The Speakers
The Speakers
Karishma Udawat is a gender researcher whose work explores the intersection of gender, caste, class, and religion in shaping girls’ access to and retention in education in India. Her research employs qualitative methods, including interviews and focus groups, to understand community experiences and structural inequalities within educational systems. She has also contributed to international projects promoting intercultural competence and gender equity in education. Karishma’s work reflects a strong commitment to advancing gender justice through research, collaboration, and community-driven action.
This systematic review aims to identify the reported contextual factors influencing teaching as a career trajectory of teacher education students in Indonesia. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, the review synthesises a total of 68 pieces of studies from Scopus, ERIC, Web of Science, Science Direct, SAGE Journals, ProQuest Scholarly Journal, and Google Scholar. This review reported that the contextual factors influencing teacher education students' interest in becoming teachers in Indonesia are related to: 1) perceptions toward the teaching profession; 2) personal and psychological factors; 3) family and social environment; 4) educational and experiential factors; 5) motivational factors; and 6) socio-cultural and policy influences. This review is essential to provide informative and evidence-based answers on contextual factors influencing teaching as career pathways of teacher education students in Indonesia. This will help the government and stakeholders in future policy-making and educational reforms regarding teacher education.
Keywords: teacher education, systematic review, teaching interest, Indonesia.
Titik Ulfatun is a second-year PhD student at the University of Warwick. Her research focuses on the personal, social, and systemic factors influencing teacher education students entering the teaching profession in Indonesia.
This paper reports the first phase of a doctoral study examining how inclusive education is framed within England’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice (2015) and how this aligns with the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (CFVI). Adopting an interpretivist approach, the study applies two complementary frameworks—the Seven-Domain framework (capturing teaching, curriculum, environment, support, technology, indicators, and teachers) and the Universal–Specialist–Dynamic framework (classifying levels of provision). Using NVivo-based Template Analysis, I identified 185 coded references—that is, segments of policy text labelled against the above themes—and analysed 756 modal expressions—words signalling obligation or discretion (e.g., must, should, may).
The findings show that the Code’s discourse is dominated by Support Focus and institutional mechanisms, reflecting a system-oriented rather than pedagogical understanding of inclusion. Domains such as Teaching Strategy, Curriculum, and Assistive Technology are underrepresented. The lexical analysis further demonstrates that advisory expressions (“should”, “may”) occur far more frequently than prescriptive ones (“must”), suggesting a policy preference for flexibility and local discretion over legal enforceability. This study shows that there is often a gap between statutory frameworks and classroom practice. The CFVI helps to close this gap by turning general policy goals into practical teaching guidance. In doing so, it connects the legal side of inclusion with the everyday realities of learning and teaching, supporting a more consistent and genuinely inclusive education system.
Yu is a third-year PhD student in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham. Her doctoral project is Cross-Cultural Application of Inclusive Education: A Study on the Challenges of Implementing CFVI in the UK and Feasibility in China. In the first phase of her research, she will explore how does CFVI align with the principles of inclusive education in the UK? She analysed the SEND Code of Practice (2015) and its relationship with the CFVI. She uses qualitative methods, including NVivo-based coding and interpretive policy analysis, to explore how inclusion is constructed through policy language.
Autistic Joy is much celebrated in the autistic community but near invisible in a literature still dominated by the pathology paradigm of autism as disorder. This will be a talk about research on Autistic Joy that I conducted for my master’s degree and which was subsequently published in Disability and Society journal. The study was conducted via an online survey with exploratory quantitative and open qualitative questions hosted on the social media platform of autism charity Autistic Girls Network. The study found that a significant majority of its participants regularly experienced joy and moreover enjoyed things because of not despite being autistic, challenging dominant narratives about autism. 86 participants provided rich qualitative materials and the study identified four key themes: that the autistic sensorium could itself be a source of joy, the importance of passionate interests, the need for circumstances to be “just right”, and the need for other people to change. Autistic voices suggest that the key barrier to joyful experience is not autism itself but other people’s lack of acceptance of authentic autistic behaviours such as pursuit of passionate interests. Furthermore, I will discuss my experiences as an autistic researcher and how this research informs my current PhD, an in-depth participatory study of how autistic people themselves understand, experience and express “joy”. This will explore in-depth points of interest identified in my prior research and look at neglected segments such as non-speaking autistic people, with significant potential benefits to both the autistic community and wider society.
Elliot is an autistic researcher, living in fully neurodivergent household, dog-slave, mature student, regrettable accountant, trustee of autism charity Autistic Girls Network. He has a Master’s in Autism (Adults) from the University of Birmingham and has published an article with the Disability & Society journal on this topic. Research interests include autistic flourishing, autistic connections with nature, autistic spirituality, participatory research methods and Posthumanist theory. He has just begun his PhD journey with University of Birmingham under an ESRC studentship, to pursue an in-depth participatory study of Autistic Joy.
English is a compulsory subject in China, yet teachers often face challenges due to pupils’ diverse reading levels and the heavy reliance on textbooks. To promote independent reading, teachers need reliable tools to assess pupils’ reading levels and interests and to recommend suitable books.
This paper reports findings from a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) of Accelerated Reader (AR), a computer-assisted reading programme, with Cambridge Reading Adventures (CRA) used as a free alternative. The study involved 1,028 pupils in Years 4–6 from 22 classes across four provinces, randomly assigned by class to either the experimental group using AR (438 pupils) or the business-as-usual control group (590 pupils).
After 12–13 weeks, results showed positive effects on English reading attainment for AR (ES = +0.22). CRA also showed a positive effect (ES = +0.40), though results should be interpreted cautiously due to baseline differences and smaller sample size. Both programmes also improved pupils’ reading habits, while AR showed a more positive effect on reading attitudes than CRA, which showed slightly negative effects. Furthermore, path analysis revealed that AR directly enhanced both reading behaviours and achievement, though indirect effects through reading behaviours were weak .
The study is the first independent evaluation of AR in China, with a low attrition rate of only one pupil. The findings suggest the effectiveness of AR in supporting English language learning in non-English-speaking contexts, particularly when implemented with high fidelity.
Fujia Yang is a PhD candidate of the Department of Teacher Education, University of Birmingham, UK. Her research focuses on evaluating the effects of technological reading intervention on Chinese students, particularly the impact of Accelerated Reader (AR) on Chinese school students’ reading achievement and behaviours.
Recent years have witnessed a transformation in Chinese fatherhood from traditional patriarchy to a post-patriarchal era (Yan, 2021). As fathering practices are shaped by the interplay between social conditions, masculinities, and individual agency (Liong, 2017), this transformation provides an opportunity to critically explore how Chinese men negotiate their identities as both fathers and men. This study aims to address three research questions: (1) How do Chinese fathers practice and negotiate their involvement in their children’s education? (2) How do they construct and reconfigure masculinity through fatherhood? (3) How do constructions of masculinity and patriarchal family dynamics interact and co-evolve within contemporary Chinese families?
This research conducted in-depth narrative interviews with 32 fathers from three occupational groups: institutional, non-institutional, and working-away fathers. The research employed thematic-narrative analysis, allowing attention to both the structural inequalities that frame fatherhood and the personal narratives through which men interpret and perform it.
Findings reveal that all participants regard stability and responsibility as central to their identities as men and fathers, but with different meanings and practices. Second, while fathers commonly emphasised academic success, they employ different strategies and aspirations shaped by their individual experiences. Third, although domestic labour becomes degendered for the goal of educational success, educational responsibilities remain highly gendered. Overall, the study argues that Chinese fathers’ educational involvement reflects a negotiated reconstruction of male dominance where traditional authority is softened, fathers selectively reinterpret it through rationale, responsibility and emotional restraint discourses to sustain paternal authority in more flexible, negotiated and invisible forms within modern Chinese families.
Jieyuan (Joyce) is a 4th-year PGR student at the Department of Education Studies at the University of Warwick. Her doctoral research focuses on the changing Chinese masculinity and patriarchy through the lens of fathers' involvement in their children's education. She is interested in Bourdieu's theories, masculinity theories and gender inequality.
In recent years, Drama-Based Pedagogy (DBP) has attracted growing attention in Chinese primary English education as an engaging approach to promote communicative competence and creativity. Although there is a growing emphasis on DBP implementation on the educational policy level in China, teachers and students continue to encounter challenges in classroom practice. Existing studies have primarily focused on theoretical justification or teachers’ perceptions of DBP, with fewer in-depth investigations into how it is enacted in authentic English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classrooms, and how contextual factors shape teachers’ and students’ experiences. This study aims to explore how DBP is enacted in different types of primary EFL classrooms in Nanjing, China, how teachers and students perceive and experience this pedagogical approach, and how contextual factors shape the pedagogical practice in the school. By situating DBP within the ongoing curriculum reform and the shift toward learner-centred education, this study seeks to bridge the gap between national policy enthusiasm and practical limitations. The research employs a qualitative, multiple-case study design involving classroom observations, teacher interviews, student focus group discussions, and interviews with stakeholders. The aim is not to generalise statistically, but to provide in-depth analytical insights into how DBP is enacted and perceived across diverse school contexts. The study is expected to offer insights into the practical enactment of DBP in Chinese primary EFL classrooms, contributing to teacher professional development and to a more nuanced understanding of creative pedagogy in language education.
Yewen Zheng is a PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham. Her research explores how Drama-Based Pedagogy is implemented in Chinese primary EFL classrooms. She is interested in creative and participatory approaches to English language education for young learners.
Verbal descriptions of images are widely used to access, and engage with, artworks, but it has been rare to consult those who are recipients of these texts. People who are blind can offer insightful perspectives as they are well versed in communicating through words.
Thirty blind people discussed with a sighted person what interested them about fine art portraits, in a grounded theory project aiming to provide verbal descriptions. These descriptions might be helpful to any gallery visitor, to galleries and to specialist intermediary organisations. The one-to-one conversations included both how they would like to be portrayed in a new portrait and what each would like to know about an actual portrait of a blind person. With their own portraits, there was an initial concern to be portrayed “honestly” but this progressed to how a portrait might reveal aspects of their character, career and interests. When discussing portraits of other blind people, there was interest in whether the sitters’ disabilities were obvious and depicted with respect. Of more interest was what the people were doing in the paintings, along with celebrating some sitters’ achievements. Participants were eager not only to glean information about the paintings’ contents, a formal Audio Description stance, but also to appreciate how these might be interpreted and appreciated, as works of art. Access to these paintings was indirect, through verbal dialogue which was both fascinating, in how much can be conveyed in a single image, and frustrating, in its reliance on sighted people.
Sally Zimmermann taught music for twenty five years and was then the music adviser for the Royal National Institute for twenty five years. She was part of the original research team devising “Sounds of Intent” an assessment framework for progress in music for students with complex needs. In retirement, she is working on a project at the University of Birmingham titled “Framing the face: ways in which people who are blind interpret fine art portraits.