“Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order
to recount it.” – Gabriel García Márquez

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Memory is a central but controversial topic not only in Education Studies and the Philosophy of Education but also in educational practice. In many educational systems, memorisation is both required and seen as undesirable; numerous philosophies of education relate it immediately to the much-derided ‘rote learning’ while failing to present a convincing conceptual account of memory. Many institutions and curricula explicitly focus on skills rather than the retention of knowledge, but skilled action and thinking are bound up with what a learner knows and can recall (Baer, 2022; Willingham, 2017), for example when they engage in hypothesis testing or evaluation of a creative idea (Halpern, 2014). Students and educators alike are easily misled by counterintuitive memory processes (Yan et al., 2016), and rarely is the relevance of memory and remembrance for the development of personal identity (Ricoeur, 2004) acknowledged in pedagogical practice.

Further, memory is not simply an individual cognitive process; it is also a social, cultural and political category. Educational sectors as much as the individuals within them are shaped by collective memories, traditions, and inherited practices (Halbwachs, 1992; Olick et al., 2011); recent discussions around the cultural practices of remembrance are proof of the relevance as much as of the difficulties connected to such traditions (Enslin, 2020). There are major challenges in the selection of and therefore prioritisation among different cultural artefacts and perspectives, as well as a need to tread the line between educational influence and indoctrination (Lewin, 2022).

This one-day seminar supported by PESGB and the Advanced Pedagogical Theory sub-theme at Strathclyde’s Institute of Education invites researchers to explore memory’s role in
educational theory and practice (both concepts broadly conceived).

Please see call for papers here if you wish to submit. Attendance is free for presenters and non-presenters.

Please contact the organiser Jonathan Firth if you have any queries: jonathan.firth@strath.ac.uk