News
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EFPTA 2024 Helsinki - Biennial Conference and 20th anniversary!
We are delighted to announce that the EFPTA 2024 Conference will be held in Helsinki, Finland! Save the date in your diary now - 19-20 April 2024.
This will be our first in-person event since 2018 when the Conference was held in Reykjavik, Iceland. The EFPTA Conference is normally biennial, but the two-yearly pattern was disrupted by the pandemic, and our last Conference - Bratislava 2020 - was postponed till 2021 and was held online.
So we're excited to be getting together again in person, and what's more, this will be EFPTA's 20th Anniversary! In fact Helsinki is the place where EFPTA was founded in 2004, so it's very fitting that we will be there again to celebrate our 20th birthday - and that we will be hosted by the Finnish psychology teachers' association Psykologianopettajat (PSOP).
We will have a full programme of keynotes, workshops, discussion forums and networking sessions for, and by, psychology teachers and educators from across Europe. There will also be optional cultural activities on 18 and 21 April.
Watch this space for information on registering for the Conference; there will also be a call for submissions soon. Meanwhile - save the date!
Presentations from previous EFPTA Conferences.
Former EFPTA President nominated for prestigious award!
Dr Lenka Sokolová, who was President of EFPTA from 2019 to 2022, has been nominated for the EFPA Robert Roe Memorial Award. Lenka remains on the EFPTA Board as representative of Slovakian psychology teachers, a role she took up when she joined in 2008; a few years later she became a founder member of the Slovakian association (SAUP), which she continues to chair. Lenka has been closely involved in virtually all areas of EFPTA activity, and especially in terms of research in psychology education, presenting at international conferences, and hosting our own major EFPTA conferences in Prague (2016) and Bratislava (online, 2021). We look forward to hearing the award outcome - good luck, Lenka!
EFPTA Board spring 2023 meeting in Stockholm
For the first time, EFPTA Board met in Sweden - the meeting took place in Stockholm on 12-13 May 2023. Swedish representative, Ebba Blåvarg hosted us in Sweden's capital city. The Board's agenda focused on preparation for the November 2023 meeting in Edinburgh, and the EFPTA Conference to be held on18-21 April 2024 in Helsinki, Finland.
If you would like more information about EFPTA and our meetings and events, contact your country representative via your country's page under 'Associations'. Any member of an EFPTA member association can attend a Board meeting by prior arrangement. If you are teaching psychology at high school level, and your country does not have a psychology teachers' association, we would like to hear from you - contact us!
Presentations now available! From our webinar on 18 March - Climate change & sustainability in psychology education.
Thank you to everyone who took part in our spring webinar on Saturday 18 March! The theme of climate change and sustainability in psychology education was very popular with about 50 participants from many countries in Europe and beyond. Unfortunately our keynote speaker Dr Dan O'Hare had to cancel, however EFPTA Bard members stepped in to provide a summary of Dr O'Hare's recent paper.
Cick on the links below for the workshop presentations.
In the breakout sessions participants said they found the workshops interesting and useful, and also shared their views and info about how they address environmental issues and sustainability in their own schools. Concern about the effects of the climate crisis on the wellbeing of young people, and the need to prepare them for future challenges, will continue. Also a number of important fundamental questions arose about the role of psychology education in addressing the climate crisis, so we plan to follow up this theme in future EFPTA events - watch this space!
Psychology and climate change is a theme currently prioritised by the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA), to which EFPTA is affiliated.
Documents and Resources
Workshop: Whole-school approaches to sustainability
Workshop: Climate change - learning activities in the psychology classroom
Some key sources on climate change and psychology, and links from webinar chat
EFPTA Board meets in England
EFPTA Board's bi-annual full meeting took place on 18-19 November in England, hosted by Jock McGinty, EFPTA Vice President and England & Wales rep, at his school, Watford Boys Grammar School. It was so good to be able to meet in person again! Representatives from Denmark, England, Germany, Finland, Scotland and Sweden took part, with several other country reps able to join remotely. Mairi Rice was welcomed as new Scotland rep. A busy Agenda included planning for the spring 2023 webinar, the next Board meeting in April to be hosted by our Sweden rep in Stockholm, and preliminary planning for EFPTA 2024 conference in Helsinki. Watch this space for more news of these events!
Meet EFPTA's new President!
At the Board meeting on 30 April in Odense, Denmark, EFPTA members elected Mette Eggertsen as our new President for 2022-24. Mette, of the Danish psychology teachers' association, was previously EFPTA Vice-President. Most Board members attended in person - the first in-person meeting since November 2019 - and a small number attended virtually. An unusual 'hybrid handover' took place when outgoing President Lenka Sokolová (2019-22), from the Slovakian association, who attended via Zoom, handed over the role to Mette who was there in person - see the photo! The Board thanked Lenka for the huge amount of work she has put into advocating for high school level psychology teaching in Europe, and promoting EFPTA amongst psychology educators and practitioners. Fortunately, Lenka is continuing on the Board as representative for Slovakia.
The other three Officers elected /re-elected at the meeting are: Vice-President - Jock McGinty (England and Wales); Treasurer - Wolfgang Augustin (Germany); Secretary - Morag Williamson (Scotland).
The main business of the meeting was to plan activities for 2022-24 - watch this space for news of events!
EFPTA webinar 19 February 2022: thanks for taking part!
On 19 February we held a webinar with the theme: Mental health at school: what is the role of psychology teachers?
Around 50 people took part - psychology teachers, university academics, mental health professionals - from c.16 European countries, and presenters from five countries talked about their approaches to mental health education for young people. It was very interesting, and inspiring, to learn about these different perspectives, with a clear focus on practical strategies for supporting young people through these very challenging times.
Sadly, the global covid-19 pandemic since early 2020 has led to an increase in mental health problems especially among young people. This webinar forms part of a project by EFPTA and the EFPA Board of Educational Affairs on mental health education in secondary schools in Europe, including the role of psychology teachers in supporting students' mental health.
Presentations are available here.
Saturday 19 February 2022, 10.00-12.00 (CET). This event has now ended.
Click the link below for full programme information.
Documents and Resources
Webinar flyer /poster - full programme
EFPTA Newsletter 2020 is published!
You'll find a great mixture of articles, news and reports of events of interest to psychology teachers. Thanks to all contributors - who are psychology teachers and researchers from across Europe - and thanks to new Editor, Jock McGinty (England / Wales representative), taking over from Jackie Moody (Luxembourg). Enjoy!
Documents and Resources
