Berwyn Clayton

BERWYN CLAYTON, BA (Queensland), B.Ed.St. (Queensland), DPE (Melbourne), FACE, Director, Work-Based Education Research Centre at Victoria University, Australia.

Berwyn Clayton is Director of the Work-based Education Research Centre at Victoria University. She has had over twenty five years experience in the vocational education and training sector. During that time she has worked as a teacher, curriculum development manager, professional developer, evaluator and researcher. Prior to her current position, Berwyn spent ten years as Director of the unique Centre Undertaking Research in Vocational Education (CURVE) at Canberra Institute of Technology. A founding member of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association Berwyn was the Association’s president from 2000 to 2004. In 2001 Berwyn was made a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators for her services to education and vocational education research. Her research expertise and knowledge of vocational education has been acknowledged by her inclusion in national forums such as the OECD Review and Systemic Innovation Study: Experts Forum; Standards Australia Committee for the development of the Australian Standard for Non-formal learning; reviews of the National Centre for Vocational Education Research; the Project steering committee for the review and development of TAA04 Training and Assessment training package; as well as federal government forums on employability skills, consistency in assessment and VET workforce development issues. Berwyn has published and presented widely on competency-based assessment and recognition, and professional and organisational development practices in the VET sector.

Berwyn’s presentation will be held during the Welcome Reception on Wednesday evening and her talk will be about “LEADING IN TURBULENT TIMES: VET INSTITUTION AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES”

Laurent Filliettaz

LAURENT FILLIETTAZ, Associate Professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Laurent is Associate Professor of Adult Education at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He received his Ph.D. in linguistics in 2000 and has conducted numerous researches over the years in areas such as pragmatics, interactional sociolinguistics or discourse analysis. Laurent Filliettaz is the author of several books and articles published in French and English, analysing the role of language in the workplace and dealing with issues such as cooperation, problem solving, decision making, multi-activity, power, identity and learning. Since 2005, Laurent is leading a research program sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) promoting applied linguistics methods in the field of Vocational Education and Training. Laurent is the co-editor of a book series in French devoted to research in education (“Raisons Educatives”, De Boeck). He is member of the editorial board and scientific comity of numerous journals in linguistics and education (“Travail et apprentissage”, “Swiss Journal for Applied Linguistics”, “Linx”, “Negotiations”, “Activités”, “Cahiers de linguistique française”, etc.).

Laurent’s address will be on the topic “RESEARCHING WORKPLACE LEARNING FROM A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE: EVIDENCE FROM THE SWISS VET SYSTEM”.

Richard Lakes

RICHARD D. LAKES, Professor Of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University, USA.

Richard is Professor of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University, Atlanta. He researches the impact of globalization on education for work; and writes about neoliberal policy formulations in vocational education. He has published Critical Education for Work (1994, edited), Youth Development and Critical Education (1997), and Globalizing Education for Work (2004, coedited); and recently authored “Rescaling Vocational Education: Workforce Development in a Metropolitan Region” in Urban Review; and coauthored “Disciplining the Working Classes: Neoliberal Designs in Vocational Education,” in Pedagogies: An International Journal, and “Strategic Global Advantage: A Career Academy/Technical College State Initiative,” forthcoming in Community College Journal of Research and Practice. He is a member of the editorial board for the journal Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education. A former vocational carpentry instructor in Cincinnati, Lakes is a 1988 graduate of the doctoral program in Comprehensive Vocational Education at the Ohio State University.

Sue Shore

SUE SHORE, Senior Lecturer at the University of South Australia, Australia.

Sue Shore works at the University of South Australia. Her research and teaching are shaped by an interest in the ebb and flow of inequalities around the world, how those inequalities are racialised and the implications for policy, pedagogy and vocational ‘teacher education’. With Elaine Butler, Sue has been engaged in an academic and activist agenda entitled Global/local conversations around work and life. Constructing this activity as a research agenda has enabled us to explore the entanglements of pedagogy and research across a range of sites and contexts and so also the ways in which our academic labour is ‘hooked in’ to global processes of knowledge production. Sue’s recent publications include Whiteness at work in vocational training in Australia (forthcoming 2010), Literacy Surveys as Racial Projects (2009); Adult literacy teaching in Australia: rethinking occupational knowledge (2009) and Doing collaborative international work in higher education (2009 with Janet Groen).

Sue will be presenting with Elaine Butler a paper titled “(RE)CONFIGURATIONS: ARTICULATING VET KNOWLEDGE MAKING PRACTICES – A WORK IN PROGRESS”.