Keynotes



The End of Education: Schooling, Late Capitalism and New Directions in Critical Pedagogy 

Peter McLaren

Professor, Division of Urban Schooling, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA; and Distinguished Fellow in Critical Studies at Chapman University, California.
Professor McLaren is one of the leading architects of Critical Pedagogy worldwide. He has developed a reputation for his uncompromising political analysis and activism and his unique literary style of expression. He is author and editor of approximately forty books and several hundred of articles and book chapters.

This talk will examine the effects of neoliberalism on various aspects of US cultural, political and institutional life, including schooling. Specific attention will be given to neoliberalism's contributions to the development of the national security state in the US, and its role in the promotion of consumer citizenship. Resistance to neoliberalism capitalism as an instantiation of critical pedagogy will highlight the importance of critical citizenship, as the development of a philosophy of praxis and pedagogy of social justice that works towards creating a democratic socialist alternative to capitalist value production.



Methodologies for Researching with Linguistically and Culturally Diverse School Populations

Geri Smyth

Professor, Director of Research at the University of Strathclyde School of Education. Co-editor of the European Journal of Teacher Education.
Professor Smyth has research expertise in ethnographic studies of bilingualism, social jus­tice and teacher and pupil diversity. She is co-leader  of the WERA international research network on Intersectionality, Methodologies, and Knowledge Mobilization in Research for Social Justice in Education, and is UK leader of the NordForsk funded Diverse Teachers for Diverse Learners international research network. 


Teacher education in many parts of the world is conducted in a university context and can involve undertaking empirical research in both undergraduate degree and continuing professional development. Practicing teachers often seek answers to their classroom dilemmas via action research. Students and practicing teachers are increasingly working in culturally and linguistically diverse classroom contexts and wish to understand how education is received by and impacts on pupils from  cultures and languages different from the dominant majority.   In many parts of the world the majority of teachers are themselves part of the linguistic and cultural majority of the country.   This talk will address the ethical conduct of education research in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts.  There is a growing interest, worldwide, in research that examines the issue of cultural diversity in education from a broad number of perspectives, including those of the students themselves, teachers, parents, policy makers and broader socio-political contexts. It is important that researchers and users of research are helped to understand the complexity of research in culturally diverse education contexts.The relationship between researched and researcher is of prime importance, and is also potentially particularly problematic when in most cases, researchers are outside the minority ethnic groups and the experiences they aspire to understand.
This talk  highlights the challenges of researching in culturally and ethnically diverse contexts and brings together research conducted in a range of educational contexts with a range of research participants, both adults and children.   I shall present the dilemmas raised in research with linguistically and culturally diverse communities and offer suggestions for overcoming the issues.