Welcome to the #TeachDifferent Conference 2017!

As educators, we live and work in challenging times. We all know the current issues and impact of them - on our physical and mental health, the wellbeing of our students, and the capacity of our communities to survive and thrive. What can we do to keep our classrooms spaces of belonging and community, where creativity and collaboration are fostered and encouraged? How can we work with a pro-social pedagogy, that values difference and acts for social justice, in a world that seems to be doing the opposite? How can art help to sustain both ourselves and our students, whilst also being used as a force for change? And in an increasingly technologically mediated world, how can we build resilience and critical thinking in our students?

This one-day conference at beautiful Northern College will attempt to answer these questions, with the help of excellent speakers, facilitated discussions and the chance to spend time walking and thinking outside. We will consider and debate themes of 'Belonging' and close, as we always do, with calls to action. What will we do differently in our teaching as a result of our shared thinking, and how will we act to influence wider social change?

Programme of the Day

9.30am - Arrival and coffee

10.00am - Welcome from Jill Westerman, Northern College Principal

Keynotes: ‘Leading Learning’ and 'Race and Leadership'

Martin Doel, Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL)
Paul Miller, University of Huddersfield

11am - Workshops Theme 1 – Communities of Belonging

Graeme Tiffany, Consultant and Lecturer – Community as a form of learning - pro-social education in an anti-social world

Graham Goulden – Chief Inspector, Scottish police - Creating safe and resilient classroom climates

Kay Sidebottom and Alison Longden - Northern College – Towards a pedagogy of Belonging

11.45am - Coffee

12pm - Workshops Theme 2 - Belonging Re-imagined

Jan Eldred and Mark Ravenhall - European Agenda for Adult Learning - Belonging across borders: evidence from international studies and the role of teachers

David Powell - University of Huddersfield – Becoming and Being

Chris Nickson - Author, The Richard Nottingham Series – Writing for freedom and belonging

12.45pm - Lunch

Please visit our Art Exhibition in Room 8 (main house):

‘Becoming Teacher’ – poetry, sculpture, textiles, painting, stories produced by students of Northern and Barnsley Colleges

2.00pm - Keynote – FE Transforms

Rob Smith and Vicky Duckworth, Transforming Lives project

2.45pm - Break

3.00pm - Relationships and belonging - Research Dissemination

Maria Smith, Northern College - Achieving parity of esteem in the learning support role

Jo Fletcher –Saxon (Asst Principal Ashton College) – Learning conversations with dyslexic students – Can I belong?

Ruth North, Northern College – Language as power – a critical exploration of English qualifications

Bron Ray and Jill Wilkens Northern College - Empowering tutors; reflections on a Peer Coaching programme

4.30pm - Close and Calls to Action

About us:

At TeachNorthern we push the boundaries of what education is or could be. Our values-based social purpose approach challenges the ‘sausage factory’ of further, adult and community education in the UK and the exponential growth of our programme is all the proof we need that educators want to work in this way, whatever the funding or ideological constraints are. We run a number of teacher training programmes, from Level 3 through Cert Ed/PGCE to a BA in Education.