New institutional developments in higher education area, but especially new approaches of learning and teaching in the adult education context, have created an alternative for a new and innovative approach to curricular’s structure and organization, but also, for a new learning and teaching pathways and strategies, which are emerging naturally. In this context described which at European level coincides with the process of launching the Strategy for the European Universities, new arrangements of academic learning, such as: flexible learning pathways, modularisation, digital enhanced mobility, and micro-credentials, will become stronger preconditions for improving the academic quality at all institutional educational levels.

Note: The day and time of the speech are subject to change.

How can educators encourage creative learning in an ever changing world that challenges individuals to navigate great distances that may be cultural, social, geographic, and psychological? As classrooms today are becoming more multiethnic and multicultural, the roles and responsibilities of teachers have also become more multi-layered, interdisciplinary, and complex. Knowledge of other cultures, traditions, languages, and customs that mirror the diversity of the world can better equip both teachers and students with the skills needed to navigate these micro and macro changes. But what transformative changes across educational levels are needed? What systemic and institutional barriers erode a truly inclusive and transformative learning context where all can participate? The teacher’s ability to help link “local and global” issues is particularly important. A knowledge of history, place, and culture helps to cultivate a sense of purpose and meaning in life (Dei, 2002). Too often, the psychological, emotional, spiritual, and cultural dimensions of learning are undervalued in traditional educational contexts. In the process of their education, individuals can lose vital connections between themselves, their community, and their cultural heritage. Transcultural learning and Global Citizenship Education (Gce) building up awareness, empathy, and personal and social agency. The skills that individuals need in today’s rapidly changing world transcend traditional curricula and assessment protocol. A “world curriculum” would integrate themes and topics across the disciplines; it would take into account a need for learners to understand world philosophies, religion, cultural studies, arts based education, world issues, literature, and new literacies. Emotional literacies such as empathy, resilience, motivation, and transcultural communication can be integrated in powerful way when rigid boundaries between the disciplines are broken. By adding an international dimension to subjects and by encouraging students to extend their knowledge and skill sets to other cultures, communities, and ways of being, we will be in a better position to work toward finding solutions to some of the greatest challenges our world faces today. This key note speech will draw upon theoretical frameworks from transformative learning, creativity, cultural studies, reading resilience, new literacies, post-colonial research, and global citizenship education. Parallels between theories of creativity and transformative learning theory will be reconfigured from the lens of transcultural literacies and global citizenship education. Ideas for developing a “world curriculum” will be highlighted. A monograph and an annotated bibliography for building a transcultural curriculum will be provided to all ICIE conference participants.

Note: The day and time of the speech are subject to change.

Canada is a country that struggles with the negative past and ongoing impacts of its colonial history. As a result of a class action law suit, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established by the Federal government to begin to address the atrocities committed against Indigenous people through the residential school system. The TRC findings called attention to the central role that education must play in working toward reconciliation. In particular, call to action number seven aims “to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians” (TRC, 2015, pp. 5-6) and call to action number ten, in part, aims to improve “education attainment levels and success rates … [and to develop] culturally appropriate curricula” (TRC, 2015, p. 6). Unfortunately, since the release of the TRC reports, there has been little change in the educational and employment gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. While laudable and certainly necessary, the aims expressed by the TRC cannot and will not be achieved unless the body of professional teachers is comprised of far greater numbers of Indigenous teachers. Given this context, I will discuss how the organizational history and culture of one set of adult and alternative teacher education programs at an inner-city based university in Canada is making a substantial impact toward increasing the diversity of the local professional teaching body and improving the educational experience for students.

My presentation focuses on the concept of accommodation in testing, that is, individualized changes – sometimes small and other times more profound – to one or several components of the test, in response to a need to preserve fairness in special populations or individualized cases. We argue that accommodations should be motivated not only by the need to preserve fairness, but also by the need to preserve validity. We will discuss legal and ethical obligations under this heading. We will also discuss a large palette of accommodations, and will differentiate between focal competencies and access competencies as a manner of gauging the extent of reasonable accommodations in relation with the need to preserve standardization and test validity.

Note: The day and time of the speech are subject to change.