CIDEC Symposium 2026

Comparative, International, and Development Education at a Crossroads: Responding to Education in an Age of Crisis and Complexity

The Comparative, International, and Development Education Centre (CIDEC) invites you to its inaugural symposium, taking place April 23–24, 2026 at OISE, University of Toronto.

Education systems worldwide are confronting a convergence of crises, including conflict and displacement, democratic backsliding, climate instability, widening inequalities, and rapid digital transformation. These challenges are not new, nor are they isolated; they are deeply interconnected, persistent forces shaping and reshaping how education is imagined, governed, and experienced. At the same time, the field of Comparative, International, and Development Education (CIDE) is itself at a critical juncture, as longstanding paradigms are unsettled and new possibilities for analysis, collaboration, and action begin to take shape.

This symposium takes those tensions seriously and puts them on the table. It brings together scholars, practitioners, and community partners to engage across a range of perspectives, from decolonizing methodologies and feminist and critical policy analysis to education in contexts of displacement, global governance, and the implications of AI and digital transformation. Across sessions, participants will examine how education systems are responding to crisis and complexity, where those responses fall short, and what more just and sustainable futures might actually require. This includes a deliberate focus on how these dynamics are unfolding both globally and in local contexts, including in the Toronto area and across Canada, and on strengthening connections between research, practice, and community-based work in our own context.

The program features anchor talks by leading CIDE scholars, practitioner and community roundtables with organizations working directly in education in emergencies and community-based contexts, and paper sessions highlighting emerging research across the field. This is not just a knowledge-sharing event; it is intended as a space for collective sense-making, network-building, and forward-looking collaboration.

Registration is $20, which includes access to both days of the symposium, as well as coffee/tea, snacks, and lunch each day.

Join us for two days of rigorous discussion, critical reflection, and community-building at a moment when the stakes for education and for the field of CIDE could not be higher.

Registration is required for this in-person event, with spaces limited: contact oise.cidec@utoronto.ca for more details. 

Photo Credit: Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash