Reflecting on IPDA 2021 keynotes

We are entering the reflective space of yet another exciting IPDA Conference, and the 2022 Conference theme is – Reimagining our futures together: The role of Professional Learning.  However, a key part of moving forward, is to look back as well, and to reflect on our learning regarding our previous events, and work. We hold fond memories of our IPDA 2021 conference, and the conference committee produced a detailed summary of the contributions our keynote speakers made during the event. Our 2021 theme was, Marginalised Voices in Contemporary Times: Addressing Inequalities through Professional Learning and Education. We were privileged to welcome, Mary Ryan, Daphnee Lee, Vidya Shah, Asmaa Al-Fadala, Vivienne Porritt, Allana Gay, Mauricio Pino and Saran Stewart to the conference. You can refresh your memory in the build up to our 2022 conference by reading the blog summaries presented to you by the IPDA Conference Committee, as well as listen to their valuable contributions on how education can make a true difference in enabling others via the links provided in the blog as well. 

Looking to the future, we are looking forward to welcoming our keynote speakers for 2022 as well, and they are: Carol Azumah Dennis, Andy Hargreaves, Carol Campbell, Beatriz Pont, and Haiyan Qian. You can learn more about what they are hoping to share with us during this conference by listening to their individual podcasts.

Mary Ryan

Summary by Stuart Mitchell

In her 2021 IPDA Keynote speech, Professor Mary Ryan presents a key issue that faces all teachers, and specifically initial teacher educators in preparing early career teachers, in the crucial topic of diversity. Using the foci of inclusivity through three differing perspectives, Professor Ryan sets out the common issues of teacher development, in juggling many issues within a complex and challenging topic. Her tripartite approach to teaching ‘about’, ‘to’ and ‘for’ inclusivity strikes a chord with all teacher educators, signposting the idea that we, as a group that develops the next generation of teachers across all sectors of education, are responsible not simply for teaching new teachers about inclusivity and diversity, but also ensuring that they feel better prepared to teach to a range of diverse groups within the classroom, as well as teaching for inclusivity, in challenging the beliefs and attitudes that produce the inequalities apparent in society in the first instance.

As teacher educators therefore we are required to ensure that a) early career teachers are aware of and in turn can teach diversity, signposting issues of representation and discrimination, ensuring that in turn these trainee teachers are aware of the plethora of issues they need to convey to their own students; b) that we, as teacher educators, are comfortable in teaching to the diversity of their classroom within the HE setting; and c) that we are challenging inequalities and championing a reflexive approach to changing the diversity landscape.

Professor Ryan’s keynote focuses on a group of ‘powerful educators’, indicating a type of teacher able to emphasise all three aspects of this issue. Her suggestions push for a new pedagogy for teacher education, in preparing early career teachers in not only understanding diversity but also being able to celebrate and enhance notions of diversity within the sector. This new pedagogy of critical thinking in teaching for diversity “supports a social justice agenda as opposed to merely using different tips and tricks to prepare future teachers for teaching diverse learners in the classroom” (Lunn Brownlee, et al. 2022).

My own fascination with this concept, is that initial teacher educators, and by turn the early career teachers they support, are restrained in many ways to teach along a specific curriculum, taking into consideration the local (in this context the national) expectations of what a teacher does, how they meet the needs of their curriculum, their professional standards and what wider society might expect of their role. In considering notions of epistemic reflexivity, Professor Ryan’s work focuses on initial teacher educators going further than this, focusing on discussions of what matters at a social and community level. This leads to focusing around an enabling and transformative approach based on scholarly knowledge, that reaches beyond the experience of both the initial teacher educator and those in the classroom.

This epistemic approach is based on processes we would hope to instil in our future teachers and in turn their own students – one of critical, analytical, evaluative enquiry, seeking multiple perspectives, in addressing and challenging assumptions and bias that exists. 

Professor Ryan leaves us with a call for action, to address persistent inequalities and offer support for the diversity of our students through critical understanding. Those powerful educators are able to engage in epistemic reflexivity to hold multiple bodies of knowledge at one time, and surely leads to the ability for all teachers to think more deeply about our work, not only in issues of diversity, but across the vast array of subjects that we seek to teach, holding multiple bodies of knowledge within our armoury to employ against the inequalities of society. 

Daphnee Lee

Summary by Gayle Le Moine 

Dr Daphne Lee is an Associate Professor of education policy and leadership at the Education University of Hong Kong.  Daphne’s keynote explored Chinese identity with the Chinese school system, the values that underpin teaching and the influence that professional identity and values has in overcoming inequality. Daphne uses a theory that she has developed called Identity Grafting to investigate the identities and values that underpin professional practice. 

Daphne’s work questioned if lessons can be learnt from Chinese school systems and whether culture is the magic for their success. However, Daphne proposed that this may not solely be the case and success may also come from learning from other school systems in the wider world. 

Daphne explored power distance, uncertainty avoidance and risk taking and the impact these have on change and the relationship of such values on teachers’ professional capital. It is often assumed that Asian and Western societies have differing values. Daphne’s results demonstrated that Hong Kong and Singapore both look to superiors for instructions and are less likely to challenge leaders’ decisions (high power distance), they need clarification and will become anxious when school reforms are ambiguous (high levels of uncertainty avoidance). However, this is not isolated to Chinese contexts and has been found in some western societies supporting Daphne’s theory. 

Identity Grafting Theory raises awareness in everyday professionals. It arose from Daphne’s observations of teachers engaged in professional learning communities and Daphne’s experiences of everyday learning and teaching. 

Daphne concluded that professional development should assist with adaptation rather than alignment; leadership at varying levels is key to allow a fusion of identities. Leadership may also help to develop risk takers and non-conformists into inspiring leaders, with conservative leaders utilised to help safeguard identity. Leaders need to inspire confidence to move ahead based on mutual trust and respect.  Daphne proposes that integrated professional development that looks at many cultures and identities is helpful and may be enhanced in countries that have a multicultural population. 

Daphne’s concluding thoughts were that Identity Grafting can be empowering for the marginalised and enriching for the core with a balance between self-care and care for others which may hopefully lead to boundaries being transcended. 

Vidya Shah

Summary by Dr Sara Smith 

In her podcast discussing her work and how this links into the conference themes of IPDA 2021, Dr Shah posed the question ‘Why have voices been marginalised?’ She challenges us to move our focus away from ‘the marginalised’and instead question the ideologies, discourses, policies and practices in place that permit and enable this marginalisation to happen. Dr Shah highlights how definitions of, and approaches to, Professional Learning have been created via top-down decisions. Her interest is positioned in the informal spaces where educators come together to talk and share experiences and the more formal spaces designed by educators for educators. These spaces do not concentrate upon intellectual engagement but rather what she defines as embodied engagement. What are the professional learning needs of educators and how do they differ from those dictated by the current structure, policies and practices. What do educators discuss when we make space for them to share? What needs are not being met by the current approach to professional learning for educators? She argues that there is a need to recognise the knowledge and wisdom of educators as a collective to ensure that they can transform their role – enabling them to bring more of ‘whole-self’ into their profession. Making spaces to allow liberatory learning will ensure that we can embrace and understand the socio-political environment removing the current practices that act as enablers to marginalisation of individuals and groups. 

Asmaa Al-Fadala

Summary by Dr Marie Huxtable

Dr Al- Fadala’s set the context of her keynote in the global conversations, particularly those of the last five years, about education which has shifted from focussing on reform, to redesign, to transforming fundamental models of teaching and learning. She illustrated the transformation of a global move from using a model that emphasizes learners acquiring knowledge, curriculum content and ‘standards’, to learner-driven personalized learning and the development of competencies, learner agency and well-being, with reference to the OECD 2030 Learning Compass Framework (https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/ and changes in Brazil and Finland.

The project started in two schools in Qatar and one in Australia during 2020 (https://www.wise-qatar.org/wise-innovation-hub/). A team was established in each school to develop, test and implement innovative solutions to the challenges, issues and priorities particular to the school, with a common intention of supporting and empowering learners to develop their academic, well-being and social emotional learning. It was found that to succeed the lab structure had to be adaptable to each school’s unique circumstance and to be at the core of the school practices on teaching and learning and the classroom. Strong leadership, which supported risk taking and embraced mistakes was important for deep the transformation necessary for redesigning, rather than simply reforming, learning environments for more meaningful personalised learning. The findings have implications for international, national and local funding of educational research, development of policies and the professional development of schoolteachers and leaders to truly transform education rather than make superficial fixes. 

Report Embedding Innovation Labs in Schools as a vehicle for transformation in education. September 2021 – https://www.wise-qatar.org/embedding-innovation-labs-in-schools/

Vivienne Porritt

Summary by Lizana Oberholzer

Vivvienne is one of the founding members of WomenEd, and she is part of the executive leadership team of WomenEd which is a global grassroots organisation, supporting existing and aspiring women leaders to connect globally. WomenEd is a voluntary organisation, and all involved in WomenEd are volunteers. Vivvienne explained that the leadership development journeys for women and men are often very different. Women often make different choices, and have to make different choices due to motherhood which can impact on their career development and future leadership journeys. WomenEd is a values-driven organisation, which connects with women, and aim to meet their needs, to enable them to progress in leadership.

Vivvienne shared that WomenEd started as a grassroots organisation on Twitter, and it continues to grow. Currently WomenEd has 37 networks across the globe. The network feels strongly that women need and should lead, and play a strong leadership role across education. The organisation works through networking, and the networks are structured through learning. There are so many issues that women face, and WomenEd was keen to learn about these issues, and how to find solutions to these issues. Relationships are at the heart of the network’s focus. The vision of WomenEd is to have a team of leaders in each country, with regional networks to enable women to get the support they need to enable them to develop their leadership skills across the globe. 

WomenEd has a variety of events, as well as a Global Unconverence, to enable all the different networks to be involved irrespective of the time zones. WomenEd is sensitive to the time zones, and contexts and it is invaluable to learn from each other, on how to navigate the core issues women face in different countries. A commitments paper makes clear what WomenEd aims to do globally. Networking is at the heart of how WomenEd was able to learn about the needs of Women and how to support them. From this network, WomenEd progressed their work, to do further research on what women’s needs are. In addition, the Network also produced two books, 10%braver Inspiring Women to Lead Education and Being 10% Braver. 

The learning is often informal, but strong and powerful.  Men are key allies and key contributors. Men also need to have clarity regarding the leadership situation of female colleagues. 4 campaigns are driven by WomenEd, these are:

• Increasing representation of women in leadership roles
• Increasing diversity of women in leadership roles
• Advocate for flexible working practices
• Reduce the gender pay gap

Learning from women and their stories enabled WomenEd to challenge the existing practices, and drive change in education. WomenEd partners with a variety of organisations, including Higher Education institutions, to offer MA and Apprenticeship Leadership development programmes, with specific content to develop future women leaders. The organisationplayed a key part in reviewing the curriculum, as well as the educators delivering the content, to represent women leaders more effectively. Women in these learning cohorts are also connected with previous cohorts, to enable them to continue to discuss the issues women face. 

Consent from Women Leaders’ contexts to enable them to engage with the learning programmes were challenging, particularly for diverse women, which highlighted that there were concerns regarding bias, and that the opportunities for learning are often also limited and challenged. 

WomenEd continues to engage with other learning programmes too, and the organisation reviewed the National Professional Qualifications (NPQs), and WomenEd highlighted that it needs to be more representative. However, the NPQs are currently a one size fits all approach, and do not fully meet the needs of the learners they need to serve. More needs to be done to ensure that courses like these equip women to lead.

WomenEd wants to disrupt the current situation within education. WomenEd’s books outline how women aimed to disrupt, and also how they had to be brave to address the situation. 

Porritt challenged the audience to think about – how, as women will we be brave, and disrupt, or as men how can we make the necessary changes to enable women to flourish. 

How can we all be 10% Braver to drive change and impact positively….

Allana Gay

Summary by David Johnson

As I reflect back on the 2021 IPDA conference, I cannot help but continue to be inspired by all of the passionate experts whose dedication is focused on actively addressing systemic inequities in professional learning settings in order to support marginalized voices in new and exciting ways.  A thread throughout the conference was the role that formal education spaces play as places where both these equity based solutions are enacted but also where marginalized people, in particular people of color, continue to face unfair and discriminatory practices.  This tension, where schools both lift up and push down students at the same time, was expertly discussed by Allana Gay in her keynote discussion.  

Gay, a Headteacher at Vita et Pax Preparatory School, drew on her own experience as a woman of colour and immigrant who now finds herself working within the education system.  She laid out the fundamental issue as she sees it:  schools want to take action in order to better support students of color but often are unsure of how to take concrete actions towards those goals.  She posits that this might be because academic spaces where solutions are discussed are not accessible to school staff – both as spaces where classroom teachers are not traditionally represented but also because the ways in which solutions are presented are not practical for school staff to take action. 

What Gay suggests as a strategy to combat this disconnect is a grassroots approach where individuals within school communities can take proper steps to address their concerns within their scope of influence.  Her argument is that through the actions of many individuals working concurrently, greater change can occur than waiting for large scale educational reform.  To help prepare those individuals, Gay has co-founded BAMEed, an NGO purposed to providing practical anti-racist action steps that are accessible to teachers and other school staff.  BAMEed provides training and support that will provide schools with resources that allow them to reflect inward on their own practices in order to best identify key strategies for success within their own communities.  BAMEed also provides easily accessed learning from academic discourse – papers & talks contextualized for school staff audiences – in order to help facilitate discussions and transfer of knowledge between universities and schools.  

As a practitioner working within the NGO sector, I found it inspiring to hear about Gay & BAMEed’s successes.  I found myself reflecting on my own programming choices – why do I not include more anti-racist strategies in the professional learning courses that I develop?  Where can I strengthen the ease of communication between academic knowledge and school settings?  What practical strategies can I offer my participants as an academic, an NGO teacher trainer, and a former classroom educator?  Ultimately, how can I be a better ally to marginalized students through my work with teacher education?  It’s through keynotes such as Gay’s that I continue to challenge myself to grow and learn within this profession.

Mauricio Pino

Summary by Lizana Oberholzer

Collaborative Inquiry Networks in Latin America: Facing Together Difficult Challenges

Mauricio is a Research Fellow at the University of Chile.  Mauricio shared how collaborative inquiry networks, which are formed by headteachers and schools, were able to work through collaborative networks, to face a variety of challenges in education, including Covid-19. Mauricio acknowledged his team’s contributions in the work they conducted, and explained that he led on the presentation and research as his doctoral work focused on this field as well.

The literature highlights the importance of collaboration, and collaborative inquiry to help address challenges. Mauricio outlined how collaboration can also help teachers to develop and improve their practice. The networks created by Mauricio and his team helped to address key challenges regarding wellbeing and school improvement. He stressed that collaborative network inquire requires of participants and each member of the network to be co-responsible. Each person needed to contribute in an appropriate way to the project to move situations forward. Mauricio outlined how the power of a network can help to move challenging school improvement issues forward. Employing network principles can help to find common solutions and ways forward. Collaborative networks are not only about producing information, but finding solutions, and working with others, to learn and find new ways forward. 

In 2020 the project involved 27 schools in total, and a systemic map was created, to enable the researchers to understand what issues arose within these networks and how to address it. Covid-19 was a particular issue that had to be addressed through the use of the networks.

However, the project continued to grow, and it currently involves 9 Latin American countries, and 29 school leaders. Network teams are utilised to work in a bespoke and specific way with school leaders to enable them to address core challenges within their learning communities. Leaders are trained in the methodology of the project to enable them to share their learning with others, to enable them to share the practice, and to evaluate what the impact of the methodology is. 

One area of focus was: what was the social emotional status of teachers in the network schools? The study used surveys to evaluate the emotional needs of teachers, with the aim to explore how to support them, and what practice can be implemented. Similar questions were explored regarding learners, to understand their needs. Teachers’ understanding of how they could support was audited as well.  Teachers were provided with the necessary skills, based on the survey, to enable them to have the skills to support learners in the classroom.

Student motivation was explored too, and teacher practices were considered regarding their ability to motivate learners. Similar approaches were used, as outlined in the above, to investigate specific questions, evaluate learners’ perceptions or their needs, teachers’ perceptions as well as their skills to support learners with these issues. Once this was fully understood, key strategies were put in place to equip teachers to have agency in their classrooms, and to address these issues. Learners’ experiences and outcomes were then evaluated to understand what the impact was of the work.

It is clear from the keynote, that this collaborative network inquiry approach has a far-reaching impact on not only learners’ outcomes, but also the support that teachers received which were very specific and bespoke to their own learning needs as practitioners. By meeting these needs, the practitioners, had the skills and agency to support pupils more effectively in the classroom This powerful model of teacher development, is a clear example of how collaborative network inquiry can make a significant impact on outcomes for learners. 

Saran Stewart

Summary by Sean Starr

I had the privilege to listen and reflect upon the conversation between Dave Johnston and one of the 2021 keynote presenters, Dr Saran Steward. It was evident in their conversation that Saran’s passion for internationalisation, global education, and international relations within the academic space is a critical aspect of her work. Her research explores access and equity work. She looks at decolonising theories, postcolonial theories and methodologies, the intersectionality of black women in higher education, equity, diversity, inclusion and critical race theory.

From the outset, it was clear that racial equity, particularly from a decolonising space and more so in academic spaces, is a crucial driver for Saran. The importance of “call out and call in” from marginalised students, underrepresented and historically underserved students, black and brown students, and ethnic minorities. Therefore, depending on the country, they are in, especially given the nature and international wealth of the community, what Saran emphasises, is the discerning call for classrooms and academic spaces to be more racially fair and decolonised overall.

This discussion starts to explore racial equity, particularly from a decolonising space and more so in academic spaces. Saran starts to explore some fundamental principles for decolonising academic spaces, arguing that you must first decolonise the mind. Without such reflection, you will end up with superficial short-lived change. This reflection lets you understand your role in decolonisation, oppression, power, and privilege. This is achieved by exploring your own ways of knowing and knowledge construction. Therefore, such construction directly determines the curriculum and pedagogical offer. 

Faculty members or instructors need review their curriculum and syllabus to look at the critical points and areas of their intention for the course and the nature of the language construction because the language has power. From the programme’s title, the learning objectives, the assessment, and the units or modules. This allows you to look at the hidden elements within the curriculum, who is being requested as required readings versus suggested readings. And so, we need to look at the core identities of these authors. Therefore, ensuring an accurate representation and emphasising the intersectionality within the curriculum ensures multiple axis of oppression is not occurring.

Saran further emphasises the need for a robust understanding of the systemic culture of structures, practices and policies and the need to decolonise these processes that drive university life. Consequently, can you genuinely reimagine what academia can potentially look like through a decolonised lens as well. For Saran, decolonising research is really trying to address the systemic inequities embedded in colonial Western ideologies and methodologies and shift them to explore and collaborate with our global south partners and see what they have done and look at their effective practices.