Call for Papers – The Educational Power of Narratives: Reflexivity, Identity, Citizenship, Ecology

Doctoral conference The Educational Power of Narratives: Reflexivity, Identity, Citizenship, Ecology, organized by the PhD candidates of the 39th cycle of the Doctorate in Education, Languages, Cultures at LUMSA University of Rome.

This Call for Papers is addressed to PhD students, PhD graduates and research fellows from Italian and international universities who are interested in exploring the transformative power of narratives in educational, social and cultural contexts.

• Location: Rome, Italy
• Date: 19 May 2026
• Submission deadline: 13 February 2026

The conference aims to explore the central role of storytelling as a pedagogical and transformative practice capable of influencing teacher training, identity building, civic participation and ecological awareness through processes of reflection and meta-reflection that question individual and collective narratives, highlighting the cultural contexts and meta-narratives that guide contemporary educational mindset.
Narratives, in fact, are not only descriptions of experiences, but reflective and meta-reflective devices that allow us to re-read educational processes, recognise the interpretative frameworks that underpin them, construct shared meanings and guide individual and collective actions. Through four thematic areas, the conference aims to promote an interdisciplinary dialogue that enhances the normative, generative and transformative function of stories and narratives:

• Narrative and reflexivity in the professional development of teachers.
• Pedagogical texts as normative and transformative forms.
• Narratives, identity and citizenship: educational and inclusive paths.
• Eco-pedagogy and narratives: the construction of the ecological subject.

Download the full CfP