Professor Michele Simons is the Dean and Head of the School of Education at Western Sydney University. She is a graduate of the University of South Australia and the South Australian Institute of Technology. Before joining Western Sydney University late in 2013, Michele was based at the University of South Australia where she held roles as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor and Head of School/Dean of Education.

At Western Sydney University, Michele has been involved in University-wide projects supporting university- schools engagement, equity pathways to university and partnerships between vocational education and training and universities. Michele has a strong interest in changing trends and shifts in the ways in which education can be challenged to work for the interests of all learners – from early childhood education, children and young people in schools and learners in a wide range of community/post-school institutions and in the higher education sector.

Michele has been an active researcher for more than three decades. The common threads across her work is an interest in workforce planning, learning in the workplace and initial and ongoing professional learning for teachers, leaders and other professional staff employed across all sectors of education. Her most recent projects examined the role that school principals play in retaining teachers and an evaluation of initiates to enhance career education in secondary school settings.

Simone White is Professor and Dean of the School of Education at RMIT. She is a leading expert in teacher education and professional learning, focusing on the best ways to prepare teachers for diverse contexts, in particular rural, regional and remote. Her research explores the fields of teacher education policy, teacher learning, professional experience and building and maintaining university-school/community partnerships. Simone is a Past President of the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) and has held a number of leadership roles, including Director of Professional Experience at Deakin University, Chair of Teacher Education at Monash and the Associate Dean (International and Engagement) at QUT before taking on her current role as Dean of Education. Simone has been involved in a number of teacher education research projects. She was a key member of the ARC Discovery project titled, Teacher Education for Rural and Regional Australia (TERRAnova) and the ARC Linkage project Studying the Effectiveness of Teacher Education (SETE). Most recently Simone led the Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) federal grant focused on supporting teachers to engage and partner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and caregivers. Through her collective work, Simone aims to connect research, policy and practice in ways that bring together and break down traditional borders between academics, policy makers, communities and practitioners.

Professor Barney Dalgarno is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Canberra and Secretary/Treasurer of the Australian Council of Deans of Education. Barney’s research interests include the educational and social impact of digital technologies, the learning affordances of virtual, mixed and augmented realities, and the future of universities and schools in an age of digital disruption. He has had international influence through over 100 presentations and publications, award winning online learning innovations and editorship of educational technology journals and conference proceedings. Prior to entering academia, Barney worked as a Secondary Mathematics and Computer Studies teacher, and as a Computer Scientist.

Susan James Relly is Professor of Vocational Education and Head of the School of Education at the University of Adelaide. Previously she was Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Associate Head Learning and Teaching for the Social Sciences Division at University of Oxford. Susan’s entire career has been in education: she taught in secondary schools in Australia and England before starting her academic career. Susan completed a B.Ed at the Queensland University of Technology, and read for a M.Sc in Comparative and International Education at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include vocational education and training (VET) systems and policy; vocational excellence; apprenticeship; work- based learning; on-the-job and off-the-job training; teaching and learning in further education; and social mobility. She has published widely on these topics in journals and books.

Associate Professor Deborah Heck is Dean of School of Education and Tertiary Access at UniSC. She has been associated with the university since 2010 as an Associate Professor.

As a leader, Debbie is noted for her strong commitment to social justice and equity, and her steadfast interest in creating pathways to higher education that span from enabling programs to PhD work. She is energised by the prospect of working jointly with academic and professional faculties, students, and communities to hone the exploratory, research-oriented and societal support work that leads all involved to (re)imagine education as a place where teachers inspire students to be curious about the world and to address its open questions.

Debbie's academic research focuses on broad areas of education theory, curriculum, policy reform, evaluation and method across multiple theories of discourse. Her work contributes to understanding professional practices, academic innovations, teacher identity, higher education assessment methods, dialogic teaching, cogenerative inquiry and theoretical themes relevant to decolonisation.

Professor Donna Pendergast is Director, Engagement in the Arts, Education and Law Group and former Dean and Head of the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University, Australia (2009-2023). She commenced her career as a secondary school teacher. Her expertise includes student engagement and teacher professional learning. Donna works at state and national levels in shaping education policy including as: a member of the Board of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) (2018-); Chair of the Teacher Education Expert Standing Committee (TEESC) of AITSL (2019-); and in the former roles as Chair of the Queensland Educational Leadership Institute (QELi) (2018-2022); Chair of the Queensland Council of Deans of Education (QCDE)(2016-2022) and Vice President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE (2021-2022). Donna is also a member of the National Council for Be You, the school based well-being arm of Beyond Blue (2021-). Donna is a passionate middle years advocate and in an ambassador of Adolescent Success. Donna has been acknowledged for her leadership impact and is the recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Research Supervision Award for Excellence (2016) and in 2018 was awarded the Australian Council for Educational Leadership Miller-Grassie Award for Outstanding Leadership in Education. In 2022 Donna received the Australian Council of Deans of Education Award for Outstanding Service to Education and the Council. In 2024 she was invested as a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to higher education.

• Welcome to QUT - Professor Lori Lockyer, Executive Dean Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice

• Welcome to IFTRA Conference - Deanne Fishburn, Director, Queensland College of Teachers

• Pathways IN to the profession for career changers (and mitigating future exodus OUT) & Doubling the numbers: A study of certification of internationally educated teachers in Ontario Linda Lacroix, Registrar and CEO, Ontario College of Teachers

• Meeting the needs of overseas-trained teachers whilst also maintaining registration standards Lesley Hoskin, CEO, Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand

• Batting teacher shortages: Insights from those we lost! Dr Debra Panizzon, Associate Professor and Research Analyst, South Australia Teachers’ Registration Board

• Permission to Teach – Indicators of success for the transition into the profession Deanne Fishburn, Director Queensland College of Teachers

• Earn while you learn – rethinking and reinvigorating ITE Victorian Institute of Teaching

• Temporary to permanence: the role of teacher candidates in alleviating teacher shortages in Ontario Anna-Marie Nielson, Director of Standards and Practice and Accreditation, Ontario College of Teachers

• Defining a teacher as key to balancing regulator consistency and predictability with calls for system and individual flexibility Pauline Stephen CEO and Registrar, General Teaching Council for Scotland

• Applying flexibility to the professional experience policy to support the development of teacher education students and quality teaching in NSW, Paul Martin, CEO and John Healey Director Teacher Education and Accreditation, NSW Education Standards Authority

• Managing risk in alternative employment pathways by interrogating data patterns of teacher complaints, Dr Debra Panizzon Associate Professor and Research Analyst and Sue Fox, Manager - Registration, South Australia Teachers’ Registration Board

• An empirical study looking at professional boundaries in teacher-learner relationships, Lesley Hoskin, CEO, Teaching Council of Aotearoa

• Making professional boundaries clear for teachers, Richard Miles, Director, Teacher Registration Board of Western Australia, Australia.

Join the international IFTRA conference organising committee, who will share reflections on the conference

• Principals’ professional development and participation in the CPTD system, Ella Mokgalane, CEO, South African Council for Educators

• Quality and quantity it’s not mutually exclusive! As regulators we need to listen, take on feedback, be adaptive and responsive to the pressures of the profession, Lyndall Read, CEO, Australian Capital Territory Teacher Quality Institute

• Supporting teacher growth and quality teaching—a community of practice model for early childhood teachers in NSW, Merise Bickley, Lead, Early Childhood and Emmanuel Karayiannis, Senior Education Officer, NSW Education Standards Authority

• Quality teachers for quality education, Sangeeta Singh, Chief Executive Officer Fiji Teacher Registration Authority

• Recognising quality teaching in NSW through a streamlined approach to the accreditation of HALTs Deborah Wightley, A/Director, Teaching Standards and Accreditation, NSW Education Standards Authority

• Rekindling the fire for mid-career teachers in the classroom, Jane Pamenter, Director Standards & Recognition, ACT Teacher Quality Institute

• Impact of Professional Qualifying Examination on Nigeria Teachers’ Digital Competence and Enhanced Professionalism, Josiah Ajiboye, Registrar and CEO, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria and Dr Abah Mary Ogbene, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria

• Teacher workforce planning: The Irish experience, Dr Lynn Ramsey, Director, The Teaching Council, Ireland.

• West Africa – Investing in teachers and school leaders: Professional standards, teacher education, and working conditions, Quentin Wodon, Director, UNESCO IICBA

• PNG’s pathway to teacher registration, Uke Kombra Secretary Department of Education and Samson Wangihomie Chairman Teaching Services Commission

• Teacher regulation looks different in Wales: Find out why, Hayden Llewellyn, Chief Executive, Education Workforce Council, Wales

• Teacher licensure: Creating a pool of school leaders without borders for Africa, Professor Steve Nwokeocha, Executive Director (Academics), Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities

• Building the evidence-base for achieving quality and quantity, Dr Tee Schofield, Principal, ATWD – Lead Data Scientist, AITSL

Professor Steve Nwokeocha, Executive Director (Academics), Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities