The Eaquals Annual International Conference 2023
THE EAQUALS ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2023
The highly anticipated Eaquals Annual International Conference was held in Tallinn, Estonia from 27th to 29th April 2023.
Lou McLaughlin, Eaquals’ Executive Director and Thom Kiddle, Chair of the Eaquals Board of Trustees, officially opened the event, welcoming over 200 attendees from both member and non-member institutions around the globe.
During the opening, the recipient of this year’s Eaquals Scholarship Scheme, Antonio Badagliacca received his certificate, whereas Ilkem Kayican, this year’s recipient of the Eaquals Teacher Award, who was unable to attend, had her interview recorded and played for all to see.
The Eaquals Annual International Conference provides an opportunity to exchange expertise and cutting-edge practices through the various workshops and presentations organised during the three-day event. On the first day, whilst the Inspectors’ Training was being held, attendees were able to participate in the full-day Management Training delivered by Nergis Uyan and Özlem Baykan, titled ‘Examining the 4 E’s of Quality’. The aim of this training was to provide participants with a deeper insight into establishing and maintaining a culture of quality in their institution and many shared their experiences on the matter.
The Tim Goodier opening plenary, ‘Disrupting the commonplace: embedding critical literacy within language
education’, was delivered by Rose Aylett. This talk explored practical ideas to disrupt the status quo in language education, by embedding action for social justice within course design and everyday teaching practice. The closing plenary, ‘Who’s the best person to manage your teachers’ professional development?’ was delivered by Ben Knight. The session looked at the various obstacles to self-directed professional development and explored what schools could do to help their teachers overcome them and become leaders of their own professional development journey.
Throughout these three days, attendees had the opportunity of networking at our meticulously organised evening events amongst which was the gala night. During this occasion, we also celebrated the retirement of Ludka Kotarska, from Director of Accreditation. Ludka has been with Eaquals for over 25 years, during which she held different positions within the organisation, but despite retirement, she will still be conducting inspections.
During the closing speech, Thom Kiddle, announced the dates for the Eaquals Online event taking place on 6th and 7th October 2023 and the place for the next Eaquals Annual International Conference 2024, which will be held from 11th to 13th Aprill in Lisbon.
Lou McLaughlin, Eaquals’ Executive Director said, ‘it is great to see the steady build-up of participants at face-to-face events and we had representatives from 36 countries around the globe. This diversity in educational backgrounds, contexts and experiences adds to the richness of the discussions, presentations and seminars at the conference and we are looking forward to adding to this in 2024.’
The Eaquals Annual International Conference has become a staple in people’s calendars, but it wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the support of our sponsors, Macmillan Education, Oxford University Press, Avallain, ETS Global, Cambridge University Press and Assessment, Guided E-Learning, Language Cert, National Geographic and Sensations English.
We invite you to click here for the conference programme and for resources which will be posted shortly from our speakers. The album of the official conference photographs has been uploaded to our facebook page.
