Teachers, academics, principals, district officials and other stakeholders involved in education will converge at the Durban International Convention Centre early next year for what is regarded as the first South African Basic Education Conference.
The conference, with the theme “Opening the doors to Quality Education for All”, will take place from April 2-4 2012 to help participants “better understand the conditions and constraints of improving [teaching] practice, and what might be done to achieve the possibilities of quality education for all”.
The recent annual national assessments in which foundation and intermediate phase learners performed badly in mathematics and literacy tests highlighted the magnitude and nature of challenges bedevilling the South African public education system. Professor Maureen Robinson, based at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and a chairperson of the conference research committee, said the conference is unique because it has a wider audience than others.
Conference is cross-cutting
“Most conferences are restricted to academics, but this one is cross-cutting as it will involve teachers, district officials, principals, NGOs and researchers; all under one roof. It is also being run by researchers and practitioners committees, each representing a wide range of organisations in South Africa,” said Robinson.
She said as organisers are actively trying to encourage people who could not ordinarily afford to attend the conference to register. “We have built scholarship into the application process and we hope this will widen the audience of attendees, particularly teachers,” Robinson said, adding that most conferences charge exorbitant registration fees, which make it difficult for teachers to attend.
Robinson said they hope to link up and support research initiatives of the department of basic education “who have been fully informed about our conference”.
Teachers from grade R to grade 12 are urged to submit abstracts of papers describing new and innovative classroom teaching practices they are currently using which have yielded tangible and positive results. The closing date for submission of abstracts is 15 October 2011.
Sharing perspectives
The conference will be an ideal platform for research institutions and “practice-based organisations” such as education administrations, schools and NGOs to share perspectives and also seeks to promote collaboration and networking among researchers and other educational practitioners.
The programme will cover three main “tracks” or sub-themes. The first will focus on “teaching, learning and assessment”; the second on “management and leadership in schools and districts” and the third on “systemic approaches to policy and planning”.
The organisers said there are “pockets of excellence and good practice throughout the basic education sector” and what the conference aims to do is “identify and interrogate best practice, stimulate debate and reflection, and, in so doing, help to ignite and scale innovation and ongoing enquiry across the system”.
For more information, visit www.education-conference.co.za/ or phone 012 816 9125 or info@education conference.co.za