Programme

“It’s interesting, but not for me”: understanding what shapes student subject choice and career aspirations age 10-18

Keynote Presentation: Professor Louise Archer

This talk draws on data from the Aspires/Aspires2 study – a large, national, mixed methods project, which sought to understand the subject choices and career aspirations of young people aged 10-18. A cohort of students were tracked from primary through secondary school, via five surveys with over 40,000 students and in-depth longitudinal interviews with 60 students (and their parents) between age 10 and 18. Focusing in particular on students' science choices and aspirations – as an example of an area which is widely recognised as being of acute policy concern – the talk unpicks the complex social and cultural factors that shape student “choices” and produce persistent patterns in post-16 participation. The talk concludes with suggestions for policy and practice, including evidence of a promising pedagogical approach for improving students' science engagement.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Teaching in Times of Change – To Nurture the Essentials for a Thriving Education

Keynote Presentation: Dr Björn Åstrand

Inevitably education has to deal with change in several respects. Education, it can be argued, is about creating opportunities for individuals to change and for societies to adapt to change as well as about creating change. In democratic societies, educational policies on equity have become key. Any society with such ambitions has to review how the model chosen for schooling plays out in that respect – and to rethink how it provides teachers and principals with appropriate conditions for teaching and leadership in ways that can realise the most demanding purposes of education. Thus, education policy in contemporary societies has to revisit its foundation and elaborate a new contract between teachers and principals on the one hand and with the increasingly knowledge dependent society on the other. Such a contract rests upon two legs, organisational settings and resource allocation together with a focus on the teaching profession. This keynote will focus on the latter, discussing the role of the teaching profession, questioning how societies nurture the teaching profession – and how the teaching profession takes on the future of the profession.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Children Working as Co-researchers and Researchers – Possibilities and Challenges

Keynote Presentation: Dr Annamaria Pinter

In this talk, first of all, I will be sharing my experiences of working with primary English teachers in India who tried to engage their learners as co-researchers in their classrooms. I will share some practical examples of tasks and activities that have worked well in these classrooms as well as the teachers' and the children’s reflections about their experiences.

Then I will also reflect on my experiences of working with children as researchers. In this study, children worked on a questionnaire survey exploring topics of their own interest.

I will discuss both benefits and challenges of engaging children as co-researchers and researchers in English language classrooms and beyond.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Teacher tales: Context-embedded Language Teacher Professional Development

Keynote Presentation: Professor Anne Burns

In recent years it has been increasingly argued that, in order to promote effective teaching, professional development should be linked to and embedded within the contexts where teachers work. In this presentation, I explore the idea of context-embedded teacher development that taps into teacher agency and also draw on teachers’ tales about how their own classrooms have provided the impetus for profound professional insights. In particular, I focus on teacher action research undertaken by English language teachers in different parts of the world to investigate their own practices, and also on research that has tracked the impact of this form of professional development on the teachers involved. The presentation concludes with what lessons can be drawn from these initiatives for sustaining teacher professionalism.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Education, Conflict & Peacebuilding: Transcending Negative Peace, Peace Education & the Global Education Agenda

Keynote Presentation: Professor Mario Novelli, University of Sussex, UK

This paper will explore the complex relationship between education and peacebuilding in conflict-affected contexts, drawing on findings from multi-country research studies undertaken for UNICEF dating back from 2010. The first part of the presentation will explore the way education systems and interventions are marginalised by mainstream approaches to peacebuilding in post-conflict environments. This relates to the underlying ‘security first’ logic underpinning these interventions, which emphasises negative peace (the cessation of violence) rather than positive peace (addressing the underlying causes that underpin conflicts). In the second part, we will explore contemporary approaches to promoting peacebuilding through education, which I argue, over emphasise inter-personal relationships, attitudes and behaviours, and underplay the significant systemic and structural opportunities that exist within education systems to promote ‘positive’ peace. Furthermore, the absence of a serious reflection on these broader education policy and peacebuilding debates leads education actors to reproduce a broader ‘global education policy’ agenda that is conflict-insensitive at the very least and in many places might be a catalyst to conflict. Finally, we will reflect on the possibilities for innovation and change in this emerging field and the obstacles therein.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

IAFOR Silk Road Initiative Information Session

Featured Presentation

As an organization, IAFOR’s mission is to promote international exchange, facilitate intercultural awareness, encourage interdisciplinary discussion, and generate and share new knowledge. In 2018, we are excited to launch a major new and ambitious international, intercultural and interdisciplinary research initiative which uses the silk road trade routes as a lens through which to study some of the world’s largest historical and contemporary geopolitical trends, shifts and exchanges.

IAFOR is headquartered in Japan, and the 2018 inauguration of this project aligns with the 150th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when Japan opened its doors to the trade and ideas that would precipitate its rapid modernisation and its emergence as a global power. At a time when global trends can seem unpredictable, and futures fearful, the IAFOR Silk Road Initiative gives the opportunity to revisit the question of the impact of international relations from a long-term perspective.

This ambitious initiative will encourage individuals and institutions working across the world to support and undertake research centring on the contact between countries and regions in Europe and Asia – from Gibraltar to Japan – and the maritime routes that went beyond, into the South-East Continent and the Philippines, and later out into the Pacific Islands and the United States. The IAFOR Silk Road Initiative will be concerned with all aspects of this contact, and will examine both material and intellectual traces, as well as consequences.

For more information about the IAFOR Silk Road Initiative, click here.

IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2017

Award Winners Screening

The IAFOR Documentary Photography Award was launched by The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) in 2015 as an international photography award that seeks to promote and assist in the professional development of emerging documentary photographers and photojournalists. The award has benefitted since the outset from the expertise of an outstanding panel of internationally renowned photographers, including Dr Paul Lowe as the Founding Judge, and Ed Kashi, Monica Allende, Simon Roberts, Jocelyn Bain Hogg, Simon Norfolk and Emma Bowkett as Guest Judges. Now in its third year, the award has already been widely recognised by those in the industry and has been supported by World Press Photo, Metro Imaging, MediaStorm, Think Tank Photo, University of the Arts London, RMIT University, British Journal of Photography, The Centre for Documentary Practice, and the Medill School of Journalism.

As an organisation, IAFOR’s mission is to promote international exchange, facilitate intercultural awareness, encourage interdisciplinary discussion, and generate and share new knowledge. In keeping with this mission, in appreciation of the great value of photography as a medium that can be shared across borders of language, culture and nation, and to influence and inform our academic work and programmes, the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award was launched as a competition that would help underline the importance of the organisation’s aims, and would promote and recognise best practice and excellence.

Winners of the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2017 were announced at The European Conference on Media, Communication & Film 2017 (EuroMedia2017) in Brighton, UK. The award follows the theme of the EuroMedia conference, with 2017’s theme being “History, Story, Narrative”. In support of up-and-coming talent, the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award is free to enter.

Access to the Award Winners Screening is included in the conference registration fee. For more information about the award, click here.

Image | From the project Single Mothers of Afghanistan by IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2017 Grand Prize Winner, Kiana Hayeri.

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Previous Programming

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