ECE2023 Overview


Join us in London (and online) for ECE2023!

July 13–17, 2023 | SOAS & University College London, UK

Welcome to The 11th European Conference on Education (ECE2023), held in partnership with Birkbeck, University of London, the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, and in affiliation with University College London (UCL).

ECE2023 encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in an international forum stimulating respectful dialogue. This event will afford an exceptional opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.

Since its founding in 2009, IAFOR has brought people and ideas together in a variety of events and platforms to promote and celebrate interdisciplinary study, and underline its importance. IAFOR continues to engage in many cross-sectoral projects across the world, including those engaging leading universities (Virginia Tech, University College London (UCL), Singapore Management University (SMU), University of Belgrade, Lingnan University, University of Barcelona, and the University of Hawai’i), think tanks, research organisations and agencies (the East-West Center, The Center for Higher Education Research, The World Intellectual Property Organization), and collaborative projects with governments, and international governmental organisations (Government of Japan through the Prime Minister’s Office, the United Nations in New York), media agencies (The Wall Street Journal, JWT, HarperCollins).

With the IAFOR Research Centre at Osaka University, we have engaged in a number of interdisciplinary initiatives we believe will have an important impact on domestic and international public policy conversations and outcomes.

IAFOR's unique global platform facilitates discussion around specific subject areas, with the goal of generating new knowledge and understanding, forging and expanding new international, intercultural and interdisciplinary research networks and partnerships. We have no doubt that ECE2023 will offer a remarkable opportunity for the sharing of research and best practice and for the meeting of people and ideas.

The 11th European Conference on Education (ECE2023) is an interdisciplinary conference held alongside The 11th European Conference on Language Learning (ECLL2023) and The 11th European Conference on Arts & Humanities (ECAH2023). Registration for any of these conferences will allow delegates to attend sessions in the others.

We look forward to seeing you in London and online!

– The Conference Committee


IAFOR Journal of Education (Scopus Indexed Journal)

This conference is associated with the Scopus and DOAJ listed IAFOR Journal of Education.
 

Key Information
  • Venue & Location: SOAS & University College London, United Kingdom
  • Dates: Thursday, July 13, 2023 ​to Monday, July 17, 2023
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: February 24, 2023*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: April 28, 2023
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: May 31, 2023

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

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Speakers

  • Anne Boddington
    Anne Boddington
    Kingston University, UK
  • Evangelia Chrysikou
    Evangelia Chrysikou
    University College London, UK
  • Eddy Davelaar
    Eddy Davelaar
    Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom
  • Maria Delgado
    Maria Delgado
    The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Eleonore Kofman
    Eleonore Kofman
    Middlesex University, UK
  • Barbara Lockee
    Barbara Lockee
    Virginia Tech, USA
  • Fernando Loizides
    Fernando Loizides
    University of Cardiff, Wales
  • Neelam Raina
    Neelam Raina
    Middlesex University, UK
  • Andrea Révész
    Andrea Révész
    IOE, University College London, United Kingdom
  • Li Wei
    Li Wei
    University College London, Institute of Education, UK

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Programme

  • Exploring the Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Speaking and Writing in a Second Language: Methodological Advances and Challenges
    Exploring the Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Speaking and Writing in a Second Language: Methodological Advances and Challenges
    Keynote Presentation: Andrea Révész
  • Research Practice, Practice Research – Integrity, Inclusivity and Impact
    Research Practice, Practice Research – Integrity, Inclusivity and Impact
    Keynote Presentation: Maria Delgado
  • Phoenix Rising: Education in the Age of Disruption
    Phoenix Rising: Education in the Age of Disruption
    Keynote Presentation: Barbara Lockee
  • Schrodinger’s Box of Interdisciplinarity – Inside and Outside the Box Thinking About Global Challenges
    Schrodinger’s Box of Interdisciplinarity – Inside and Outside the Box Thinking About Global Challenges
    Featured Panel Presentation: Eleonore Kofman & Neelam Raina

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Conference Committees

Global Programme Committee

Dr Joseph Haldane, Chairman and CEO, IAFOR
His Excellency Professor Toshiya Hoshino, Osaka University, Japan
Professor Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech., United States
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging
Professor Haruko Satoh, Osaka University, Japan
Dr Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Professor Dexter Da Silva, Keisen University, Japan
Professor Gary Swanson, University of Northern Colorado, United States
Professor Baden Offord, Curtin University, Australia
Professor Frank Ravitch, Michigan State University, United States
Professor William Baber, Kyoto University, Japan

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Conference Programme Committee

Professor Kwame Akyeampong, University of Sussex, United Kingdom
Professor Anne Boddington, Kingston University, United Kingdom
Professor Bruce Brown, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Matthew Coats, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Dr Mehmet Demir, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Professor Jean-Marc Dewaele, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom
Dr Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Dr Jo Van Herwegen, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom
Dr Tamsin Hinton-Smith, University of Sussex, United Kingdom
Professor Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech, United States
Dr James Rowlins, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
Professor Gary E. Swanson, University of Northern Colorado, USA (fmr.)

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IAFOR International Academic Advisory Board

General Education Section

Professor Shingo Ashizawa, Kansai University of International Studies, Japan
Dr Tzu-Bin Lin, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Professor David McLoughlin, Meiji University, Japan
Dr Keiichi Ogawa, Kobe University, Japan
Professor Mark Pegrum, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Dr Cynthia Northington Purdie, William Patterson University, United States
Dr Thanassis Rikakis, University of Southern California, United States
Dr Rachel Lam, Independent consultant, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Distinguished Professor Tien-Hui Chiang, Zhengzhou University, China
Dr Linda Schwartz, Ambrose University, Canada
Dr Justin Sanders, Minerva Project
Professor Svetlana Ter-Minasova, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Professor Joshua Mok, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Dr Yvonne Masters, Independent Researcher, Australia
Dr Bernard Montoneri, Independent Researcher, Taiwan
Professor Haruko Satoh, Osaka University, Japan


Educational Technology Section

Professor Curtis Ho, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States
Professor Mark Pegrum, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Dr Thanassis Rikakis, University of Southern California, United States
Daniel Kjellsson, Future Talent Council, Sweden
Professor Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech., United States
Professor Keith W. Miller, The University of Missouri, United States
Dr Jo Mynard, Kanda University of International Studies, Japan
Mr Matthew Kay, Nature Publishing, United Kingdom
Professor Robert Logie, Osaka Gakuin University, Japan
Dr Amanda Müller, Flinders University, Australia


Language Learning Section

Professor Kay Irie, Gakushuin University, Japan
Professor David McLoughlin, Meiji University, Japan
Dr Shamim Ali, Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan
Dr Christine Coombe, Dubai Men's College, United Arab Emirates
Professor Jean-Marc Dewaele, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom
Professor Stephen J. Hall, Sunway University, Malaysia
Professor José McClanahan, Creighton University, United States
Professor Svetlana Ter-Minasova, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Dr Sufian Abu-Rmaileh, UAE University, United Arab Emirates
Professor Michiko Nakano, Waseda University, Japan
Dr Amanda Müller, Flinders University, Australia

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Conference Review Committee

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by conference Organising Committee members under the guidance of the Academic Governing Board. Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the ECE2023 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

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IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) – “Innovation and Value Initiative”

The IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) is housed within Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), and in June 2018 the IRC began an ambitious new “Innovation and Value Initiative”. Officially launched at the United Nations in a special UN-IAFOR Collaborative Session, the initiative seeks to bring together the best in interdisciplinary research around the concept of value, on how value can be recognised, and measured, and how this can help us address issues and solve problems, from the local to the global.

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Anne Boddington
Kingston University, UK

Biography

Anne Boddington is Professor of Design Innovation, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, Business and Innovation at Kingston University in the UK and recently appointed as the Sub Panel Chair for Art & Design: History, Practice & Theory for the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. Professor Boddington has extensive experience of the leadership, management and evaluation of art and design education and art and design research in higher education across the UK and internationally. She is an experienced chair and has held trustee and governance roles across the creative and cultural sector including as trustee of the Design Council, an independent Governor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), an affiliate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), a member of the executive of the Council for Higher Education in Art & Design (CHEAD) and a member of the advisory board of the Arts & Humanities Research Council. She has an international reputation in creative education and research and has been a partner, a collaborator, a reviewer and evaluator for a wide range of international projects and reviews across different nations in Europe, the Middle East, Southern and east Asia and North America.


Previous Presentations

Plenary Panel (2020) | Embracing Difference? Adaptive Lifelong Learning
Plenary Panel I (2017) | Think Like a System, Act Like an Entrepreneur
Evangelia Chrysikou
University College London, UK

Biography

Dr Evangelia Chrysikou is a registered architect and senior research fellow at UCL. She owns the award-winning SynThesis Architects (London – Athens), that specializes in medical facilities. Her work received prestigious awards (Singapore 2009, Kuala Lumpur 2012, Brisbane 2013, Birmingham 2014, London 2014). Parallel activities include teaching at medical and architectural schools, research (UK, France, Belgium, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Greece and the Middle East) and advisory. She advised the Hellenic Secretary of Health and is the author of the new national guidelines for mental health facilities. Dr Chrysikou is the author of the book ‘Architecture for Psychiatric Environments and Therapeutic Spaces’, healthcare architecture editor, reviewer, active member of several professional and scientific associations and a TED-MED speaker. She is a Trustee, Member of the Board and Director of Research at DIMHN (UK) and Member of the Board at the Scholar’s Association Onassis Foundation.

Eddy Davelaar
Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom

Biography

Professor Eddy Davelaar holds degrees in Biological Health Sciences and in Psychology from Maastricht University, as well as a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London. His early work was on the topic of computational modelling of human memory. After a postdoctoral period in the United States involving modelling perception, attention, and language, he returned to Birkbeck as a lecturer in 2006, where he is currently a full Professor of Psychology and Applied Neuroscience. He conducts research on cognitive ageing, with a particular focus on supporting healthy ageing and preventing/slowing cognitive decline. This work involves experimental testing and population level statistical analyses. Ongoing work is in direct collaboration with the target audience, with whom he co-designs intervention studies. Another area of his research involves neurofeedback for enhancing cognitive performance and mental wellbeing. Within that topic, he leads the way for understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms involved in successful brain training.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | TBA
Maria Delgado
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK

Biography

Professor Maria Delgado is an academic, critic, and curator whose research interests include Spanish-language and European theatres and Spanish-language film. She is a daughter of Spanish refugees and received her education from the Universities of Wales, Leeds, and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Professor Delgado has taught at various universities, including Queen Mary University of London, Hull University, and Manchester Metropolitan University, and has held visiting professorships, fellowships, and residences at numerous institutions across the globe.

Professor Delgado’s work in research leadership and assessment involves membership of HEFCE’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Strategic Advisory Group, the inaugural Council of Research England, a range of AHRC panels, and the Leverhulme Trust’s Advisory Panel. She was Chair of Subpanel 33 (Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies) and Deputy Director of Main Panel D for REF2021. She has also been involved in research assessment exercises in Australia and Hong Kong. She has received several awards, including the Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise and the Commander of the Order of Isabel la Católica, and was selected as one of the University of London's 150 'Leading Women'. Professor Delgado is currently a member of the Jisc/Elsevier Open Science Forum, Jisc's Research Strategy Forum, and also serves on the UK Committee on Research Integrity (UK CORI).

Keynote Presentation (2023) | TBA
Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s global business and academic operations.

Dr Haldane’s research and teaching is on history, politics, international affairs and international education, as well as governance and decision making, and he is a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance. Since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and, since 2017, Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within the University.

In 2020 Dr Haldane was appointed Honorary Professor of UCL (University College London), through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. He holds Visiting Professorships in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, and at the Doshisha Business School in Kyoto, where he teaches Ethics and Governance on the MBA, and is a member of the Value Research Center. He is also a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.

Professor Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations to universities and conferences globally, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s and Cabinet Office, and oversaw the 2021 Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned study on Infectious Diseases on Cruise Ships.

Dr Haldane has a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, Sciences Po Paris, and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas, and the schools of Journalism at both Sciences Po Paris, and Moscow State University.

From 2012-2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu), and since 2015 has been a Trustee of HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012 and the Royal Society of Arts in 2015. He lives in Japan and holds a black belt in Judo.


Previous Presentations

Featured Interview (2021) | A Life in Language: Lessons in Language and Language Learning
Panel Presentation (2020) | Embracing Difference? Adaptive Lifelong Learning
Panel Presentation (2020) | That's NOT Online Learning!: The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning
Eleonore Kofman
Middlesex University, UK

Biography

Professor Eleonore Kofman is a Professor of Gender, Migration, and Citizenship and the Co-Director of the Social Policy Research Centre at Middlesex University London. Her research interests include gender and migration, political geography, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and Henri Lefebvre's urban writings.

Professor Kofman has conducted research funded by various organisations, including the European Commission, AHRC, ESRC, UN Women, and the Office of the UK Children’s Commissioner. Currently, she serves as the Co-Director of the Migration and Displacement stream of the UKRI GCRF Hub – Gender, Justice, and Security (2019-2024), led by the LSE Centre for Women, Peace, and Security. She is also a Co-Investigator of the project Gendered Dynamics of Labour Migrations, with Middlesex collaborating with academic and NGO partners across the Middle East and South Asia.

She was the Joint Editor-in-Chief of Work, Employment and Society (2018-2021), a journal of the British Sociological Association. Additionally, Professor Kofman is a member of the Executive Board and Board of Directors of IMISCOE, the largest European network of scholars in the area of migration and integration.

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | Schrodinger’s Box of Interdisciplinarity – Inside and Outside the Box Thinking About Global Challenges
Barbara Lockee
Virginia Tech, USA

Biography

Barbara Lockee is Professor of Instructional Design and Technology and Associate Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs at Virginia Tech. Since 1996, she has engaged in teaching and research related to instructional design and distance education, and has advised the research of more than three dozen doctoral students. Her scholarly inquiry is focused on mediated and online education and has been funded by various federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture, and the US Agency for International Development, among others. She has also consulted for a variety of organisations, including the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the US Army Training and Doctrine Command and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. Her recent co-authored book, Streamlined ID: A Practical Guide for Instructional Design, strives to make the design of learning solutions accessible and pragmatic for those who develop educational courses and programs in workplace contexts.

Dr Lockee is Past President of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, an international professional organisation for educational technology researchers and practitioners. She earned her PhD in 1996 from Virginia Tech in Curriculum and Instruction (Instructional Technology), MA in 1991 from Appalachian State University in Curriculum and Instruction (Educational Media), and BA in 1986 from Appalachian State University in Communication Arts.


Keynote Presentation (2023) | Phoenix Rising: Education in the Age of Disruption

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2020) | That's NOT Online Learning!: The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning
Keynote Panel Presentation (2020) | Flexible Learning in Uncertain Times: The Hy-Flex Model in Response to COVID-19
Keynote Presentation (2019) | Interaction in Online Learning: A Design Paradox
Fernando Loizides
University of Cardiff, Wales

Biography

Professor Fernando Loizides is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University and the Director of the Data Science Academy, UK. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. His main area of research is Information Interaction and User Experience (UX), with a focus on Decision Making and Accessibility. He has extensive experience in user study design and facilitation using cutting-edge technologies, eliciting user requirements, performing systems evaluation, and developing working systems. He has published in leading journals and conferences, won awards such as Best Conference Papers, and secured and completed EU and nationally funded projects.

Professor Loizides is a highly experienced teacher, creating new modules and teaching curricula that have been successfully adopted by departments. He has won awards for both his innovative teaching methods and contributions to higher education. He has over 15 years of industry experience as a developer, creating startups, managing teams, and consulting for technology-focused companies. His work has been featured in various media outlets, including the BBC, radio, and online magazines. Professor Loizides is a co-founder of RapidLab, an initiative that creates rapid working prototypes for testing market validity.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | TBA
Neelam Raina
Middlesex University, UK

Biography

Dr Neelam Raina is an Associate Professor of Design and Development at Middlesex University, London. Her research interests include conflict, security, peace building, material cultures, gender, and livelihood generation in fragile, conflict affected states. Raina’s work explores notions of healing, trauma, peace and reflection through the embodied practices of making, using material culture and tacit knowledge as the underpinning for approaching violence and peace building and for sustainable income generation. Raina is a post conflict reconstruction expert with a focus on South Asia where she has conducted extensive empirical research over the last two decades. The Women, Peace and Security agenda is key to Neelam’s and her research seeks to foreground voices of vulnerable and marginalised women.

Dr Raina has led several large-scale competitively funded research projects which examine material and social practices through which Muslim women in conflict areas reproduce themselves on a daily and generational basis, and through which the social relations and material bases of capitalism are renewed. Her work allows connections to be built between, creative home-based workers who are largely seen as peripheral, to development economics, and on the fringes of formal employment and contributors to GDP; to the larger notions of peace building, countering and preventing violent extremism, poverty spirals and conflict theory through culturally significant, socially relevant practices. She connects the British creative industry into solution-based impactful approaches to global challenges through research.

Raina is a strong advocate for Afghan women and is the Director of the Secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Afghan women and girls in UK parliament. Her research in Afghanistan is ongoing as she brings women’s tacit knowledge to commercially viable spaces from the confines of the home.

Raina has a PhD in Design and Development, and a Master’s in Design and Manufacture from De Montfort University, Leicester. From 2018-2021, she was the Challenge Leader for UKRI’s Conflict and Security Portfolio for the Global Challenges Research Fund. Raina has been a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security. She is the editor for the International Journal of Traditional Arts, and her new work Creative Economies of Culture in South Asia – Performers and Craftspeople was published in 2021.

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | Schrodinger’s Box of Interdisciplinarity – Inside and Outside the Box Thinking About Global Challenges
Andrea Révész
IOE, University College London, United Kingdom

Biography

Andrea Révész is a Professor of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) at the IOE, University College London. Her main research interests lie at the interfaces of second language acquisition, instruction, and assessment, with particular emphasis on the roles of task, input, interaction, and individual differences in SLA. Currently, she is also working on projects investigating the neurocognitive processes underlying second language speaking and writing performance. Her work has appeared in international journals such as Applied Linguistics, Applied Psycholinguistics, Language Learning, Language Teaching, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, TESOL Quarterly, and The Modern Language Journal. She is co-winner of the 2017 TBLT Best Research Article Award and co-recipient of the 2018 TESOL Award for Distinguished Research. Currently, she serves as associate editor of Studies in Second Language Acquisition, co-editor of the John Benjamins Task-based Language Teaching series, and president of the International Association for Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT).

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Exploring the Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Speaking and Writing in a Second Language: Methodological Advances and Challenges
Li Wei
University College London, Institute of Education, UK

Biography

Li Wei is Director and Dean of the UCL Institute of Education, where he also holds a Chair of Applied Linguistics. He is Fellow of the British Academy, Academia Europaea, Academy of Social Sciences (UK), and Royal Society of Arts (UK). He is Editor of the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism and Applied Linguistics Review.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2020) | Multi-Competence, Translanguaging and Multimodal Learning
Exploring the Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Speaking and Writing in a Second Language: Methodological Advances and Challenges
Keynote Presentation: Andrea Révész

How does our mind and brain work when we speak or write in a second language (L2)? The rise of globalisation has seen an increased interest in learning second languages. For many, effective second language speaking and writing skills are key to achieve their academic, occupational and/or social communication goals. Yet, relatively little is known about the neuro-cognitive mechanisms involved in L2 speaking and writing. In this talk, I will describe and discuss various research methods that can be used to investigate L2 production processes, including subjective methods (think-alouds, stimulated recalls) as well as more objective tools (dual-task methodology, eye-tracking, keystroke logging, fMRI). I will also describe and demonstrate how adopting more novel data collection techniques (e.g., eye-tracking) and using these together with more traditional tools (e.g., verbal protocols) can help us gain a fuller picture of L2 processing and learning. In doing so, I will draw on my own and colleagues' recent work exploring the neuro-cognitive processes involved in second language production. I will end the talk with recommendations for future neuro-cognitively oriented research into L2 speaking and writing processes.

Read presenter's biography
Research Practice, Practice Research – Integrity, Inclusivity and Impact
Keynote Presentation: Maria Delgado

Research takes many shapes and forms and takes place across a range of institutions – from multi-faculty universities to independent research organisations. Yet many discussions about research practices and research cultures revolve almost exclusively around the model of the large multi-faculty university. In discussing the role of research in small specialist institutions that are often known for their industry-focused training, this presentation looks at the role of practice research as a means of thinking through research impact and forms of dissemination that go beyond the academic article. In examining the relationship between research integrity and inclusivity, the presentation asks what excellence looks like and how institutions might work towards cultures of doing that promote best practice in research.

Read presenter's biography
Phoenix Rising: Education in the Age of Disruption
Keynote Presentation: Barbara Lockee

Throughout the history of educational systems, disruptions have emerged in a variety of forms, the impacts of which range from interference in planned instructional activities and pedagogical approaches to complete interruptions to instructional delivery access. Such upheavals originate in nature, such as the COVID-19 global pandemic, or are human-made, as with the evolving developments related to generative AI. Standing in the aftermath of these recent natural and technological disruptions, educational stakeholders are seeking strategies to respond, leveraging lessons learned from past emergencies and exploring the affordances of emergent educational contexts and tools to create a way forward. What opportunities can be found amidst the turmoil to help envision possibilities and promise for the rise of the next generation of teaching and learning?

Read presenter's biography
Schrodinger’s Box of Interdisciplinarity – Inside and Outside the Box Thinking About Global Challenges
Featured Panel Presentation: Eleonore Kofman & Neelam Raina

Where should we position ourselves in the global challenges we face in the Anthropocene, and what level of despair are we allowed? We have ticked the boxes of inclusions, sustainability, capacity building, innovation, carbon footprints, artificial intelligence, and shrunk the globe for communication. We have evaluated and eliminated silos and criticised unilateral approaches and decision-making. Interdisciplinarity, intra-disciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity have been called upon and recognised as the pathways to solution-driven approaches to global challenges. Yet we are here – in a post-global pandemic world, with almost every continent currently facing multiple crises simultaneously.

It is in this context that we shall explore the notion of resilience of silos. How does working across disciplinary spaces, between geographies, and within the microcosms of culture enable us to hold a mirror up to ourselves and honestly answer the question - how far have we really come? And where, within the academic research and policy-making spaces, do we now need to come a full circle and recalibrate ourselves? We showcase this with a live example of ongoing work, funded by overseas development aid through the UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice, and Security Hub, that cuts across vast swathes of conflict-affected populations, displaced, moving, and existing in indignity, sizing up the scale of apathy in a polarised world. We take a deep dive into the understanding of ‘human development’ and juxtapose it against the idea of the COVID-19 pandemic being a ‘portal’ and arrive in a unique spot – where we fracture silos and comfort zones, and observe these cracks and ruptures from the outside.

This talk showcases empirical work undertaken in Turkey, Lebanon, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka across various research sites, with over 200 people connected into the research and its design from 2019-2024. We bring forth the crossovers of disciplines that provided solutions and raised new questions, as each country shifted into multiple crises that created a spiral of exacerbated challenges.

Read presenters' biographies