum performances for students, teachers and members of the local community, d) networking events and School Art Festivals, and e) collaborative activities for local and refugee students and youth. Additionally, educational material is published and made available for free on the project's website. The “It could be me, it could be you" project is accredited by IDEA and approved by the Hellenic Ministry of Education.

About the "Theatre Makes Politics" (TMP) project: 2022-2025

The TMP project aims to empower and encourage youth educators to incorporate methods into their work that will help them address antidemocratic forces in European societies using theatre/drama and performing arts.

The issues TMP addresses are:

  1. Far-right extremism and populism: Racism and rhetoric against refugees
  2. Far-right extremism and populism: Conspiracy theories and misinformation
  3. Religious fundamentalism: Searching for Identity – Focusing on Right Extremism and Islamic Fundamentalism
  4. Religious fundamentalism: Christian religious dogmatism and politics
    The project includes pilot workshops among partners and with groups of young people in each project country. The results from the workshops are documented through evaluation processes in a handbook with the prospect of becoming a useful tool ready for implementation by facilitators. Additionally, an online tool is created through which exchange of opinions, practices, and improvement proposals can take place. The TMP program is implemented by the organizations Bundesverband Theaterpädagogik e.V., (BUT, Germany), La Transplanisphere (LT, France), Ex-Quorum - Associação de Divulgação de Eventos Culturais (EQ, Portugal), Centre for Intercultural Dialogue Association, (CID, North Macedonia), Stadt Theatre Dortmund (STD, Germany) and the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet, Greece)

 

 

 

How to submit a proposal for a Paper or Workshop

Proposals can be submitted by one or more authors or facilitators in either Greek or English for

  • Paper presentations: each paper presentation will be allocated 20 minutes.

  • Workshops: each workshop will be allocated 2,5 hours each and will be for a limited number of participants.

Proposal: An abstract of 400-500 words (not including references / credits) must be submitted for review by Sunday 1st of September 2024
Abstract must be submitted the summary in the language to be used in the presentation/ facilitation at the conference, i.e. either english or Greek.
Abstract should include indicatively: objective,  theoretical background,  research questions, methodology and the main findings and conclusions. Also to be followed of a 120words CV.
For references/in-text citations the APA style is required (www.apastyle.apa.org).

SUBMIT HERE

Publication

Full document: If the proposal is accepted, the full document of 2500-4000 words must be submitted by Friday 10th of January 2025 to be published in the Conference Book (more details to be communicated to the successful applicants). Conference participation cost: 50€ for the members of TENet-Gr; 70€ for non-members.

All keynotes, paper, and workshop presentations will be included in the bilingual Conference Book to be published by the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr).

Committees - Partners

Registrations - Contact

Timetable

Keynotes - Speakers

Papers

Special Interest Groups / Panels

Workshops

Events