Conference 2010

Sustaining Quality in Schools Creativity, Innovation & Best Practice

The 22nd Annual Conference of the Irish Association of Teachers in Special Education will be held in St. Patrick’s College Drumcondra on the 10th, 11th and 12th of June. For yet another year, we aim to bring you a diverse, stimulating conference with a range of topics to enable teachers and other professionals, working in the field to learn, develop their skills and to network with colleagues.

We are proud to present over forty presentations and workshops which focus on a range of aspects of special educational needs- visual impairment, autism, dyslexia, high and low incidence learning disabilities and so on. Other presentations will focus on matters of professional interest- psychiatric disorders, professional learning communities, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Some leadership elements are also included. Of particular interest to many will be a report on the recent research on the contribution of special schools and classes and a symposium which reports on ‘Project Iris’ and inclusive practice in Ireland.

As ever, we have an international dimension to the conference, we very much welcome those speakers and delegates who are joining us from abroad. We are delighted at the abundance of quality research and practice that is emerging from the Irish context and are gratified at the growing confidence of home-grown presenters and the contribution they make to the education of so many students.

Our plenary session this year will hopefully reflect the current burning issues by asking our panel to fast forward to the year 2020 and to report on their findings...what will they find? Whatever the vista, we have no doubt that the session will be thought provoking and lively. We hope you will prioritise this session and that it will be interactive and promote discourse about the challenges ahead.

Finally, we would invite all participants to immerse themselves in the more social elements of the conference- on Thursday evening we kick off the conference with a reception at St. Patrick’s College and on Friday evening, we have a soiree in the splendid James Joyce Centre on Dublin’s North Great George’s St. Throughout the conference, there are opportunities for networking, for catching up with old friends and for forging new friendships. We hope you enjoy conference 2010 and we thank you for your ongoing support.

Rosemary Fahey & Lisa White
Conference Directors