The Asia-Pacific Network for Moral Education

Conference Theme: 

The Challenges Facing Moral Education in our Future Society: The Future of the Asia-Pacific Region and Moral Education

The 14^th Annual Conference
4-8 June, 2020
Joetsu University of Education, Joetsu, Japan

Theme and Description

The Challenges Facing Moral Education in our Future Society:

The Future of the Asia-Pacific Region and Moral Education

    Our recent technological innovations, such as AI robots and self-driving cars, are remarkable. It has been said that such innovations will eliminate several occupations in the near future. This technological progress has changed our lives and also brought about changes in the social system itself. Under these circumstances, aren’t morality and moral education also changing? In the Asia-Pacific region, the importance of moral values has been understood in every culture and society since ancient times.  Moral values themselves may not have changed so much; however, their specific meaning or content may be beginning to change along with the above-mentioned technological innovations and social changes. For example, who is responsible for traffic accidents caused by self-driving cars? Considering these kinds of problems, it seems that moral education in the future will have to play a leading role in our society, and also may need to change as the society itself changes. Based upon the aims of the APNME, this conference welcomes participants whose papers or presentations will be concerned with the following issues and questions.

1.What will moral education be or become in our future society? How does innovation relate to moral education? What is now, and perhaps what will be, the role of moral education in our highly computerized era?

2. Just as technology can be understood as being universal, can a universal morality really be established? Will it be possible to create a common moral education curriculum in and for the Asia-Pacific region?

3. Are cultural diversity and moral education compatible? Can we have new moral values flexible enough to help us understand different cultures? What may be the differences between moral education in the West and in the Asia-Pacific?

4. Is it possible to deal with diverse religions in the context of moral education? Can moral education help us to overcome the conflicts between and among the world’s religions?

5. How does moral education relate to career education and citizenship education?

6. What role do “minorities” play in moral education? How are moral education and human rights issues related?

Whilst priority will be given to presentations addressing these topics, any presentations that are concerned with moral and civic education will be welcomed. We sincerely welcome to our conference all those who truly care about exploring and enhancing the role of moral education, through theory and practice, in the Asia-Pacific region and in the world.  

Proposal Submission Topics

We sincerely welcome educators from various academic disciplines and from international and non-governmental organizations, teachers, school administrators and policy makers, school counselors, etc. to submit their papers or proposals. This conference is also keen to encourage cross-disciplinary engagement; therefore, papers or proposals from such disciplines as the below are encouraged:

• Educational: formal and informal moral education in schools, including higher education, and in families and communities; teaching and learning strategies (e.g. use of textbooks, class discussions); moral education theories; putting moral educational policy into practice; moral education curricula and programs; teacher, parent and community education; lifelong learning; moral leadership in schools;

• Psychological: moral motivation, moral judgment; moral behavior, moral identity, moral development; affective learning, counseling; psychological theories of moral learning, behavior and development;

• Philosophical: Eastern and Western philosophies and traditions, including the roles of Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and the Christian faiths in the Eastern value system; analytical, linguistic and Continental philosophy; virtue ethics and education of the emotions; liberalism; socialist materialism; and applied ethics, especially environmental and professional ethics;

• Historical and cultural: customs and traditions, past and present; cultural diversity within, between and among different societies and nations; cross-cultural studies;

• Social and anthropological: children; the family, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, community life; cooperation and conflict; globalization;

• Neurobiological and neuro-ethical: moral implications of brain biology; bioethics;

• Ecological and cosmological: environmentalism; the unity of parts making up the whole; ‘man’s’ place in nature’; lifestyle; sustainability;

• Spiritual: the transcendent and immanent in relation to religion and culture; harmony as an ethical value;

• Religious: the sacred and divine; the role of religions (e.g. Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity) in morality and moral education;

• Secular: the traditional, modern and postmodern and their interrelationships; materialism and ethics; humanism; influence of the Internet; role of the media;
   
• Political, civic and legal: the role of democracy; socialist ethics; individual and civic rights and responsibilities; citizenship education; social justice; civic engagement; human rights within the framework of international law.

Forms of Presentation

Individual papers (30 to 45 minutes): Individually submitted papers with up to a 20-minute presentation time and 10-minute discussion time (30-minute sessions), or 30-minute presentation time and 15-minute discussion time (45-minute sessions).

At the discretion of the Programme Committee, two or three presentations may be combined in one 90-minute session, and the Programme Committee’s decision as to time allocation will be final. The Committee will invite and assign a Chair for each session.

Symposium (90 minutes): Discussion of a cross-national, cross-disciplinary, or common topic or theme that falls within the overall Conference Theme. This will be organized by the corresponding author, who will typically be the Symposium Chair. Normally, symposia will have 3 or 4 presenters and perhaps a discussant, but must allow for interactive discussion with the audience.

Poster presentations: Must be related to the Conference theme, and must focus on theoretical, empirical and practical work in progress. The APNME will award its Annual Best Poster Prize for the best poster.

Notes on submitting a proposal

The organizers of the 14th Anniversary APNME Conference invite proposals for presentations related to the Conference Theme.

• Proposals must be submitted on the Proposal Submission Form. 
• If you could not successfully submit proposals on the Google Form, please download the 2020 proposal form and fill it in, and then send it to the conference committee at proposals@apnme.org .
• Please note that for your proposal to be considered it must comply with the following requirements. Thank you for your cooperation.

Submitting a proposal to present an individual paper, or to put a poster up on a designated wall

If you are submitting a proposal, please note that abstracts need to be in an acceptable (standard) form of written English and, for an individual paper or a poster, should be 150-200 words in length.

Please check the English very carefully before sending us your abstract, and please make sure you have kept within the word limit.

Please make sure your abstract is addressing the Conference Theme. On the form you may like to start with the words: “This presentation will address the Conference Theme by …”

This is not intended to constrain creativity or diversity of opinions. Rather, we encourage creativity and diversity while at the same time focusing on the Conference theme: “How, individually and jointly, can we best ensure a sustainable future for moral values education in the Asia-Pacific region as well as globally?”

In order to make the 2020 APNME a more open and friendly conference, one or two sessions will be conducted in Japanese or in the presenter’s local language, for the sake of presenters and also audience members who are very interested in the topics but have limited English skills. However, presenters in these sessions will still need to prepare their PPTs in standard English, and they will have to find translators to translate their presentations into English, and interpreters to translate the audience members’ questions and presenters’ answers.

Submitting a proposal to run a symposium

On the Proposal Submission Form, enter the name of the symposium chairperson as the Corresponding Author, and the names of the co-presenters as Co-authors.

Provide a 300-350 word abstract that describes the purpose and nature of the symposium as a whole, plus abstracts of 150-200 words for each of the papers presented in the symposium.

Please be sure to state clearly how your symposium as a whole, and each of the papers presented in it, are addressing the Conference Theme.

For more information, please see: https://www.apnme.org/2020/call-for-proposals/