Newswise — The World Education Research Association (WERA) has announced plans for its inaugural meetings to be held in late September 2009 in Vienna, Austria. WERA is an international, non-profit, non-governmental association of associations established for scientific and scholarly purposes. Member associations seek to address such issues as building capacity and interest in education research, advancing education research policies and practices, and promoting the use and application of education research around the world. WERA aims to undertake initiatives that are global in nature and thus transcend what any one association can accomplish in its own country, region, or area of specialization.
WERA was officially established by 24 national, regional, and international specialty education research associations meeting in San Diego, California on April 18, 2009. During May 2009, the founding members of WERA also elected Ingrid Gogolin as Interim President of WERA, and Felice Levine as Interim Secretary General of WERA to lead the new association in its transition to formal organizational status.
Gogolin, Professor of Education at Hamburg University, Germany is Immediate Past President of the European Educational Research Association (EERA). Levine is Executive Director of the American Educational Research Association in Washington. Both have been involved in the development of WERA for the past two years.
With WERA’s official launch and election of its two top leaders, the new WERA Council will hold its first meeting September 26-27, 2009 in Vienna. Special Inaugural events will be held on September 29 from 9:00 to 12:00 hours. WERA is being hosted by the European Educational Research Association (EERA) during its annual European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). The ECER takes place at the University of Vienna from September 25-30, 2009. Noting the importance of this moment in history, Interim President Ingrid Gogolin emphasized that WERA will advance education research quality worldwide by promoting international cooperation of scholars and active support for future generations of researchers. She said that, “WERA will be a respected partner of all who are interested in education research and its results—be they active in the academic and practice fields, in research funding, or the policy sphere.”
Currently, 25 national, regional, and international specialty research associations are founding members of WERA. These Associations represent more than 60,000 researchers around the world. Associations that have attended at least one of the international meetings from 2007 to 2009, or have expressed support for WERA during this time, are eligible to become founding members. The planning process involved the development of a three-year program plan that will help guide the first WERA Council. A primary ongoing commitment of WERA will be outreach to new associations and groups of education research scholars in countries or regions without associations.
Interim Secretary General Levine observed that, “while challenges still lie ahead, WERA has emerged through the hard work, cooperation, and dedication of representatives from around the world to advance education research at a scale and significance that heretofore has not been envisioned or sought. This is a great opportunity for knowledge building and for all who care deeply about education.”
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