Dominic Wyse - Exploring Education and Childhood: From current certainties to new visions

Paula Ambrossi MA ICTs in Education, PGCE Secondary Modern Foreign Languages, BSc Honours Psychology/Computing. Born in Santiago de Chile, Paula has lived in the UK since 1988. She worked as a Spanish/French teacher in a secondary school, where she developed her interest in the intercultural and affective aspects of language teaching and learning, and in innovative ways of teaching grammar. Paula has worked as a primary lecturer at the UCL Institute of Education, since 2006. She has explored cross-curricular elements to language learning, for both children and teachers, in particular using video production as media. Her other interests include graphic design and behaviour management.

Lynn Ang PhD researches in the areas of the curriculum and diversity issues in early childhood, international early years policy and early childhood care and education across cultures, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. She is interested in the social, cultural and macro-political contexts of childrens early experiences, participatory and ethnographic methodologies and the impact of socially relevant research on policy and advocacy for children and families. Her recent work includes a UNICEF project on early childhood and peacebuilding to inform a research agenda for the Asia-Pacific region. She lectures on the MA Early Years Education programme and supervises professional doctorates (EdD) and doctorate (MPhil/PhD) students at the UCL Institute of Education.

Sue Bodman EdD works at the International Literacy Centre at the UCL Institute of Education, and is a national leader for Reading Recovery. Her research focuses on effective professional learning and professional development for teachers and teacher educators, particularly in the field of literacy learning and teaching. Her most recent publication ( Which Book and Why: Using Book Bands and book levels for guided reading in Key Stage 1, Bodman and Franklin, 2014) demonstrates her commitment to ensuring that teachers have access to up-to-date theory to inform their practical teaching decisions.

Rosemary Davis PhD is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the UCL Institute of Education, in Early Years and Primary Education. Formerly a primary teacher, and headteacher of three schools, Rosemary was founding course tutor to the Primary PGCE at UCL Institute of Education. Subsequently, she worked as a consultant or in universities for fifteen years on development education in Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, Malawi and ten countries in Southeast Asia, mainly with children, teachers and headteachers. Rosemarys five years in Namibia were mainly as part of a team from Florida State University and consultancy work with UNICEF. She has published books and papers on primary education, as well as internationally funded research reports, including for UNDP/UNICEF and WHO.

Tony Eaude PhD was the headteacher of a primary school for nine years. He now works independently and has links with the UCL Institute of Education, and the University of Oxford. He is especially interested in the development of the whole child and how teachers of young children can encourage this. His publications include Childrens Spiritual Moral, Social and Cultural Development: Primary and Early Years , Thinking Through Pedagogy for Primary and Early Years and How Do Expert Primary Classteachers Really Work? His book; New Perspectives on Young Childrens Moral Education: Developing Character through a Virtues Ethics Approach , is due to be published in late 2015. More details of his work can be seen on www.edperspectives.org.uk

Rosie Flewitt PhD lectures and researches in the complementary areas of young childrens communication and literacy development, inclusion and participatory research methods at the UCL Institute of Education, and in the London Knowledge Lab, where she specializes in researching early literacy in a digital age (http://mode.ioe.ac.uk/). The methodological focus of her work lies in ethnographic and multimodal approaches to the study of early learning, particularly how children use combinations of modes (e.g. spoken and written language, gesture, images, sounds and layout) as they engage with written, printed, oral, visual, embodied and digital texts. Recent publications include Understanding Research with Children and Young People (with A. Clark, M. Hammersley and M. Robb, 2014).

Phil Jones is Professor of Childrens Rights and Wellbeing at the UCL Institute of Education and has published and lectured widely on childhood, childrens rights, play, wellbeing and therapy. He is series editor for Bloomsburys New Childhoods and authored books include Rethinking Childhood (Continuum 2009) and Rethinking Childrens Rights (Continuum 2010, 2015), with edited books including Childrens Rights in Practice (with Walker, Policy Press 2011) and Childhood: Services and Provision for Children (with Moss, Tomlinson and Welch, Pearson 2007).

Georgina Merchant started her career in Edinburgh, where she was particularly interested in teaching English. A move to Australia saw her exploring this interest further through study at university in Sydney and specializing in teaching children who are learning English as an additional language. Returning to the UK, Georgina worked in ITE at the UCL Institute of Education. Currently she is teaching both PGCE students and Teach First participants and beginning some research regarding the synthesis between audience, feedback and motivation in improving the writing of Key Stage 2 boys.

Joseph Mintz PhD is Senior Lecturer in Education at the UCL Institute of Education. His research interests include special educational needs; educational technology, including the use of mobile technology with autism; as well as the professional practice of teachers working with children with special needs, including psychoanalytical perspectives on professional practice. He was Principal Investigator on the Best Practice in Special Educational Needs and Disability Education for Teachers project, funded by the English Department of Education. He is particularly interested in the relationship between theoretical and experiential knowledge in the work of teachers with children with special educational needs.