Professor Radka Newton

Radka’s personal experience of being an international student contributed to her professional calling to ensure that as educators we create challenging yet attainable education environments. As a continuous improvement and service excellence scholar, she has grown a significant expertise in combining executive coaching, organisation change practice and service design. Radka is a Personal Chair in Management Education and Innovation and a co-founder of the Service Design in Education network.

Keynote Title: Tom’s Christmas Trifle

When we are designing our courses or programmes, we often think mostly about our own knowledge, what we want to convey to the learners, what we feel is important. As conscientious educators we do consider the people we are designing for, especially if we have absorbed the dominant rhetoric of student-centredness. What, though, is this consideration based on and how do we keep these interests and insights front and centre when we are developing our educational practices? Join me in exploring the invisible life of students, their dreams and fears, hopes and frustrations. Let me open your hearts and your minds to better understanding our students that leads to better educational decisions.

To watch this keynote presentation, please follow the link below:

Tom's Christmas Trifle - Lancaster University Education Conference Keynote Presentation

Yemi Gbajobi

With a career spanning almost 20 years in higher education and student engagement, Yemi Gbajobi (she/her) is currently the Chief Executive of the Arts Students' Union at the University of the Arts London. She has also held roles at the London School of Economics(LSE), City, University of London and London South Bank and student officer roles at Brunel University and the National Union of Students (NUS). She is also a Rugby Football Union (RFU) Council member and a Trustee of the Association of College Unions International (ACUI).

Keynote Title: Rethinking student engagement for the social media generation

The way students communicate continues to change, but universities typically use traditional methods of communicating with and engaging with students. This session will challenge attendees to rethink their understanding of and engagement with students' voices to ensure that their feedback is at the heart of the academic experience.

To watch this keynote presentation, please follow the link below:

Rethinking Student Engagement for the Social Media Generation - Lancaster University Education Conference Keynote Presentation

Dr Peter Shukie

Peter Shukie is a lecturer in higher education with programme leader roles on education studies and on a PGCE post-compulsory programme. He works at University Centre Blackburn College and has external examiner roles at the University of East London and Newcastle College Group. Dr Shukie’s Ph.D. research explored the ways technology and distance education work in informal and community educational spaces. Research interests include digital technology and pedagogy, social justice, art and education, Deleuzean influences on education, working-class identities in academia and the arts, post-human pedagogies, social practice (art and education in community), and informal and non-institutional education. His publications include work on social justice, technology, post-human education and art as a pedagogical approach for social justice. Peter was founder of the International Working-Class Academics Conference that began in 2020. He is also the founder of the Community Open Online Courses (COOCs.org) education platform for community, informal and activist educators. Peter is an ambassador for the Worker’s Education Association and a fellow of the RSA. In 2019 he won the Social Impact Award at the National Festival of Learning for his work with community digital learning.

Dr Kay Sidebottom

I am Lecturer in Education and programme lead for the MSc Education at the University of Stirling.

Previously, I have taught and led on programmes relating to educational theory and practice, childhood studies, social change, and post-14 teacher training.

My PhD explored posthuman approaches to the curriculum and demonstrated how philosophy and artistic practice can be employed as a navigational tool to rethink and re-imagine education for the 21st century and beyond. It can be found here: https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/160080/

I am a guest tutor on the annual Posthuman Summer School (University of Utrecht) and currently editing a special issue of Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry on posthuman education (University of Alberta).

I am currently external examiner for BA Studies in Primary Education at Newman University and BA Action on Poverty and Hardship at Staffordshire University.