Conference

2008 Safe Internet Use

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Highlights of previous SSBA conferences :-

2007 Developing a Parent Council and Encouraging Parental Involvement

2006 The Way Forward for Parental Involvement

2005 Parents in Partnership

2003 Partnerships and responsibilities

2002 SSBA is fit for the future

2001 Roadshow

2000 International
and published book
available here online

List of Contributors

The Editors

Ann Hill is Founder and Chief Executive of the Scottish School Board Association (1990) and Chief Executive of the Furbie Foundation (1999).

She is married with four children and is Chairman of Mouswald Primary School Board and Dumfries High School Board in southwest Scotland.

She is a published author and her hobbies include bridge, reading, cooking, entertaining, but mostly - her family.

Bryan Peck is a Reader in the Department of Educational Studies in The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. From 1989 until 1996 he was co-ordinator of an EU project concerned with managing the European Dimension in Schools. He has specialised in educational developments and policies in the EU member states and was, for many years, Chairman of the UK Section, European Association of Teachers.

His publications include many articles on education policy and change in Europe and he has recently published (with Nova Science) "Teaching and Education for a New Europe. A challenge for the Countries of the European Union" (Glasgow 1994) and ‘Managing the European Dimension in Schools, Case Studies of Experience’. (1994)

Australia

Dr Ian Morgan is a Senior Fellow and Head of the Visual Sciences Group in the Research School of Biological Sciences. He completed his BSc at Melbourne University and his PhD at Monash University. His current work is on the control of eye growth, and in particular how experimental studies on animals can help to explain the influence of intense educational pressures in precipitating the epidemic of short-sightedness currently sweeping much of Asia. He is collaborating with scientists in Canada, Singapore and China on this problem. He has been actively involved in community politics over the war in Vietnam and environmental issues, and choosing to send his four children to government schools, became involved in school level parent organisations. This led to involvement in the ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations, largely around the issue of school closures, vocational education and literacy. He is currently the President of the Australian Council of State School Organisations.

Austria

Michael Schratz is Professor of Education at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. His main interests are in educational innovation and change with a particular focus on management and leadership. He taught in Austria and Great Britain, did research at the University of California, San Diego, and worked at Deakin University (Australia). In recent years he has given workshops on school management and school development in former Eastern countries (Russia, Estonia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Croatia). Amongst his publications are Schule leiten und gestalten: Mit einer neuen Fuhrungskultur in die Zukunft (Innsbruck, 1993, with Walter Fischer), a popular book on new leadership culture for school development, Research as Social Change (London, 1996, with Rob Walker) and Die Lernende Schule (The Learning School), Weinheim, 1998 with Ulrike Steiner-Loffler.

Dr Ulrike Steiner-Loffler is a consultant for school development and quality assurance at the Pedagogic Institute of Vienna, Austria, and works as a grammar school teacher, in in-service training, as a researcher and as a lecturer at the university of Innsbruck, Austria. She has taught school management and educational development in many European countries, especially in former Eastern countries (Russia, Estonia, Romania, the Czech Republic). She is mainly interested in how to combine pedagogical and organisational innovation of schools; her special focus: ensuring that students’ voices are heard in matters of school development. Her latest book Die lernende Schule (The Learning School, Weinheim, 1998) she co-authored with Michael Schratz.

Belgium

Pauline Coppens is school advisor for the "Flemish Municipal Education", originally of the section new-style primary education in which "restyling of parents participation" was one of the objectives. Supports, during the most recent years, schools in their pedagogical and didactic innovation projects. Mother of two children. She is a member of the Flemish Curriculum Committee. Co-author of pedagogical books for teachers and parents about reading and calculating stimulus for toddlers, the personality-building of children and a children-tales collection ("Leeskriebels" (De Sikkel, 1988) "Rekenkriebels" (De Sikkel, 1990), "Met Kleuters Onderweg" (De Sikkel, 1991) and "Luistersnoepjes" (Standaard Educatieve Uitgeverij, 1989).

Philippe Renard completed his PhD in educational sciences (educational system assessment) at the Univesite Libre de Bruxelles, specialist in comparative education. He is currently Lecturer and researcher at the University and head of the pedagogical department at the Haute Ecole Lucia de Brouckere.

Canada

Professor Michael Bergsgaard has instructed in the University of Winnipeg B.Ed Program since 1986. His areas of responsibility include education law and politics, and classroom management and planning

Dr Annabelle M Mays is Director of the pre-service teacher education programs at the University of Winnipeg. Her areas of teaching and research interest include educational administration, sociology of educational settings, and educational change.

China, Peoples Republic of

Wu Qian Li is the Director of the Education Commission and has been responsible for leading the Municipal Government of Chuzhou City as the Chinese part of an educational link between South Ayrshire in Scotland, China and Germany. Zhu Hong Bing, Vice Director of the Foreign Affairs Office, Chen Feng, Director of Foreign Affairs, and Liu Gui Lin, Protocol Officer with the Foreign Affairs Office are also involved in the link.

Denmark

Dr Kirsten Baltzer, Ph.D., Professor of Special Education at The Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, Institute of Psychology and Special Education, Copenhagen, Denmark. Research in special education and educational psychology. Visiting Researcher at The University of Newcastle, Department of Education February 1999. Published in English: Where does personality go, when the child goes to school? In Engelsted, Hedegaard, Karpatschof and Mortensen (Eds.) (1993): The Societal Subject. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. The Self - a Core Category of Educational Psychology. The Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, Autumn 1999 (forthcoming).

England

Alan Millward is co-director of the Special Needs Research Centre at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where he is also involved in teacher training, professional development, evaluation and research. He has completed a number of research projects for international and national governments.

Germany

Lothar H Bluhm, a Freelance Journalist, is father of two children aged 14 and 18. He has been parents representative for 12 years during which he has been chairman of several parents’ committees in schools. He is a member of the board of the parents’ committee of the district Celle in Lower Saxony responsible for traffic - school buses, safety, school ways, international co-operations and press.

Klaus-J Heinermann studied pedagogy, French and geography at the former Berlin School of Education. He is currently head of language department at the Kopernikus School in Berlin and lecturer at the Berlin Institute of In-Service Teacher Training where he runs courses in headteacher training and in school reform.

Dr Kurt Riquarts is a senior researcher at IPN (Institute for Science Education), University of Kiel. His research centres on educational planning and curriculum evaluation.

Greece

Prof Dr Alekos Kakavoulis is an Associate professor at the University of Crete. He graduated from the University of Athens and undertook post graduate studies at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He has participated in several international research projects which have included a focus on Civic Education, School Management, and the European Dimension in Education. His publications include "The European Dimension in Education: A Research Approach" (Athens 1994); Moral Development and Education (Athens 1995) and Emotional Development and Education (1997).

Iceland

Aslaug Brynjlfsdottir finished a Cand phil. degree from the University of Iceland and studied linguistics in Germany and USA, a B.A. in special teaching and an M.Ed. from the Iceland University of Education. She was Superintendent of Schools in Reykjavik from 1982 -1996. She is currently the Advocate for Parents and Schools in Reykjavik.

Ireland

Dr Ciaran Sugrue is a Lecturer in Education at St Patrick’s College (a college of Dublin City University) in Dublin, Ireland. He teaches courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students, with an emphasis on research methods, teaching and curriculum. He is especially interested in school leadership and educational change; the reform of initial teacher education, and the professional development of teachers. He has published widely on these issues and his most recent book is Complexities of Teaching : Child-centred perspectives (Falmer Press 1997)

Lithuania

Algis Aleksandras Dicpetris graduated at Vilnius State University. He has worked as a lecturer at Vilnius State University and, since 1982, has been School Director at Likuva Secondary School. Prior to this he was a teacher of English and a teacher methodologist.

The Netherlands

Rob Limper is the managing director of the Association for Public Authority Education (Vereniging voor Openbaar Onderwijs). He is an expert on parental participation and on bullying in education as well. He is a member of the National Complaint Committee and of the National Dispute Committee for participation councils.

New Zealand

Ray Newport is General Manager of the New Zealand School Trustees Association, the voluntary body representing the interests of some 2,350 boards of trustees within the New Zealand compulsory education sector. Ray has spent some 25 years within education administration, with a particular focus on industrial relations. He assumed his current role of general manager in early 1995.

Northern Ireland

Dr Margaret Keane is Head of Geography and Geographical Education at St Mary’s College, Belfast where she is also Director of the Centre for Research and Curriculum Development. Her research has centred on community division in Belfast, and on Managing the European Dimension in Education.

Frank Magee is presently Head of Education at St Mary’s University College, Belfast. Prior to this, he was Senior Tutor, (Schools) (1984 - 94), Principal Lecturer and Head of Education Department (1974-84) and Senior Lecturer (Education) (1970-74) all at St Mary’s College, Belfast. He started his career as Assistant Teacher at St Thomas’ Secondary School, Belfast (1964-65) and then spent four years as Special Needs Teacher at St Olcan’s Secondary School in Randalstown (1965-69)

Norway

Karl Jan Solstad has been Director of Education in the County of Nordland, Northern Norway since 1985. He was previously teaching in schools and universities, finally as professor of educational research in the University of Tromso. He has published a number of articles and books, mainly within the fields of rural education and educational change, his latest book (1997) being Equity at Risk.

Poland

Dorota Pawlak was born in 1953 in Gdansk, Poland. In 1972, after graduating from high school, she went for over a year to learn English in London. She successfully passed her entrance exams and became a student of English philology at the Gdansk University in 1974. After graduating in 1978 she went to the USA to collect data for her Master Thesis in socio-linguistics, specialising in methodology of teaching English as the second language. She got her degree in filologii angielskiej (equivalent more or less to Master of Arts). Her professional career has been devoted to teaching English at various school levels and courses, including all age groups from little children to professional businessmen. At the moment she is employed at The Warsaw School of Economics, as the English language lecturer, and also conducts a number of courses for teenagers and adults and occasionally she does some translating and interpreting. In 1995 she joined the Interskola Conference (the annual international conference gathering people involved in education, which has been running for over 30 years). In 1998 she finished the post-graduate studies at the European Integration Institute of Warsaw University, devoted to human rights in the context of the European Union and the Council of Europe, writing a dissertation on The Role of Education in Preservation of the National Minorities Languages. She has been living in Warsaw since 1980.

Romania

Prof Mircea V Rusu was born in 1936 in Oradea, Romania. Studied physics and PhD in Physics in Bucharest University. Professor of Atomic Physics and Non-linear Dynamic Systems at the Physics Faculty, University of Bucharest. Research on complex systems at large and small (atomic) scale. Research in education, author of text books of physics for undergraduate and university level. Involved in educational reform in Romania after 1990, member of the Ministry of Education Board Team for the reform.

Scotland

Fraser Cook is an Architect by profession and Managing Director of CDM (Scotland) Ltd, Planning Supervisors and Health and Safety Consultants working throughout the UK. He is married and lives in Ayr with his wife and two sons who have gone through the education process! Fraser has been involved in School Boards since their inception in October 1989, starting as Chairman of Alloway Primary School Board in Ayr, followed by Vice Chairman and then Chairman of Belmont Academy School Board, again in Ayr. He is also Chairman of the South Ayrshire Parents’ Consultative Group which works closely with South Ayrshire Council Educational Services Department. As part of a closer link between School Boards and the South Ayrshire Parents’ Consultative Group, a Joint Committee of South Ayrshire School Boards and Parents’ Consultative Group has recently been established, and Fraser is the current Chairman of this forum. He was also involved through the EU-China Local Authority linking Programme as Co-ordinator of a Link between China (Chuzhou City), Germany (Celle) and South Ayrshire, which has recently been completed as the first stage of fuller links. The subject of this Link was ‘Parent Partnership in Education’. Finally, he is presently Co-ordinator of the newly formed South Ayrshire Chuzhou City Linking Programme (SACCLink)

Dr Elizabeth (Betty) Jordan is a senior lecturer in the Department of Equity Studies and Special Needs at the University of Edinburgh. She is also for half of her time Director of the Scottish Traveller Education Programme, funded by the Scottish office. This national centre maintains databases of resources and contacts in the field as well as researching and disseminating effective practice for travellers. Betty has taught every age from nursery to S1 and was a Learning Support teacher, Headteaher and an adviser on Learning Support in a region prior to joining Moray House in 1990. Her interests have always focused on preventing learning difficulties, mismatch between home and school expectations and home and school collaboration and partnership. The work in STEP highlights the critical need for strong and mutually supportive partnerships to combat social exclusion and raise achievement in those who traditionally have been marginalised or least successful in the school system. This, of course, includes the most able pupils and a range of interrupted learners, of whom Travellers are but one group.

Andrew Mellor is in the unusual position of being a teacher with 25 years experience who has credibility as a researcher and developer. He was a member of the Advisory Committee which oversaw the development of the first Scottish anti-bullying pack - "Action Against Bullying", published by SCRE. As Anti-Bullying Development Officer from 1993 to 1995 he played a major role in highlighting the seriousness of bullying in schools and contributed to a large number of workshops and conferences within Scotland. He is currently involved in the development of a training manual on ‘Improving the Learning Environment in Schools through Anti-Bullying and Discipline Strategies’.

Bryan Peck is a senior lecturer in the Department of Educational Studies in The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. From 1989 until 1996 he was co-ordinator of an EU project concerned with managing the European Dimension in Schools. He has specialised in educational developments and policies in the EU member states and was, for many years, Chairman of the UK Section, European Association of Teachers.

His publications include many articles on education policy and change in Europe and he has recently published (with Nova Science) "Teaching and Education for a New Europe. A challenge for the Countries of the European Union" (Glasgow 1994) and ‘Managing the European Dimension in Schools, Case Studies of Experience’. (1994)

Harry Ramsay was a member of the Inservice Department of the Faculty of Education, University of Strathclyde and has specialised in Education Management. He has been involved in a range of European projects and is now a visiting lecturer/consultant.

Slovak Republic

Zuzana Kollarikova After teaching shortly in elementary school, she joined the Research Institute for Education in Bratislava, and later Central Institute for In-Service Training of Teachers, which she headed for several years. Now she chairs the Department of P-school and Elementary School Education of Faculty of Education, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. Her professional activities have been focused on comparative education and teacher education. She was editor and co-author of two volumes of papers dealing with critical thinking in the classroom (1995, 1997) and one volume of papers on teaching written communication (1998), that appeared in Bratislava.

Zdenko Obdrzalek is professor of education in Faculty of Education, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. currently he is the head of Department of Educational Studies. In his work he has focused in school management and pedeutology. He has published 18 monograph and 83 papers. The most known are:

Riadenie školstva a jeho system (School system and its management 1979) , (with co-authors) Stimmen zur Lehrerbildung und zur Schulbuch Production aus Tschechien, der Slowakei und Slowenien (Bern 1996) , From the Research of the Educational System Management in Czechoslovakia (Prague 1989), Teacher Education in Czechoslovakia/Slovak Republic (Brussels 1992), Zu Aktuellen Fragen der Ausbildung und Erziehung von Europa-Lehrern in der CFSR (Braunchweig 1991)

South Africa

Dr Noleen Van Wyk is a senior lecturer within the Department of Education and head of the Education Policy Unit at the University of South Africa. Noleen works within the fields of Comparative Education and Education Management. Her interests include qualitative research, education policy issues and parent involvement in education. Various research grants and awards have enabled her to do extensive research on parent involvement in different countries and to present workshops to many parents and teachers in deprived communities in South Africa.

Spain

Dr Inmaculada Egido Galvez teaches comparative education at the Faculty of Education (UNED) in Madrid. She has specialised in European Educational Systems and is the author of several publications concerning politics and school management in Europe.

Sweden

John Evertsson is a civil servant, Director of Education, at the National Agency for Education in Sweden and is a member of the Section for syllabi and national school development. Since summer 1996 he has been responsible for the LOC-project, local school boards with parental majority. The project includes registration and evaluation during the five year trial period. The project will close at the end of June 2001.

United States of America

Mary Novotny Blair has been a Children’s Librarian in Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, Ohio; President, League of Women Voters of Lincoln, Rhode Island and President, League of Women Voters of Champaign County, Urbana, Illinois; Storyteller on Television for Providence Public Library. She was also a member of Lincoln School Committee, Lincoln, Rhode Island and Chair for five years.

Charles A Byrne has served on many school boards in different states of the United States. He was elected to the State School Board of Ohio in 1996 and has been a major campaigner for parents’ rights in education. He has published extensively on matters of education, parental involvement and school board activities in Ohio and elsewhere in the United States.

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