From 16 to 17 June 2025, the 2nd GRIFE Annual Conference, hosted by The Education University of Hong Kong, was successfully held at the InnoCentre in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. The theme of the conference was “Education Innovation and Talent Development for a Sustainable Future: Chinese, Finnish, and Global Perspectives.” The event brought together experts and scholars, doctoral researchers, education administrators, and policy makers from China, Finland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, the United States, Hungary, South Korea, Brazil, and other countries to explore pathways for cultivating talent through educational innovation and sustainable development. The conference featured six keynote speeches, two plenary forums, and five rounds of intensive parallel sessions, covering a wide range of frontier topics including higher education, STEM education, teacher education, sustainable development, and AI in education. Our doctoral student Yusheng Zhou attended the conference in Hong Kong, delivered an academic presentation, and chaired a parallel session.
On the afternoon of 17 June, Yusheng Zhou chaired the session titled “Fostering Educational Innovation.” In the same session, Zhou made an oral presentation entitled “The Meaning of Knowledge Engagement: How Chinese Undergraduates Form ‘Possible Selves’.” Drawing on qualitative research and in-depth interviews with 33 undergraduates from Chinese universities, this study investigates how students construct visions and plans for their futures within the knowledge structures of their academic disciplines.
