IAFOR > The Asian Conference on Education (ACE) > ACE2021 Overview

ACE2021 Overview

Special Announcement: ACE2021 will be held Online

Due to continued uncertainties surrounding the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, IAFOR has made the decision to hold ACE2021 entirely online via Zoom.

View the Conference Programme

Join us online for ACE2021!

November 25–28, 2021 | Held online from Tokyo, Japan

Welcome to The 13th Asian Conference on Education (ACE2021), held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, Japan.

ACE2021 encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in an international forum stimulating respectful dialogue. This event will afford an exceptional opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.

Since its founding in 2009, IAFOR has brought people and ideas together in a variety of events and platforms to promote and celebrate interdisciplinary study, and underline its importance. IAFOR continues to engage in many cross-sectoral projects across the world, including those engaging leading universities (Virginia Tech, UCL, Singapore Management University, University of Belgrade, Lingnan University, Barcelona University, University of Hawai’i, Moscow State University), think tanks, research organisations and agencies (the East-West Center, The Center for Higher Education Research, The World Intellectual Property Organization), as well as collaborative projects with governments and international governmental organisations (Government of Japan through the Prime Minister’s office, the United Nations in New York) and media agencies (The Wall Street Journal, JWT, HarperCollins).

With the IAFOR Research Centre at Osaka University, we have engaged in a number of interdisciplinary initiatives we believe will have an important impact on domestic and international public policy conversations and outcomes.

IAFOR's unique global platform facilitates discussion around specific subject areas, with the goal of generating new knowledge and understanding, forging and expanding new international, intercultural and interdisciplinary research networks and partnerships. We have no doubt that ACE2021 will offer a remarkable opportunity for the sharing of research and best practice and for the meeting of people and ideas.

We look forward to seeing you online!

– The ACE2021 Organising Committee

Tien-Hui Chiang, Zhengzhou University, China
Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Tzu-Bin Lin, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech., USA
Yvonne Masters, University of New England, Australia
José McClanahan, Creighton University, USA
Justin Sanders, Temple University, Japan Campus

IAFOR Journal of Education (Scopus Indexed Journal)

This conference is associated with the Scopus and DOAJ listed IAFOR Journal of Education.
 

Key Information
  • Venue & Location: Held online from Tokyo, Japan
  • Dates: Thursday, November 25, 2021 ​to Sunday, November 28, 2021
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: July 01, 2021*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: September 01, 2021
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: October 14, 2021

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

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Conference Outline*

Thursday, November 25, 2021Friday, November 26, 2021Saturday, November 27, 2021Sunday, November 28, 2021

09:00–12:00: Plenary Session

12:00–13:15: Lunch Break

13:15–14:45: Plenary Session

14:45–15:00: Break

15:00–16:30: Plenary Session

09:00–10:30: Parallel Sessions

10:30–10:45: Break

10:45–12:15: Parallel Sessions

12:15–13:15: Lunch Break

13:15–14:45: Parallel Sessions

14:45–15:00: Break

15:00–16:30: Parallel Sessions

16:30–17:00: Break

17:00–18:00: Parallel Sessions

09:00–10:30: Parallel Sessions

10:30–10:45: Break

10:45–12:15: Parallel Sessions

12:15–13:15: Lunch Break

13:15–14:45: Parallel Sessions

14:45–15:00: Break

15:00–16:30: Parallel Sessions

16:30–17:00: Break

15:00–16:30: Parallel Sessions

09:00–10:30: Parallel Sessions

10:30–10:45: Break

10:45–12:15: Parallel Sessions

12:15–13:15: Lunch Break

13:15–14:45: Parallel Sessions

14:45–15:00: Break

15:00–16:30: Parallel Sessions

16:30–17:00: Break

17:00–18:00: Closing Session

The draft version of the Conference Programme will be available online on October 25, 2021. All registered delegates will be notified of this publication by email.

*Please be aware that the above schedule may be subject to change.

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Plenary Speakers

  • Grant Black
    Grant Black
    Chuo University, Japan
  • Murielle El Hajj Nahas
    Murielle El Hajj Nahas
    Lusail University, Qatar
  • William C. Frick
    William C. Frick
    University of Oklahoma, United States
  • Kevin House
    Kevin House
    Education in Motion, Singapore, Durham University, UK & Chartered College of Teaching, UK
  • Yvonne Masters
    Yvonne Masters
    Executive Editor of the IAFOR Journal of Education (Scopus) & Independent Researcher, Australia
  • Pearl Subban
    Pearl Subban
    Monash University, Australia
  • Robert Thorn
    Robert Thorn
    Developing Real Learners, Turkey
  • Reiko Yamada
    Reiko Yamada
    Doshisha University, Japan

Spotlight Speakers

  • Edsoulla Chung
    Edsoulla Chung
    Hong Kong Metropolitan University
  • William C. Smith
    William C. Smith
    University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  • Antonia Voigt
    Antonia Voigt
    University of Bristol, United Kingdom

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Programme

  • Beyond Resilience – Laying the Foundations of an Education Young People Really Need
    Beyond Resilience – Laying the Foundations of an Education Young People Really Need
    Keynote Presentation: Robert Thorn
  • Being Resilient: Finding Ways to Publish in Difficult Times
    Being Resilient: Finding Ways to Publish in Difficult Times
    Roundtable Presentation: Murielle El Hajj Nahas, William C. Frick & Yvonne Masters
  • A Cherished Burden: To Redesign Education with Purposeful Living as Its Core Outcome
    A Cherished Burden: To Redesign Education with Purposeful Living as Its Core Outcome
    Keynote Presentation: Kevin House
  • Undergraduate Research: Nurturing the Next Generation – an Interview with Reiko Yamada
    Undergraduate Research: Nurturing the Next Generation – an Interview with Reiko Yamada
    Featured Interview: Grant Black & Reiko Yamada

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Organising Committee

The Organising Committee of The 13th Asian Conference on Education (ACE) is composed of distinguished academics who are experts in their fields. Organising Committee members may also be members of IAFOR's International Academic Advisory 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 Organising 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.

  • Tien-Hui Chiang
    Tien-Hui Chiang
    Zhengzhou University, China
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Tzu-Bin Lin
    Tzu-Bin Lin
    National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
  • Barbara Lockee
    Barbara Lockee
    Virginia Tech., USA
  • Yvonne Masters
    Yvonne Masters
    Executive Editor of the IAFOR Journal of Education (Scopus) & Independent Researcher, Australia
  • José McClanahan
    José McClanahan
    Creighton University, USA
  • Justin Sanders
    Justin Sanders
    Temple University, Japan Campus

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Review Committee

  • Dr Sin Yu Cherry Chan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • Professor Chingya Chiu, Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan
  • Dr Edsoulla Chung, The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • Dr George Cremona, University of Malta, Malta
  • Professor Dary Dacanay, St. Patrick School, Philippines
  • Professor Biljana Djoric Francuski, University of Belgrade, Serbia
  • Dr Minako Inoue, Health Science University, Japan
  • Dr Hong Li, Emory University, United States
  • Dr Lewis Teo Piaw Liew, Mas Gading Community College, Malaysia
  • Dr Sonal Mobar Roy, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, India
  • Dr Nhung Nguyen, Deakin University, Australia
  • Dr Elymar Pascual, Talangan Integrated National High School, Philippines
  • Dr Kittipong Phumpuang, Naresuan University, Thailand
  • Dr Olga R. Bondarenko, Russian, Russia
  • Dr Nitta Roonkaseam, Phranakhon Rajabhat University, Thailand
  • Dr Nilda San Miguel, Masapang Elementary School, Philippines
  • Dr Andrew Spowage, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
  • Dr Ko Wai Tang, The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • Dr Tina Wong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

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Grant Black
Chuo University, Japan

Biography

Dr Grant Black is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Commerce at Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan, where he has taught Global Skills and Global Issues since 2013. Grant is engaged in diverse roles as a global manager, systems builder, executive leader and university professor. His research and teaching areas include global management skills, intercultural intelligence (CQ) and organisational management. He also has taught Japanese Management Theory at J. F. Oberlin University (Japan), and a continuing education course in the Foundations of Japanese Zen Buddhism at Temple University Japan. Previously, he was Chair of the English Section at the Center for Education of Global Communication at the University of Tsukuba where he served in a six-year post in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He holds a BA Honors in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara; an MA in Japanese Buddhist Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles; and a Doctor of Social Science (DSocSci) from the Department of Management in the School of Business at the University of Leicester. Dr Black is a Chartered Manager (CMgr), the highest status that can be achieved in the management profession in the UK. In 2018, he was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Grant is President of Black Inc. Consulting (Japan), a business & university global strategic management firm based in Tokyo which helps individuals and organisations achieve their global targets. He is the director of the newly formed Nippon Academic Management Institute (NAMI) and the author of the forthcoming “Education Reform Policy at a Japanese Super Global University: Policy Translation, Migration and Mutation” (Routledge, 2022). He serves as a Vice-President for The International Academic Forum (IAFOR).

Dr Grant Black is a Vice-President (at large) of IAFOR. He is a member of the Business & Economics section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Featured Interview (2021) | Undergraduate Research: Nurturing the Next Generation
Murielle El Hajj Nahas
Lusail University, Qatar

Biography

Dr Murielle El Hajj Nahas holds a PhD in French Language & Literature from the Lebanese University, Lebanon. She is currently Assistant Professor at Lusail University, Qatar. She is also Associate Editor of the Journal of Literature & Librarianship and the Journal of Education (Language Learning in Education issues), The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan, as well as Editorial Board Member of In Analysis, revue transdisciplinaire de psychanalyse et sciences, Elsevier Masson SAS, France. Her domain of research focuses on psychoanalysis of literature, the perspective on the unconscious in literary study, the roles of the instances involved in the analytical/critical praxis, and the relation between literature and psychoanalysis. Her research interests include analysis of written narrative structure and focalization; comparative studies of literary genres; discourse analysis and semantics; French linguistics, literature, modernism, and postmodernism studies; gender studies; literary semiotics and semiology; psychoanalysis; psychoanalytic criticism and textoanalysis; rhetoric and stylistics; and schizoanalysis. She has published peer-reviewed book chapters and articles, as well as book reviews and poems in international journals. (ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9445-6281)

Roundtable Presentation (2021) | Being Resilient: Finding Ways to Publish in Difficult Times
William C. Frick
University of Oklahoma, United States

Biography

William C. Frick, PhD is the Rainbolt Family Endowed Presidential Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma. He is the founding director of the Center for Leadership Ethics and Change, an affiliate body of the international Consortium for the Study of Leadership and Ethics in Education (CSLEE) of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA). He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of School Leadership and is currently the editor of Values and Ethics in Educational Administration and associate editor of the IAFOR Journal of Education (Studies in Education issue). Dr Frick has 14 years of experience as a practitioner in the public schools including building and district-level administration. He is a former 2016-17 Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar to the Republic of Georgia. A doctoral graduate of The Pennsylvania State University, his research interests include the philosophy of administrative leadership, school system reform within urban municipality revitalization efforts, and broader cultural studies exploring the intersection of identity and schooling. His recent book with Jacqueline A. Stefkovich, Best Interests of the Student: Applying Ethical Constructs to Legal Cases in Education is now in its third edition with Routledge. He has served in multiple officer and representative roles for national professional associations such as AERA, UCEA, and CSLEE. Currently, he is the Vice Chairperson of the board of directors for Santa Fe South Schools and a board member of Odyssey Leadership Academy, both located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Roundtable Presentation (2021) | Being Resilient: Finding Ways to Publish in Difficult Times
Kevin House
Education in Motion, Singapore, Durham University, UK & Chartered College of Teaching, UK

Biography

Kevin has spent almost thirty years in global education, and has worked in school systems in Africa, Europe and Asia. More recently he held a senior position with International Baccalaureate working on curriculum design and policy, before joining Education in Motion (EiM). He began his current role by establishing the group’s ConnectED Institute for Learning & Research and is now developing a new curriculum and credentialing model for a concept high school called SE21.

Kevin gained his doctorate in Education from the University of Bath where his thesis was awarded the Jeff Thompson Research Award. He has published academic work on such topics as educational values, pluriculturalism, teacher professional learning, curriculum & assessment design, and educational leadership.

Yvonne Masters
Executive Editor of the IAFOR Journal of Education (Scopus) & Independent Researcher, Australia

Biography

Yvonne Masters is an independent researcher in Australia. She has been involved with IAFOR for several years as a member of The Asian Conference for Education Organising Committee, as co-facilitator of The Asian Undergraduate Research Symposium, and as a member of the International Academic Advisory Board. Yvonne is the current Editor-in-Chief of the IAFOR Journal of Education, a Scopus indexed, open access journal on education.

Yvonne was a teacher and teacher educator for over 40 years and is still passionate about education. She was a senior lecturer in Professional Classroom Practice in the School of Education, University of New England, Australia, 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, she had 30 years’ experience in secondary schools including in the roles of Curriculum Coordinator, Deputy Principal and Principal. Her teaching experience spans three Australian states. Her research interests centre on undergraduate research, academic publication, teacher education and policy, professional experience, teacher identity, online learning and virtual worlds. Yvonne was awarded her PhD, focused on school principalship, from Deakin University.

She is an active researcher and gained, in collaboration with other researchers, 4 Internal UNE School of Education Research grants; was 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.

Yvonne serves as a reviewer for several education journals and is a senior reviewer for IAFOR conferences. She presents on a variety of education topics including publishing as an academic, teacher education policy, undergraduate research, and online teaching at a range of conferences, both Australian and international.

Roundtable Presentation (2021) | Being Resilient: Finding Ways to Publish in Difficult Times

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2020) | Embracing Difference/Challenging Difference: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Workshop Presentation (2020) | Embracing Difference, Finding Commonality – Collaborative Research and Writing
Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Thriving in Publication: Ethical Guiding Principles for Academic Publication
Featured Presentation (2017) | Change in Education: By Whom? For Whom?
Pearl Subban
Monash University, Australia

Biography

Dr Pearl Subban is a lecturer in Teacher Education at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. She is currently the Course Leader for the Master of Education program, and Acting Director of graduate programs. Pearl’s research interests are embedded within accommodating student diversity, and differentiated teaching & learning strategies to accommodate these needs. With over two decades in the education sector in both South Africa and Australia, Pearl is well-positioned to reflect on catering for additional student needs and on how teachers can diversify their programming to include all students. Emanating from a social justice perspective, Pearl’s main focus is on assisting learners in contemporary classrooms, utilising available resources to ensure that learning is relevant and personal. Pearl is an active researcher, and has been fortunate to work on funded research projects within Australia, dealing with marginalisation and social justice issues. Pearl currently teaches undergraduate and postgraduate programs, and offers support to in-service teachers through professional development units. Pearl’s approach to research is collaborative, and draws on assessment and appraisal from her peers to ensure that both research output and teaching contributions are effectively met. Prior to joining the higher education sector, Pearl enjoyed several years as a high school teacher, which became the platform for her current position as an educational researcher. She has subsequently presented papers and presentations at a range of national and international conferences. Her current portfolio includes the supervision of both master’s and doctoral students covering a range of global issues. Currently, as Course Leader of the Master of Education suite, she strives to facilitate equitable programs that accommodate a range of student needs. Pearl is on the Editorial Board for two major journals, using her knowledge, experience and skill to inform the contemporary field.

Roundtable Presentation (2021) | Being Resilient: Finding Ways to Publish in Difficult Times
Robert Thorn
Developing Real Learners, Turkey

Biography

Robert Thorn is an international educator and former principal with more than thirty years’ experience in various educational systems and cultural settings. He is a proponent of learner-development-centred approaches to education and is the Founding Director of Developing Real Learners – a non-profit organization intent on helping schools develop learning communities that will, ‘through their own cultural perspectives, foster an approach to education that develops the holistic learner, leading to wise action and all within the current systems young people find themselves in.’ Robert’s message is one of communities transforming themselves and their approach to education through accessible and straightforward processes that rely on our common humanity and their own cultural perspectives. He is currently involved in projects in India, Pakistan, Singapore, Turkey and the Middle East.

Keynote Presentation (2021) | Beyond Resilience – Laying the Foundations of an Education Young People Really Need
Reiko Yamada
Doshisha University, Japan

Biography

Dr Reiko Yamada is a professor at the Faculty of Social Studies and Director of the Center for Higher Education and Student Research at Kyoto’s Doshisha University, Japan, where she was also the former Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies. She received her MA and PhD from the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies in Social Sciences and Comparative Education. She has long been interested in comparative higher education policy in OECD countries. More recently, she has conducted a quantitative study for the acquisition of global competencies before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and is engaged in comparative student research between Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. She served as the Director of the Center for Learning Support and Faculty of Development at Doshisha University. She also served on the committee of the Central Council for Education in Japan. She is the president of the Japan Association for College and University Education. She is the author of Prospects for University Education in 2040: Based on 21st Century Learning Outcome (Toshindo, 2019). She is also one of editors of New Directions of STEM Research and Learning in the World Ranking Movement: A Comparative Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

Featured Interview (2021) | Undergraduate Research: Nurturing the Next Generation
Edsoulla Chung
Hong Kong Metropolitan University

Biography

Edsoulla is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education and Languages at Hong Kong Metropolitan University. Prior to the completion of her doctorate in Second Language Education at the University of Cambridge as a Cambridge Trust scholar, she taught English courses for academic and specific purposes in the English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she received a Faculty of Arts Outstanding Teaching Award in 2013 and an ELTU Exemplary Teaching Award for three consecutive years. Edsoulla’s main research interests lie in second language acquisition, professional development for teachers, and vocabulary input and treatment. Her recent publications have appeared in Language, Culture and Social Interaction, The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, and System.

Spotlight Presentation

Eleven Factors Contributing to the Effectiveness of Dialogic Reflection for Professional Development: The Teacher’s Perspective

How teacher development can be promoted has been a fundamental concern within educational research. While researchers have repeatedly highlighted the use of dialogue as an effective means of fostering learning, little investigation has been conducted to explicate the role of dialogic reflection in teacher development and how it can be incorporated into a professional programme to ensure the programme’s effectiveness from the teacher’s perspective. Accordingly, this presentation reports the results of a qualitative study conducted in an Asian context, exploring, based on teachers’ perceptions, the role of dialogic reflection in fostering professional growth and the essential determinants contributing to its effective implementation. With the analysis of semi-structured interviews and reflective journal entries gathered from four in-service English language teachers involved in a programme fostering professional development through dialogic reflection, the study’s findings revealed that dialogic reflection was deemed useful in promoting collective scaffolding among teachers. More importantly, eleven factors that support teacher development through dialogic reflection, focusing on four key areas, namely multiple pathways to quality reflection, teachers’ dialogic qualities, conditions conducive to dialogic reflection, and kinds of institutional support, were identified. Implications for professional development and suggestions on future research are discussed.

Stream: Professional Training, Development & Concerns in Education
https://submit.iafor.org/submission/submission61031/

William C. Smith
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Biography

William C. Smith is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Education and International Development at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to the University of Edinburgh he worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report where he contributed to the 2015, 2016, 2019, and 2020 GEM Reports and led the development of the thematic section of the 2017/18 GEM Report Accountability in Education: Meeting our Commitments. William’s work in education and international development focuses on education access and barriers to education for the most marginalized. This includes his recent project exploring access to secondary education with partners in the Asia Pacific region and his role as the Academic Lead for the Data for Children Collaborative with UNICEF, a multi-million pound co-constructed project between the University of Edinburgh, UNICEF, and the Scottish government.

Spotlight Presentation

Access to Secondary Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Marginalized Pupils in Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Mongolia, and the Philippines

This live-streamed panel will share key findings and highlight recommendations to aid national and international efforts to provide equitable access to education from a recent scoping project in the Asia Pacific region. The project identified children with multiple disadvantages who are most likely to be excluded from secondary education. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 includes secondary education as an important target, encouraging countries to press forward toward universal access, at a time where up to one in three secondary school-age children in the Asia Pacific region remain out of school. The panel will start with a team from the University of Edinburgh providing a numeric overview of the state of access in the region, including new projections on when the region will achieve universal access to secondary education, and highlight marginalized populations most at risk of exclusion. Panellists from the BRAC Institute for Education, UNESCO Bangkok, the Mongolian Education Alliance, and ASPBAE will then share insights from their case studies on Bangladesh, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, and the Philippines. Discussions will highlight the economic, political, structural, and social barriers leading to the marginalization of specific groups of children in these countries. The conclusion will further examine the complex, intersecting and seemingly intractable nature of these barriers. Although the groups of children marginalized differ across the case studies, the web of barriers faced by them is very similar. Finally, a new tool, designed to help policymakers and local stakeholders to identify and address barriers to secondary education, will be introduced.

For the full report:
https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/mh-ceid-ap-full-report.pdf

Stream: Primary & Secondary Education
https://submit.iafor.org/submission/submission61618/

Antonia Voigt
University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Biography

Antonia Voigt is currently working towards a PhD in Education at the University of Bristol. She holds an MSc in Comparative Education & International Development from the University of Edinburgh. Her main research interest is the sustainability strategies of higher education institutions. She was a Research Assistant for the research project on Universal Secondary Education in the Asia Pacific Region at the University of Edinburgh.

Spotlight Presentation

Access to Secondary Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Marginalized Pupils in Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Mongolia, and the Philippines

This live-streamed panel will share key findings and highlight recommendations to aid national and international efforts to provide equitable access to education from a recent scoping project in the Asia Pacific region. The project identified children with multiple disadvantages who are most likely to be excluded from secondary education. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 includes secondary education as an important target, encouraging countries to press forward toward universal access, at a time where up to one in three secondary school-age children in the Asia Pacific region remain out of school. The panel will start with a team from the University of Edinburgh providing a numeric overview of the state of access in the region, including new projections on when the region will achieve universal access to secondary education, and highlight marginalized populations most at risk of exclusion. Panellists from the BRAC Institute for Education, UNESCO Bangkok, the Mongolian Education Alliance, and ASPBAE will then share insights from their case studies on Bangladesh, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, and the Philippines. Discussions will highlight the economic, political, structural, and social barriers leading to the marginalization of specific groups of children in these countries. The conclusion will further examine the complex, intersecting and seemingly intractable nature of these barriers. Although the groups of children marginalized differ across the case studies, the web of barriers faced by them is very similar. Finally, a new tool, designed to help policymakers and local stakeholders to identify and address barriers to secondary education, will be introduced.

Stream: Primary & Secondary Education
https://submit.iafor.org/submission/submission61618/

Beyond Resilience – Laying the Foundations of an Education Young People Really Need
Keynote Presentation: Robert Thorn

This talk will explore the boundaries of attributes widely recognised as being of good holistic learners (communication, collaboration, open-mindedness, resilience, etc.) and argue that there can be too much of a good thing. Focusing on resilience, we look at examples of when resilience is crucial, when it’s not enough and when it stands in the way of progress. We will look at an example in education where resilience is not enough and where it has seriously slowed our progress. The body of the talk will feature ways to address the latter by transforming approaches to education that are more in line with human nature. Attendees will be invited to take away an operational vision for education and, hopefully, a useful perspective of resilience with which to reflect on the conference theme.

Read presenter's biography
Being Resilient: Finding Ways to Publish in Difficult Times
Roundtable Presentation: Murielle El Hajj Nahas, William C. Frick & Yvonne Masters

Back in March 2020, the IAFOR Journal of Education blog spoke about maintaining the impetus of writing and publishing, and its importance in academia. At that time, lock-downs were just starting and there was the same optimism as voiced in 1914: it’ll all be over by Christmas! It is now 18 months later and the end isn’t really in sight. Those in education have had to find new methods of delivery, and academics who research and publish have certainly had to develop strategies to maintain those all important accountability measures. So how has it been and can it be done? How can academics be resilient and continue to publish in difficult times?

In this forum discussion, the Executive Editor of the IAFOR Journal of Education will talk with members of the editorial and reviewing team who have met the challenge of continued publication. They will discuss the challenges and the strategies used to address these. For all those who struggle to maintain impetus in writing and publication, this forum may provide valuable insights into different ways of keeping focus.

Read presenter's biography
A Cherished Burden: To Redesign Education with Purposeful Living as Its Core Outcome
Keynote Presentation: Kevin House

This presentation argues that the first two decades of this century have been dominated by global policymakers and think-tanks’ repeated warnings of student learning not meeting society’s future needs. This is in large part due to a fixation on a narrow taxonomy of academic knowledge that ignores ‘soft’ skills and capabilities development. Consequently, we face a skills crisis just as accelerating technological advancement is creating an employment one. Equally as unfortunate, this approach to education has also led to a hierarchical relationship in which society values abstract, academic learning to the detriment of experiential, skills-based learning. All this is compounded by industrial-scale examinations and league tables that weaponize academic outcomes and lead young learners to become disillusioned with the purpose of education.

In this era, how do we use education to build resilient young people equipped to face the enormous uncertainties of the future? Is it possible to bring academic knowledge, experiential knowledge, soft skills, and competencies together with greater equity? This presentation attempts to answer these questions by examining a concept high school that is currently being developed by the Education in Motion school group. This model posits that young people need schooling to provide actionable, not abstract solutions to problems created by our binary approach to education. This innovative high school model argues that learning design must acknowledge systems thinking, circular economics and sustainable citizenship while balancing disciplinary knowledge with skills for the future.

Read presenter's biography
Undergraduate Research: Nurturing the Next Generation – an Interview with Reiko Yamada
Featured Interview: Grant Black & Reiko Yamada

In anticipation of the forthcoming publication, The Cambridge Handbook of Undergraduate Research, IAFOR is delighted to host an exclusive interview with Reiko Yamada, a professor in the Faculty of Social Studies and Director of the Center for Higher Education and Student Research at Kyoto’s Doshisha University, Japan; President of the Japan Association for College and University Education (JACUE); and co-author of the Japan chapter of the book. The conversation, titled ‘Undergraduate Research: Nurturing the Next Generation’, will be led by Grant Black, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Commerce at Chuo University in Tokyo; an IAFOR VP; and fellow co-author. Their discussion will explore current issues in the development of undergraduate research for the next generation, as well as Dr Yamada’s wide-ranging contributions to understanding and promoting undergraduate research. The interview will be followed by a Q&A session.

Read presenter's biographies
Tien-Hui Chiang
Zhengzhou University, China

Biography

Distinguished Professor Tien-Hui Chiang is the Vice President of RC04 (Sociology of Education) of International Sociological Association, UNESCO, a member of the Constitutional Standing Committee of the World Congress of Comparative Education Societies UNESCO and the International Distinguished Professor of University of Crete, Greece. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar, visiting at UW-Madison, Wisconsin, USA, Guest Professor at Beijing Normal University and is the Ex-President of the Taiwan Association for Sociology of Education. His specialty covers sociology of education, globalization and education policy, sociology of curriculum, teaching profession and comparative education. He has written over 100 essays. He was the co-editor of Cross Education Dialogue, Crisis in Education and Interculturalism. He was also a contributor to Elite, Privileges and Excellence edited by Professor S. Ball. His outstanding academic achievements have awarded Professor Chiang many prizes, such as the Distinguished Scholar of the Ministry of Education, Taiwan. He is the editor of International Journal of Educational Research and Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, and a section editor of the Springer Encyclopedia: Educational Philosophy and Theories and the Springer Encyclopedia: Teacher Education.

Keynote Presentation (2018) | Teacher Competences Function as the Discourse of International Competitiveness within the Institutionalized Milieu in the Epoch of Globalization
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 Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

He is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, 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, and a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance.

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.

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
Barbara Lockee
Virginia Tech., USA

Biography

Dr Barbara Lockee is Professor of Instructional Design and Technology at Virginia Tech, USA, where she is also Associate Director of the School of Education and Associate Director of Educational Research and Outreach. She teaches courses in instructional design, message design, and distance education. Her research interests focus on instructional design issues related to technology-mediated learning. She has published more than 80 papers in academic journals, conferences and books, and has presented her scholarly work at over 90 national and international conferences.

Dr Lockee is Immediate Past President of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, an international professional organisation for educational technology researchers and practitioners. She earned her PhD in 1996 from Virginia Tech in Curriculum and Instruction (Instructional Technology), MA in 1991 from Appalachian State University in Curriculum and Instruction (Educational Media), and BA in 1986 from Appalachian State University in Communication Arts.

Yvonne Masters
Executive Editor of the IAFOR Journal of Education (Scopus) & Independent Researcher, Australia

Biography

Yvonne Masters is an independent researcher in Australia. She has been involved with IAFOR for several years as a member of The Asian Conference for Education Organising Committee, as co-facilitator of The Asian Undergraduate Research Symposium, and as a member of the International Academic Advisory Board. Yvonne is the current Editor-in-Chief of the IAFOR Journal of Education, a Scopus indexed, open access journal on education.

Yvonne was a teacher and teacher educator for over 40 years and is still passionate about education. She was a senior lecturer in Professional Classroom Practice in the School of Education, University of New England, Australia, 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, she had 30 years’ experience in secondary schools including in the roles of Curriculum Coordinator, Deputy Principal and Principal. Her teaching experience spans three Australian states. Her research interests centre on undergraduate research, academic publication, teacher education and policy, professional experience, teacher identity, online learning and virtual worlds. Yvonne was awarded her PhD, focused on school principalship, from Deakin University.

She is an active researcher and gained, in collaboration with other researchers, 4 Internal UNE School of Education Research grants; was 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.

Yvonne serves as a reviewer for several education journals and is a senior reviewer for IAFOR conferences. She presents on a variety of education topics including publishing as an academic, teacher education policy, undergraduate research, and online teaching at a range of conferences, both Australian and international.

Roundtable Presentation (2021) | Being Resilient: Finding Ways to Publish in Difficult Times

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2020) | Embracing Difference/Challenging Difference: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Workshop Presentation (2020) | Embracing Difference, Finding Commonality – Collaborative Research and Writing
Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Thriving in Publication: Ethical Guiding Principles for Academic Publication
Featured Presentation (2017) | Change in Education: By Whom? For Whom?
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
Justin Sanders
Temple University, Japan Campus

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.

Panel Presentation (2019) | Academic Governance/Management/Administration in Higher Education in Asia