Education can be seen as a practice in constant flux. Today, AI is transforming how we teach and learn. A few years ago, it was online teaching that reshaped classrooms worldwide. Before that, social justice movements were shifting our focus away from the ‘canon’ and, for several decades now, new theories like transformative learning and connectivism have been reshaping our roles as teachers. Teaching and learning then, are clearly phenomena in continual evolution.

Interestingly theories of learning, educational technologies, teaching models, and social contexts not only change, but evolve together across time —sometimes in sync, sometimes in tension. As a result, the academic landscape is always complex: a world of experimentation and tradition, subject specialisms and interdisciplinarity, shared practices, individual innovations and changing social norms.

The Focus on Pedagogy 2026 conference, Across Teaching, Theory, Technologies & Times, seeks to explore this diverse and dynamic concept. Amoung the aims is to learn about the past, present and future of education from across disciplinary boundaries, whether they be:

ART, DESIGN, SOCIAL SCIENCES, STEM, HEALTH, MEDIA, HUMANITIES, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, or others

We are interested in forward-thinking teaching practices in each of these disciplinary areas, as well as methodologies grounded in tradition. We seek presentations on AI, studio-based teaching, problem-based learning, the flipped classroom, ungrading, socially engaged pedagogy, peer-to-peer learning and more. We are especially curious about how practices from one domain function on their own terms, but also inform others, sometimes in isolation and sometimes in tandem.

–

With this in mind, the conference brings together departments from across multiple disciplines, institutions and countries:

Glasgow School of Art: Critical Thinking in the Art School | Bangkok University: Valuing Local Intellect in Education

University of San Francisco: Race, Cultural Belonging, Skills, and Assessment | Chuo University Tokyo: Professional Education in the Age of AI |

UC Copenhagen: Everyday Spaces | Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes – Mexico: Pedagogies of Resistance

Running throughout the conference is an interest in issues like AI, the psychology of teaching and learning, the art & design studio, STEM, problem-based learning, ‘engaged’ teaching, student health & wellbeing, academic-industry partnership, educational theory, learning technologies, and more.