The 12th Asian Conference on Education & International Development (ACEID2026)
March 22-27, 2026
Tokyo International Forum & Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, and Online
We welcome your participation in and contributions to The 12th Asian Conference on Education & International Development (ACEID2026), held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University, Japan, and our global university partners.
The world has changed in dramatic ways since 2019. The practice of education is no exception. The where and how in education were challenged during the pandemic, but the why should perhaps be the central question as we contemplate future modes of education at all levels. The pandemic amplified the differences in the educational experiences of the haves and have-nots. The vulnerable and marginalised around the world, including Asia, need our attention more than ever but access and quality are unequally distributed in most of our educational systems. This is especially so in higher education. Yet, we have been debating endlessly about the pros and cons of online platforms, the decline in university revenues (due to lack of international students) and how to restore pre-pandemic normalcy in campus life.
These are testing times, where we are all trying to regroup from massive social, economic and political disruptions – at home and globally. In many parts of the “have-nots” world, concerns about education revolve around equity and access, and as such they are Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) issues. Exchange of views and ideas among the stakeholders, practitioners and researchers in education as well as international development are crucial if we are to overcome the challenges to build a better future.
ACEID2026 affords us an exceptional opportunity to do so, as well as for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.
Since its founding in 2009, IAFOR events and platforms have brought people and ideas together to promote and celebrate interdisciplinary study and exchange. IAFOR continues to engage in many cross-sectoral projects across the world, including those engaging leading universities and think tanks. Our unique global platform facilitates discussion around specific subject areas, with the goal of generating new knowledge and understanding, forging and expanding new international, intercultural and interdisciplinary research networks and partnerships.
ACEID2026 is a remarkable opportunity to gather (virtually or in-person) to discuss, debate, and develop the ideas that will shape the future of education in line with an important objective of the SDGs, to "leave no one behind".
For this year's event, ACEID will be partnering with The 16th Asian Conference on Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences (ACP2026) and The 12th Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen2026), increasing opportunities for broad multidisciplinary exchanges. Registration the conference allows access to sessions in the other two.
We look forward to seeing you in Tokyo and online!
– The ACEID2026 Programme Committee
- Location & Venue: Held in Tokyo, Japan, and online
- Dates: Sunday, March 22, 2026 to Friday, March 27, 2026
- Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: September 18, 2025*
- Final Abstract Submission Deadline: December 12, 2025
- Registration Deadline for Presenters: January 22, 2026
*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.
Speakers
To be Announced
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Evangelia ChrysikouUniversity College London, United Kingdom -
Héctor GarcíaAuthor, Japan
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Seoyoun KimUniversity of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, United States
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James W. McNallyUniversity of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, United States
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Hiroshi OtaHitotsubashi University, Japan
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Lowell SheppardNever Too Late Academy & IAFOR, Japan
IAFOR's Conference Themes for 2025-2029
Our four themes can be seen as standalone themes, but they are also very much in conversation with each other. Themes may be seen as corollaries, complementary, or in opposition/juxtaposition with each other. The themes can be considered as widely as possible and are designed, in keeping with our mission, to encourage ideas across the disciplines.
Read Last Year's Conference Report
Conference News
Accepted Presentations
Lowell Sheppard to Moderate the Panel for ‘Longevity, Happiness, and the Art of Community: Lessons from Japan and Beyond’
Conference Report and Intelligence Briefing: ACEID/ACP/AGen2025
Sponsorship & Exhibition
About IAFOR’s Education Conferences
IAFOR promotes and facilitates new multifaceted approaches to one of the core issues of our time, namely globalisation and its many forms of growth and expansion. Awareness of how it cuts across the world of education, and its subsequent impact on societies, institutions and individuals, is a driving force in educational policies and practices across the globe. IAFOR’s conferences on education have these issues at their core. The conferences present those taking part with three unique dimensions of experience, encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating heightened intercultural awareness and promoting international exchange. In short, IAFOR’s conferences on education are about change, transformation and social justice. As IAFOR’s previous conferences on education have shown, education has the power to transform and change whilst it is also continuously transformed and changed.
Globalised education systems are becoming increasingly socially, ethnically and culturally diverse. However, education is often defined through discourses embedded in Western paradigms as globalised education systems become increasingly determined by dominant knowledge economies. Policies, practices and ideologies of education help define and determine ways in which social justice is perceived and acted out. What counts as "education" and as "knowledge" can appear uncontestable but is in fact both contestable and partial. Discourses of learning and teaching regulate and normalise gendered and classed, racialised and ethnicised understandings of what learning is and who counts as a learner.
In many educational settings and contexts throughout the world, there remains an assumption that teachers are the possessors of knowledge which is to be imparted to students, and that this happens in neutral, impartial and objective ways. However, learning is about making meaning, and learners can experience the same teaching in very different ways. Students (as well as teachers) are part of complex social, cultural, political, ideological and personal circumstances, and current experiences of learning will depend in part on previous ones, as well as on age, gender, social class, culture, ethnicity, varying abilities and more.
IAFOR has several annual conferences on education across the world, exploring common themes in different ways to develop a shared research agenda which develops interdisciplinary discussion, heightens intercultural awareness and promotes international exchange.
About IAFOR
"Inspiring Global Collaborations"
Founded in 2009, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is a mission-driven politically independent non-partisan and non-profit organisation dedicated to encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating intercultural awareness and promoting international exchange, principally through educational interaction and academic research. Based in Japan, its main administrative office is in Nagoya, and its research centre is in the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), a graduate school of The University of Osaka. IAFOR runs research programs and events in partnership with universities, think tanks, and other associations. Through its international, intercultural and interdisciplinary conferences, research, and publications, IAFOR is a network hub for interdisciplinary discussion across Asia and beyond.
Read more about IAFOR.
