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Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Brendan Zani is certainly someone who likes to keep busy.  Currently undertaking his Masters of Education by Coursework and Thesis at the Faculty of Education, Brendan is also Chair of this year’s Fogarty Foundation Postgraduate Research Forum Committee, teacher at Scotch College and most importantly, father to his amazing 11 month old boy.

Inspired by his year 12 literature teacher, Brendan saw how learning could empower and change people and embarked on a teaching career so that he could do the same.

“The idea of contributing to a better world, of serving and empowering people, and of the transformative capacity of knowledge meant teaching made sense,” says Brendan.

“The best part about being a teacher at Scotch College are the students that I work with, and getting to see the personal and intellectual journey they go on, particularly through their upper secondary years,” says Brendan.

“My role is also very stimulating and dynamic. My day can involve anything from teaching Arab or Russian history in the morning to evaluating the utility of models in the construction of knowledge across Economics and Physics in the afternoon.  It might also be helping boys plan a film festival to raise awareness about refugee issues, or constructing a research plan with a Year 12 boy to study the experience of childhood for members of the Stolen Generation.  Education is an amazing space.”

Brendan is leading the committee responsible for bringing together this year’s Fogarty Foundation Postgraduate Research Forum.  The committee is made up of students who are passionate about education related research in Western Australia and providing opportunities for this to be shared to the wider community.

“It’s exciting to have a vision and bring it to bear.  I’ve been tremendously gratified by the contribution and the effort put in by the other committee members.  Professionally it’s been wonderful to engage with the broader community of post-graduate researchers in Western Australia, and it has been refreshing to work outside the walls of my day-to-day context and lift my eyes to the horizon,” says Brendan.

This year’s forum is going to be a different format to anything that the Fogarty Forum has looked like before.  There will be two different session formats – a short-form session “Ignite” designed to spark conversation and offer a snapshot view and “Insight”, a longer traditional format where researcher and audience get to explore details a bit more.

This year’s forum offers a wealth of school-based research, looking at everything from literacy education, to evaluating inquiry-based learning, casting an eye over NAPLAN and shifting schools, as well as reflecting on the culture around students with educational disabilities within the classroom.

Topics stretch across the globe in two explorations of educational leadership in post-conflict societies.  There are also confirmed presenters looking at rethinking teacher education, and examining the role of critical thinking in developing professional practitioners, as well as offering insights into the value of futures perspectives in shaping education across the school and tertiary sectors.

The forum is open for all to attend and will take place on Tuesday 17 November 2015. To register for the event, you can visit the official forum homepage www.education.uwa.edu.au/research/forum

Media references

Siaw Chai , Marketing and Communications Officer  +61 (08) 6488 2382

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