Monash Education Prato Spring Symposium (MEPSS)

Designed to promote transformative societal change through deep engagement with theory and methodology, the Monash Education Prato Spring Symposium (MEPSS) is focused on social equity and steeped in the work of Lev Vygotsky.

Participants will gain a high-level understanding of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the cultural-historical theory and the activity theory approach, with a view to enhancing their capacities to think carefully and act responsibly on some of the crucial societal challenges in the contemporary world.

MPSS this year would offer insights into research that have used co-production or co-development as a core idea while working with participants in creating new transformative practices. The capacity to work with others and expand the object being worked on would be one of the key foci of theoretical discussion and practice development.

The interactions in the symposium will provide participants an opportunity to:

• develop a high-level understanding of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the cultural-historical theory and activity theory approach
• interact with and learn from world leading experts in cultural-historical and activity theory
• understand key aspects of co-production in formative interventions that address democratic societal transformation
• engage with scholars in Cultural-historical research on their curiosities and musings
• hear stories of working with/on vexed social problems and using Vygotskian tools to create new transformative practices

Imagination, purpose and will are not just three clearly remarkable aspects of human labour activities but also of human mental functions. The symposium will offer an opportunity to engage with these ideas in more details and their implications on developing a theory that could lead social transformation.

Keynote presenters and session leads

Submit your proposal

We would like to invite cultural-historical researchers and practitioners to share their work.

Presentation formats

Submission guidelines

We expect each presenter to clearly highlight how their work aligns with conference theme of social transformation. We would encourage presenters to include an element of interaction with the audience in your presentation.

The proposal must contain:

• Name, email address and affiliation of all authors (these cannot be seen by the reviewers for anonymous assessment)
• Title (max 100 characters including spaces)
• Up to five keywords
• Choice of presentation form- Paper presentation or Poster presentation
• Short abstract of 200-250 words
• Extended summary of 800-1000 words that includes background, aims, methods, findings and conclusions of the paper.
• References are not included in the word count

The proposals will be assessed anonymously by two reviewers. In case of doubt or insufficient agreement, the programme organising team will decide.

Closing date

• Submissions have closed.