Conference Agenda

The pre-conference event is organized by the ICSEI Early Career Coordinators as a networking and mentoring forum for early career researchers, practitioners and policymakers. The event allows participants to connect, share experiences and build relationships that can be valuable throughout their career. It is a holistic initiative that recognizes the importance of supporting and connecting early career professionals in the field of education and school improvement. The event brings together practicing educators/school leaders, Masters students, PhD students and early career scholars to connect, share their work, common challenges and opportunities, and meet experienced scholars. Listening to experienced professionals in panel discussions can provide practical insights, knowledge and lessons that can be extremely valuable for both professional and personal growth – and so, if you are an early career professional, you are most welcome to join us and learn more about the opportunities and benefits of belonging to the ICSEI Early Career Community.

The theme of this year’s fireside chat is: The role, value and use of collaborative research to promote educational equity and improvement in the context of crisis. The ICSEI Dialogic is a multi-modal conversation which brings together and amplifies a range of perspectives, contexts, voices, and modes of influence. This is with the aim of documenting, enabling, promoting, pursuing, inspiring, and challenging dialogue, and engagement in sustained collaboration, conversation, and action that could result from this. This year, the ICSEI Dialogic has partnered with the ICSEI Crisis Response in Education Network (CREN).

School effects on broader adolescent development: evidence from Ireland

The venue for the conference welcome reception on Tuesday evening is Dublin City Hall, located only a few minute’s walk from Trinity College.

Leading for learning effectiveness and improvement: Examples of promising synergies from Africa

Meeting time: 9:30 am

“No school can meet the challenges it faces alone. This means that to improve outcomes for all the young people they serve, schools must work with other schools and with community partners to address issues lying beyond the school gate.” (Ainscow et al, 2023). A growing feature of the annual ICSEI congress is the opportunity for ICSEI networks to organise their own “invited symposia” which provide a dedicated space for focussed thinking and discussion on topical themes which sit at the core of their work. This year, the 3PN symposium will focus on the potential of school partnerships, networks and alliances to not only create school-led improvement systems but also provide the energy and impetus to support the creation of wider wellbeing systems with schools collectively acting as local system shapers. In this regard, the notion of system leadership (Hopkins, 2009) is useful in defining school leaders who can develop and lead partnerships for educational improvement among local communities. “System leadership represents a powerful combination of practices….The collective sharing of skills, expertise and experience creates much richer and more sustainable opportunities for rigorous transformation than can ever be provided by isolated institutions. Realising this landscape is however dependent on giving school leaders more freedom to take the lead – in short to light their own fires. The future is certainly theirs.“ (Hopkins, 2009) The symposium will open with two presentations providing a glimpse of two very different schooling systems. England and Italy will be presented as contrasting examples of national and local school governance. The first, is characterized by a national policy from successive central governments of increased devolution with subsequent growing diversity of local schooling arrangements whereas the second is a more traditional model based on hierarchical/centralized policy oversight and management. Professor Mel Ainscow (University of Manchester, UK) will present key elements emerging from a recently published study “Turning the Tide” which examined eight local school-led education partnerships and provides key insights into the setting conditions which promote effective inter-school collaboration and support. In contrast, Donatella Poliandri (National Institute for the Evaluation of the Educational System, Italy) will present the Italian context, where school networks have been viewed as a means of strengthening school autonomy but have also been used by central government in top-down policies for continuing professional development (CPD). An example of CPD promoted by a national institution, INVALSI, to support small-scale networks on school self-evaluation will be provided. Participants will be then invited to join in discussion groups around three key questions, bringing their experience and expertise in their own contexts to the conversation: • How do we build systems leadership capacity in schools for wider system change? • What are the challenges and opportunities for school-led improvement provided by school networks/partnerships? • What features should CPD programmes have to support the growth of strategic thinking, collaborative practice and policy formulation at school level? The 3P network invites politicians, professionals, policy makers and researchers attending ICSEI ’24 to join us in this conversation, contribute to the discussion, learn from each other, and consider the implications for their own policy, practice and system change.

GRID's primary focus, aligned with ICSEI's commitment to inclusion and diversity, is the development of the new CRI network. Addressing the issues of culture, race, and intersectionality is especially relevant in the field of education effectiveness and improvement. This spotlight session challenges conventional thinking and inspires action through dialogues on the trajectory of professional learning, specifically emphasizing culture, race, and intersectionality. It aims to engage participants in constructive dialogues to tackle the complex aspects of this work in policy, research, teaching, and practice. We provide a space for equity-minded individuals seeking to engage in this work, offering models, strategies, and mentorship to sustain their efforts as they move forward. This session reflects GRID's commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in education.

The Quest for Humanity in Educational Improvement: Professional Learning for Student Learning

The Conference Gala Dinner will take place at the Dining Hall in the Front Square of Trinity College on Thursday, 11th January 2024 at 7pm. This will include a welcome drink, 3-course meal and drinks allowance as well as Irish entertainment.

This proposal for an ‘Innovate Session’ is specifically designed to generate debate and discussion around the theme of ‘Achieving Equity through Excellence’ in educational systems. The colleagues contributing to the session situate themselves in the middle of that triangle whose vertices are comprised of policy, research and practice. They wish to use the opportunity of the Innovate Session format to be as interactive as possible and actively engage participants in the exploration of ‘Achieving Equity through Excellence’.

What if…. We create the space to think collectively about the future of teaching?