From August 17 to 21, 2026, Tampere became a hub not only for European educational research but also for the international community. Nestled between the two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, approximately 3,800 participants from more than 80 countries gathered for the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) 2026. The conference week was kicked off on August 17 with the two-day Emerging Researchers’ Conference (ERC), organized specifically for early-career researchers.
This year’s conference theme, “Knowing and Acting: The changing conditions and potentials of education research”, served as the framework for over 1,000 keynote addresses, presentations, poster sessions, panels, symposia, talks and a wide range of discussions. The theme was explored from various perspectives contextualized within the 34 European Educational Research Associations (EERA) networks.
The dig!doc consortium was also represented at ECER 2026: Jasmin Wallner presented part of her dissertation project on young people’s online search behavior and how they deal with trust, doubt and heuristics – based on think-aloud protocols – in Network 6 – Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures.
In addition to the wide range of academic insights, the scale and international character of ECER 2026 offered several opportunities to engage in conversation with researchers from different countries and disciplines.
And Tampere itself was not to be overlooked: After the rather intense conference days, there was some time left to explore the city characterized by its lakes. A special highlight was an evening bike tour through Tampere followed by a visit to a Finnish sauna – a must-do during any stay in Finland.
