Speakers

Professor David Turner, WEF International

David Turner is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of South Wales, and Professor at the Institute for International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University. Professor Turner is the President of Global CIE Forum and  a former Treasurer, World Council of Comparative Education Societies. He is a Fellow of the Academy for Social Science and Honorary Member of the British Association for International and Comparative Education. After graduating in engineering, Professor Turner became a science teacher in secondary schools for nine years, before moving into teaching in higher education. He has taught in a variety of higher education institutions, teaching comparative education at the University of London Institute of Education before moving to the School for Independent Study at the North East London Polytechnic, now University of East London, UK. His book, Theory of Education, presented a novel approach to viewing education as a complex system, which is shaped by the choices that individuals within the system make. The book was very well received and won the World Education Fellowship Book Award in 2005/6. That book was followed by Theory and Practice of Education, published in 2007. Professor Turner believes that the role of theory in education is to provide a coherent and stringent critique of policy, and by that means to provide a framework for improving educational institutions. He is critical of much current policy in education, including the desire to see institutions ranked in league tables. He is committed to the view that the education system needs to accommodate diversity in all its expressions.

INVITED: Dr Douglas Letsholathebe, Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Botswana

INVITED: Mr Fidelis Molao, Minister of Basic Education, Botswana

Detail profiles of speakers to follow once we have the confirmation.