In 2026, the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) invites delegates to consider the conference theme ‘Educational Research for Ethical Lives.’ In an era characterised by social, environmental, technological and political complexity, educational research plays an increasingly important role in illuminating, questioning and responding to the ethical responsibilities and challenges that lie at the heart

of education.

Against this backdrop, the conference theme invites researchers to pause, reflect and engage with fundamental questions shaping education and educational research today, including:

• How are ethical lives cultivated, sustained and challenged in and through education, particularly in current times?
• How can educational research contribute to ethical practice, relationships and communities, with particular attention to equity, social justice and care?
• How are ethical responsibilities understood, enacted and negotiated within and between institutions, education systems and policy contexts?
• What are the future ethical dimensions of educational research itself, including the responsibilities of researchers in framing problems, selecting methodologies, and generating knowledge?
• How can educational research contribute to more ethical, just and hopeful futures?

The theme deliberately calls attention to the moral purposes of education and foregrounds education as an inherently ethical endeavour; one

that not only shapes knowledge, but also values, relationships and ways of being in the world.

The Call for Papers will invite researchers to engage critically and creatively with this theme, welcoming rigorous empirical research, thoughtful theoretical and philosophical contributions, and diverse methodological and disciplinary perspectives.

Jenny Gore, President

Sally Patfield & Wendy Taggart, Co-Chairs,

Conferences Standing Committee