From 25th-27th October 2023, Emma Bailey, a lecturer within the Department for Children and Families, attended the 6th International Conference on Educational Quality held at the University of Ibn Zohr in Agadir, Morocco. The conference is held annually and this year the theme was “Transformational Leadership in Education” with attendees travelling from all over the globe. Emma presented her PhD research on general capacity building within cluster groups of primary school headteachers to an international audience.
Alongside presenting her PhD research, Emma joined one of the keynote speakers, Shaun McInerney in delivering a workshop for the student conference regarding the development of a framework for leading change. Students were incredibly engaged and explored the conditions required in order to unlock leadership capacity across an organisation.
Emma also had the chance to attend a range of symposia and keynotes delivered by renowned academics from across the world such as Blessed Ngwenya who spoke about “Performativity, Inclusion And Shaping The Knowledge Society For The 21 St Century: A Decolonial Turn”, Wafa El Garah who spoke about “Transformational Leadership In Higher Education In The Age Of AI” and the University of Worcester’s Shaun McInerney who delivered a talk entitled “Rethinking Leadership To Meet The Needs Of Our Time”. Emma and Shaun are now collaborating on a publication which explores the development of adaptive leadership within educational organisations.
The conference provided an excellent opportunity to meet with other academics and educational professionals across the world and to understand more global perspectives of educational leadership. Next year, the 7th ICEQ conference will be held at the University of Worcester in June 2024.