This page contains information about our upcoming seminars and seminars we have held in the past (many of which were recorded and are available to watch).

The research presented in each aligns with the work the University of Bath's Department of Education is doing. Seminars will cover topics such as research in the fields of educational leadership, management and governance, internationalisation and globalisation; language and educational practices; and learning, pedagogy and diversity.

Attend a seminar

All of our seminars are free to attend and take place on the University of Bath campus or online. If you have any questions about our seminars, please contact Dr Nicola Savvides

Professor Jan Germen Janmaat (University College London (UCL))

• Title: Education for democracy: Explaining why education systems differ in fostering democratic competences
• Date: 19 March
• Time: 3.15pm to 4.15pm
• Location: 1 West, Room 3.103 and online

What kinds of education systems best prepare young people for democratic life, and why do countries vary in this regard?

In this presentation, Professor Jan Germen Janmaat will introduce and explain the Education for Democracy Index (EfDI). This index and its subindexes are a set of new comparative tools designed to assess how well national educational policies and practices promote both overall levels of and equality in democratic competences among adolescents.

He will then examine the cross-national and cross-temporal variation in the scores of the main index and explore which structural and institutional factors could explain this variation.

He'll also show that Latin American and European post-communist countries outperform established Western European democracies on the EfDI. Although scores remain fairly stable over time, a trend can be detected across the board towards better performance.

Join online

You can join this webinar on Microsoft Teams using the details below:

• Meeting ID: 317 763 309 666 98
• Passcode: St3PJ66M

Professor María Martínez Lirola (University of Alicante)

• Title: Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in English Language Education: A Didactic Proposal to Enhance Social and Intercultural Competences
• Date: 13 May
• Time: 12.15pm to 1.15pm
• Location: 1 West North, Room 3.11 (in-person only)

During this seminar, Professor María Martínez Lirola will discuss the following research:

This study presents a didactic application of the 2030 Agenda through a sét of activities grounded in Global Citizenship Education (GCE) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 10, and 12. The proposal aims to address global issues and foster the development of intercultural and social competencies in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course within the Degree in English Studies at a Spanish university. The main objective is to examine the suitability of implementing SDG-based activities in university education to integrate social content into English language teaching. Specifically, the study seeks to:

• (a) design GCE-based activities linked to the SDGs to enhance students' competences
• (b) promote reflection on GCE, the SDGs, and social awareness
• (c) explore students' perceptions of the proposal

A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining qualitative data from teacher observations with quantitative data from a questionnaire and a competence-assessment rubric. Findings indicate that the proposal strengthens an intercultural and socially oriented curriculum and promotes students' social awareness. Overall, the SDG-based activities support the development of intercultural and social competences by raising awareness of diverse social realities and encouraging respect for cultural differences.

Previous seminars

2025/26 seminars

• Professor Wen-Chuan Lin, Wenzoo Ursuline University of Language — Integrating AI into bilingual HPE materials to enhance learning motivation: A cross-domain practice project
• Professor Michele Schweisfurth, University of Glasgow — Pedagogy in comparative and international perspective: perennial and contemporary critical issues
• Associate Professor Lin Pan, Beijing Normal University — Mirror of a relationship: How English in China reflects changing global dynamics

2024/25 seminars

• Professor Mirka Koro, Arizona State University — Unruly relational methodological lines of pluriversal (post) qualitative inquiry
• Professor Douglas Bourn, University College London — Pedagogy of Hope for Global Social Justice
• Deputy Professor Simona Szakacs-Behling, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg — Solidarity or Privilege? Mapping Transnational Dynamics in European Schooling
• Associate Professor Sedat Gümüş, Education University of Hong Kong — Exploring instructional leadership: Insights from diverse contexts and methodologies
• Dr Kristine Bagge Kousholt, Aarhus University — Creative methodologies of future hopefulness in educational practices- sharing and developing creative methodologies

2023/24 seminars

• Dr Maria Ivancheva, University of Strathclyde — The alternative university: Lessons from Bolivarian Venezuela
• Professor Arathi Sriprakesh, Oxford University — Reparative futures of education
• Professor Ismael Sanz, Rey Juan Carlos University — Mitigating poor literacy skills with technology: Evidence from Spain
• Professor Maria Teresa Tatto, Arizona State University — A comparative international study of differences in beliefs between future teachers and their educators
• Dr Stavroula Philippou, University of Cyprus — Enacting health/life education as curriculum-making across sites of activity, patterns of (in)disciplinarity and citizenship
• Professor Vivienne Bozalek, Professor Michalinos Zembylas & Dr Siddique Motala — A pedagogy of hauntology: Decolonizing the curriculum with GIS