The 2026 Society for Educational Studies Colloquium will take place at Oriel College, Oxford on the 10-11 September 2026 under the title ‘Is Technology the End of Education?‘
In his prescient work from the 1980’s, Neil Postman observed that the lens with which we should look at cultural, political and educational challenge was not (as often thought) Orwell’s 1984 but Huxley’s Brave New World. In Huxley’s world, the serious business of taking responsibility for and (as Arendt would have it) acting in and for the world is replaced by taking soma as a way of negating the world through pleasure seeking. The rise and ubiquity of technologies (including but not limited to AI) offers both opportunities and challenges to educational practice. On the one hand access to such technologies offer pathways and resources yet to be imagined; on the other, the control of many of these resources lies in the hands of global corporations, which not only provide schools with the hardware and software but more challengingly, the curriculum materials and branding. The rise of ‘Apple Schools’ and ‘Microsoft Showcase School’ programme, amongst many others, refresh the import of the age-old question, ‘For what purpose(s) and for whom is education to be directed and shaped?’ Moreover, it surfaces pressing questions about who controls educational provision and whether or not the democratic state retains its presumed authority over schooling and the curriculum.
At its 2026 Colloquium, the Society of Educational Studies invites both optimists and pessimists to engage in robust reflection and debate on the ways in which technology is shaping or may re-shape education in school, college and university.
A full call for papers and details of how and when to register will appear here in due course.
The Colloquium will remain free to SES members, with membership costing £30 for the 2026 calendar year [£20 students]. Membership is available to purchase here. Attendance includes overnight accommodation at Oriel College and board, including the Colloquium Dinner on 10 September.
The fee for non-members is £300.