This year’s SCoTENS Conference is taking place in the beautiful Slieve Russell Hotel, Ballyconnell, Co Cavan on 15 and 16 October 2026.

The theme for the 2026 SCoTENS conference, Exploring Diversity in Teacher Education, invites educators, researchers, and policymakers to engage with how diverse identities, experiences, and perspectives shape teaching and learning. The conference will explore diversity across the profession, including recruitment, retention, and representation, as well as how teachers are prepared for increasingly diverse and complex classrooms. It will highlight inclusive curriculum design, lived experience, and everyday practice, while addressing wellbeing, sustainability, and long-term system change. By connecting policy, practice, and teacher education, this year’s conference aims to advance our shared dialogue on more equitable, responsive, and resilient education for learners and teachers across all contexts and career stages.

 In order to address the theme, participants are asked to consider:

• How can teacher education engage with and respond to diverse identities, experiences, and perspectives in meaningful ways?
• What are the key challenges and opportunities in promoting diversity within the teaching profession, including recruitment, retention, and representation?
• How can teachers be effectively prepared for increasingly diverse and complex classroom environments?
• What approaches can support inclusive practice, wellbeing, sustainability, and long-term change in education systems?

 This year’s SCoTENS conference offers a timely opportunity to critically consider this major theme and examine the questions indicated above.

Further information will follow!!