Postgraduate supervision conference 2019

Spier estate is where the 2019 Postgraduate supervision conference will take place. One of the olive trees on the farm 

The call for abstracts on postgraduate supervision 2019 is open and closes on 3 September 2018. Early registration is open until 25 January 2019 and the final registration date is 4 March 2019. This is one of the conferences that I can only attend every second year when it is hosted by Spier in South Africa. All equal years, the conference is held in Australia. Every unequal year, it is time to pack your bags and make an early booking at Spier to attend this conference. You need to book your accommodation now already as this venue tends to be fully booked months before the event. And Spier is one of the most beautiful places in the Western Cape. But, if you cannot book accommodation at Spier, there are awesome hotels and wineries in the vicinity and in Stellenbosch that is only a few kilometers from the Spier Estate.

In 2019, the seventh Postgraduate Supervision conference will take place from 26 to 29 March and the theme for the conference will be: The global scholar: Implications for postgraduate studies and supervision. Sub-themes include the following topics, but other, relevant issues can also be addressed:

Researcher and supervisor connections, exchanges and joint scholarly work.

The mobility of research candidates and research supervisors.

Supervising / examining across geographical borders, cultures and disciplines.

The relation of local contexts, cultures and knowledge to the global arena.

The implications of global scholarship for language and writing.

The implications for the careers of research candidates and research supervisors.

The implications for fees, fee-structures and the costs of globalised postgraduate research and supervision.

The implications for distance and electronic supervision.

Both theoretical and empirical contributions in any of the following three tracks are welcomed:

Postgraduate supervision theories and policies

Postgraduate supervision practices

Postgraduate supervision trends and trajectories.

Hope to see you all there! 

2019 ISfTE conference at the Niagara falls

The 2019 ISfTE conference will take place next to the Niagara Falls in Canada

I just received an e mail with the most wonderful pictures of the Crowne Plaza hotel's dining room overlooking the Niagara Falls accompanying the invite to submit abstracts and register for the 2019 ISfTE conference.

I immediately recall us standing at the roadside and looking at the hotel and saying to each other that this would be a perfect hotel for a conference; then you don't need to drive from Toronto by bus to see and experience this wonderful site.  And then the email arrives! The international Society for Teacher Education (ISfTE) will host their 2019 conference from 12 to 16 May at this venue and it promises to by great fun and an inspiring experience. 

As we are fast approaching the third decade of this millennium, the 2019 ISfTE conference theme is Teacher Education for the Next Decade: Looking to the Past to Inform the Future. Delegates are invited to consider how globalization, transformative practice, and advancing technologies may inform and change education in the next few years. Although I am not linked to the college of Education at our University, the warmth and welcoming attitude towards academics from other disciplines made the first ISfTE conference we attended in the Kruger National Park, a wonderful experience. 

The due date for proposals is 30 January 2019. The conference proposals should be between 250 and 300 words in length and must include an indication of the strand that best reflects the focus of the intended paper. The following group strands can be considered:  

• Advancements in Curriculum and Pedagogy
• Diversity Issues in Education
• Preparing Teachers for the Challenges of the New Decade
• Educational Psychology
• Adult and Community-Based Educational Approaches
• Global Trends and Transformations in Education
• Research Methodologies and Methods in Educational Research

Early bird registration is open until 15 February 2019 and the registration deadline is 20 March 2019. There are also special fees for accompany partners and delegates from developing countries (that is us!)

Registrations open for the 2018 OEB pre-conference events

Beautiful summer flowers in Germany; but the OER conference will take place in December 2018

Technology and learning goes hand in hand. In ancient times the only tools available to teach knowledge and skills were demonstration and repetition. Education got a boost when language was developed and the next tool added to the educators' toolbox was writing. The printing press was the next revolutionary tool and currently the development of technology is  changing education in the fourth communication revolution. The rapid expanding of technology is causing a challenge to educators who find it hard to keep up with developments and making choices on what to use for the most effective support. One way to stay on top with developments for education, is to attend conferences focused on incorporating technology into education.

The 2018 OEB conference will take place in Berlin from 5 to 7 December and registrations for the conference and pre-conference workshops are open. The theme for this year's conference is Learning to love learning. Sub-themes include instilling curiosity, dynamic learning, training and future-oriented skills, Nascent technologies to change learning, developing learning professionals' skills and implementing complex change and  measurable results and data collection pay-offs.

Here is what you can expect from the conference:
OEB Global includes Learning Technologies Germany  and will focus on learning and technology developments. The cross-sector focus ensure that exchange between the corporate, education and public service sectors takes place when more than 2000 international learning professionals from more than 80 countries meet. The sessions will take place in various formats, including: hands-on workshops, plenaries, interactive breakout sessions, discussions and debates, labs, demos and performances.

Some of the interesting topics of the workshops are:
How to easily create and use videos for teaching and learning
How to create innovative learning spaces
Cultivating lifelong learners
Newcomers guide to OEB
Flipped classroom design through open online sources
Designing a Runkeeper-type app for studying
Getting radically improved data from learner feedback
Some of the workshops are also free of charge.

Conference on Women in higher education leadership and mentoring

The Southern Sun OR Tambo hotel where the Women in higher education leadership and mentoring conference will be held  is right next to the airport

I think our country needs more mentorship and coaching conferences. This conference is, sadly, only focused on women, but I do think mentoring is so important that I like to draw your attention to the Women in higher education leadership and mentoring conference. The conference is, however, open to male academic and support services staff who are interested in women’s progression and equality.

In the spirit of women month, the conference will be held from 16 to 17 August at the Southern Sun Hotel at OR Tambo airport in Kempton park, Gauteng. The theme of the conference is Hidden figures: Interactive exchange of experiences and strategies. There is a discount available for registrations and payments before the end of this week (15 June). The conference programme is already available and looks interesting.

More than 60% of the students enrolled at higher education institutions are female. This does not reflect in management and leadership either inside or outside the academic sector and one can ask if the lack of mentoring and coaching can be blamed? Or can the blame still be sought with the navigation of multiple responsibilities and roles that are required from women? How do women and female leaders in academic roles see themselves?  

 

The conference aims to support women to think strategically and focused in order to strengthen leadership capacities. Other objectives include:

The development (or maintenance) of a leadership portfolio that includes leadership strengths and challenges, goals and values and reflections on leadership.

Learn how successful women negotiate for what they need to be effective leaders, and

Explore the latest policy, information and research relating to women’s participation in leadership roles.

Cape Town in November: The Higher education close up conference

The HECU9 conference in Cape Town will take place at the Vineyard hotel, a short distance from the beautiful botanical gardens.

Just before the HELTASA conference in Port Elizabeth in November 2018, Cape Town will host the Higher Education Close-Up conference. Why not combine the two conferences and spend the weekend either in Cape Town or Port Elizabeth? Unfortunately, such an excursion will not come cheap, but looking at the call for papers from both these events, it will surely be worth every cent.

The Close-Up conference will take place at the four-star Vineyard Hotel from 15 to 16 November. The theme for HECU9 is Contemporary higher education: Close-up research in times of change. Keynote speakers are: Prof Penny Jane Burke, Dr Tristan McCowan and Prof Aslam Fataar. The call for papers is open until 2 July 2018 and the conference fee (early bird until middle August) is a stiff R5 600. Proposals should answer one of six questions:

·        Diversity, equity and social justice: what forms does diversity take, and how should our thinking change in order to promote equity and conditions for social justice in higher education?

·        The changing purposes of higher education: a right or privilege? A public or private good? Employability as the mission? Bundling or un-bundling?

·        Policy, access and success: what is the role of close-up research in informing policy making around access to university, more inclusive curricula and finding new ways to help students succeed in higher education?

·        Critical citizenship and critical thinking: in a “post-truth” world of misinformation, disinformation and ‘fake news’, how should pedagogy adapt to support students in becoming more critically aware, engaged, and thoughtful? How can close-up research lead a response to the growing anti-intellectualism characterised by a conflation of expertise and elitism?

·        Literacy: how do new forms of technology, knowledge-making and writing challenge being literate in the 21st century?

·        Imagining the future: more change - what promises and possibilities, constraints and enablings do current close-up research reveal?