Keynote speakers

Mike Hollings
Chief Executive, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu

Mike Hollings has more than 30 years’ wide-ranging experience in the education sector, from teaching through to management, policy development and review.

For the past four years he has been the Chief Executive of Te Kura (The Correspondence School of New Zealand). Te Kura provides distance education from early childhood to year 13 to more than 24,000 every year. Students come from a wide range of backgrounds with diverse learning needs including students who are alienated from mainstream schooling, inmates, geographically isolated students, students with psycho/social conditions and students in regular schools wishing go study subjects the school is not able to offer.

Prior to joining Te Kura, Mike was the National Manager Analysis and Policy at the Education Review Office with responsibility for evaluating the quality of education in New Zealand schools and was the acting Chief Executive between June 2005 and May 2006.

He was Chief Executive of Te Mangai Paho, the Maori Broadcasting Funding Agency from 1996 to 1999 and has held various senior management positions at Te Puni Kokiri, The Ministry of Maori Development.

His other education sector roles have included working as Manager of Planning and Development at Wairarapa Community Polytechnic, Manager of Policy Te Wahanga Maori at the Ministry of Education and teaching at Waikato University and the Hamilton College of Education where he lead the development of bilingual education programmes focusing on the revitalisation of Maori language through the education.

He is of Maori descent from the Ngati Raukawa tribe and in his home community has lead the establishment of Te Kohanga Reo (early childhood Maori language immersion education and Kura Kaupapa Maori (Maori language immersion education in primary and secondary schooling).

Jen McCutcheon
Project Manager, Authentic Learning
Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu

Jen McCutcheon has worked across sectors within the New Zealand education system for 25 years, as a teacher, manager, activist and ERO reviewer.

For the past four years she has been working at Te Kura, initially as Deputy Director Student Support and then was appointed Regional Manager for the Central North Island. She is currently on secondment from that role and is leading the Authentic Learning Strategy across Te Kura.

Jen’s interest in authentic learning precedes her time at Te Kura, when she saw the real benefits of working alongside students and whanau to identify student interests and wrap student learning around these to support engagement and achievement.

Her focus is on developing relationships with students and whanau, alongside the development and provision of high quality teaching and resources to better support student learning. This sits very well with increasing regionalisation for Te Kura, where student learning can be more personalised within their learning context and is underpinned by best-evidence practice within New Zealand.

Jen has also worked as a reviewer across the compulsory and Early Childhood sectors in the Education Review Office. In 2001, Jen was president of the NZPPTA (New Zealand Post Primary Secondary Teachers Union), an elected two year position, leading an organisation of 14,000 secondary teachers. Prior to that, she was Head of Department: Commerce at Golden Bay High School, and is an experienced secondary and primary teacher. Her earlier career included working as a primary teacher educator.

Liz McKinley
Director, Starpath Project
The University of Auckland, Epsom Campus, Faculty of Education

Liz McKinley, of Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Ngai Tahu descent, has an extensive background in Maori education in New Zealand. Her career in teaching and management in the education sector has spanned 30 years. In secondary schools she specialised in teaching bilingual science classes (Maori and English), and for more than 10 years held lecturing and management posts at The University of Waikato.

Before joining the Starpath Project as Director in 2007, Liz was Associate Professor Maori Education at The University of Auckland's Faculty of Education, and was previously the Assistant Dean, Maori Education at The University of Waikato.

Originally a science graduate from the University of Otago, Liz's Masters and PhD work explored the interaction between science and Maori culture. Liz is also a Principal Investigator for a project investigating the supervision of Maori doctoral students funded by the Ministry of Education.

Read Liz's presentation abstract - Leading change: seeking bold actions for the complex challenges in Māori student achievement

Westley Field
Director of Online Learning, Manager of IT and Managing Director of Skoolaborate
MLC School, Sydney, Australia

Westley Field presents around the world on topics such as Education in Virtual Worlds, Making One to One Work, Heuristics of Implementing E-learning, Educational Technology, Connecting Students in a Web 2.0 World, and Leading in a Flat World.

In 2008 Westley received the ASLA John Lee Award for innovative use of IT in learning. Westley has previously received a Churchill Fellowship, Computerworld Honours (Smithsonian), Apple Distinguished Educator, Macromedia Education Leader and Adobe Education Leader for his work with schools and communities. Westley is also on the Board of the New South Wales and Sydney branches of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders.

At the AADES Leaders' Forum 2010, Westley will be speaking about emerging technologies, how they may affect future schooling and the skills we should be developing.

Vivienne White
Big Picture Australia

Former National Coordinator of the Australian National Schools Network and CEO of the Innovations Commission Viv White now leads the Big Picture Company of Australia and acts as a coach for the Australian National Schools Network.

With more than thirty years experience in both the education, research community and policy-making sector, Viv is known for her innovative thinking, challenging perspectives and sound understanding of educational change and reform.

Viv is committed to generating excitement about learning through capitalising on successful innovative techniques and strategies identified within and outside the education sector. Viv is especially interested in how technology and pedagogical reform can be harnessed to improve the working lives of teachers and the learning lives of students.

Prior to working with the Australian National Schools Network for ten years and the Innovations Commission with Dr Barry Jones, Viv worked in the public education sector as a primary teacher-librarian, policy worker, educational researcher, change agent and facilitator of leadership and team development within schools as well as other organisations.

Viv is especially interested in issues about the educational consequence of inequality and has undertaken major international research projects on educational inequality, school reform and assessment. She has been published widely in journals, books and multimedia.

Viv is committed to working closely with teachers and school communities to build collective knowledge about the education practice. She believes that only through systematically sharing professional knowledge and practice will real improvement for students and their communities be possible.

Hekia Parata
National MP

Hekia Parata became a Member of Parliament in 2008, as a National List MP. She is the Deputy Chair of the Social Services Select Committee, and a member of both the Justice and Electoral, and Electoral Legislation Select Committees.

She has been a successful businesswoman running her own consultancy company, and manuka honey business with her husband and business partner, Sir Wira Gardiner, and has held senior positions as a public servant, working both in New Zealand and internationally.

Hekia studied at Waikato University, where she holds an MA, was President of the Waikato Student Union, and has undertaken short term fellowships at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, and Templeton College, Oxford University.

Hekia was born and raised in Ruatoria, and is of Ngati Porou and Ngai Tahu descent. She is mother and aunt to a fabulous generation of young people.

Karen Sewell
Chief Executive of the Ministry of Education

Karen Sewell is the Secretary for Education and Chief Executive of the New Zealand Ministry of Education.

From 2001-2006 she was the Chief Review Officer of the Education Review Office, with responsibility for reviewing and reporting on the quality of early childhood services and schools throughout New Zealand.

Karen’s background is in education. Before she joined ERO Karen was principal of Green Bay High School, a large coeducational secondary school in Auckland. She has been President of the Auckland Secondary Schools Principals’ Association and between 1994 and 1996 she was Chairperson of the Principals’ Council of the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association.

Karen has held a teaching fellowship at Victoria University of Wellington, and a Nuffield Bursary for study at the Institute of Education, University of London. She has delivered keynote addresses and seminars at national and international educational conferences.

In June 2005 Karen took on the role of Acting Chief Executive of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. She returned to her role as Chief Review Officer in May 2006.