researchED is proud and excited to announce its first conference aimed at English and MFL practitioners and educators. We’ve teamed up with Oxford University Press to bring another extraordinary day of challenge, myth busting, and the best research in the field, from some of the best voices in the UK and beyond.
researchED has been running since 2013, and was designed to be an antidote to four problems:
- Too many poorly researched theories like Brain Gym were rattling around the system, usually without challenge.
- There was a lot of good research out there that wasn’t reaching the classrooms that needed it the most.
- Teachers often only encountered research as recipients of its findings; we needed to be more research literate as a profession so we could challenge bad research and embrace the good.
- Conversations between research users and research generators tended to be one way.
We held our first conference in Dulwich College and never looked back. researchED is a non-profit that pays no fees to speakers and relies on goodwill and donations of time, experience, and resources to make happen. Incredibly, it worked, and we’ve held our Saturday conferences on three continents now all around the world from Swindon to Melbourne. One thing that makes us unique is the blend of voices: teachers, school leaders, researchers, politicians and everyone in between, all sharing a platform for how they see evidence being used in the school system. Our events usually sell out, and when they do we see a huge and fascinating mix of roles in the audience too. I believe this is part of a larger transformation happening inside education. Social media has catalysed a series of complex conversations, and now that the can has been opened, these worms aren’t going anywhere. I’m as excited as anyone to see where this all takes us.
On April the 1st (NO JOKE) we’ll hold our first English and Modern Foreign Language conference, looking at the best research we have on how to teach these subjects, and many issues surrounding them. So whether you’re a teacher, a school leader or manager, a policy maker, a writer, an examiner or anything else, if you’re interested in these topics, I think we have quite a day for you. We run a multi-strand event so you pick the sessions you want to see. You build the day you want.
So far we have some of the UK’s top speakers- like Martin Robinson, author of ‘Trivium’ who will be sharing his unique and explosive views on what and why we teach English; or Professor Victoria Murphy, from the University of Oxford; or Ruth Miskin, Queen of phonics, and many, many more.
The ticket price is kept super low so as many as possible can attend; there’s a concession if you need it, no questions asked; lunch is included AND it’s being held in the extraordinarily beautiful setting of the University of Oxford’s examination rooms.
Frankly I can’t think of any reasons not to be there. So, I hope to see you on the day!
Tom Bennett. Founder, researchED
