IPDA Bulletin September 2017

The new academic year is upon us. In this September 2017 bulletin we bring you:

• Thank you to Dr Margery McMahon
• Membership growth
• More success for Professional Development in Education
• Booking for the IPDA Annual Conference 2017
• IPDA Cymru day
• IPDA India conference

We are always delighted to receive ideas and feedback from our membership, as IPDA is your organisation.

Thank you to Dr Margery McMahon

We are sad to announce the resignation of Dr Margery McMahon from the International Committee, her position as co-chair and as chair of IPDA Scotland. We have appreciated Margery’s active involvement in the success of the IPDA Annual Conference in 2016 in Stirling, and in the leadership of developmental work being carried out by the International Committee. We would like to wish her well in her growing commitments at University of Glasgow.

The complete list of of International Committee members and officers is available on the IPDA website.

Membership growth

We are delighted to be over 200 strong again in our membership. Thank you to Coleen for her tireless work as membership secretary, and to all of you who have been spreading the word about the benefits of belonging to our collaborative and supportive international network of individuals and organisations concerned with professional development and learning.

More success for Professional Development in Education

We are delighted to announce that our journal, PDiE has a new higher position in the ranking and is now included in the Thomson Reuters Emerging Sources Citation Index. Routledge, our publishers, have just agreed that they can make the Special Edition on Early Years into a book. Well done to Managing Editors, Prof Ken Jones and Prof Jim O’Brien, and the Editorial Board, for all their hard work.

Booking for the IPDA Annual Conference 2017

We are delighted to announce that booking is open for our Annual IPDA Conference 2017 at The Vale Hotel, Glamorgan in Wales on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 November. The conference fee includes accommodation, all meals and refreshments, conference dinner, IPDA membership as well as the conference itself, so it is a real bargain. The theme is: The Complexity of Professional and Inter-professional Learning. Submissions for workshops, round tables and papers can be made through the conference submissions page. Please download the flyer and distribute in your institution and to other interested colleagues

IPDA India conference

We are delighted to announce that IPDA India will be holding the Partap International Conference in October 2017. Dr Coleen Jackson and Dr Margery McMahon are Keynote Speakers. Further details to follow.

IPDA Cymru day

 

IPDA Cymru hosted their second event on the 6th June, 2017 at Fitzalan High School in Cardiff. The theme of the seminar was ‘The Art of Leadership Discussed’ and the presenter was Dr. Alex Alexandrou. The afternoon comprised of discussions between delegates from a variety of educational backgrounds. One head teacher from Swansea fed back to the committee that it ‘was refreshing to be able to discuss leadership in a forum with no agenda other than to take leadership forward.’ Dr. Alexandrou drew on the lived experiences of teachers in the USA, Scotland, England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland discussing the need for a theoretical model of leadership. In an interactive session delegates explored a teacher leadership article as a starting point for raising questions and a fascinating in-depth discussion was had.

During the course of the afternoon we were able to present the Dr. Howard Tanner Research Prize 2017 to Simon Hoskins for his outstanding dissertation submission. Simon received a £100 cheque, membership of IPDA for one year and an inscribed silver pen. We also took the opportunity to ask Simon to take part in a question and answer session about his dissertation ‘School Leadership Pathways: Alternative Routes to Primary Headship’ and to draw out what delegates could learn from his thesis.

IPDA Cymru plan to run a similar style of seminar with a different focus in the Autumn Term 2017, based on positive delegate feedback.