| During the AIESEP 2022 conference in Gold Coast a new board of Directors was installed by vote of institutional and individual members. Building on the work of the last board, the recently installed board aims to further develop AIESEP as a diverse, inclusive organization that represents PE scholars and PE teacher educators all around the world. Within the AIESEP board we have divided specific portfolios, which will all be presented in the near future. Within this post we (Carla Luguetti and Menno Slingerland) would like to share with you our first plans for the EDI & membership portfolio that we wish to develop during our term on the board. One of the aims of the new board is to grow AIESEP as an organization, in general in terms of the number of members, as well as towards a more diverse member base. We especially would like to attract members that up until now have either not been reached or have not been able to join AIESEP, for example due to financial barriers. We have therefore prepared three proposals that we will work on: Membership by categories We believe an AIESEP membership should be attainable for all future members, regardless of which part of the world they live in. Therefore, we aim to install membership by categories based on the World Bank’s criterion for classifying economies (gross national income). Although the exact membership fees must be established by the board, our plan is to establish three membership categories for low, middle, and high GDP countries with reasonable membership fees for each category. This will allow all PE scholars around the world to be a part of AIESEP. Member profiles and membership mapping We would like to have a better idea of who our members are, but we would especially want AIESEP members to know each other better. We therefore aim to build connections between members based on their interests, current projects, geographical location etc. To establish this our plan is for all new and existing members to create a unique AIESEP profile on the AIESEP website (which will be redesigned in the near future). In the long term this profile could then serve as a “digital business card” to link scholars together based on themes of interest and would be an addition to meeting likeminded colleagues during AIESEP conferences. Donations We would like to install (through the new website) the possibility of individual or institutional donations to be used for including (early career) scholars that otherwise would not have had the opportunity to be a part of AIESEP and AIESEP conferences (e.g., scholars from low GDP countries). All the ideas above will take careful consideration, discussion and planning and they will not be realized overnight. Nevertheless, by sharing our ideas we would like to be transparent in what we are working on behind the scenes. We are of course open to your comments, ideas, suggestions. Do not hesitate to contact us: m.slingerland@fontys.nl and Carla.NascimentoLuguetti@vu.edu.au |
