Conference Agenda

The question of whether it is possible to simulate thinking with machines (Turing 1950) or whether it is possible for machines to think (Minsky 1961) has been debated for several decades (Weizenbaum 1976; Searle 1980). While on the one hand, due to the identity of assembly instructions and opcodes, it is clear that the possibility of thinking machines does exist neither theoretically nor practically, the belief that computers can potentially think better than humans and that this has already been achieved in some fields is maintained. This is especially true for adherents of the data religion (Harari 2017).

The question of possible uses of systems based on artificial intelligence methods in scientific culture is also discussed (Krenn et al. 2022). In this debate, the assumption is argued that AI systems will write scientific papers in the future (Gil 2021, 13). However, no examples of AI systems acting as "agents of understanding" (Krenn et al. 2022, 767) have been reported so far. One such example was examined for this talk.

The selection of the example was motivated on the one hand by the fact that submitting papers for conferences and reviewing papers for conferences is currently a widespread part of scientific culture. At the same time - not least under the influence of the Californian ideology (Barbrook and Cameron 1996) spread by adherents of the data religion - more and more lectures, publications and external funding are demanded of scientists. This necessitates an increase in productivity, and it is an obvious option to test whether current AI systems can contribute to an increase in productivity in the area of talks, in other words, whether the problem can be solved by the means that cause it.

The European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) is with more than 2.000 participants the central conference for Educational Sciences at the European level. Within the European Association of Educational Research (EERA) more than 40 national associations are organised and more than 30 various networks cluster the topics for the ECER.

Conferences in scholarship are seen as main enabler of intellectual exchange and socialisation within the disciplines, which legitimate as well new research fields (Gross & Fleming, 2011). Thereby, the conferences offer the platform for the global interaction of academic networks (Wagner, 2008).

However, the academic study of education derives from different national and cultural research traditions and, thus, from different disciplinary understandings and a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches (Keiner, 2006; Knaupp et al., 2014). The EERA's networks aim to provide a forum for this diversity, which is described in the expression and goal of the "European Educational Research Space" with its culturally specific intellectual and social practice among educational researchers (Lawn, 2002).

Studies of the ECER point out, that the participants have came mainly from a few countries with little presence in large parts of Europe. Participants from the UK in particular, as well as from Western and Northern Europe in general, dominated the conference, supplemented by higher participation numbers from the host countries (Kenk, 2003).

Keiner and Hofbauer (2014) verify this and state that participation in subsequent years was unevenly weighted, but also pointing to the multinationality of participants, which is not reflected in high numbers. While the collaboration is increasingly observed in the sense of co-authorships in publication practice (Aman & Botte, 2017), the transnational collaboration at educational conferences is so far unclear.

This paper explores the participation at the ECER conferences and the collaboration at the submissions in relation to the country of the affiliation. Thereby, it describes the development of the ECER submissions at the conferences from 1998 to 2019, which allow to observe longer-term trends. Addionally, the submissions are analysed on a bigger regional picture by regional and continental assignment. The so-called "host country phenomenon" (Kenk, 2003, p. 618) is considered and examined for longer-term mobilisation effects in the following years and preferred international collaboration patterns are analyzed.