International Speakers
Elizabeth Birr Moje, USA
Elizabeth Birr Moje is the interim dean for the School of Education, the George Herbert Mead Collegiate Professor of Education, and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan. She is also a faculty associate in the Institute for Social Research and in the Latino/a Studies program. Moje began her career teaching history, biology, and drama at high schools in Colorado and Michigan.
In her current research and community engagement work, Moje uses an array of methods to study and support young people’s literacy learning in Detroit, Michigan. She is particularly interested in the intersections between disciplinary literacies of school and the literacy practices of youth outside of school. She also studies how youth draw from home, community, ethnic, popular, and school cultures to make cultures and to enact identities. In related work focused on teacher learning, Moje developed and co-directs Teaching and Learning the Disciplines through Clinical Practice Rounds, with colleague Robert Bain. The Rounds Project, which advances discipline-based literacy teacher education in urban settings, was awarded the provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize at the University of Michigan in 2010.
Moje is a member of the National Academy of Education, where she chairs the Professional Development Committee. She serves as a vice president of the American Educational Research Association representing research on the social contexts of education (Division G) and as the chair of the William T. Grant Foundation Scholar Award Selection Committee.
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Cris Tovani, USA
Cris Tovani taught elementary school for ten years before becoming a high school reading specialist and English teacher. She most recently worked with secondary English language learners from a high poverty district in Colorado that was in its fourth year of turnaround. In addition to teaching, she is a nationally known consultant focusing on issues of reading, content comprehension and assessment in secondary classrooms. Cris started her professional development work with Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC), the consortium that has received national acclaim for its work in reading comprehension reform. Cris has been an adjunct professor at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado at Denver. She is the author of three books, I Read it but I Don’t Get It, Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? and So, What do They Really Know? Cris is also featured in three instructional DVDs that show her in action with adolescent readers. These DVDs, Thoughtful Reading, Comprehending Content, Talk to Me are available through Stenhouse Publishers.
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Adam Lefstein, Israel
Adam Lefstein is Associate Professor in Education at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, where he conducts research and teaches about pedagogy, classroom interaction, teacher learning and educational change. He’s particularly interested in the intersection between research and professional practice, and how to conduct research that is meaningful, rigorous and helpful for educators. Among other activities, he directs the Laboratory for the Study of Pedagogy, an interdisciplinary research group that is committed to rigorous investigation of Israeli schooling, pedagogy and educational policy; the development of innovative research tools for the study of these phenomena; and processes of knowledge sharing with education practitioners, policy-makers and the public. His current research projects include a study of Israeli culture and primary pedagogy, an investigation of video-based teacher dialogic debrief conversations, and a design-based implementation study of teacher leadership and professional discourse. His book (with Julia Snell), Better than Best Practice: Developing Teaching and Learning through Dialogue, was published in 2014 by Routledge (http://dialogicpedagogy.com/).
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Troy Hicks, USA
Dr. Troy Hicks is a professor of English at Central Michigan University and focuses his work on the teaching of writing, literacy and technology, and teacher education and professional development. A former middle school teacher, he collaborates with K–12 colleagues and explores how they implement newer literacies in their classrooms. Hicks directs CMU’s Chippewa River Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, and he frequently conducts professional development workshops related to writing and technology.
Hicks is also author of the Heinemann titles: Crafting Digital Writing (2013) and, The Digital Writing Workshop (2009), as well as co-author of Because Digital Writing Matters (Jossey-Bass, 2010),Create, Compose, Connect! (Routledge/Eye on Education, 2014), and Connected Reading (NCTE, 2015). His edited collection, Assessing Students' Digital Writing (Teachers College Press, 2015) features the work of seven National Writing Project teachers. Hicks has authored or co-authored over 30 journal articles and book chapters.
In March 2011, Hicks was honoured with CMU's Provost's Award for junior faculty who demonstrate outstanding achievement in research and creative activity and, in 2014, he was honoured with the Conference on English Education’s Richard A. Meade Award for scholarship in English Education.He can be followed on Twitter @hickstro.
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Linda Hoyt, USA
When Linda Hoyt is asked what people should know about her professional career, she is often heard to say—“I’m a teacher. That will always be the heart of my professional work.” Though she spent many years as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, curriculum developer, staff developer, and Title I District Coordinator, Linda’s passion will always centre around vigorous and engaging classrooms where teachers and children learn together.
This passion for vigorous and engaged learning has led Linda to create twenty-four professional books and video programs, plus numerous instructional resources for children. A few titles from her multi-dimensional list of publications include: Revisit, Reflect, Retell, Make It Real, Interactive Read Alouds, Solutions for Reading Comprehension, Mastering the Mechanics, and her newest resources: Explorations in Nonfiction Writing and Crafting Nonfiction. Three of her popular video programs include: Nonfiction Writing(primary and intermediate) and Navigating Informational Texts. Linda is a full time author, consultant, and highly-requested speaker at conferences throughout the US, Canada, and in Australia.
Linda and her husband, Steve, live in the mountains of central Oregon where they enjoy outdoor activities and the high desert climate.
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Steven Layne, USA
Dr. Steven L. Layne serves as Professor and Chair of Graduate Programs in Literacy Education at Judson University in Elgin, IL, where he leads the most highly-decorated faculty in the state who are working with teachers studying at both the Masters and the Doctoral level in the field of Literacy Education.
Dr. Layne is a respected international literacy consultant, motivational keynote speaker, and featured author throughout the world, and his work as an educator, researcher, and writer has garnered critical acclaim from a large number of organisations including USA Today newspaper, ASCD, IRA, NCTE, and the Milken Family Foundation.Author of 27 books, Steve recently completed three years of service as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association. He lives with his wife Debbie and their four children in St. Charles.
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National Speakers
Beryl Exley, QLD
Beryl Exley works in teacher education within the Faculty of Education at the Queensland University of Technology. She has a special interest in the teaching of grammar in classroom contexts, especially as it interfaces with multimodal texts (including visual design) and demands for engaging pedagogies that connect to students’ lived realities. Beryl has recently co-authored ‘Playing with Grammar in the early years’ (with Lisa Kervin) and ‘Exploring with grammar in the primary years’ (with Lisa Kervin and Jessica Mantei), both published by the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association and available from the AATE/ALEA bookshop. Details of Beryl’s research publications are available at
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Exley,_Beryl.html.
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Peter Freebody, NSW
Peter Freebody is an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. He has contributed research publications in the areas of literacy education, educational disadvantage, classroom interaction, and research methodology. He has acted as an advisor to state and Australian governments on literacy education and curriculum design. He is 2015-17 Chair of the International Literacy Association’s Research Panel, and is the current recipient of that Association’s W.S. Gray Citation for lifelong contribution to literacy education internationally.
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Noella Mackenzie, NSW
Dr Noella Mackenzie is a Senior Lecturer in literacy studies at Charles Sturt University. Noella’s research has focused on the teaching and learning of writing and teacher professional learning. Her research informs, and is informed by, her ongoing professional work with teachers in schools and her university teaching. Noella has been recognised for teaching excellence through awards at the state and national levels. Her work has been published in professional (e.g. Practical Literacy: the early and primary years & Literacy Learning: the Middle Years) and research journals (e.g. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy & Australian Educational Researcher).
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Lisa Kervin, NSW
Lisa Kervin is an Associate Professor in Language and Literacy in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Wollongong. Lisa is an experienced primary school teacher and has held literacy consultancy roles. At UOW, Lisa is an active member of the Early Start Research Institute. Lisa’s current research interests are focused on young children and how they engage with literate practices and she is currently involved in research projects funded by the Australian Research Council focused on young children and writing (DP150101240), digital play (DP140100328) and the development and implementation of the Australian English Curriculum (DP1093826). She has researched her own teaching and has collaborative research partnerships with teachers and students in tertiary and primary classrooms and prior-to-school settings. Lisa served as the NSW Director for the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association from 2008-2015.
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Susan Bye, VIC
Susan Bye is an education programmer at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. At ACMI she is involved in building programs for students and teachers that foster creative and critical engagement with the moving image. She creates a range of moving image resources for teachers and students, supports the teaching of film as text to secondary school students and builds dynamic connections between ACMI’s world-class exhibitions and the education audience.
Susan qualified and worked as an English teacher before going on to pursue her interests in education, the media and moving image texts at La Trobe University. After completing a PhD focusing on the introduction of television into Australia, she received a post-doctoral fellowship to team up with Dr Felicity Collins and Professor Sue Turnbull to work on an Australian Research Council-funded project on Australian Screen Comedy. Susan has published widely in the field of film, television and the media and is currently co-editing the Companion to Australian Cinema with Dr Felicity Collins and Dr Jane Landman.
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Wayne Sawyer, NSW
Wayne Sawyer is Professor of Education and Director of Research in the School of Education at Western Sydney University and a member of the Centre for Educational Research. He teaches in English curriculum and research methods and his research interests are in secondary English curriculum, curriculum history, and pedagogy in low SES schools. He is a former President of the NSW English Teachers’ Association, a former editor of English in Australia and an Honorary Life Member of both the NSW ETA and the Australian Association for the Teaching of English. His most recent book on English is the edited collection Language and creativity in contemporary classrooms (with Brenton Doecke and Graham Parr).
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