2023 Conference: Celebrating 20 years of SCoTENS: Hopes, Dreams and Possibilities for Teacher Education

Conference Year: 2023
Conference Location: Lough Erne Resort, Co Fermanagh
Celebrating 20 years of SCoTENS: Hopes, Dreams and Possibilities for Teacher Education

The SCoTENS annual conference has become one of the highlights of our calendar, and we were delighted to hold this years event on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 October in the Lough Erne Resort in Fermanagh. In this special year, the 20th anniversary of the establishment of SCoTENS, our conference was a celebratory one, and inputs followed a slightly different format than those at previous conferences. 

The conference was designed to facilitate conversation, creativity and
connection. Each day we saw keynote inputs by three speakers who
have enthralled participants at previous conferences, and we had an opportunity to
engage with them in a plenary discussion.

 

Over 100 delegates attended this years conference and were welcomed by Dr Maria Campbell, St Angela’s College Sligo.  Dr Mark Browne, Permanent Secretary, Department of Education Northern Ireland provided the opening remarks.

There were two outstanding keynote addresses by Prof Teresa Cremin, Co-Director, Literacy and Social Justice Centre, The Open University and by Prof Ian Menter, Emeritus Professor of Teacher Education, University of Oxford.

The new Round Table Conversation segment allowed for a series of parallel conversations in the main conference room. In total we had 13 tables with two contributors, one facilitator, and several delegates at each of them.  Contributors at each table presented separately on their chosen topic, while the facilitator encouraged delegates to respond to what they had heard, offer feedback, or pose questions to the two contributors. The format was designed to facilitate speakers and delegates in reflecting on the last twenty years, celebrating all that has been achieved in teacher education, and looking to the future with hope.  This format proved very successful with delegates expressing how much they liked the new format.

The conference also featured the seventh annual doctoral roundtable where twelve doctoral students were given an opportunity to present their ongoing research work and receive informal feedback from their peers and SCoTENS committee members.

On Thursday evening Yvonne Jackson from Shared Island Unit, Department of the Taoiseach launched the Shared Island / SCoTENS Research Initiative 2022 Reports – Projects SRASI and CRiTERiA  and the project leads spoke on the findings of their research.

 

On Friday morning there was the Panel Discussion chaired by Dr Conor Galvin featuring Prof Teresa Cremin, as well as invited guests:  Mr Andy Pollak, Former Director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies, Mr Tomás Ó Ruairc, Assistant Secretary, Department of Education, Ms Rachel O’Connor, Deputy Director of National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and Mr Geoffrey Cherry, Principal, Pond Park Primary School, Lisburn.

We had another fantastic keynote from Prof Joanna Madalińska-Michalak, Titular Professor of Social Science at the University of Warsaw.

If you missed out on the conference or indeed would like to have a look at the recordings, please see all below:

Opening of conference by Dr Mark Browne, Permanent Secretary, Department of Education Northern Ireland

Keynote address by Prof Teresa Cremin, Co-Director, Literacy and Social Justice Centre, The Open University

Keynote address by Prof by Prof Ian Menter, Emeritus Professor of Teacher Education, University of Oxford

Panel Discussion lead by Dr Conor Galvin

Keynote address by Prof Joanna Madalińska-Michalak, Titular Professor of Social Science at the University of Warsaw

Closing Remarks, Prof Noel Purdy, SCoTENS Committee Member


Previous Conferences

2022

Reflecting, Reconnecting and Re-Engaging with the Core Purpose(s) of Education

2021

All in this together! Teacher Education and Social Justice

2020

Teacher Education in the COVID Moment

2019

Leadership across Boundaries: Challenges for Educators and Teacher Educators

2018

Education as a Common Good: the Role of Teacher Education

2017

Educational innovation: the challenge of evidence-informed change

2016

Communities of practice: Learning together to teach together

2015

Teacher Education For Social Justice

2014

scotens conference 2104

Always learning, always teaching: Making the journey

2013

scotens conference 2103

Learning Teaching: Reimagining the Profession