Opening Address to the VIth IOSTE Symposium for Central and Eastern European Countries

I am delighted to have been asked to open this IOSTE Regional Symposium. The Central and Eastern European Region of IOSTE has been a very significant one right from the very beginning of our organization in 1979. As we know, at that time a substantial divide separated East and West - a divide of ideology and values which bred suspicion, ignorance and fear on both sides. Science and technology in particular were carefully guarded during the Cold War, and the normal lifeblood of science - the critical examination and discussion between peers around the world - was obstructed. This was also the case for science and technology education. Then in 1979 a group of science and technology educators met in Halifax, Canada to consider ways of building bridges across this divide to encouraging contact and dialogue between education researchers on both sides. This was the origin of the International Organization for Science and Technology Education, officially established in 1984. From the start, IOSTE has been an organization valuing global rather than partisan perspectives, collegiality rather than competition, and commonalities rather than differences. According to the first Chair of IOSTE, Charles Posa McFadden, the founders were motivated by 'the potential value to all science and technology educators of improved contacts between west and east, north and south' (McFadden, 2005). This philosophy has guided the structure, principles and activities of IOSTE in the 28 years since that first meeting. IOSTE is most 'international' of the science and technology education (STE) organizations and is not dominated by, or located in, any particular part of the world. Today its members come from over 60 countries, grouped into 14 regions. At international symposia, members from each region elect a representative to serve on the IOSTE board until the next symposium, usually in two years. As you know, the immediate past representative for this region was Miia Rannikmae, and the current representative is Vincentas Lamanauskas. I have worked with both and can tell you that his region has been very fortunate to have had two such active and passionate representatives in succession.