Warwick Education Conference
Event details
Thursday 4th June 2026
The Warwick Education Conference is a significant annual event providing space for all members of our Warwick education community to connect, share and inspire each other.
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Keynote speaker
Call for proposals is now open!
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Warwick Education Conference 2025/26
Learning for a Complex and Hopeful Future: Pedagogies of Empowerment, Equity, and Global Readiness
Higher education has the power to cultivate hope, promote equity, and prepare graduates to thrive in an interconnected and uncertain world. This theme invites us to explore teaching approaches that centre lived experience, challenge systemic barriers, and nurture students' capacity to imagine and enact meaningful change. It also calls for practices that build the critical, adaptive, and collaborative skills essential for navigating complexity—empowering learners not only to understand the world, but to shape it with purpose and compassion.
Join us in exploring through dialogue, innovation and shared inquiry how higher education can inspire hope, promote equity, and prepare students to thrive in a complex global future. Sessions might explore:
Pedagogies of Empowerment
- How can we design learning experiences that give students genuine voice and agency in shaping their education?
- In what ways can critical and transformative pedagogies empower learners to challenge dominant narratives — and how can educators be supported to adopt these approaches with confidence?
Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education
- How can teaching, assessment, support practices and technology dismantle barriers to student success across diverse backgrounds?
- What role can educators and supporters of learning play in advancing equity-minded change, and in what ways can their ongoing professional growth be supported?
Global Readiness and Interconnected Futures
- How can we prepare students to collaborate across cultures, disciplines, and borders?
- How might sustainability be integrated into teaching, assessment and student support, while also sustaining staff capacity and wellbeing?
Navigating Complexity with Critical and Adaptive Skills
- How can we help students learn to navigate uncertainty and complexity in their studies and future work?
- What role does interdisciplinary teaching play in equipping learners — and how can staff be supported to collaborate across disciplines?
Hope, Compassion, and Purpose in Learning
- How can we intentionally cultivate hope, optimism and resilience in our pedagogic practices?
- What does it mean to teach or support learning with compassion and care, and how does this impact both student and staff wellbeing?
Innovation and Technology for Empowerment
- How can we use digital tools and AI in ways that empower students — and support staff in adapting to rapid technological change?
- What does a critical digital pedagogy look like in practice, and how can educators balance innovation with ethical responsibility?
Dr Karen Gravett is Associate Professor and Associate Head (Research) at the Surrey Institute of Education at the University of Surrey, UK, where her research focuses on the theory-practice of higher education, and explores the areas of digital education, belonging, and relational pedagogies. She is Co-Director of the Language, Literacies and Learning research group, an Associate Editor for the journal Sociology, and Executive Editor for the journal Teaching in Higher Education. She is also a a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and an Honorary Associate Professor for the Centre for Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University. Karen’s latest books are Reconceptualising Teaching in Higher Education: Connected Practice for Changing Times, Critical Practice in Higher Education, and Relational Pedagogies: Connections and Mattering in Higher Education.
Transformative Learning Nano-Presentations
