2023 Biennial Conference
Transformational Ideas for Times of Transition: Re-Imagining and Expanding Ed Psych Theory and Concepts
Hosted in-person at Portland State University
October 12-13, 2023
We are proud to invite you to join us for the 10th biennial conference of the Scholarly Consortium for Innovative Psychology in Education (SCIPIE). SCIPIE is a professional organization devoted to maintaining a center for innovation in the psychological study of education. At the core of SCIPIE are devoted consortium members who maintain leadership roles in educational research around the country. SCIPIE was created to bring together education scholars to advance the study of learning and to provide graduate students with opportunities to participate in authentic problem solving and dialogue. Our emphasis is on research currently in progress and difficult problems that researchers face in our areas of foci.
The focus for the 2023 conference is on questions of how we know what we claim to know and what constitutes equitable educational outcomes in the face of major social upheavals, economic crises, and public health crises. The past couple of years saw multiple major upheavals around the world that brought with them challenges and new considerations for understanding teaching, learning, and schooling. As educational psychologists pursuing innovative research projects and aiming to address questions with practical relevance, the events taking place since our last biennial meeting inevitably have affected the contexts we study, the types of research we conduct, and the opportunities possible within doctoral research training programs. Accordingly, this conference will extend SCIPIE’s recent focus on power and knowledge to promote reflection and discussion of how educational psychologists can maintain relevance and contribute to these currently foregrounded challenges.
The conference format will be back in-person this year and will be spread over two days. We can’t wait to see you all!
Keynote Speaker
Francesca López, Ph.D.
Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy and Professor of Education at Penn State University
Accommodations
We have a block of discounted rooms at Hotel Zags, please let them know that you are attending SCIPIE to receive the discounted rate. Deadline for the discounted rate is Sept 11, 2023.
Conference Structure
The conference will consist of sessions designed to facilitate critical discussion of issues and assumptions related to core constructs and models in educational psychology. We rely on our community of researchers to submit conference presentations that explore important topics related to our theme. SCIPIE offers an opportunity to find new ways to address challenges in research, explore complex problems, and examine the ambiguous space between scholarly rigor and meaningful application. The emphasis is on driving theoretical and methodological innovation through exploration of tensions in educational psychology and related fields. Participants are encouraged to bring works in progress and unresolved research issues as a foundation for session content and discussion.
SCIPIE offers a unique conference experience due to its interactive structure. We place a high premium on interactive conference sessions that promote engaging dialogue and active participation. SCIPIE invites participation through multiple session formats. These formats are divided into two categories 1) collective submission types where groups of researchers propose sessions collaboratively, and 2) individual submission types for graduate and undergraduate students to submit research posters and faculty to submit single papers to be integrated into interactive sessions.
The conference is also geared specifically to provide early career scholars and graduate students an opportunity for meaningful participation in conference sessions. Each year, we organize a graduate student poster session. Graduate students are paired with a mentor from the field and receive mentoring feedback on works-in-progress or completed research. This year we also welcome undergraduate poster submissions.
Poster Guidelines & Resources
Posters should be no larger than 4 feet tall by 6 feet wide. Consider how well your findings can be presented to someone standing approximately 3-4 feet from the poster. Being concise, precise, and direct using accessible word choice and sentence structures will increase readability and engagement. Images and graphics are also extremely helpful. There are many available templates and guides to help you design your poster. We recommend this one from APA 2023 (click here). Canva is an app/site where you can find many examples of scholarly poster templates and edit them with a free account. Here are some examples of free Canva templates accessible with a free student account: Canva Academic Poster Template 1, Canva Academic Poster Template 2, Canva Academic Poster Template 3, Canva Academic Poster Template 4. Here is another site with a variety of templates.
Collective Submission Types
Experiential Learning Sessions: We invite researchers to collaboratively propose experiential learning sessions that address critical research areas in educational psychology. Experiential learning sessions include formats such as workshops, demonstrations, and professional development. Researchers are encouraged to collaboratively develop sessions that address difficult problems or unique solutions in educational psychology that call upon audience participation to explore the topic. We encourage researchers to be creative in their thinking about critical issues to address. Each session will last one hour and fifteen minutes. See below for submission instructions. We welcome various types of experiential learning sessions. Examples include:
Methods workshops -Assume an audience of faculty as well as students; these should go beyond an introductory level content, and be specific to the call and spirit of SCIPIE
Data workshopping - Proposals to bring people together who are interested in a specific type of problem around a collected dataset
Parallel sessions run by and for graduate students
White paper sessions - These sessions should be designed to collaboratively work on ideas that are bubbling up; particularly around the conference theme. They might take place during sessions across multiple days; perhaps at a time outside of regularly scheduled sessions. White paper projects are guaranteed acceptance at the 2025 conference!
Interactive Paper Sessions: We invite researchers to collaboratively propose interactive paper sessions that synthesize emergent research in educational psychology. Interactive paper sessions will be composed of collections of research papers that share a common goal, theme, or method. Researchers are encouraged to collaboratively develop sessions that highlight forward thinking work that can promote or inspire meaningful change. We encourage researchers to not only consider ways to group papers, but also to be creative about how to actively involve participation among audience members.
Individual Submission Types
Graduate and Undergraduate Student Posters: We invite graduate students to propose poster presentations for the graduate student poster reception. Graduate students may present research related to their thesis or dissertation, collaborate on new ideas with other graduate students, or present work they have done in collaboration with faculty. The emphasis of the reception is on student work. A student must be first author on the poster. Where appropriate, faculty may be listed as co-authors. We encourage graduate students to highlight potential innovations, showcase complex problems, and explore possible research agendas in their poster submissions. Participants will be matched with a poster mentor as part of the SCIPIE experience. See below for details on poster mentors and submission instructions.
Individual Paper Submissions: We invite researchers who would like to attend the conference but are not a part of a collective submission to submit individual papers for presentation. Individual paper proposals should be led by and submitted by faculty members. Graduate students should submit to the poster session, but may be listed as a coauthor on individual papers). Ideally, individual paper submissions should be fully developed, with data, method, or models in place. The papers should represent innovations in educational psychology that are related to the conference theme. These submissions will be grouped with other similar proposals to create a session. SCIPIE officers will be in charge of grouping paper sessions and working with authors to create interactive sessions related to the emergent themes. See below for details on submission instructions. We are only accepting a limited number of “present your findings” sessions this year. They will be selected carefully based on their ability to foster the theme and enhance the other interactive sessions. All proposals should be submitted to by midnight on Friday, July 21, 2023. The submission system will be updated soon.