2021 IPDA Conference
2021 International Conference
25-27 November 2021
MARGINALISED VOICES IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES:
ADDRESSING INEQUITIES THROUGH PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND EDUCATION
The IPDA International Conference took place online from 25-27 November 2021. The theme explored marginalised voices in contemporary times.
This enables us to extend our invitation to a wide range of attendees across the globe, and also provides us with exciting new opportunities to engage with our members.
Conference Resources
IPDA members can access a range of resources from the event, including keynotes, presentations, poster presentations, as well as artwork produced by our event poet and artist.
Keynote speakers
We have more keynote speakers than ever before with our new conference format running over 3 days. In the lead up to the conference we are publishing a podcast with each speaker which you can listen to below.
Mary Ryan
Professor and Dean of Education, Macquarie University, Sydney
Daphnee Lee
Assistant Professor, Education University of Hong Kong
Vidya Shah
Assistant Professor, York University
Asmaa Al-Fadala
Director of Research and Content Development, Qatar Foundation
Vivienne Porritt
Education and Leadership Consultant
Allana Gay
Headteacher, Vita et Pax Preparatory School
Mauricio Pino
Associate Researcher, Universidad de Chile
Saran Stewart
Associate Professor, University of Connecticut
Strands and key questions
The impact of Covid-19 on reframing conversations regarding inequity in professional learning and practice education
How has the Covid -19 crisis reframed conversations about inequity in professional learning and practice education?
Responses to the Black Lives Matter Movement
How should professional learning and practitioner education respond to themes and areas of focus emerging from the Black Lives Matter movement
Explorations and insights into queer practitioner education, professional community, and their significance
What are significant influences and aspects of professional learning and practitioner education for queer educators?
Gender equality and equity, and its role in professional learning across international contexts
How do we keep gender equality and equity live in discussions around progressional learning? What is the urgency in doing so across international contexts?
Current models and conceptualisations of disability in professional learning and practitioner education and new models reframing the landscape
What models/conceptualisations of disability dominate professional learning and practitioner education? Whose interests do these serve? What new thinking do we need to do?
The risks of not considering issues of inequality and practitioner education
What are the risks associated with not paying attention to issues of inequality and practitioner education? Whose interests does practitioner education serve? What work does it do?
The role of human experiences, identities, and culture in professional learning and practitioner education
What is the role of human experiences, personal and social identities, and culture in professional learning and practitioner education?
Congratulations to winners of the IPDA Prize 2021
Mary McAuliffe
Congratulations to Mary McAuliffe who was awarded the 2020 IPDA prize for her EdD, entitled ‘Exploring the Role of the Special Educational Need Organiser’.
Mary had a varied career as a post primary teacher in a disadvantaged area in Dublin and as a principal of a post primary girls school in Kenya, where access to post primary education for girls was available to less than 10% of the relevant population. In later years she worked with homeless teenagers, unemployed youth and with children who were on Home Tuition Scheme funded by the DES due to expulsion. For the past ten years Mary has worked as a Special Education Needs Organiser with the National Council for Special Education.
The focus of this exploratory study is the role of the Special Educational Needs Organiser (SENO) which was initiated in the Education for People with Special Educational Needs Act (Government of Ireland, 2004). The SENO role has received limited research attention to date. An interpretive multi-perspective triangulated study provided an appropriate design to gather participants’ perceptions of the SENO role within a real world setting. In depth interviews with 19 participants, review of the relevant legislation, department circulars and NCSE publications along with a brief parental survey of 137 parents all contributed to an informed exploration of the SENO position. The research in the field was conducted between the autumn of 2017 and the summer of 2018. Participants included parents, principals, teachers, other educational and clinical professionals, and those engaged as SENOs.
Tracy Curran
Congratulations to Tracy Curran who will present at the 2021 conference. Her PhD was entitled ‘A theory-driven evaluation of Lesson Study as a model of professional development to support Irish teachers to enact the new primary mathematics curriculum’.
Dr Tracy Curran is a recent PhD graduate of Lincoln University, UK, who works with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to support curriculum development at primary level and promote stakeholder engagement in curriculum change. Previous to joining the NCCA in Ireland, Tracy gained a wealth of experience in supporting teacher professional development and the induction of newly qualified teachers. Tracy is a trained primary school teacher and worked for several years in both mainstream and special education settings.
Tracy’s thesis is the first empirical evaluation of Lesson Study as a model of PD to support Irish primary teachers, as well as the first known theory-driven evaluation (Chen, 2015) of teacher professional development conducted in the Irish context. This study found that Lesson Study provided a transformative space where participating teachers could interrogate, study and try out the new primary mathematics curriculum. Using Guskey’s (2000) framework for evaluation, the study found that teachers’ engagement in Lesson Study supported them to meet the demands of curriculum reform and change; enhanced their knowledge for teaching mathematics, and importantly, resulted in statistically significant gains for children’s learning.
Thank you to the conference committee and support team
We are grateful for the contributions of our conference committee, who are working together for the second year to pull this event together.
We have also had great support from a team of students, helping to run our Zoom rooms. Thank you to: Megan Oberholzer, Elsa Maneggio, Maria Kasandrinou, DeVaughan C. Gay and Zack Kandros.
Lizana Oberholzer
Lizana is a senior lecturer in teacher education at the University of Wolverhampton. She is passionate about teacher development and is the BERA special interest group convenor for teacher education in England, BELMAS research interest group convenor for governing and governance, BAMEed Trustee, CMI fellow, Chartered College of Teaching Founding Fellow, principal fellow of the Higher Education Academy, CollectiveEd fellow, Vice Chair of the UCET CPD Forum, and MAT Director. Lizana supports the IPDA annual conference as the Conference Committee Chair, and is a member of the IPDA England Committee.
Marie Huxtable
Marie Huxtable is currently Editor of the Educational Journal of Living Theories, Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Cumbria, UK. She engages, as a global citizen, in professional educational practitioner self-study research in order to contribute to the growth of an educational knowledge-base which supports the evolution of an emancipating, inclusive and egalitarian world.
Dave Johnston
Dave Johnston is the Director of Professional Development at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) based out of the Bronx Zoo in NYC. He oversees all teacher and graduate education at WCS, including international partnerships in over 20 countries. He has presented his work at over a dozen national and international professional conferences and his work has won the Top Honors in Education award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. He holds a BA in Physical Anthropology from Penn State University and an M.Ed. in Science Education from City College of New York. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Teacher Education and Teacher Development at Montclair State University. His dissertation utilizes didactic transposition to examine professional development outcomes for informal STEM educators related to inquiry based instruction.
Gayle Le Moine
Gayle is a senior lecturer, programme director and placement lead for child nursing at Canterbury Christ Church University. Prior to joining the university Gayle was a band 6 paediatric sister on a general ward with expertise in acute and continuing illnesses in children. She has a keen interest in simulation and how this can be utilised to enhance clinical learning. Gayle is actively engaged in multi-professional working research.
Stuart Mitchell
Stuart Mitchell is Senior Lecturer and Post-Compulsory Education and Training Course Leader within the Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences at Birmingham City University. Stuart is also Chair of the Faculty Academic Ethics Committee and is currently engaged in doctoral study, considering the impact of routine and disruption caused by policy-churn on the role of Initial Teacher Educators within the PCE sector. Formerly a lecturer at a number of Further Education colleges he has taught across a range of subject areas including Sociology, ESOL, Construction, ICT & Key Skills. Recent research projects have focused on international professional development within Vietnam and initial teacher training mentor support.
Sara Smith
Sara initially trained as a Biomedical Scientist where she focused upon training and staff development. After 16 years in the NHS she moved into higher education as course leader for undergraduate and post graduate awards in biomedical and healthcare science where her research focused upon work-based learning, capability in the workplace and the role of technology to support practice. She has now returned to the NHS and is a Learning and Education facilitator for NHS Highlands, delivering a range of staff development programmes and workshops.
Lydia Kendall-McDougall
Lydia is a Teaching Assistant at Morley Newlands Academy in Leeds. She has recently completed her MA in English Literature, and has a particular research interest in Posthumanism/Vital Materialisms, with a specific focus the relationship between materiality and cultural identity in South Asian fiction.
Netta Pickett
I have been the administrator for IPDA since November 2015. My working career began as a comptometer operator in 1970 for a company in Birmingham called Rapid Figurework. In 1986 I joined the City of Birmingham Polytechnic admin team. Due to restructuring of the University (now Birmingham City University) I made the difficult decision to retire from my role as personal assistant to the Associate Dean for Research and Business Development, Alex Kendall. I had previous involvement with IPDA through this role and was pleased to take on the role of IPDA administrator in my retirement. Organising the IPDA conference and meeting people from all over the world is something that I thoroughly enjoy.
Russell Goffe-Wood
Russell is a website designer and photographer and has been supporting IPDA for over 5 years, managing our website and taking photographs and video at our events.
