ACT Teaching Citizenship Conference 2024

“I am extremely pleased to be ACT’s Honorary President. The role of those teaching citizenship is fundamental to the success of all children in their learning and lives as well as reinforcing a functioning democracy. The subject of citizenship develops essential knowledge and understanding of how we live together, an appetite for engagement with politics, and practical skills to work together to take citizenship actions forward. ACT continues to play a critical role working with teachers and schools nationally to develop, support and promote the high quality citizenship teaching we need to see in every school.”

As Secretary of State, David Blunkett set up the Advisory Group for Citizenship and Teaching of Democracy in schools, chaired by ACT founder Professor, Sir Bernard Crick. This led to Citizenship Studies becoming a statutory National Curriculum subject in secondary schools from 2002.

Former Cabinet minister in the Labour Government and member of the Privy Council and the House of Lords, is now using his skills and expertise commercially and as a non-executive board member. As a national politician he has skills in decision making, communication, media handling and strategic policy, and has unrivalled expertise in the inter-relationship between education, skills and employment policy given his ministerial experience. He also has a current understanding of the potential use of digital technology in the delivery of public services. Whilst at Tes he successfully co-founded Tes Institute, the fifth largest qualifier of teachers in the country and managed Tes Resources and the Comms function

Louise is a longstanding and integral member of the mySociety team who has helped shape the organisation with her practical and strategic skills. She started volunteering for mySociety in 2006 and since 2007 has worked in a number of different roles across the organisation, taking on the role of Chief Executive in 2022.

With an academic background in psychology, a PhD in artificial intelligence, and over 20 years of experience in software development in a variety of environments — including startups, academia, biotechnology and Parliament — Louise brings a very hands-on understanding of the challenges faced in every part of the organisation.

In her previous roles at mySociety, she has overseen our developers across four practice areas, and led a range of work including the expansion of our international programme, the development of WhatDoTheyKnow Pro, our Freedom of Information package for journalists, and the creation of our Climate programme.

am Clarke brings over eight years of experience in primary education to their role as a Lecturer of Primary Education at CCCU. With a background as Head of Mathematics and Computing, as well as a qualified Forest School lead, Sam has a diverse range of expertise in educational leadership and innovative teaching methods. As a member of a senior leadership team, Sam has demonstrated a commitment to fostering inclusive learning environments and promoting social justice within education. Now specializing in alternative learning approaches and the integration of GenAI into education, Sam is dedicated to preparing future educators to navigate the complexities of modern classrooms with creativity and inclusivity.

Asher is one of the UK’s leading experts in student voice, school councils and youth participation. He currently lives in Malawi, where he is supporting several local NGOs, as well as working for Involver.

Jaspal’s research interest is in legal and ethical debates involving AI governance, including information and communication technology law related challenges perambulating freedom of thought, speech and expression.  She is currently working on creating a guide to enhance legal literacy in the use of generative AI tools in teaching and learning and the impact of these tools on freedom of thought. 

   Her teaching has focussed on ICT & E-commerce Law and Data Governance Law, and she currently teaches AI Governance: Law and Policy in the LLM programme at CCCU. Jaspal is a recipient of two grants in 2021 as a Lead Researcher. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission awarded her the Digital Society Research Grant (DSRG) to develop ‘Recommendations for the creation of a governance framework for the protection of personal data used in the development of AI systems’ and by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, with the prestigious Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) for the research project ‘Aligning a national AI ethics framework with Malaysian values to govern the development and deployment of trustworthy and responsible AI systems in Malaysia’. Jaspal and her research collaborator developed the first Malaysia AI Ethics Index 2021, cited in the Malaysia AI Blueprint 2021. To raise awareness of AI, Law, and Ethics, Jaspal contributes op-eds as an expert commentator on the Canterbury Christ Church University Blog and University of Monash’s 360 info, including carrying out speaking engagements, and published a series in the articles section of the Malayan Law Journal. Her recent publications in 2023 include a book chapter titled “The Values of an AI Ethical Framework for a Developing Nation: Considerations for Malaysia” in the Handbook on Regulating AI and Big Data in Emergent Economies (Elgar Publishing) and a co-authored paper titled “Algorithmic Collusion and Malaysian Competition Law: Architecture of Pricing Algorithm and AI Ethical Governance”.    

 Jaspal is also a subject matter expert invited to participate in the work around AI and is a member of the Working Committee on AI Governance and Ethics, part of the AI National Roadmap of the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.  She is an Academic and Industry Expert for the MCMC Academy, Malaysia.  

Jeremy Hayward is an Associate Professor
(teaching) at the Institute of Education, UCL, specialising in the field of citizenship education.
A former teacher, he has been involved in
teacher education for the last 20 years, including
leading the citizenship PGCE for over 10 years and currently leads the MA Citizenship Education, which includes the popular module Teaching Controversial Issues. He has written numerous textbooks, resources and guidance for schools in the areas of philosophy and citizenship – including recent guidance for schools on how to respond to conspiracy theories raised in the classroom.

Mark completed his MA at Cambridge University and his MSc at University College London, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has worked in the private, public and third sectors, including as Head of Office for Rt Hon. David Lammy MP and as Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. In his 30s, Mark re-trained as a teacher, becoming an Assistant Head in a large secondary school in Sheffield. Mark joined NHCM in September 2022 and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham.

Charlie completed his BA in History and PGCE at the University of Leicester as well as an MA in the Second World War at the University of Wolverhampton. He has taught in secondary schools and been a tutor. Charlie joined NHCM in November 2022.

Dr Lanora Callahan is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Roehampton University in the international UKRI/EU-funded G-EPIC project to empower girls’ political confidence in the classroom.  Dr Callahan recently completed her PhD which assessed the impact of community-based dance programmes on socioemotional health and wellbeing of disadvantaged young people using a quasi-experimental design and mixed methods approach.  Lanora is also an independent researcher and programme evaluator and has led several projects focused on measuring the impact of community-based dance programmes and young people’s access to theatre.  Dr Callahan also teaches Program Planning & Evaluation and Statistics for Public Managers classes in the Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) hybrid programme at Marist College based in New York in the USA.  Previously, Dr Callahan was a consultant at Bloomberg Associates where she advised mayor’s offices on data-driven programme development and evaluation of programmes to improve social, economic, and health outcomes of underprivileged populations in several cities.   She was also a senior analyst in the New York City Mayor’s Office for the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services where she led multi-city, cross-agency research projects related to child welfare, juvenile justice, and multi-agency service utilization.  

Dr Callahan has over 15 years of experience in social research across academic, government, and community organisations and has a passion for designing, managing, and conducting high quality, robust research and evaluation of interventions and programmes for the well-being of underprivileged and vulnerable populations.  

Professor Bryony Hoskins has a chair in Comparative Social Science at the University of Roehampton. She is a world leading expert on citizenship education specialising in inequalities and political socialisation across Europe and the Middle East. Her latest book is on Education, Democracy and Inequality: Political Engagement and Citizenship Education in Europe and is published by Palgrave Macmillan. 

Professor Hoskins has an excellent track record regarding funded research including having won more than one million pounds of funding in the last year for 2 large EU Horizon grants; ‘Gender Empowerment through Politics in Classrooms’, ‘Strategies for achieving equity and inclusion in education, training and learning in democratic Europe’, a Leverhulme project ‘Measuring and assessing the democratic performance of education systems’ and a 6th repeat funding from UNICEF towards measuring Life Skills and Citizenship Education in the Middle East and North Africa. Other recent funded research projects include ‘The Skills Imperative 2035: Essential Skills for tomorrow’s workforce’ (Funded by the Nuffield Foundation) and ‘Post-16 Educational Trajectories and Social Inequalities in Political Engagement (Funded by the Nuffield Foundation).

Professor Hoskins has an exceptional record on knowledge exchange and impact and in collaboration with international organisations, UNICEF, World Bank, Council of Europe and UNESCO, has previously developed assessment instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching 21st century/life skills within schools. These experiences were developed into a case study that was a 4* Ref2021 submission. Sociology | University of Roehampton, London

Professor Hoskins has 6 years of policy experience having previously worked at the Council of Europe in France leading on youth research, at the European Commission in Belgium and then in Italy leading the development of indicators on Active Citizenship

ACT Profile

Liz leads the Charity, working with our Board, Teacher Council and staff and overseeing key programmes including the Five Nations Network in the UK and Ireland. She has a MSc Politics and Public Policy from  Birkbeck London and a BA Hons Geography with Archaeology from Manchester University. Liz has worked in education for over twenty years and led the development of Citizenship as a new curriculum subject in previous roles for central government at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Liz is on a number of advisory boards including the Industry Advisory Board to the University of Westminster. She is also the Department for Education’s UK representative to the Council of Europe Education Policy Network on Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights and a member of the Advisory Board on Democratic Resilience with the Wergeland Centre and the Council of Europe.

Outside of work, Liz is an avid Watford FC fan, and enjoys ballet, tea and cake.

ACT Profile

Marcus is Head of School of Education, Midwifery and Social Work at Kingston University London and a member of the University’s Senior Leadership Group. He has strategic responsibility for all areas of the School’s work, including its course portfolio, research and its partnerships with schools, government and industry. He is a former London secondary school teacher of history, politics and citizenship and led one of the first discrete citizenship departments in England. He has been a member of two subject expert panels for national curriculum citizenship and led a three year exemplification of standards in citizenship project for QCDA. From 2007-2013, he led a Citizenship PGCE at London Metropolitan University. Marcus continues to write and research in the subject area. Marcus joined the ACT Board of Trustees in 2019.

ACT Profile

Helen is an experienced teacher and is currently Director of Personal Development and Citizenship at Priory School, a large secondary school in Southsea, Hampshire. In addition she has responsibility for Pupil Voice and Pupil Leadership. Helen initially trained as a secondary teacher in Business Education but has been involved in Citizenship education for over 20 years. She has been a committed member of ACT Council since 2012 and has helped to plan the ACT national conference, written articles for the journal and worked on curriculum briefings to support teachers and Citizenship professionals with the new National Curriculum. Helen is also a member of the Expert Subject Group for Citizenship and has contributed to the Five Nations Network as a country expert for England. Helen became Chair of ACT Council in 2015.

Coming soon!

Coming soon!