ISCHE 47 – Athens
Sources and Research Practices in the History of Education: Challenges and Perspectives
Conference Dates:
9 – 10 July 2026, online conference
15 – 18 July 2026, Athens, Greece (in-person conference)
Conference Venue: School of Philosophy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Submission Phase: 28 November 2025 – 15 January 2026, extended till 31 January 2026
When we study history of education, we depend on various sources to the past. They open, decide, colour the stories we are able to tell. We read our sources, creating our narratives with them. In this conference, we would like to ask how the stories we tell and the interpretations we are able to develop are related to our understanding of and work with empirical sources, who question us just as we question them.
Sources have been at the centre of the work of historians and are regarded as the foundation of historical research that validate the discipline’s methods and heuristic character. They include all types of documentation that can record past activities and range from written documents and oral testimonies to visual and material records. While for positivistic historiographies they were the sacred touchstones of scholarship, contemporary discussions have disputed their truth claims both because of their own constitutive ambivalence —as always complex, impure, overdetermined records— and of their preservation within specific archive politics.
Especially in the history of education, researchers today employ a broader range of sources, leading to the emergence of new subfields within the discipline. Historians of education are devoting increasing attention to the interpretation of sources, their plurality, the creation of narratives based on their content, and the ethical dilemmas posed by their uses. Besides, these evolving approaches are being discussed and examined extensively within the academic community and are of particular importance.
In our field of study, research practices are being transformed by shifts in theory regarding sources and analytical methodologies as well as by technological affordances and public debates on what history is or stands for.
ISCHE 47 Call for Proposals & Standing Working Group CfP
The conference will receive submissions through eight thematic strands (A-Strands) or through seven strands from the participating SWGs (B-Strands).
Submission for ISCHE 47
Learn more about how to submit to ISCHE 47 and which presentation formats are available.
Submission deadline: 31 January 2026
Registration for ISCHE
Information on how to register, the fee structure, terms of registration etc. Registration starts on 20 March, Early Bird ends on 8 May and the registration deadline for presenters is 30 May 2026.
Important dates
| 28 November 2025 | Call for Papers & ConfTool opens: for user accounts and submission process |
| 31 January 2026 | Submission deadline for proposals |
| 20 March 2026 | Authors notified of acceptance – Provisional programme |
| 20 March 2026 | Early bird registration starts via ConfTool |
| 15 April 2026 | Authors informed on presentation time |
| 08 May 2026 | Last day to register at early registration rates |
| 08 May 2026 | Last day to cancel at 100% refund |
| 30 May 2026 | Last day to register as presenter (papers will be taken from the programme if none of the authors is registered) |
| 08 June 2026 | Last day to cancel at 50% refund. |
| 08 June 2026 | Final version of conference programme |
| 9-10 July 2026 | ISCHE 47, Online Conference |
| 14 July 2026 | ISCHE 47, Pre-Conference Workshop, Athens |
| 15-18 July 2026 | ISCHE 47, In-Person Conference, Athens |
