Speakers

International Speakers  |  National Speakers  |  Authors

International Speakers
P. David Pearson

David Pearson is Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Professor of Language and Literacy, Society and Culture at Berkeley. Professor Pearson’s research interests include practice and policy in literacy instruction and assessment. He has served as president of the National Reading Conference and the Association of American Colleges of Teacher Education. His honours include the William S. Gray Citation of Merit from the International Reading Association, the Oscar Causey Award for Contributions to Reading Research from the National Reading Conference of America, and the Alan Purves Award from the National Council of Teachers of Education.

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Pirjo Sinko

Pirjo Sinko is Counsellor of Education for the Finnish National Board of Education. Ms Sinko has had a leadership role in developing the national curriculum for the pre- school, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary school sectors in language, literature and literacy. She is involved in a range of research projects, including an investigation of the power of narrative on young children's thinking and learning. She is regularly invited to address international conferences on the reasons behind Finland’s success in literacy education.

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Scott Paris

Scott Paris is Professor of Psychology and of Education at the University of Michigan and currently a Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. Professor Paris conducts research on children’s self-regulated learning, reading, and assessment in schools and informal settings. Professor Paris was awarded the 2007 Albert J Harris Research Award from the International Reading Association and the 2007 Oscar Causey Award for Contributions to Reading Research from the National Reading Conference of America. He has also received the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching and the University of Michigan Amoco Foundation Faculty Award for Distinguished Teaching.

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Peter O’Connor

Peter O’Connor is Co-Director of Applied Theatre Consultants Limited. Formerly National Coordinator for Arts and Drama in New Zealand, he is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. Dr O’Connor focuses on working with students with special needs and mental illness. Dr O’Connor is the recipient of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education 2006 Distinguished Dissertation Award. He has an international reputation for his work in the use of drama pedagogy across curriculum areas and within public health campaigns. He has an extensive publication record and has been an invited keynote speaker at conferences in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and Jamaica.

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Jeffrey Wilhelm

Jeffrey Wilhelm is Professor of English Education at Boise State University, USA. Professor Wilhelm has an outstanding international reputation as an English-literacy educator. He has a particular interest in literacy education for boys and is currently developing a project to apprentice beginning teachers into the profession through professional assistance, peer coaching, reflective practice and joint inquiry. Among his many recent awards for teaching and publishing is the David H Russell Award for Distinguished Research in English Education presented by the National Council of Teachers of English.

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Juliana Saxton and Carole Miller

Carole Miller, Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Faculty of Education and Juliana Saxton, Professor Emeritus, Department of Theatre, both teach at the University of Victoria, Canada; they hold adjunct appointments in the University of Sydney. Each is the recipient of an excellence in teaching award and between they have taught internationally and published extensively. Their collaborative research is primarily situated in pre-service teacher education, exploring pedagogies that engender competent, confident and comfortable classroom educators in drama. Articulating the relationship of literacy and drama practice to current post-modern curricula, they have recently been exploring how learners bring together a multifaceted range of metalanguages through real and fictional conversations of experience. Their award-winning text, Into the Story: Language in Action through Drama, is used widely by both elementary and secondary classroom teachers. Juliana Saxton is well known in Australia for her co-authorship of the best-selling texts, Asking Better Questions and Teaching Drama: a mind of many wonders.
   
Andy Goodwyn

Professor Andy Goodwyn is currently Head of The Institute of Education at The University of Reading where he formerly led English Teacher Education and Masters programmes.   He is currently Vice Chair for the UK’s National Association for the Teaching of English [NATE], and Chair elect.  He represents the UK on The International Federation for the Teaching of English, currently planning the next world conference in Auckland in 2011.  His key research interests include the philosophy and practice of subject English, curriculum innovation and change in the subject and the development of pedagogic expertise.  He is working on two current research projects, one investigating how outstanding teachers make use of ICT in innovative ways, the other examining the development of literary reading.  He has given papers all over the world and published extensively in the field of English Education, his next book ‘The Expert Teacher of English’ will be published by Routledge in late 2009.

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National Speakers
Professor Peter Freebody

Peter Freebody is Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Sydney whose research and teaching interests are literacy education, educational disadvantage, classroom interaction and quantitative and qualitative research methods. He was the lead author of Framing Paper for the National English Curriculum.
   
Professor Gabrielle Matters

Gabrielle Matters is Head of ACER Brisbane, Executive Secretary of the International Association for Educational Assessment, and Adjunct Professor at the Queensland University of Technology. Gabrielle has had extensive experience in education as a classroom teacher (physical sciences), school administrator, university lecturer, chemistry editor, researcher, advisor, test designer, and author.
   
Professor Barry McGaw, AO

Barry McGaw is Executive Director of the Cisco-Intel-Microsoft 21st Century Skills Assessment project, which has its headquarters at the University of Melbourne, and Chair of the National Curriculum Board. Previously, he was Director for Education at the OECD in Paris. He had earlier been Executive Director of the Australian Council for Educational Research and Professor of Education at Murdoch University.
   
Dr Leonie Rowan

Leonie Rowan is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University. Her research interests relate to the broad fields of equity and social justice, especially the concept of relationship centred schooling as a framework for disrupting traditional patterns of success and failure in diverse educational and cultural sites. She has published in areas such as early childhood education, new literacie s/ new technologies, values education and home / school partnerships.
   
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney

Lester-Irabinna Rigney is a Professor of Education and Director of the Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research at Flinders University. A highly influential Indigenous educationalist, he has received Visiting Research Fellowships to universities in the UK, South Africa and Canada. His 2006 co-edited book, titled Sharing Spaces: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Responses to Story, Country and Rights, discusses Indigenous and non-Indigenous race relations and their convergence in the vulnerable, vital and contested space called ‘education’.
   
Associate Professor Phil Cormack

Phil Cormack is an Associate Professor at the Hawke Research Institute and Director of the Centre for Studies in Literacy, Policy and Learning Cultures at the University of South Australia. His current work involves research on the history of adolescence, schooling and literacy; on literacy and place; environmental communications, middle school pedagogies; and on boys and literacy.
   
David Hornsby

David Hornsby is a private education consultant in schools, who works extensively in early years and middle years literacy education around the country. He worked for many years in the Victorian Ministry of Education as a teacher, curriculum consultant and school principal. David is a prolific author and producer of CD-ROM and multi-media programs.
   
Neale Pitches

Neale Pitches is CEO of Lift Education in New Zealand. Following a career as a teacher and principal in rural, inner city and suburban schools, Neale became the founding CEO of Learning Media, a company dedicated to the publication of quality classroom literacy and numeracy resources. Neale presents internationally on literacy and school leadership, focusing on how to teach comprehension strategies across the curriculum and on the alignment of school leadership with effective practice. He continues to pioneer innovative literacy materials through his leadership of CSI: Comprehension Strategies Instruction, a mixed digital, audio and hard copy resource for middle schooling. Neale was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education in 2003.
   
Authors
Richard Flanagan

Richard Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1961. Regarded internationally as one of Australia’s pre-eminent novelists, his multi-award winning novels, Death of a Riverguide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Gould’s Book of Fish, The Unknown Terrorist and Wanting have been published to popular success and critical acclaim in twenty-five countries. He wrote and directed a feature film version of The Sound of One Hand Clapping and most recently collaborated with Baz Luhrmann on the script for Luhrmann’s epic, Australia. His novels are published in 26 countries.
   
Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli

Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli has gained international recognition as a leading writer, researcher, lecturer, consultant and activist in the issues of cultural, sexual and gender diversity and family diversity in health and education. She lectures at Deakin University in the School of Health Science . Her first book for young adults, TAPESTRY, explored five generations of her family's history in Australia and Italy. She is also the author of Girls’ Talk, Boys Stuff, Someone You Know, When Our Children Come Out and Love You Two.
   
J C Burke

Since J C Burke started writing in 1999, she has published a number of acclaimed books for teenagers and young adults, including Children's Book Council Notable Books White Lies and The Red Cardigan, Aurealis Awards finalist Nine Letters Long, The Story of Tom Brennan, Faking Sweet, Starfish Sisters and Ocean Pearl. The Story of Tom Brennan won the 2006 CBC Book of the Year - Older Readers and the 2006 Australian Family Therapists Award for Children's Literature.
   
Andy Griffiths

Andy Griffiths is one of Australia’s funniest writers for children, whose books and presentations are well loved by students and teachers alike. His books have sold over 4 million copies worldwide, have featured on the New York Times bestseller lists, and have won over 40 Australian children’s choice awards.
   
Natalie Jane Prior

Natalie Jane Prior is the award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults. Her work includes the classic picture book The Paw and its sequels (illustrated by Terry Denton), and the internationally successful fantasy series Lily Quench. Her new series, the Minivers, has recently been published by Penguin in Australia and will be published in the UK by Scholastic in 2010.
   
Kirsty Murray

Kirsty Murray is a multi-award winning Australian children’s author who writes fiction and non-fiction for a range of age groups. Her publications include the Children of the Wind series, Market Blues, Zarconi’s Magic Flying Fish, Tough Stuff, Man-eaters and Bloodsuckers. Kirsty has recently completed titles for the NMA Making Tracks series, a futuristic novel – Vulture's Gate – to be released by Allen & Unwin in August 2009, and a new work of historical fiction, set in India, which will be published in 2010.
   
Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman

Najaf Mazari fled Afghanistan in 2001 after escaping the Taliban. He survived the dangerous boat trip to Australia, ending up in Woomera detention centre. Mazari now lives in Melbourne and, last year, was finally reunited with his wife and daughter. The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif is his memoirs.

Robert Hillman is a Melbourne-based writer of fiction and biography. His most recent biography, My Life as a Traitor, written with Zarha Ghahramani, came out in 2007 and will appear in numerous overseas editions this year. His 2004 autobiography, The Boy in the Green Suit, won the Australian National Biography Award for 2005.

His collaboration with Najaf Mazari on The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif grew out of an abiding interest in the hardships and triumphs of refugees. He has a particular empathy for and interest in Middle Eastern and Central Asian peoples and cultures, having travelled and worked in a number of countries of that region.
   
Penni Russon

Penni Russon is a Tasmanian born author of books for children and teenagers, including the Undine trilogy, set in Hobart and a mythical bay somewhere around Eaglehawk Neck, and her bestselling novel The Indigo Girls. Her most recent novel for teenagers Little Bird will be released in July and is also set in Hobart. Penni has made her home in Melbourne with her husband and two daughters. She teaches creative writing at Melbourne University and writes.