December Newsletter and Early Bird 2024 Deadline

Hello AIESEP Friends,

Below are some announcements about what is happening at AIESEP! The main thing to note is that the early bird rate for the AIESEP 2024 conference in Jyväskylä, Finland is open UNTIL January 14^th, 2024!

1. The 2024 AIESEP Conferencewill be held in Jyväskylä, Finland from May 13-17^th with pre-conference sessions being held on the 13^th. The registration is now open! We’ve had a lot of abstracts submitted this year and we are looking forward to a full conference (acceptance of abstracts will be sent by December 15^th). The conference venue tops out at 600 registrants, so once we get to that number we cannot add anymore. Early Bird Rates end January 14^th. So, we hope you are able to register early!

2. Here is a BIG request for members. Please consider filling out this quick survey that we’ve created to try to understand your professional development needs. https://gmucehd.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Fj2ZUyCuyD7drw We have big plans to expand the ability of AIESEP to serve our members. However, we need to hear from you to make it meaningful and worth your time.

3. Registration costs for the AIESEP Conference are adjusted based on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of countries. This is also true for membership in AIESEP and has been a change the new board made in the last year to make AIESEP more equitable as an international organization. For low GDP countries the registration cost is 150 EUR and a direct link to register for scholars working in low GDP countries is here. For high-GDP countries the cost to attend is 400 EUR. Here is a direct link to register for scholars working in high GDP countries. As a nice bonus, the dinner/banquet is INCLUDED in the registration this year (held on Thursday the 16^th)! And, as a reminder, AIESEP conferences always include coffee breaks and lunch during the conference. Additionally, there are opportunities to participate in pre-conference sessions on the 13^th of May such as: Visiting Finnish Schools, Policy Work in PE session, Early Career Researcher workshop, Early Years SIG (target age group= 0-8yrs old children) session, and Coach Education session…and they are all available at no extra cost.

4. Each month in this newsletter, leading up to the conference, we will highlight one of our keynote speakers. First up is Eeva Anttila who will be making the train ride from Helsinki to Jyväskylä to present her keynote (more on travel in item 5)! In her presentation, Eeva Anttila will outline the notion of embodied learning and its theoretical foundations. She will argue that, if taken seriously, this notion challenges conventional conceptions of learning. She will discuss the implications for pedagogical practice and substantiate them through current research findings. Here is her faculty profile.

Eeva Anttila’s Biography: Dr. Eeva Anttila works as a professor in dance pedagogy at Uniarts Helsinki, Finland, and leads the MA program for dance pedagogy. Her research interests include dialogical and critical dance pedagogy, embodied learning, embodied knowledge and practice-based/artistic research methods. She was involved in the ARTSEQUAL -research project (2015-2021) as Arts@School team leader. Currently she leads the ELLA -research project (2021-2024), funded by KONE foundation. Anttila is actively involved in national and international dance and arts education organizations and journals.

5. In the next few months, we will also be giving some travel tips in this newsletter as you plan your trip to Finland. We plan to put out a podcast about all things Finland (including side trips to consider) in January (here is a link to the podcast where the future episode will be published). We will provide a link to the podcast in the January AIESEP Newsletter. For now, let’s talk about when you get to Helsinki…how can you get to Jyväskylä?? One of the easiest ways is the train. It’s about 3h 20min on the high speed Pendolino from the central train station in Helsinki to Jyväskylä (you can also go from the airport with a transfer to Jyväskylä by train). You can book tickets at fi BUT, you can’t book that ticket yet! Train timetables and costs are only available up to March right now. So, wait a few months and then go to the website to choose your train (check the site in late January of early February). Don’t wait too long however, as prices increase the closer you get to departure (and the train might be sold out). If you book at the right time your ticket may be as low as 9 EUR one way (or closer to 45EUR if you wait). Some trains have luxury seats (business class) on the top floor that cost you another €15-€20 each way. A note on Finnish culture and trains: Finns like to stay quiet (that is unless you’re traveling with children, then you’d book the “kids car” where there is a playroom, slide, a toy train, and everyone has opted into children yelling for the trip!) For the rest of the train, there are “cell phone booths” to place calls in as to not disturb other passengers, but if you want to have a more social train ride, head to the food/drink cart!

6. We have selected 21 students to attend the AIESEP PhD Summer Schoolwhich will directly follow the 2024 conference in Finland. The interest in this was outstanding! Accepted PhD students come from: South Africa, Ghana, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, UK, Canada, Portugal, Turkey, Zimbabwe, USA, Finland, France, and Spain! If you would like to donate to support a doctoral student to attend, you can donate here: https://donate.stripe.com/8wM17TgWV2Tof2ocMM

7. The call for hosting the 2026 AIESEP World Congress and 2027 Conference is out. The application is here: https://aiesep.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AIESEP-host-application-form.pdf We encourage any university who is interested, to express their interest in applying to Risto Marttinen (rmarttin@gmu.edu) bids are due Feb 16^th.

8. As a reminder: The 2025 AIESEP Conference will be held in St. Petersburg, Florida May 18^th to the 22^nd, 2025. Some preliminary information is up on this website https://www.aiesepstpete2025.com/home

9. You can always meet us the last Friday of each month at the AIESEP Connect events. #AIESEPConnectis the name of our AIESEP Global Outreach Programme. It provides a space where members can critically engage with ‘hot’ topics that are linked to the core mission of AIESEP. It is a monthly engagement, a one-hour on-line session on (typically) the last Friday of each month. The timing of the session changes to ensure that we have global engagement in #AIESEPConnect Past sessions can be found here.
10. The next AIESEP Connect will take place on Thursday 25^thof January, from 9AM to 10AM (CET, Paris) / 7 to 8PM (AEDT, Melbourne). It will be led by the AIESEP Treasurer and board member Alexandre Mouton. It will highlight work from Belgium, France, Australia and Germany. Here is a brief intro:

Initially focused on the child/young population, the reach of physical literacy interventions is growing and provides new perspectives for research and practice in the fields of physical education and physical activity promotion. This event will provide an overview of different interventions undertaken across the lifespan, with a focus on physical literacy-oriented interventions.

We will send out the zoom link for you to join closer to the event date. You will be able to find the recording on the podcast Playing with Research in Health and Physical Education or the AIESEP website.

11. We have launched an on-demand video from our South American colleagues for the November AIESEP Connect. It is hosted by Dr Nelson Todt (presenting in Portuguese), Dr Otavio Tavares (presenting in English), Dr Danilo Ponciano (presenting in English), and Prof Daniel De La Cueva (presenting in English) which can be viewed here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWjEX4POD4Y&feature=youtu.be

The session presents and discusses research data and theoretical investigations in Latin America in order to produce a clearer picture of Olympic education’s theory and practice in the region and aims to stimulate new empirical and theoretical research work on the topic in the global south.

12. As a reminder the AIESEP Bloghas moved https://aiesep.org/flash-blog/  You can find member blogs, job openings, and announcements there throughout the year.

Finally, as we build out our new website, emails and newsletters will come from info@aiesep.org so please add this to your “safe sender list” and check your filters for past messages. And, finally, if you’re still reading and enjoyed this newsletter please consider forwarding it to your colleagues!

Sincerely,

Risto Marttinen

Secretary General AIESEP

Associate Professor

George Mason University

rmarttin@gmu.edu