Presenters

Dr Mike Davis

Dr Mike Davis is Senior Lecturer of History at Griffith University in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science. Prior to joining Griffith University in 2012, he held appointments at the University of Tasmania and The University of Queensland. His publications include Crowd Actions in Britain and France: From the Middle Ages to the Modern World (2015); Liberty, Property and Popular Politics: England and Scotland, 1688-1815 (2015); and Political Trials in an Age of Revolutions: Britain and the North Atlantic, 1793-1848 (2019).

Dr Rose Dixon

Dr Roselyn Dixon has been a special education teacher in both mainstream and special education settings in primary and secondary schools. Rose has been in academia and involved with Inclusive Education for more than 25 years. She has published research in the fields of social skills and behavioural interventions for people with a range of disabilities including students with Oppositional Defiance Disorders and Autism.

She has been actively involved in examining the relationship between digital technologies and pedagogy in special education and inclusive classrooms for students with Autism as well as the implications of the NDIS on people with disabilities in rural and remote communities. Rose is an Honorary Associate Professor at the School of Education, University of Wollongong, where she was previously the Academic Director of Inclusive and Special Education. She continues to support doctoral students in Inclusive and Special education with a focus on Autism. 

Lisa Edwards

Lisa Edwards is an English teacher and school leader, currently working as a Leadership Adviser with the Department of Education’s School Leadership Institute (SLI). 

Lisa was Head Teacher Wellbeing at Bossley Park High School, Head Teacher English at Engadine High School and Deputy Principal at Port Hacking High School, and has worked extensively with teachers across NSW in quality assessment and programming in collaboration with the Department of Education’s Secondary Education team, and has presented for the English Teachers’ Association. 

Lisa is currently supporting middle leaders and aspiring leaders in NSW public schools through the work of the SLI. She is a strong advocate for public education and educational equity, dedicated to supporting teachers in public schools to maximise learning outcomes for our students. 

Lisa received an Australian Council for Educational Leaders award and a Premier’s Award for Public Service in 2017 for her work leading the lifting of literacy and HSC achievement at Engadine High School. 

Hannah Gillard

Hannah Gillard is a non-binary academic in the final stages of their PhD at the University of Sydney. Hannah’s doctoral research area is LGBTQ+ diversity in the workplace.

Belinda Giudice

Belinda Giudice displays a deep commitment to public education. She began her career at Merrylands High School and was Co-Principal there from 2012-2015. She has been the Principal of Canterbury Boys High School and is the current Principal of Prairiewood High School. Belinda has presented at state and national levels in the areas of: Quality Teaching, Leadership, and Student Wellbeing. Belinda displays a passion not to accept the status quo and to make structural improvements that lead to real and required change. She has received numerous education awards including: an NSW Australian College of Educational Leadership Award, an NSW Quality Teaching Award, a Public Education Foundation Secretary’s Award for Excellent Service, a New South Wales Secondary Deputy Principals Association (NSWSDPA) Fellowship and is a NSWSDPA Life Member. Belinda is a visionary leader who is passionate about contributing to the education community.

Karen Graham

Karen Graham has been teaching and leading in south west Sydney for the past 19 years. For the past 3 years, she has been a relieving Deputy Principal and Instructional Leader at Blairmount Public School. Karen was accredited as a Highly Accomplished Teacher in 2017 and believes that accreditation at Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher is a great way to recognise and promote the expertise of our teaching profession.

Steve Henry

Steve Henry is currently Head Teacher of English at Cherrybrook Technology High School and has taught senior English for many years. Steve has been the Supervisor of Marking in the Texts and Human experiences module.  

He has been involved in writing study guides and articles for the Sydney Morning Herald and the ETA on a range of HSC topics. Steve has a love for creative and innovative writing.

Rosemary Henzell

Rosemary Henzell is currently Head Teacher English at Canterbury Girls High School. She has contributed to the Journal of Professional Learning as well as CPL podcasts, and has been published in the Journal for Adolescent and Adult Literacy. She has a keen interest in Load Reduction Instruction as a means to manage cognitive load and Project Zero’s work in Creating Cultures of Thinking.

Emma Mansfield

Emma Mansfield is Deputy Principal at Macarthur Girls High School and relieved as Principal for a substantial amount of time. She is currently working as Leader, School Excellence in the NSW Department of Education. Throughout her career, Emma has worked in a range of different teaching and leadership roles both within schools and across the national and state education systems. Since gaining Lead accreditation in 2017, Emma has been a passionate advocate for the certification process. She has extensive experience in supporting teachers to undertake the process of accreditation and in promoting how school leaders can use this process to improve teacher quality and enhance school improvement. She has been heavily involved in a range of system wide initiatives as well as formal and informal mentoring programs at a school, network and system level. Emma regularly contributes to the wider dialogue surrounding accreditation at numerous events including the International Forum for Teacher Regulatory Authorities, and ACEL National Conference.

Thomas Mayor

Thomas Mayor is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man. He is a union official with the MUA and is an advocate in the campaign for a constitutionally enshrined Voice – the key proposal in the Uluru Statement. Thomas is the author of four books published by Hardie Grant Publishing, and has articles and essays published in The Guardian, Griffith Review, The Saturday Paper, and Sydney Morning Herald.

Deb McPherson

Deb McPherson is a reader, author and lover of books. She is an English teacher who has spent 30 years as a classroom teacher, Head Teacher, Deputy, BOS Curriculum Officer and DET Manager of English as well as lecturing and tutoring at tertiary institutions.  

She spent many years on the committee selecting the HSC texts and reviews texts for English classrooms in AATE’s English in Australia. 

A/Prof Tony Moore

Associate Professor Tony Moore is Associate Professor of Communications and Media Studies at Monash University and former Director of its National Centre for Australian Studies. Tony is author of the critically acclaimed Dancing with Empty Pockets: Australia’s Bohemians since 1868 (2012), Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788 – 1868 (2010), adapted as a TV documentary (2015) and The Barry McKenzie Movies (2005). Tony is lead investigator on the ARC Discovery Project Fringe to Famous: Australian culture as an innovation system (2014) and the ARC Linkage Project Conviction Politics: the convict routes of Australian democracy (2019): https://www.convictionpolitics.net

Tony was specialist consultant on the major exhibition Bohemian Melbourne, held at State Library Victoria 2014-15 https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/galleries/bohemian-melbourne

He is a former ABC TV documentary maker and commissioning editor at Pluto Press and Cambridge University Press. His documentaries include Bohemian Rhapsody: rebels of Australian culture, TimeFrame history of ASIO, Lost in Space: Australians in their cities and Nobody’s Children.

Lila Mularczyk

Lila Mularczyk’s commitment to education was recognised by being honoured with the Order of Australia Medal (OAM). Lila has been contributing to public education for 40 years. She currently is undertaking a portfolio of work including leading or participating on multiple National and State Education Boards and Reference Groups and projects (including, PEF, ACE, UTS, UNSW, NSWTF and CPL.) tertiary professional experience officer, coach and mentor, UNSW Gonski Institute, State and Vice Chair ACE, supporting HALT’s, tertiary lecturer, work in and for schools, research, contract work, critical friend, innovation projects etc.

Prior, Lila was the Director, Secondary Education, at the Department of Education. Immediately prior to this, Lila was President of the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council (SPC) from 2012 to 2016. As President and as a school Principal, Lila represented Public Education around Australia, and frequently globally, at conferences over many years. Lila was Principal at Merrylands High School for 15 years until 2016.

Michael Murray

Michael Murray is a former English teacher, head teacher and chief education officer, and working as an independent consultant in English and literacy K-12.

Lorri and Michael share a website that provides resources for teachers in subject English: https://primaryenglish.education/. Their shared passion is teaching the big ideas of English through the vehicle of quality texts.

Prof Greg Noble

Greg Noble is Professor at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Greg has been involved in research in multiculturalism and education for thirty years. His interests have centred around the relations between youth, ethnicity, gender and schooling, as well as aspects of curriculum and pedagogy in multicultural education programs. He also has broader research interests in issues of migration and intercultural relations, with a particular focus on the Lebanese diaspora.

Kathy Rushton

Kathy Rushton is interested in the development of language and literacy especially in disadvantaged communities. She has worked as a classroom teacher and literacy consultant and provides professional learning for teachers in the areas of language and literacy development. Her current research projects include a study of multilingual pre-service teachers and the impact that teacher professional learning has on the development of a creative pedagogical stance which supports translanguaging and student identity and wellbeing.

Prof Wayne Sawyer

Professor Wayne Sawyer is Emeritus Professor in the School of Education at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and is a member of the Centre for Educational Research. Before joining UWS, he was a secondary Head of English in Western Sydney. Wayne is the author/editor of over 30 books on education for audiences of teachers and academics. His research interests are in secondary education, in particular secondary English teaching, literacy policy and effective teaching – the latter in particular in low SES contexts. His most recent book – co-authored with Geoff Munns, Bronwyn Cole and the UWS Fair Go team for Routledge – is entitled Exemplary teachers of students in poverty and highlights the work of a number of teachers in NSW who are highly successful in engaging students from low SES communities with their education. Wayne has a particular interest in the work of teachers-as-researchers. 

Rayanne Shakra

Rayanne Shakra is a NESA sponsored scholarship doctoral student at the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment CEMA) and a sessional academic at The University of Sydney.

Prof Megan Watkins

Megan Watkins is Professor in the School of Education and Fellow in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Her research interests lie in the cultural analysis of education exploring the impact of cultural diversity on schooling and the ways in which different cultural practices can engender divergent habits and dispositions to learning. Megan is the recipient of two Australian Research Council Linkage Grants: ‘Rethinking Multiculturalism/ Reassessing Multicultural Education’ and ‘Discipline and Diversity: Cultural Practices and Dispositions of Learning’.