ConnectED 20/21 Exec. Conference
Every Leader ~ Every School ~ Getting Better ~ Every Year
ConnectED 20/21: Executive Conference ~ Wednesday, 19th May, 2021
8:15 Diamond Sponsors' Introduction
8:20 Acknowledgment of Country
8:25 Official opening of the 7th ConnectED Executive Conference - thanks to Organising Committee
8:30 Emeritus Professor Andy Hargreaves - 90-minute keynote and Q&A (via VC)
10:00 Deputy Secretary Leanne Nixon, NSW DoE - The School Success Model (via VC)
10:30 Morning Tea - Sponsors' Zone open for visiting executive staff
11:00 Laureate Professor Jennifer Gore (90-minute keynote and workshop)
12:30 Lunch - Sponsors' Zone open for visiting executive staff
1:30 Honorary Professor Adrian Piccoli (90-minute keynote and workshop)
3:00 Final Provocation with entire panel - Simon Breakspear compering
3:30 Motivational Address - Dr Simon Breakspear (30-minute address)
4:00 Close of the ConnectED 20/21 Executive Conference - thanks to Speakers and Delegates.
See you at ConnectED 2022
Emeritus Professor Andy Hargreaves
Andy Hargreaves is Director of Chenine (Change, Engagement and Innovation in Education) at the University of Ottawa and Research Professor in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. He also holds Visiting and Honorary Professorships at Hong Kong University, the University of Stavanger in Norway, and Swansea University in the UK.
Andy taught in primary schools and lectured in several English universities, including Oxford. He then moved to Canada where he became co-founder and director of the International Centre for Educational Change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto. He has been awarded visiting professorships in the US, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Sweden, Spain, Japan, Norway and Singapore. He holds Honorary Doctorates from Scandinavia’s oldest university, Uppsala, in Sweden and from The Education University of Hong Kong.
Andy received the Whitworth Award for outstanding contributions to educational research in Canada, was awarded a writing residency by the Rockefeller Foundation; and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in the UK. He has been honored with the 2016 Horace Mann Award in the US and the Robert Owen Award in Scotland for services to public education. IFrom 2017-2019, Andy was elected President of The International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement. Andy has been listed by Education Week as being among the top 10 scholars with most influence on US educational policy debate.
Andy is a researcher, writer, speaker, consultant and policy adviser. He has addressed international organisations such as the World Bank, OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), UNESCO, the Soros Foundation, the WISE Foundation, the European Union, the International Baccalaureate, the International Congress of Principals, the European School Heads Association, Education International, the Universities of Latin America, and the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement.
Andy has delivered invited addresses and provided staff development in 47 US states, 50 countries and all Australian states and Canadian provinces.
Emeritus Professor Linda Darling-Hammond
ConnectED Principal/Directors' Conference only.
Linda Darling-Hammond is Charles E. Ducommun Emeritus Professor of Education at Stanford University, President of the Learning Policy Institute and President of the California State Board of Education. Emeritus Professor Darling-Hammond recently headed then President-Elect Biden's Transition team's Education secretariat.
Linda founded the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and served as the faculty sponsor of the Stanford Teacher Education Program, which she helped to redesign.
Darling-Hammond is past president of the American Educational Research Association and recipient of its awards for Distinguished Contributions to Research, Lifetime Achievement, and Research-to-Policy. She is also a member of the American Association of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Education. From 1994–2001, she was executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, whose 1996 report What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future was named one of the most influential reports affecting U.S. education in that decade.
In 2006, Darling-Hammond was named one of the nation’s ten most influential people affecting educational policy. She led the Obama education policy transition team in 2008 and the Biden education transition team over December 2020-January 2021.
Darling-Hammond began her career as a public school teacher and co-founded both a preschool and a public high school. She served as Director of the RAND Corporation’s education program and as an endowed professor at Columbia University, Teachers College. She has consulted widely with federal, state and local officials and educators on strategies for improving education policies and practices.
Among her more than 500 publications are a number of award-winning books, including The Right to Learn, Teaching as the Learning Profession, Preparing Teachers for a Changing World, and The Flat World and Education. She received an Ed.D. from Temple University (with highest distinction) and a B.A. from Yale University (magna cum laude).
Laureate Professor Jenny Gore
Jenny Gore is the Director of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, as well as a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. In November 2017, she was named University of Newcastle’s first female Laureate Professor and first Laureate in the humanities and social sciences.
Jenny was co-editor of the prestigious international journal, Teaching and Teacher Education for four years, and has won more than $23.6 million in research funding including 10 grants awarded by the Australian Research Council and a recent grant from NSW Department of Education to examine the effects of ‘learning from home’ on students and teachers during COVID-19.
Jenny’s grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation, worth $16.4 million over five years (2018-2022), is enabling a major program of research on building capacity for quality teaching in Australian schools.
Widely published and cited, Jenny’s research centres on quality and equity, teacher development, pedagogical reform, and enhancing student outcomes. In addition to her current research on the impact of Quality Teaching Rounds on students, teachers and systems, she is leading a program of research on the formation of educational aspirations during schooling.
In 2016, Jenny delivered the Radford Lecture, the most prestigious honour bestowed by the Australian Association for Research in Education. In 2017, she received the Australian Council of Deans of Education award for outstanding contribution to education reform. In 2018, Jenny was awarded the Paul Brock Memorial Medal for outstanding contributions to social justice and evidence-informed policy, practice and research.
In 2020, Jenny was elected as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. AERA Fellows, selected on the basis of their notable and sustained research achievements, exemplify the highest standards of excellence through accomplishment, professionalism, and commitment.
Professor Adrian Piccoli
Adrian Piccoli, Former Director, UNSW Gonski Institute for Education
Honorary Professor Adrian Piccoli is the former Director of UNSW’s Gonski Institute for Education. The Gonski Institute was established in 2018 with a mission to address growing inequality in Australian education as well as improving access for students to high-quality education wherever they may live or go to school.
Prior to his role with the Gonski Institute for Education, Professor Piccoli served as a Member of NSW Parliament for 19 years and as the NSW Minister for Education for 6 years from 2011 until 2017.
Professor Piccoli is highly respected by the Australian education sector for his leadership in education policy particularly in relation to needs based school funding reform, his support and strengthening of the teaching profession in Australia and his focus on the learning needs of disadvantaged children particularly those living in rural and remote Australia
In 2017 he was made a Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders.
In 2019 Adrian published his first book, 12 Ways Your Child Can Get the Best Out of School.
Adrian lives in Griffith, western NSW with his wife Sonia and their two children aged 9 and 12.
Please scroll up/down to see more Keynote Speaker Biographies
The biographies for the following Keynote Speakers are above:
• Emeritus Professor Andy Hargreaves
• Emeritus Professor Linda Darling-Hammond
• Laureate Professor Jenny Gore
The biographies for the following Keynote Speakers are below:
• Deputy Secretary Murat Dizdar
• Deputy Secretary Leanne Nixon
Dr Simon Breakspear
Dr Simon Breakspear, Agile Leadership, Breakspear Learning.
Dr Simon Breakspear is an educational researcher who helps leaders and organisations enhance their impact on learning.
Simon is a researcher, advisor and speaker on educational leadership, policy and change. He is the Executive Director of the leadership development organisation Breakspear Learning, and Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales, Gonski Institute for Education.
Simon’s educational frameworks and tools make complex ideas easier to understand and act on. His speaking and advisory work has given him the opportunity to work with over 100,000 educators across 10 countries. He is also the creator of Teaching Sprints, an open-source teacher professional learning approach used by thousands of educators across the planet to enhance their expertise and impact.
Simon is passionate about supporting school leadership development at scale. He serves as an expert advisor to the NSW Department of Education School Leadership Institute, the AITSL Leadership Steering Committee and the Ontario Principals’ Council international school leadership program.
Simon earned his PhD in education from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar, and a MSc in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oxford as a Commonwealth Scholar. Simon holds Bachelors degrees in Psychology and Teaching, and began his work in education as a high school teacher. Simon lives in Sydney with his wife and three young children.
Adj. Professor & Deputy Secretary Murat Dizdar
Murat Dizdar PSM, Deputy Secretary, School Performance – South
Murat is a senior leader of the NSW Department of Education who oversees the provision of a quality public education for students in over 2,200 schools.
Murat co-leads the School Performance division that provides support to 80,000 teachers and school leaders to deliver a high-quality education for over 800,000 students. The School Performance division consists of teams that are responsible for school planning, ongoing self-assessment and external validation, annual reporting and policy implementation.
School Performance also oversees strategic partnerships in the arts, sport, high performing students, community languages and International students. Murat presides over the Bushfire Strategy, that supports communities devastated by the 2019/2020 fires, and the Connected Communities directorate, that strengthens the educational outcomes for Aboriginal students.
Murat’s career with the NSW Department of Education began as a social sciences teacher at Ashcroft High School. He has experience in a range of school leadership roles including being senior principal of Belmore and Punchbowl Boys High School.
Murat holds a Bachelor of Education (Secondary Humanities) majoring in Economics and Geography from the University of Sydney, and recently undertook the Leadership for the 21st Century course at Harvard Kennedy School.
Murat was awarded the Australia Day Public Service Medal in 2016, an Australian Council of Educational Leaders (ACEL) NSW Fellowship in 2019, an ACEL National Fellowship in 2020 and the Nanga Mai Department of Education and NSW AECG Inc Partnership Award 2021.
Murat recently was awarded the 2020 Sir Harold Wyndham medal by the Australian College of Educators (ACE). Murat also holds the role of Adjunct Professor within the School of Education at The University of Western Sydney.
See more biographies for Keynote Speakers above:
Top Row:
• Emeritus Professor Andy Hargreaves
• Emeritus Professor Linda Darling-Hammond
• Laureate Professor Jenny Gore
Middle Row:
• Honorary Professor Adrian Piccoli
• Dr Simon Breakspear
Deputy Secretary Leanne Nixon
Leanne Nixon, Deputy Secretary, School Performance – North
Leanne is a senior leader of the NSW Department of Education who oversees the provision of a quality public education for students in over 2,200 schools.
The School Performance division aims to maximise the achievements of all students and create a culture of success and a desire to achieve, underpinned by innovative, adaptive and supportive strategies that enhance the quality of teaching and educational leadership at the school level.
The North division directs the operations of more than 1000 NSW public schools from North Sydney up to the Queensland Border and from the coast to as far west as Lightning Ridge. The School Performance North division impacts the lives of over 390,000 students and provides support to 41,000 teachers, school staff and leaders each day. The division includes the Student Support and Specialist Programs directorate which delivers state-wide services in the areas of disability, mental health and wellbeing, as well as behaviour and attendance. It also runs specialist programs in Arts, Sports, Community Languages, International programs, and Assisted School Travel.
Leanne has more than 30 years’ experience in education as a teacher and principal and has a passionate commitment to lifting outcomes for all students. Leanne has held executive roles in the Queensland public sector, including Acting Deputy Director-General, State Schools and Assistant Director-General, State Schools – Performance, where she developed innovative strategies to improve student outcomes including developing a statewide school improvement model.
Leanne Nixon was appointed Deputy Chief Executive in 2019 with the responsibility to lead schools across the Northern Territory, including leading the school improvement agenda and lifting student attendance. As Acting Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive, Leanne led the department’s planning and response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including achieving the department’s objective of ensuring continued education provision to students throughout the Northern Territory.