Envisioning Creative and Inclusive Educational Futures: Perspectives from the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) in its Fiftieth Year

Education is a discipline centrally concerned with the concept of ‘futures’. Whether teaching in a classroom or lecture hall, conceiving of and implementing policy or designing curricula, the focus remains on helping learners and educators to maximise teachable moments and realise their potential.

In positioning futures, there is the underpinning tenet that we can learn from our past and envision and create legacies that have formative and positive effects for future generations.

In 2026, ESAI marks 50 years of Irish educational research. This symposium will share contemporary perspectives from the work of ESAI membership, including in the key domains of relationships and sexuality education; the lived experience of autistic academics; reimagining teacher induction; and creativity and belonging in higher education.


Session Summary


The purpose of this session is to reflect on key topics currently being researched by Membership of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI), situated in the theme of AERA 2026: “Unforgetting Histories and Imagining Futures: Constructing a New Vision for Education Research”. In 2026, ESAI celebrates 50 years of Irish educational research and scholarship. This affords the Association, affiliated with AERA and the international research community, the opportunity for critical space to pause, to review and to reflect on key research questions and themes that are the current focus of ESAI Membership’s work. Originally founded in 1976 at the then University College Galway, Ireland, ESAI has always had as its goal the advancement and promotion of educational research broadly construed. Ab initio, the focus of ESAI has been disciplinary and methodological plurality. Since its beginnings in 1976 ESAI has grown into both a national and international research community. The ESAI hosts its annual conference with delegates participating from around the world, sharing and discussing the widest range of questions and issues drawn from across all subject domains and disciplinary perspectives. A particular strength of the ESAI is

its inherent generalism, inviting and promoting research from across all disciplines, methodologies, subject areas and topics of educational research. In 1981, the Association commenced publication of its annual conference proceedings as a peer-reviewed journal, Irish Educational Studies. The ESAI journal: IES is now published internationally by Routledge/Taylor & Francis, consistently placing in the top quartiles of educational research journals globally, and attracting a global readership of over 300k downloads each year. The ESAI is the original and principal association for the advancement of educational research in Ireland, both North and South. It would not be feasible in the space of a symposium to cover and represent all aspects of the work of ESAI Membership.

In this session at AERA 2026, a selection of invited papers is presented, discussing diverse key contemporary topics in educational research, including: relationships and sexuality education; the lived experience of autistic academics; reimagining teacher induction; and creativity and belonging in higher education. Inspired by this year’s AERA theme, and framed around the concept of envisioning creative and inclusive educational futures, the Chair of the session will lead the presenters in a discussion of how salient topics in Irish educational research reflect and relate to educational futures scholarship in the US and global educational contexts. The scholarly significance of the session will be to open a creative and critical space to unforget histories and imagine a new vision of educational research.

After a brief history of the ESAI and session overview by the Symposium Convenor, including theoretical considerations in educational futures scholarship, each author will present their paper. Once presentations are concluded, discussion with the Chair, presenters and conference delegates will ensue. It is hoped this discussion will provide foundations for a joint peer-reviewed publication connecting histories and legacies of both the AERA and ESAI, critically situated in the complex and contested contemporary landscape of global education futures.