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I recently attended the first iNet (Australia) conference, 'Australian Education: The Tipping Point'. The conference was significant because there were delegates (policymakers and headteachers) from all Australian states and territories and delegates were challenged by a new generation of thought-leaders: Jason Yatsen Li and Thao Nguyen. Both Jason and Thao are migrants to Australia and overcame prejudice to achieve success. Jason is now General Manager, Sales & Marketing, for Insurance Australia Group, in China, and Thao was the Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations General Assembly, in New York City. She is still studying at the University of Sydney. Their clear, passionate presentations reinforced the belief that many educators hold that students must have a voice in designing, planning, and delivering education in the 21st century. Educators and policy makers need to be committed to supporting students to be global citizens who want to tackle problems such as world poverty and AIDS.
The distinguished academic, Professor Hedley Beare, argued most passionately that educators need to understand the world in the way that Generation X does. We cannot educate children in the 21st century in the same way we did in the 19th and 20th centuries. Professor David Hargreaves spoke of transformation as the transition from the 19th to the 21st century educational imaginary. The conference was designed to identify some of the features of the 21st century imaginary. Tony King, Managing Director of Apple Computers (Australia), highlighted the differences between digital natives (i.e. children) and educators and reinforced the belief that, as well as professional development for educators, there needs to be understanding that, with new technologies, children will often be the teachers.
April also saw the start of the year-long Leadership Festival in Chile. The first contributor was Professor Sir Geoff Hampton, from the University of Wolverhampton. Sir Geoff, as a former successful headteacher and now an academic, was the ideal person to launch the Festival. Over 1,400 delegates attended the Festival.
The Specialist Schools Trust, in partnership with headteachers and other educators, will continue the work of defining the 21st century educational imaginary at the 2nd iNet (Global) conference in Amsterdam, from 13th to 15th June 2005. The theme of the conference is 'What will educational leaders be leading in 2025?' This is truly a global event, with speakers from around the world: Professor Andy Hargreaves, Alan November, Professor Brian Caldwell, Michael Phillips, Professor David Hargreaves, David Carter, David Triggs, Liselotte Lyslotte and the Education Minister of Holland. Headteachers and academics will be working together to identify the common traits of education in 2025 and the challenges to be addressed by educational leaders.
The conferences and the articles in Snapshots highlight that many schools are at the forefront of innovation, and that the sharing of practice and ideas can help others on the journey to transformation. The author, William Gibson, writes: 'The future is already here: it is just not distributed very well'. The Trust and iNet are helping to identify the future and to distribute knowledge.
Ms Sue Williamson Director, Leadership and Affiliation Network Specialist Schools Trust