Perth trip and AARE conference report, December 2018
Louise Kay
In December of this year I travelled to Australia to attend the AARE conference at the University of Sydney, making a slight detour on the way and landing in Perth. The purpose of this detour was to meet with a research team myself and Professor Jackie Marsh are working with on an international collaborative research project looking at the Internet of Toys, and the benefits and risks these toys pose for children. I spent a very pleasant two days at Edith Cowan University, and had an opportunity to deliver a presentation and workshop about the MakEY project to librarians and teachers at the Library of Western Australia, many of whom were keen to start their own makerspaces and STEAM clubs.
On the Saturday, I said goodbye to Perth and made my way across Australia to Sydney to prepare for the four-day conference hosted by The Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE). AARE is a national professional association of educational researchers in Australia, with an objective of advancing scholarly inquiry into education and enhancing quality in educational research. For this conference I prepared and delivered two presentations. The first reported on findings from my doctoral research where I focused on the notion of ‘school readiness’ and the complexities that arise when this is agenda is used as a transitional construct. The second presentation was part of a symposium with another research team I am working with, based at the Australia Catholic University and Monash University in Melbourne, exploring learning rich leadership in Early Childhood. Professor Liz Wood and I presented our current research which focuses on an analysis of two policy texts (Foundations of Quality and More Great Childcare) using a rhetorical analysis approach.
It was a fantastic experience to travel to Australia and have the opportunity to meet with people I have only been able to speak to over email and video conferencing. Sydney and Perth are both wonderful cities, and I hope to visit them again someday.
Louise Kay supervises students on the MA Education programme, her research interests are around curricular and assessment policy frameworks and how these impact on teachers and children.
