ACE/AURS2017


The Asian Conference on Education 2017 (ACE2017). Photography by IAFOR Media. Image copyright © IAFOR 2017

Delegates enjoy a traditional taiko performance and workshop at The Asian Conference on Education 2017 (ACE2017). Photography by IAFOR Media. Image copyright © IAFOR 2017

"Educating for Change"

October 19-22, 2017 | Art Center Kobe, Kobe, Japan

Why are we in teaching and learning if not to be able to help enrich the lives of our students? Educational institutions at all levels, and of all types, should continue to strive for social change in today’s world. Beyond the apparent simplicity of our conference theme, however, there is great scope for wide-ranging responses to the question of just how we go about educating for change, by examining the inherent challenges and responsibilities faced by educators the world over.

Education, too frequently, is the victim of politics, and, worse, sometimes ideologies. Politicians and bureaucrats devise and implement policies to effect change that range from curriculum structure and goals to manipulating budgets on behalf of interest groups and their lobbyists. Questions relating to accountability, transparent governance and community relations are too frequently avoided.

Within the classroom itself, bridging the gap between policy, theory and practice, whether traditional or virtual, teachers and professors de facto become, at varying levels, agents for change. Beyond providing students with resources for study in given fields, they also support them by often being seen as acting not merely as mentors, but also as role models.

These issues are part of the global transformation affecting all human civilisation. How can we as teachers function effectively in a very uncertain environment? How do we help to equip our students with the intellectual and existential tools they require? How do we narrow the gap between theory and practice? How do we make decisions about curriculum and course context in the face of political pressure and social norms? What is the role of interdisciplinary studies in educating for change? And, at the macro level, how can we stimulate awareness of issues such as education assisting the promotion of social justice?

This conference, part of IAFOR’s global conference series on education in its broadest sense, brings together teachers, researchers and distinguished professors from around the world to share their insights. The goal is to broaden awareness of different contexts in the pursuit of synergies and solutions.

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Programme

  • Teaching Health Equity at the Community Level: Engaging Faith Based Organisations in Teaching Community Based Nutritional and Health Behaviours
    Teaching Health Equity at the Community Level: Engaging Faith Based Organisations in Teaching Community Based Nutritional and Health Behaviours
    Featured Presentation: Sela Panapasa
  • The Use of Archival Data Resources for Generating Original Research, Thesis Development, Teaching and Knowledge Generation
    The Use of Archival Data Resources for Generating Original Research, Thesis Development, Teaching and Knowledge Generation
    Featured Presentation: James W McNally
  • IAFOR Silk Road Initiative Information Session
    IAFOR Silk Road Initiative Information Session
  • IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2017 | Award Winners Screening
    IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2017 | Award Winners Screening
  • “Retelling the Story from Within:” Oral History as a Means of Educating for Change
    “Retelling the Story from Within:” Oral History as a Means of Educating for Change
    Featured Presentation: Connie Guberman
  • Is the untrained NS teacher worth even less than we thought?: NS teacher endorsement of folk beliefs in EFL education
    Is the untrained NS teacher worth even less than we thought?: NS teacher endorsement of folk beliefs in EFL education
    Spotlight Presentation: Charles Allen Brown
  • Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector: Implications for Teaching, Learning and Leadership
    Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector: Implications for Teaching, Learning and Leadership
    Featured Presentation: Jack Frawley
  • Continuing Professional Development for Educational Professionals in Secondary Schools: A Case Study of a Leadership Empowerment Program in Taiwan
    Continuing Professional Development for Educational Professionals in Secondary Schools: A Case Study of a Leadership Empowerment Program in Taiwan
    Spotlight Presentation: Tzu-Bin Lin
  • Change in Academic Writing Education
    Change in Academic Writing Education
    Featured Presentation: Paul Lai
  • Skills for the Future: How Mentoring Students Through Undergraduate Research Provides Tools for Success After University
    Skills for the Future: How Mentoring Students Through Undergraduate Research Provides Tools for Success After University
    Featured Presentation: José McClanahan
  • Change in Education: By Whom? For Whom?
    Change in Education: By Whom? For Whom?
    Featured Presentation: Yvonne Masters

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Speakers

  • Sela V. Panapasa
    Sela V. Panapasa
    University of Michigan, USA
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    NACDA Program on Aging Gerontology & University of Michigan, USA
  • Connie Guberman
    Connie Guberman
    University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada
  • Charles Allen Brown
    Charles Allen Brown
    Hokkaido University, Japan
  • Jack Frawley
    Jack Frawley
    The University of Sydney, Australia
  • Paul Lai
    Paul Lai
    Nagoya University, Japan
  • Tzu-Bin Lin
    Tzu-Bin Lin
    National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
  • José McClanahan
    José McClanahan
    Creighton University, USA
  • Yvonne Masters
    Yvonne Masters
    University of New England, Australia

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Organising Committee

The Conference Programme Committee is composed of distinguished academics who are experts in their fields. Conference Programme Committee members may also be members of IAFOR's International Academic Board. The Organising Committee is responsible for nominating and vetting Keynote and Featured Speakers; developing the conference programme, including special workshops, panels, targeted sessions, and so forth; event outreach and promotion; recommending and attracting future Conference Programme Committee members; working with IAFOR to select PhD students and early career academics for IAFOR-funded grants and scholarships; and overseeing the reviewing of abstracts submitted to the conference.

  • Tzu-Bin Lin
    Tzu-Bin Lin
    National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
  • Zachary Walker
    Zachary Walker
    Institute of Education, University College London, UK
  • Justin Sanders
    Justin Sanders
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Steve Cornwell
    Steve Cornwell
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) & Osaka Jogakuin University, Japan
  • José McClanahan
    José McClanahan
    Creighton University, USA
  • Michiko Nakano
    Michiko Nakano
    Waseda University, Japan
  • Yvonne Masters
    Yvonne Masters
    University of New England, Australia

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Review Committee

  • Dr Adlina Abdul Samad, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
  • Dr Ampapan Tuntinakhongul, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand
  • Dr Annie Ko, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Professional Education & Executive Development, Hong Kong
  • Professor Cynthia Abella, University of the East, The Philippines
  • Professor Jayson Lannu, De La Salle - College of Saint Benilde, The Philippines
  • Dr Jose Barlis Jr., Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific, The Philippines
  • Dr Josephine Jim, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • Professor Avelino Caraan Jr., Jose Rizal University, The Philippines
  • Professor Maria Ailynn Diansuy, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, The Philippines
  • Dr Pamela Chrabieh, American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • Dr Patreeya Kitcharoen, Mahidol University, Thailand
  • Dr Sachiyo Nishikawa, National Institute of Technology, Nara College, Japan
  • Dr Sonal Mobar Roy, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, India
  • Dr Ying-Feng Wang, National Taichung University of Education, Taiwan
  • Dr Yoshihiko Yamamoto, Shizuoka University, Japan

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 ACE2019 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

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Teaching Health Equity at the Community Level: Engaging Faith Based Organisations in Teaching Community Based Nutritional and Health Behaviours
Featured Presentation: Sela Panapasa

Improving health equity at the community level requires a culturally competent teaching pedagogy. Conveying messages in ways that translate knowledge into practice is one step, but of equal importance is building the correct partnerships to engage the community and assist them in the incorporation of new behaviors into existing social structures. The National Center for Pacific Islander Wellness (NCPIW) located at the University of Michigan is developing teaching tools and educational forums to address nutritional concerns associated with the high rates of chronic obesity seen among Pacific Islanders in the United States in across the independent countries that make up the Pacific. While the problems associated with obesity among Pacific Islanders are well established; poor nutrition, lack of activity, depression and lack of preventative medical care, attempts to address these issues through health education have been largely unsuccessful. The outcomes of these failed interventions include increased morbidity and mortality due to heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and cancer as well as growing problems with disability. This presentation will report on new approaches to community engagement initiated by the NCPIW which presents nutritional and health education in a presentation format that is culturally relevant to Pacific Islander families and communities. The approach benefits from partnerships with local Pacific Islander Faith-Based-Communities who can regulate and influence individual behaviours due to the social importance of religiosity among Pacific Islanders. The presentation will summarise recent findings and provide guidance as to how this approach can be applied to other multicultural communities facing health challenges.

Read presenter biographies.

The Use of Archival Data Resources for Generating Original Research, Thesis Development, Teaching and Knowledge Generation
Featured Presentation: James W McNally

Data archives increasingly represent an open resource for teachers, students and research to support the creation of new knowledge, generate original research, and validate or challenge existing paradigms. For the student, valuable time is often lost performing primary data collection when an acceptable study already exists in the public domain. For teachers, the ability to employ well managed and validated data in classroom instruction allows the educators to focus on the science and methodologies related to the class theme rather than invest time and resources in basic data collection and cleaning. For the researcher, the literally thousands of freely available data sets allow them to increase research productivity and to test hypotheses within a controlled data environment. This presentation will review the wealth of research data available to the research community and offer insights into how to employ these data in developing an independent research career. The presentation will discuss open source data that can be obtained directly from data repositories, how to obtain restricted data with minimal barriers, and how data sharing can help them build their own community of researchers and collaborators. With the tremendous growth of publicly available data resources worldwide, our ability to generate knowledge and information useful for research, policy development and advocacy are increasingly limited only by our imagination and our willingness to exploit the research opportunities these data represent. This presentation will offer students, teachers and researchers an overview of these resources and how to best use them for productive research.

Read presenter biographies.

IAFOR Silk Road Initiative Information Session

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.

“Retelling the Story from Within:” Oral History as a Means of Educating for Change
Featured Presentation: Connie Guberman

This presentation will explore a collaborative teaching initiative that uses oral history as a means of educating for change by challenging traditional institutional structures of knowledge creation and by inspiring students to be active and engaged learners. I am a faculty partner in a cross-disciplinary undergraduate teaching project at the University of Toronto Scarborough, that offers courses that combine official (campus) and unofficial (community) sites of teaching and learning. Since 2013 we have offered courses in partnership with various NGO’s in the neighbouring community, a part of Toronto often negatively portrayed in popular media discourse. The goal of the teaching initiative is to provide student researchers with the opportunity to engage with both campus and community members in retelling the story of Scarborough from within. While oral history is not a new method, our students experienced it as radical practice that allowed inclusive dialogue, self-reflection, and reconstruction of dominant narratives. The process created a space beyond the classroom to give voice to community members often not included in official records. As one student noted, this form of “community-based research gives voice to those who are rarely heard, but have the most telling social commentaries to offer… I plan to reach out and hear more voices because I have grown a stronger passion for listening.” This presentation will explore the transformational impact on students of listening and interpreting, an example of a pedagogical practice that encourages education for change.

Read presenter biographies.

Is the untrained NS teacher worth even less than we thought?: NS teacher endorsement of folk beliefs in EFL education
Spotlight Presentation: Charles Allen Brown

The historically unassailable position of the native speaker (NS) as language teacher has been challenged in mainstream scholarship about foreign language education. The non-native speaking (NNS) teacher is now recognized to possess a number of important attributes that their NS counterpart often lacks. Also, in the case of English, the number of non-native speakers of the language far outnumber native speakers. This fact alone casts doubt on the value of preparing learners to interact by default with NS interlocutors. Nonetheless, present research into the role of the NS and NNS teacher suggests an ongoing preference for the NS as language teacher, particularly as a representative of the target culture as well as in conversation practice. Indeed, the (often untrained) NS teacher remains a staple of English education in East Asia. The research presented here adds to the scholarly conversation regarding the relative value of NS and NNS teachers. In this presentation, I will discuss how my own multi-year ethnographic fieldwork examining ground-level practices of English education in Japan and Taiwan indicates that the untrained NS teacher may be even less valuable than is commonly assumed. Specifically, lacking appropriate training in linguistics, language acquisition theory, educational psychology, and critical pedagogy, these individuals often subscribe to folk-beliefs associated with foreign language education. Their perceived authority as NS lends credence to such beliefs, strongly reinscribing misconceptions about the nature of culture, language, and language learning. Since the untrained NS is so common in East Asia, this project has critical implications for this context.

Read presenter biographies.

Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector: Implications for Teaching, Learning and Leadership
Featured Presentation: Jack Frawley

In the last 15 years in the Australian higher education sector, international student enrolments have grown from close to 100,000 in 2002 to over 300,000 in 2017, with the majority of these students from mainland China. In parallel with this growth, the Australian higher education sector has focused on Graduate Attributes (GA). GA have been defined as core abilities and values that are needed both socially and professionally, and that are developed in students during their studies and experiences in higher education. GA are also used to inform curriculum and learning outcomes. GA have been expressed as belonging to a 2020 vision for Australian higher education whereby the system produces graduates with not only the requisite knowledge and skills but also the understandings, capability or attributes permitting the individual to think flexibly or act intelligently in intercultural situations. Currently 12 Australian universities include GA that encompass statements on cultural competence and the ability of graduates to engage with diverse cultural and Indigenous perspectives in both global and local settings. But what is meant by cultural competence and what are the implications for teaching, learning and leadership? This presentation will unpack cultural competence within the higher education context, identify the challenges faced not only by students but academics and leadership, and suggest ways in which cultural competence can be meaningfully engaged and applied.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Continuing Professional Development for Educational Professionals in Secondary Schools: A Case Study of a Leadership Empowerment Program in Taiwan
Spotlight Presentation: Tzu-Bin Lin

In the past two decades, Taiwanese education has experienced drastic changes due to the transformation from dictatorship to democracy. As a key component of education reform, school leadership requires more attention, especially in local Taiwanese context. Internationally, the importance of leadership on improving school effectiveness and student performance is widely acknowledged (Day et al., 2011). However, there is not much research literature exploring the professional development in fostering educational professionals’ leadership capacity in leading curriculum changes. This paper aims at presenting a case study of a three-year continuing professional development (CPD) program for educational professionals in Taiwanese secondary schools with a specific focus on curriculum leadership. This CPD program is a sequential professional development program to develop curriculum leadership among educational professionals in secondary schools in Taiwan. In this paper, some questions will be explained and discussed: Why is this CPD program developed? What are the designing principles and key components of this CPD program and who are the targeting participants? How is this CPD program implemented? What are the implications after evaluating this CPD program? Data are from documents including meeting minutes of program developers and course materials, interviews transcripts of participants, lesson observations done by the researcher and questionnaires to participants to gain their feedback. The case study can provide international readers who are interested in CPD and curriculum leadership in secondary schools with insights on the design, implementation and reflection of an existing program.

Read presenter biographies.

Change in Academic Writing Education
Featured Presentation: Paul Lai

There have been some major changes in academic writing education since its official introduction in the 1950s. One of the changes relates to student needs. When academic writing education was introduced in the United States, it was targeted at students who were “underprepared” and lacked competent English skills in academic writing. Thus the primary objective of this education was to teach those students how to write well in English. However, nowadays more and more students, especially graduate students, enroll in writing courses not because they lack the language skills, but because they want to learn how to clarify and support their central research idea in a research paper so that the paper can pass the review for publication. To help the students develop clear and convincing ideas in their writing, it is necessary to incorporate logical thinking training into academic writing education. In my talk, I will explain how this new writing education has been implemented at Nagoya University since 2010.

Read presenter biographies.

Skills for the Future: How Mentoring Students Through Undergraduate Research Provides Tools for Success After University
Featured Presentation: José McClanahan

It is important that educators continue to adapt and develop new approaches that create equal opportunities for productive educational experiences for all students. One key way in which we can accomplish this goal is through collaborative mentoring and research with undergraduate students. The work these students do with faculty will provide them with the tools they need to be successful after graduation. The sciences (biology, chemistry or physics) have already had success in creating research programmes for students. Yet, many outside of these traditional sciences (i.e. Humanities, Fine Arts, or Social Sciences) may not fully grasp how they can incorporate students into their own research projects and what it means to work with undergraduates in their scholarship. Therefore, this presentation explores how faculty can include students in our research, help dissipate some of the commonly held myths about undergraduate students in research, and discover the benefits of this work for students as they look toward life after they leave university and college campuses.

Read presenter biographies.

Change in Education: By Whom? For Whom?
Featured Presentation: Yvonne Masters

Heraclitus has been credited with saying that “change is the only constant in life”. In education, change is definitely constant, but this has many different meanings. Both in the classroom and in the corridors of policy, change is continuous, often under the banner of “education FOR change”. However, the deeper questions revolve around for whom the change is meant and by whom the change is to be implemented. This is particularly the case in the arena of teacher education. Taking examples from the current Australian context, this presentation explores changes in teacher education policy in terms of both teacher candidate selection and programme accreditation. It will be demonstrated how the selection changes being implemented are exclusionary with the potential to perpetuate social injustices. There will also be exploration of the narrowing of curriculum offerings through the new accreditation process, resulting in a more mechanistic education for children in schools. The presentation will conclude by comparing the context in Australia with other international contexts and raising the question as to how best to educate our future teachers for the changes they will be asked to implement in their classrooms.

Read presenter biographies.

Sela V. Panapasa
University of Michigan, USA

Biography

Dr Sela V. Panapasa studies family support and intergenerational exchanges among aged Pacific Islanders living in the US and Pacific region. Her work examines changes in elderly living arrangements and headship status in response to demographic and socioeconomic change. Her interests include family demography, race and ethnicity, measuring health disparities and comparative studies.

Featured Presentation (2017) | Teaching Health Equity at the Community Level: Engaging Faith Based Organizations in Teaching Community Based Nutritional and Health Behaviors
James W. McNally
NACDA Program on Aging Gerontology & University of Michigan, USA

Biography

Dr James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialised application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. Dr McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Featured Presentation (2017) | The Use of Archival Data Resources for Generating Original Research, Thesis Development, Teaching and Knowledge Generation
Connie Guberman
University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada

Biography

Connie Guberman is an Associate Professor, Teaching, at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada. She is Program Director for Women's & Gender Studies, and was the Associate Chair, Teaching & Learning, in the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies. Her research interests include transformational and community-based learning, oral history, the transition from high school to university, designing safer spaces for women, and the impact of violence on learning.

Featured Presentation (2017) | "Retelling the Story from Within:" Oral History as a Means of Educating for Change
Charles Allen Brown
Hokkaido University, Japan

Biography

Dr Charles Allen Brown is currently an associate professor in the Research Faculty of International Media, Communication, and Tourism Studies at Hokkaido University, Japan. Born in Delaware, Ohio, USA, Dr Brown was educated at the Ohio State University, USA, and graduated with a BA in Anthropology and a BS in English Education. Dr Brown then taught English to refugees in the United States for two years and served for three years as a participant in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan prior to earning an MA in Applied Linguistics/TEFL/TESL at Pennsylvania State University. Afterward, Dr Brown served for five years as a lecturer at National Chiayi University, Taiwan. Dr Brown subsequently earned a PhD in Educational Policy and Leadership from the Ohio State University. His research concerns lived experiences with and beliefs about the institution of English education among students and teachers in East Asia.

Featured Presentation (2017) | Is the untrained NS teacher worth even less than we thought?: NS teacher endorsement of folk beliefs in EFL education
Jack Frawley
The University of Sydney, Australia

Dr Jack Frawley is currently Academic Leader at the National Centre for Cultural Competence at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has a national profile as researcher and writer in the areas of leadership and intercultural studies evidenced by his involvement in significant research and professional projects, book chapters, refereed articles and other publications. Dr Frawley has presented at several national and international conferences and continues to publish on, and participate in, intercultural-related research projects, professional programmes and consultancies. He holds adjunct appointments at the University of Canberra and the Batchelor Institute.

Featured Presentation (2017) | Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector: Implications for Teaching, Learning and Leadership
Paul Lai
Nagoya University, Japan

Biography

Dr Paul Lai is the director and founder of the Department of Academic Writing Education (Mei-Writing) at Nagoya University, Japan. After receiving a DPhil in Philosophy of Cognitive Sciences from the University of Sussex, he has been devoting himself to research on how to make logic education practical and indispensable to higher education.

Dr Lai came to Japan in 2006, first working as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) postdoctoral fellow at Tokyo Institute of Technology for a project on logic application. In 2008, he moved to Hokkaido University, where he started a project to apply logical thinking education to academic writing. Through the project, he helped the university establish the pilot scheme for its first academic writing centre.

In 2010, Dr Lai moved to Nagoya University, where he is developing the project of applying logical thinking education to research writing. In 2011, the Department of Academic Writing Education (nicknamed “Mei-Writing”) was established based on the logical thinking approach. Since then the department has employed 11 full-time associate professors and more than 20 teaching assistants.

During his time at Hokkaido University, Dr Lai was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for his distinguished services at the writing centre. Since moving to Nagoya University, he has won an education grant for the Mei-Writing project five consecutive times. In April 2017 he won a four-year Kakenhi grant from JSPS for the development of logic education in research writing.

Featured Presentation (2017) | Change in Academic Writing Education
Tzu-Bin Lin
National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan

Biography

Dr Tzu-Bin Lin (林子斌) is an associate professor at the Department of Education and Graduate Institute of Education Policy and Administration, National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). Prior to this position, he was the full-time learning researcher at Bournemouth University (BU) in the UK and assistant professor in the Policy and Leadership Academic Group in the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore. While working at NIE, He was the Coordinator for Management and Leadership in Schools (MLS) program for two years. Currently, Dr Lin is the Head of Intern Program and Supervision Division at the Office of Teacher Education and Career Service at NTNU. He is also in charge of the nation-wide leadership empowerment program for potential curriculum leaders in junior high schools funded by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan. Dr Lin’s research interests are in education policy and leadership, media literacy and TESOL. He was the executive editor and editorial board member of the Bulletin of Educational Research. Currently, he is an assistant editor of Cogent Education and editorial board member in several international journals such as Asia TEFL, NAMLE journal of Media Literacy Education, Secondary Education Quarterly (Chinese) and Journal of Educational Research and Development (Chinese).

Featured Presentation (2017) | Continuing Professional Development for Educational Professionals in Secondary Schools: A Case Study of a Leadership Empowerment Program in Taiwan
José McClanahan
Creighton University, USA

Biography

Dr Joseph (José) McClanahan is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Associate Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. There, he teaches at all levels of the curriculum, including language and culture courses abroad. He has taught in both Latin America and Spain. Recently, his research interests have focused on the area of teaching courses related to Languages for Special Purposes, in particular courses related to teaching Spanish to future healthcare professionals. He also has a strong interest in curricular development and design that centres on new students entering the university. He has also led student educational trips to almost every continent on the globe.

Featured Presentation (2017) | Skills for the Future: How Mentoring Students Through Undergraduate Research Provides Tools for Success After University
Yvonne Masters
University of New England, Australia

Biography

Dr Yvonne Masters is currently an adjunct senior lecturer with the University of New England, NSW, Australia. She was a senior lecturer in Professional Classroom Practice in the School of Education, UNE, a position that she accepted after five years as Director of Professional Experience in the same School. Prior to taking up her position at UNE, Yvonne had 30 years' experience in secondary schools, including in the roles of Curriculum Coordinator, Deputy Principal and Principal, roles that developed her skills in leadership, project management, curriculum and assessment. Her teaching experience spans three Australian states. Yvonne's research interests centre on teacher education and policy, professional experience and virtual worlds, with a particular focus on distance education students. Yvonne was awarded her PhD in October 2010 and she has gained, in collaboration with other researchers, four Internal School of Education Research grants, been a partner in a $200,000 ALTC (OLT) grant, "VirtualPREX: Innovative Assessment Using a 3D Virtual World with Pre-service Teachers", in 2014 achieved a UNE Seed Grant for a one year project to explore teacher quality, and in 2015 gained a $50,000 OLT seed grant to develop resources to assist pre-service teachers to gain online teaching skills to assist them in teaching wholly online into virtual schools. She is still an active researcher and presents on both teacher education policy and online teaching at a range of events.

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Thriving in Publication: Ethical Guiding Principles for Academic Publication

Previous Presentations

Featured Presentation (2017) | Change in Education: By Whom? For Whom?
Tzu-Bin Lin
National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan

Biography

Dr Tzu-Bin Lin (林子斌) is an associate professor at the Department of Education and Graduate Institute of Education Policy and Administration, National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). Prior to this position, he was the full-time learning researcher at Bournemouth University (BU) in the UK and assistant professor in the Policy and Leadership Academic Group in the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore. While working at NIE, He was the Coordinator for Management and Leadership in Schools (MLS) program for two years. Currently, Dr Lin is the Head of Intern Program and Supervision Division at the Office of Teacher Education and Career Service at NTNU. He is also in charge of the nation-wide leadership empowerment program for potential curriculum leaders in junior high schools funded by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan. Dr Lin’s research interests are in education policy and leadership, media literacy and TESOL. He was the executive editor and editorial board member of the Bulletin of Educational Research. Currently, he is an assistant editor of Cogent Education and editorial board member in several international journals such as Asia TEFL, NAMLE journal of Media Literacy Education, Secondary Education Quarterly (Chinese) and Journal of Educational Research and Development (Chinese).

Featured Presentation (2017) | Continuing Professional Development for Educational Professionals in Secondary Schools: A Case Study of a Leadership Empowerment Program in Taiwan
Zachary Walker
Institute of Education, University College London, UK

Biography

Dr Zachary Walker is an academic, author, and speaker. In 2018, Zachary joined the University College London (UCL) Institute of Education (IOE) as an Associate Professor. At IOE, Zachary currently serves in the Department of Psychology and Human Development as the Programme Leader for Graduate Programs in Special Education and International Inclusive Leadership.

Prior to joining IOE, Zachary was a faculty member at the National Institute of Education in Singapore from 2013-2018, where he served as a leader in Pedagogical Development and Innovation and on the 21st Century Teaching and Learning Framework taskforce.

He was named a Think College Emerging Scholar (2012), as well as a Millennium Milestone Maker by the World Academy for the Future of Women (2015). He was awarded the John Cheung Social Media Award for Innovation in Teaching and Pedagogy (2015), and was nominated for the Wharton School Reimagine Education Awards (2016). Zachary's current work focuses on educational neuroscience, mobile technology, and leadership. He has delivered talks to education leaders and higher education faculty in North America, Central America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Keynote Presentation (2018) | The Things that Do Not Change
Justin Sanders
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Justin Sanders has worked in a range of educational settings globally. Most recently he served in Singapore as Global Recognition Manager for the International Baccalaureate (IB), helping the organisation build bridges with higher education institutions around the world and improving postsecondary pathways for more than 100,000 IB students annually. Before relocating to Singapore, he spent several years with the IB’s research department in Washington, DC, investigating and communicating the impact of an IB education. During his time at the Association for Community College Trustees, he assisted community college boards and senior administrators around the United States in improving their institutional governance and administration. Prior to moving to Washington, he served for two years as an education volunteer with the United States Peace Corps in Azerbaijan, where he worked on improving educational infrastructure and capacity in a small rural community. Throughout his career, he has helped to organise dozens of local, national and international education conferences and events. He holds a BA in intercultural communication from the University of Arizona, an MA in international education from The George Washington University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in international education at Osaka University, Japan. His research explores the conception and implementation of internationalisation at national universities in Asia.

Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

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

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s current research concentrates on post-war and contemporary politics and international affairs, and 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 a Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within the university.

He is also a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the College of Education of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

A black belt in judo, he is married with two children, and lives in Japan.

Steve Cornwell
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) & Osaka Jogakuin University, Japan

Biography

Steve Cornwell is the President of IAFOR, and President of the Academic Governing Board. He coordinates and oversees the International Academic Advisory Board, and also serves on the organization's Board of Directors.

Dr Cornwell is Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies at Osaka Jogakuin University, and also teaches in the online portion of the MA TESOL Programme for the New School in New York. He helped write and design several of the New School courses and has been involved with the programme since its inception.

He has also been involved with the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), (an affiliate of IAFOR) serving on its National Board of Directors as Director of Programme from 2012-2016; where his duties involved working with a volunteer team of 50+ to put on JALT’s annual, international conference each autumn.

Most recently, since 2012, he has been the Committee Chair of Osaka Jogakuin University’s Lifelong Learning Committee and is responsible for their evening extension Programme geared towards alumni and community members. He is also the Vice-Chair of Osaka Jogakuin University’s English Education Committee which is responsible for suggesting policy regarding English Education and also responsible for developing material for the integrated curriculum.

José McClanahan
Creighton University, USA

Biography

Dr Joseph (José) McClanahan is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Associate Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. There, he teaches at all levels of the curriculum, including language and culture courses abroad. He has taught in both Latin America and Spain. Recently, his research interests have focused on the area of teaching courses related to Languages for Special Purposes, in particular courses related to teaching Spanish to future healthcare professionals. He also has a strong interest in curricular development and design that centres on new students entering the university. He has also led student educational trips to almost every continent on the globe.

Featured Presentation (2017) | Skills for the Future: How Mentoring Students Through Undergraduate Research Provides Tools for Success After University
Michiko Nakano
Waseda University, Japan

Biography

Michiko Nakano is a Full Professor in the School of Education at Waseda University in Tokyo. She is currently Director of the Digital Campus Promotion Office, Director of the Distance Learning Center, and Director of Cross-Cultural Distance Learning. A former Deputy Dean of Student Affairs, School of Education at Waseda University and a former Chairman of the Department of English Language and Literature. Dr Nakano’s research concentrates on the practical applications of Computer Technology as it relates to Language Teaching and Assessment. She is the co-founder of the Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics (PAAL), and co-editor-in-chief of its journal, and a former secretary general of the Japan Association of College English Teachers (JACET). Dr Nakano has edited and published more than 220 papers and books.

Yvonne Masters
University of New England, Australia

Biography

Dr Yvonne Masters is currently an adjunct senior lecturer with the University of New England, NSW, Australia. She was a senior lecturer in Professional Classroom Practice in the School of Education, UNE, a position that she accepted after five years as Director of Professional Experience in the same School. Prior to taking up her position at UNE, Yvonne had 30 years' experience in secondary schools, including in the roles of Curriculum Coordinator, Deputy Principal and Principal, roles that developed her skills in leadership, project management, curriculum and assessment. Her teaching experience spans three Australian states. Yvonne's research interests centre on teacher education and policy, professional experience and virtual worlds, with a particular focus on distance education students. Yvonne was awarded her PhD in October 2010 and she has gained, in collaboration with other researchers, four Internal School of Education Research grants, been a partner in a $200,000 ALTC (OLT) grant, "VirtualPREX: Innovative Assessment Using a 3D Virtual World with Pre-service Teachers", in 2014 achieved a UNE Seed Grant for a one year project to explore teacher quality, and in 2015 gained a $50,000 OLT seed grant to develop resources to assist pre-service teachers to gain online teaching skills to assist them in teaching wholly online into virtual schools. She is still an active researcher and presents on both teacher education policy and online teaching at a range of events.

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Thriving in Publication: Ethical Guiding Principles for Academic Publication

Previous Presentations

Featured Presentation (2017) | Change in Education: By Whom? For Whom?