The first-of-its-kind School Reform conference being organised by The College of Education at the United Arab Emirates University in cooperation with Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance was opened today (Tuesday, April 17, 2007) by H.H. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Chancellor of UAE University, at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai.
The three-day conference, concluding on April 19, will host workshops and discussions featuring 50 case studies (25 in Arabic and 25 in English) of prominent international scholars and researchers in the field of school reform. The discussions will include senior officials and decision makers, delegates and educational knowledge experts from around the world.
The theme of the School Reform conference is ‘Challenges and Aspirations’ and addresses a range of aspects such as contemporary international trends in school reforms; roles of school management, higher education institutions, teachers and counselors in reform; challenges confronting school reform and contributions of civil institutions to reform. Further, the conference serves as a platform to exchange views and ideas around the importance of school reform and helps establish an effective partnership between educational institutions to accomplish reform.
“School reform represents the fusion of educational theory into the real world of schools at all pedagogical grade levels. School reform cannot rely solely on the efforts of those in charge of schools, but also on the effective partnership forged by all stakeholders including educational leaders, teachers, administrators, parents, students and the community at large. Hence, this conference aims at providing a suitable environment for stakeholders to meet, work as a team and arrive at a mutual understanding of current issues both at local and regional levels,” said Dr. Hadef Bin Jouan Al-Dhahiri the Vice Chancellor of the UAE University.
Professor Abdullateef Haidar Dean, College of Education Chair, Organizing Committee commented: “We are pleased that the conference has attracted some of the world’s leading experts on school reform. The participation of leading figures from academia and pedagogy underlines the significance of such a conference in the region,” he added.
Some of the eminent speakers at the School Reform conference include Peter McWalters, Commissioner, Rhode Island Department of Education, USA; Kati Haycok, Director, Education Trust, State of California, USA; Professor Wayne Edwards from Massey University, New Zealand; Professor Dorothy Harnish from University of Georgia, USA; and Dr. Kristiina Erkkila, Director of Development for the City of Espoo, Finland.
The sub themes of the conference range from philosophy, importance, management and globalisation of school reform to contemporary global models of reform, school reform and education of special needs, and role of educational research in school reform.
All three days of the conference will feature research paper presentations by experts from across the Middle East, Northern Africa, USA, New Zealand and Australia. The last two days of the conference will be held at the Dusit Dubai hotel.
