2025 ATEA Conference

ATEA’s 2025 Conference will be hosted by Curtin University (Bentley Campus) in Boorloo on Whadjuk Noongar Boodja land (Perth Western Australia) from 2^nd to 4^th July 2025. The conference will be held in partnership with the University of Western Australia with support from all universities in Western Australia.

The conference theme centres on how teacher education and teaching makes a positive difference. As an ATEA community, we aim to promote, share and celebrate the work of teacher educators, educational researchers and teachers across the breadth of education. Key areas of focus are responding to continual reforms in initial teacher education, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, inclusion, diversity and equity, partnerships, profession of teaching, and creativity and innovation education.

The conference offers a safe and inclusive environment to speak to the important and impactful work being undertaken in education and to counter the criticisms. There will be opportunities to discuss significant challenges faced by teacher education and education with responses for action formulated.

Responding to continual reforms in Initial Teacher Education

This theme explores the opportunities and challenges arising from responding to reforms in Initial Teacher Education along with the profession of teaching and the impacts of reform on this.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education

This theme celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education. Impactful learning and teaching approaches and programs and research are example areas of focus.

Equity, diversity and inclusion

This theme focuses on equity, diversity and inclusion in learning and teaching and teacher education.

Partnerships with schools, early learning centres, communities and families

This theme explores teacher education and partnering with schools, early learning centres, communities and families.

Change, creativity and innovation in education

Changes in education, creativity and innovation are explored in this theme. Technology, social media, creative and innovative learning and teaching approaches, educational research methods and more broadly changes in the teaching profession are examples of included areas.

BUILDING 418, KOORLINY WAY

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Professor Siona O’Connell – Pretoria, South Africa

Professor Siona O’Connell is based in the University of Pretoria’s School of the Arts and is a founding member of the Critical African Studies project at UP (CAST UP). She was the recipient of the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of the Humanities in Africana and Latin American Studies, Art and Art History and Film and Media Studies at Colgate University in the USA. She has published widely, curated numerous exhibitions, and directed and produced seven films that consider ways of life after racial oppression in South Africa. These include two on forced removals and restitution: An Impossible Return and Uitgesmyt, as well as a film on South Africa’s post-apartheid governing party, the African National Congress, titled Promises and Lies: Fault Lines of the ANC. Her latest film, In Gods Naam, considers the long reach of a colonial and slave history and confronts the schisms that remain unreconciled between the Nederduitse Gereformeerder Kerk (NGK) and The Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA).

Paul Bridge – Kimberley, WA

Paul Bridge has held leadership and principal positions across the Kimberley Education Region. As an Aboriginal educator of immense experience, he is aware of the critical challenges facing Indigenous students in public schools and also in rural and remote community schools.

Paul has been involved in projects liaising with Aboriginal communities, government agencies, universities and community bodies. Paul is also a ministerially appointed member of the Rural and Remote Education Advisory Council and a previous Senior Vice President of the State School Teacher’s Union of WA.

Paul will moderate a distinguished panel of education leaders as they explore community engagement within the Kimberley Region, with a particular focus on On Country Science and Artefacts as a means of connecting schools with their local communities.

Professor Mary Ryan – Sydney, Australia

Professor Mary Ryan is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education and Arts at ACU. She is a recent two-term President of the New South Wales Council of Deans of Education. Professor Ryan has been appointed to the Board of the New South Wales Education Standards Authority (NESA) and recently served as Chair of the Education Research Council for Australian Independent Schools New South Wales. She is a Principal Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and is the recipient of a national citation for outstanding contributions to student learning. Professor Ryan led Australian Research Council funded projects in classroom writing and preparing reflexive teachers for diverse classrooms.

Her research is in the areas of writing pedagogy and assessment, reflective writing, teacher education, teachers’ work and professional learning, the enabling and constraining conditions for graduating students to manage the demands of their profession, and reflexive learning and practice.

Professor Ryan regularly provides advice to Ministers of Education and Early Childhood across multiple states, along with regulatory authorities in education.

*A concessional delegate refers to individuals who meet one or more of the following criteria: Early Career Researchers, sessional academics, school-based teacher educators, Higher Degree Research students, those who are unwaged or retired, or individuals within five years of completing their PhD. To qualify, non-ATEA members will need to provide supporting evidence, ie. an institutional ID, an official letter from your employer or university, proof of enrolment, or any other relevant documentation.

METRO HOTELS

Enjoy 15% off at both Metro Hotel Perth (61 Canning Hwy, South Perth) and Metro Hotel Perth City (200 Hay St, East Perth).

To make a booking, please visit metrohotels.com.au, select one of their Perth properties, and enter the promo code ATEA25 at checkout.

Offer valid for stays between 25 June and 9 July 2025.

QUEST SOUTH PERTH FORESHORE

Enjoy 12% off the best available rate for Studio, One and Two Bedroom Apartments.

To make a booking, please visit: www.questsouthperthforeshore.com.au, and use promo code ATEA25.

Offer valid for stays between 30 June and 5 July 2025.

Explore dining options nearby.

MERCURE PERTH & IBIS PERTH

Delegates can access a room-only rate of $209 p.n. at either Mercure Perth (10 Irwin St, Perth) or Ibis Perth (334 Murray St, Perth).

To make a booking, visit https://www.idem.events/r/atea2025.

Offer valid for stays between 30 June and 04 July 2025.

PAGODA RESORT & SPA

Delegates can access Superior Rooms at $195 p.n. and a discounted breakfast rate of $27.

To book, email rooms@pagoda.com.au or call 08 9367 0300 using reference code “ATEA Conference Delegates”.

Offer valid for stays between 30 June and 04 July 2025.

DOUBLETREE BY HILTON PERTH WATERFRONT

Enjoy a 15% discount on the current best available rate and a special breakfast rate of $27.

To make a booking, visit https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/perbsdi-doubletree-perth-waterfront/, click Special Rates and use Group Code GHATEA.

Offer valid for stays between 30 June and 04 July 2025.