International Presentations

Keynote, University of Karlstad, Sweden, ‘Professional Knowledge and Professional Life Narratives’, 24-25 November 2010.

Seminar, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Campo Grande, Lisbon, 19-22 July 2010.

Key note, ‘Studying Curriculum Change and Educational Reform’, Santiago de Compostela University, Spain, 15-16 July 2010.

Keynote, ‘European Perspectives on Educational Reform’ for the 15th Annual Education Conference, Brunei, University of Brunei Darussalam, 24-27 May 2010

Lecture entitled ‘'Developing a Theory of Narrativity’, October 2009,University of Bergen, Norway.


Lecture entitled’ Developing theories of narrative: a report of research in progress’, Uppsala University, Sweden, April 2010.


Keynote, ‘Developing life and work histories of teachers’, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan 11, January 2009.

Keynote, ‘Becoming a teacher: comparative studies of teacher reforms in other Western countries’, Hiroshima University, Graduate School of Education, Japan, 8 January 2009.

Lecture entitled, ‘Developing a theory of narrativity’, October 2009, University of Bergen, Norway.

Keynote Presentation at a symposium on ‘Professional Knowledge and Professional Lives’, University of Braga, 23-28 October 2008.

Presented ‘Live your Myth in the Homeland and your Labyrinth in Culture: blurred identities, fuzzy boundaries and the portrayal of (post)modern (meta)diasporic lives’ at the 7th European Urban and Regional Studies Conference, Istanbul, 18-21 September 2008.

Presented, ‘The Pedagogic Moment: Searches for Passion and Purpose in Education’ at the 36th Congress of the Nordic Educational Research Association, March 6 – 8, 2008 in Copenhagen.

Keynote speech, ’Investigating the Life and Work of Teachers’, University of Minho, Portugal, 29 November 2007.

Presented ‘Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics’ at the Honorary Doctorship ceremony, Göteborg University, Sweden19-20 October, 2007.

Presented ‘Finding our story: Sequences and Dispositions in Learning Theory’ at the ECER Conference in Ghent, Brussels – Contested Qualities of Educational Research, September 2007.

Keynote speech, The Sociology of Curriculum, Nanjing Normal University, China, 25 May 2007.

Keynote speech, ‘The Life History Studies of Teachers’, Nanjing University, China, 23 May 2007.

Keynote speech, ‘The Sociology of Curriculum’, Nanjing University, China, 22 May 2007

Keynote speech at the 13th International Conference Forum of Taiwan Sociology of Education, ‘The Socio-cultural Significance of Place, Community and Educational Praxix’ in Pingtung, Taiwan, 18-19 May 2007

Presented, National Pingtung University of Education, Taiwan 17 May 2007

Presented, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan, 16 May 2007

Keynote speech, ‘New Narratives in Curriculum and Education’ at the IX Congresso da Sociedade Portuguesa de Ciências da Educação, Madeira Tecnopolo/Universidade da Madeira Campus Universitário da Penteada – Funchal, 26-28 April 2007.

Key note lecture, ‘Curriculum as Prescription or Narration Conference of the ESREA Network on Life History and Biography, Roskilde University, Denmark, March 1st-4th 2007.


Lecture, ‘Curriculum and Life History Perspective’ at the University of Campo Grande, Brazil, 4 October 2006.

Key note lecture for the workshop on ‘School Subject History’ and one-day workshop at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 9 October 2006.

Key note address, ‘Developing New Perspectives on Curriculum’ at the Brazilian Educational Research Association in Caxambu, Brazil, 12-18 October 2006.

Key note address on ‘Life History and Narrative’ to a one-day workshop on narrative methodologies at the University of Campinas, Brazil, 19-20 October 2006.

Presentation on ‘Time, Space, and Change’ at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER 2006) at the University of Geneva, 13-16 September 2006.

Presentations, ‘The individualized society and its implications for education’ and ‘Narrative inquiry and the new modes of narrative construction at the University of Boras, Gottenburg, 15-18 August 2006.

Presentation, ‘Curriculum, Narrative and the Social Future’ at an International Symposium, entitled 'Figuring and Reconfiguring Research, Policy & Practice: New Directions for Educational Change?' St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin, Wednesday 5 July to Saturday 8 July 2006.

Presentation, ‘Curriculum, Narrative and Social Future’, Second World Curriculum Conference, Tampere, Finland, 21-24 May 2006.

Presentation, ‘Interrogating Educational Reforms: The Contribution of Biographical Studies in Education’, ‘Repenser la justice dans le domaine de l'éducation et de la formation’, INRP, Université de Lyon, May 2006.

Key note lecture on ‘The Rise of the Narrative’, Esrea Life History and Biography Conference in Volos, Greece, March 2006.

Presentation and workshop, ‘Developing Life History’ & ‘Professional Life Politics’, CVU Midt Vest, Denmark, Feb 2006.

Narrative Capital and Narrative Learning. Paper given to a workshop at the University of Viborg in November 2004. This paper was considerably extended in doctoral classes given at the University of Barcelona in a course on life stories during the period January to July 2005.

Keynote speaker, ‘Life History as a Post Modern Device’, Finnish Educational Research Association Conference, University of Helsinki, Finland, 20 November 2003.

Keynote address, the Dutch Sociology of Education conference, ‘Struggle around the Curriculum’, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 12 November 2003.

Guest speaker, The Agency for School Improvement, Stockholm, Sweden, 16 October 2003.

Presentation, ‘Curriculum Histories: Continuities and Contingencies’, at the symposium ‘Focus on Curriculum: International Perspectives on Curriculum History, Curriculum Construction and Enactment and Theory Building’, European Educational Research Association (EERA) annual conference, Hamburg, 17- 20 September 2003.

Guest speaker, Dublin seminar on Equality and Access to Third Level Education, ‘Renegotiating Access in Dublin Institutions’, hosted by the Dublin Employment Pact, including a panel with the Minister of Employment, Dublin, 8 - 9 May 2003.

Keynote speaker, ‘Teachers’ Responses to New Educational Reforms: An International Perspective’,
presented at the ESAI-NCCA conference, Curriculum Contestation, Dublin, February 2003.

Invited professorial lecture at the Centre for Research and International Collaboration, ‘Teachers’ Responses to Standard-based Reform: an international perspective’, HK Institute of Education (HKIEd), Hong Kong, January 2003.

Four seminars at the British Council: ‘The Personality of Change’; ‘Patterns of Educational Change’; ‘Studying the Teacher’s Life and Work’; ‘Undertaking Life History Studies’, HK Institute of Education (HKIEd), Hong Kong, January 2003.

Guest speaker, ‘Ecoles, Curriculum et enseignants’, by invitation of the Journal, Education et Sociétés: Revue internationale de sociologie de l’éducation, held at the Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique, Paris, December 2002.

Invited professorial lecture at the Nordic Ethnography network workshop, ‘Life History, Identity and Educational Settings’, Department of Education, University of Uppsala, Sweden, November 2002.