How does NAAPE relate to other national and regional philosophy and education societies?
NAAPE wants to support the growth of scholarship in philosophy and education by providing opportunities for scholars to present their ideas to a broad range of philosophers and educators. We hope to support work in historical, contemporary, analytic, continental, theoretical and applied philosophy, as well as in the interdisciplinary fields of educational ethics, moral and civic education, and ethics of educational policy. We want to provide such an opportunity by offering a new and distinctive approach to conference planning and attending.
Does NAAPE really accept submissions in French, Spanish and English?
Yes! NAAPE is committed to creating a community of philosophers of education from Canada, USA, Mexico, Central America and around the world. One way to do this by welcoming authors to submit high quality scholarship no matter its original language. While presentations should be given in English, we accept submissions in French, English and Spanish. NAAPE has scholars fluent in each language reviewing submitted work.
Why doesn't NAAPE publish conference proceedings?
NAAPE encourages long-form papers that have the potential for eventual, or imminent, publication in scholarly journals. Since we cannot provide extensive peer-review for each submission, we encourage authors to submit their manuscripts to our conference at the same time (or soon after) as they submit them to peer-reviewed journals in the field.
Why doesn't NAAPE have any word limit or style requirements for conference submissions?
There are two ways NAAPE hopes to support scholars in the field of philosophy and education. The first way is to provide a forum in which authors can receive feedback on long-form papers that they hope to eventually submit for publication. Because all participants at the conference will have access to conference papers, our hope is that authors will have opportunities to receive substantial feedback that will help them prepare the paper for publication. The second way NAAPE hopes to support scholars is to provide a venue for work which has been or will soon be submitted to journals. Our hope is that conference papers will provide "sneak peaks" of papers that will likely come out in print soon after the conference and thus allow authors to communicate their work to a wide audience. In light of these twin goals, we want to make submitting papers as easy as possible and therefore do not have word limit and will allow authors to submit work in whatever style the journal for which they have submitted, or will likely submit, requires. However, while we will happily accept submissions of papers that are currently under review or in press at journals, we will not accept papers that have already come out in print.
Why are authors expected to present their papers rather than read portions of them?
The goal of individual sessions is to stimulate interest in, and discussion of, the main thesis of the paper rather than provide conclusive evidence for the thesis. We ask presenters to briefly outline their central thesis and offer a summary of the evidence in support of the thesis. Audience members will have had prior access to the papers and can engage the arguments in the question and answer session immediately following the authors presentations. Additionally, we encourage audience members to engage the authors on the finer points of the argument during social times throughout the conference.
Why does NAAPE discourage the use of technical jargon in submissions and presentations?
We believe that there is an over-reliance on technical jargon in the fields of philosophy and education, which leads to unnecessary obscurity and limits who can meaningfully engage with the ideas presented. Of course, when speaking to a group of specialists in a given field of study, technical jargon can, if used appropriately, be a convenient shorthand to quickly communicate ideas. However, when speaking to non-specialists jargon can make it difficult and/or impossible to understand the arguments being made. Because NAAPE is made up of philosophers and educators from numerous sub-specialties, we ask authors to do their best to communicate their ideas in a way that is accessible to a more general audience. If the author believes technical jargon is essential to their argument, we ask the author explain in common language the meaning of the jargon when it is first brought up in the paper.
Are graduate students encouraged to submit papers to the NAAPE annual conference?
Yes. NAAPE wants to actively support graduate students and enthusiastically invites them to submit papers to the annual conference. While we hope that many graduate students will, through the blind peer-review process, be offered spots on the regular program, graduate papers which do not make the program will often be eligible for work-in-progress sessions where students will be paired with established scholars in the field who will read and respond to their paper in the hopes of improving it for future conferences or journal submission.
Why does the conference take place every year at the University of St. Mary of the Lake?
The University of St. Mary of the Lake boasts a beautiful, wooded campus with pleasant, ensuite rooms, outstanding conference facilities, and stunning grounds, especially the library. This collegiate atmosphere befits an academic conference focused on the study of philosophy and education. In addition, St. Mary's is just 40 driving minutes away from Downtown Chicago and O'Hare International Airport, and about is an hour by train, thus it offers very good connections to a major central transportation hub.
