Foreword to the EEGSA-SEGSA Conference Proceeding: Exploring Horizons

Abstract

The 14th Annual Graduate Student Showcase was held by the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education on April 30, 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to impact the way in which we gather and share our research. This year, we continued to meet in a hybrid synchronous/asynchronous space with our keynote speakers, presenters, and attendees. This format allowed for graduate students from around the world to share and participate.

 This year, our showcase theme, Exploring Horizons, speaks to looking forward, keeping our heads up, and navigating what lies beyond. Despite numerous challenges to this academic year, as a graduate student community, this research showcase demonstrated that graduate student research in education is attuned to the possibilities that might lie on or on the other side of the horizons.

 Exploring Horizons also represents an invitation to think and rethink differently and creatively. Currently, the field of education is in the midst of dealing with some serious challenges. Yet, when we simply glance at this showcase special issue, it is easy to see that our graduate students in education are rising to the occasion and exploring the horizons of educational research, ready to take on these challenges and to open new possibilities for imagining the future(s) of curriculum, pedagogy, teacher education, and educational philosophy and thought. This year’s theme of Exploring Horizons asks participants and attendees to visualize and imagine the unknown and all that becomes possible by thinking, creating, and imagining new ways of knowing and understanding. To all of our authors in this special issue, we want to thank you for putting your important work out into the world and for sharing it with others. Additionally, this special issue Exploring Horizons celebrates the diversity of our graduate student research in education.

 Beyond presentations from graduate students, we featured Dr. Cathryn van Kessel, a keynote speaker in the morning session and an associate professor for the Department of Secondary Education, as she shared her experiences with “Exploring Horizons” in knowledge dissemination and research mobilization. Dr. Jacqueline Filipek, an alumna of the Department of Elementary Education and assistant professor at The King’s University, shared valuable insights about the process for applying and interviewing for academic jobs in the afternoon session. She offered generous advice on how graduate students might prepare their application packages and think about potential interview processes in academia.

On behalf of the EEGSA/SEGSA Graduate Student Research Showcase Committee, Katherine Koskie, Kimberly Edmondson, and Yina Liu, we wish to thank you for reading this special issue as you explore new horizons together with our authors. We hope you find your reading thought-provoking as you consider what is on the horizon of educational research.