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Colin Ward, Education, Childhood, and Environment: a multi-disciplinary day conference
Date: Saturday March 12, 2011 at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Colin Ward (1924-2010) trained as an architect and teacher and became an influential voice in encouraging new ways of thinking about childhood and education that considered the importance of environment in development. His contribution was wide and varied but his two key books on childhood, The Child in the City and The Child in the Country are most often cited. The Bulletin of Environmental Education, which Ward co-edited with Tony Fyson, is best remembered by teachers.

This day will celebrate Colin’s work and recognize his continuing influence among scholars and practitioners today working on a wide range of research areas that derive inspiration from Colin’s work.

Call for Panels and Papers:

Themes that might be pursued:

  • Anarchist and libertarian education
  • Architecture, town planning and spaces for children
  • Photography and images of childhood (Ward’s books The Child in the City and The Child in the Country; Images of childhood in old postcards)
  • The city as a curriculum resource
  • Children’s street cultures and everyday geographies
  • Play, education and urban contexts
  • Children as Citizens

Participants will be invited to submit articles for a proposed Special Issue of the journal CHILDHOOD and we are hoping for contributions that consider the local and the global and that reflect on education in its broadest sense.

Please contact Cathy Burke (Cb552@cam.ac.uk) with ideas for panels or to submit abstracts for papers before December 31, 2010. Abstracts: 250 words.

CFP – Colin Ward, Education, Childhood, and Environment