Centre for Transformative Change in Schools (CenTCS)

The Centre for Transformative Change in Schools (CenTCS) is pleased to announce the speakers for the first School of Education-wide colloquium of the 2026–27 academic year, taking place on Friday, 30 October 2026 at the University of Glasgow.

Hosted by CenTCS, the colloquium will focus on Transformative Educational Change, building on the Centre’s 2025–26 publication, Transformative Educational Change: A CenTCS Lexicon. The event will bring together international scholars and colleagues from across the School of Education to examine transformative change from a range of theoretical, disciplinary and professional perspectives.

We are pleased to announce the international respondents we will hear from during the morning session: Professor Gert Biesta, Professor Nancy Fichtman Dana, Dr Kevin Kumashiro and Professor Andrew Peterson.

These internationally recognised scholars will offer perspectives on key themes relating to education, professional learning, equity, educational research and the wider purposes of education. Their contributions will provide a stimulus for further discussion during the afternoon session, when colleagues from the School of Education will participate in a panel discussion connecting these themes to their own work and contexts.

The afternoon session will bring these international perspectives into conversation with scholarship across the University of Glasgow School of Education. Gaston Bacquet, Katarzyna Borkowska, Professor Simon McGrath, Dr Yvonne Skipper and Matthew Sutherland will participate in a panel discussion exploring how transformative educational change connects with their own research and professional practice.

Together, the speakers bring perspectives spanning educational philosophy, practitioner inquiry, social justice, citizenship education, teacher education, decolonial and humanising pedagogies, higher education, educational development, digital literacy and educational inequality. The breadth of expertise represented across the programme will create opportunities to examine transformative educational change from multiple vantage points and to consider how different traditions of research and practice can speak to one another.

The colloquium reflects CenTCS’ commitment to creating spaces for sustained scholarly dialogue around the possibilities and challenges of transformative educational change. Bringing together perspectives from within and beyond the University of Glasgow provides an opportunity to consider how transformation can be understood across different educational contexts, and how research, teaching, professional learning and engagement can contribute to more equitable educational futures.

As part of CenTCS’ wider programme of research exchange and network-building, the colloquium also strengthens connections across disciplinary, professional and geographical boundaries. The Centre looks forward to the conversations that will emerge from the day and to carrying these conversations forward through its research, partnerships and wider academic community.

 

International Respondent Biographies (Morning session)

Gert Biesta is Professorial Chair in the Faculty of Education of the University of Melbourne, Australia, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pedagogy, Religion and Social Studies, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway, and Emeritus Professor of Public Education at Maynooth University, Ireland. He is an appointed member of the Education Council of the Netherlands, the constitutional advisory body of the Dutch government and parliament and has, over the past two years, been an expert advisory for the Council of Europe’s European Space for Citizenship Education/. He writes about the theory of education and the philosophy of educational research. So far his work has appeared in 24 languages.

 

Nancy Fichtman Dana is Professor of Education and Distinguished Teaching Scholar at the University of Florida. An internationally recognized scholar of practitioner inquiry and professional learning, she has authored or co-authored 12 books and more than 100 articles and book chapters focused on teacher and school leader development through inquiry.

Throughout her career, Dr. Dana has received numerous honors for her teaching, research, and writing. Prior to joining the University of Florida in 2003, she served on the faculty at The Pennsylvania State University, where she helped create and launch an award-winning inquiry-based Professional Development School program.

At the University of Florida, she championed inquiry as a signature pedagogy within teacher education and developed graduate courses that introduced hundreds of masters and doctoral students to practitioner inquiry. She also played a key role in the development of UF's award-winning Teacher Leadership for School Improvement Program and the Professional Practice Doctorate in Teachers, Schools, and Society, both of which highlight inquiry as a cornerstone of professional learning.

Beyond her university work, Dr. Dana has partnered extensively with schools, districts, and universities throughout the United States and internationally to support inquiry-based professional learning. Her work has taken her to Belgium, the Netherlands, China, South Korea, Estonia, Slovenia, Spain, and Portugal, where she has helped educators use inquiry as a pathway to growth, reflection, and improvement.

 

Kevin Kumashiro is an internationally recognized expert on educational policy, school reform, teacher preparation, and educational equity and social justice, with a wide-ranging list of accomplishments and awards as a scholar, educator, leader, and advocate. He is the former Interim Dean of the School of Education at Hofstra University (2023-24) and former Dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco (2013-2017). He has taught in early childhood, K-12, and higher education across the United States and abroad (public, private, and religious), and has consulted for school districts, organizations, and agencies. He founded and directed the Center for Anti-Oppressive Education from 2002-2013.

Dr. Kumashiro has authored dozens of articles and essays in academic journals and periodicals, as well as research briefs and position statements, and his work has been supported by over $4 million in federal grants.  He is an award-winning author and editor of ten books, including Troubling Education (recipient of the 2003 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award), Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning toward Social Justice (now in its Third Edition), Bad Teacher!: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture, and most recently, Surrendered: Why Progressives are Losing the Biggest Battles in Education. 

 

Andrew Peterson is Professor of Character and Citizenship Education at the University of Birmingham and is the Deputy Director of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues. He is Editor of the British Journal of Educational Studies and is a Co-Editor of the Journal of Philosophy in Schools. His research focuses on how educators and educational settings can support the moral and democratic flourishing of their students, their settings, and their communities. More recently, he has become particularly interested in the relationship between sport and character development. He leads and co-leads several international research projects, and works with schools, universities, and other organisations in various countries around the world – including through his role in the newly established Global Character Alliance.

 

School of Education Panelist Biographies (Afternoon session)

Gaston Bacquet is a teacher trainer and educator from Chile currently based in Scotland, as well as a trained meditation and yoga instructor.  He has worked in K-12, teaching English and Social Studies in Chile, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Myanmar, taught at under and postgraduate level in the US and the UK, and has been engaged in teacher preparation in Chile and the UK.

He currently teaches in the MSc / MEd program in Education Studies, our Education with Teacher Qualification Program (MEduc) and the Buddhist section in the Religion in Asia course for undergraduate students. 

His scholarship is shaped by Buddhist philosophy, international wisdom traditions, and decolonial studies, with a particular focus on nonviolence as a catalyst for educational change and whole-person formation. His work emphasizes nonviolent philosophical and theoretical approaches in both teacher preparation and classroom relations. His current work explores how we might conceptualize an ethical, humanizing pedagogy capable of disrupting the instrumentalization and competitiveness that characterize neoliberal education.

 

Katarzyna Borkowska has been part of the University of Glasgow academic community since 2006, initially as a Master’s student and subsequently as a PhD researcher, before moving into academic roles from 2014 onwards. Since then, she has worked across the School of Education and the School of Social & Environmental Sustainability, experiences that have shaped the interdisciplinary perspective underpinning her research, teaching and academic practice.

Katarzyna’s research spans three interconnected areas within education, linked by a broader interest in how knowledge, learning and institutional responsibility shape inequality and social change. These three areas are: gender, learning and transformative change; the role and responsibility of higher education in society; and AI, knowledge and epistemic authority in education. Across these areas, her research explores how education shapes and is shaped by changing forms of knowledge, authority and social responsibility, with a particular interest in its potential to challenge inequality and contribute to social change.

 

Simon McGrath (Panel Discussant) holds the established Chair in Education. He is also visiting professor at the University of the Simon works on a range of aspects of the education-development relationship, particularly on skills development, vocational learning and diverse forms of work, and on integral human development. His current research projects are on work and just transitions, access to vocational education and training, and the university of the future. Most of his work has been in Africa though he has done some work in Europe, Asia and the Pacific.

He has been a government scientific advisor in both UK and South Africa, and has done extensive international policy work, most especially for UNESCO, the Commonwealth and SADC.

Simon serves as Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Social Sciences, and as Associate Dean for Research Culture.

 

Yvonne Skipper is Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Yvonne joined the University of Glasgow in 2019 and prior to this was a Lecturer at Keele University and a Postdoctoral Researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London. She completed her ESRC-funded PhD at the University of Kent in 2011.

Yvonne is passionate about applied, co-created research that makes a real difference—working closely with young people, teachers, and partner organisations to develop practical, evidence-based interventions. She leads Project Real, which empowers young people to develop the skills they need to spot misinformation and stay safe online. The research team has worked closely with Education Scotland and Police Scotland to develop materials which can be found here www.projectreal.co.uk. Yvonne also runs White Water Writers, a collaborative writing initiative that enables groups of people—including school pupils, looked-after children, and young offenders—to write and publish a full-length novel in just one week.

Yvonne cares deeply about public engagement and regularly delivers interactive talks and workshops for audiences of all ages—ranging from digital safety sessions in schools to pub talks on the Psychology of Superheroes.

 

Matthew Sutherland is Lecturer in Teacher Education within the School of Education. Matthew has a strong interest in addressing social inequalities in education. His ESRC funded PhD critically explored the narrowing of the secondary school curriculum and its impact on subject choices, qualifications, and the attainment of young people in Scotland. He also has a pivotal leadership role in the Quantitative Methods in Education Special Interest Group in the School of Education. Before becoming a lecturer, Matthew worked in primary and secondary schools as a Physical Education teacher.

 

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First published: 5 October 2026