International education panel confirmed

World experts to shape education reform.

The world-leading education and business experts who will form Scotland’s new International Council of Education Advisers have been confirmed.

The ten members have extensive experience advising educators and governments on education leadership, school improvement and reform in countries including the US, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Malaysia, Australia and the UK.

They will advise on the Scottish Government’s priorities for education and ensure the actions set out in its delivery plan are influenced by international best practice.

The panel members are:

  • Dr Carol Campbell, Education Adviser to the Ontario Premier and Minister of Education and Associate Professor of Leadership and Educational Change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
  • Professor Chris Chapman, Chair of Educational Policy and Practice at the University of Glasgow and Senior Academic Adviser to the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
  • Professor Graham Donaldson, Consultant and international adviser for OECD
  • Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief Executive of Virgin Money
  • Dr Avis Glaze, former Ontario Education Commissioner and Senior Adviser to the Minister for Education.
  • Professor Andy Hargreaves, Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College and a member of the OECD team that recently reviewed Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.
  • Professor Alma Harris, Director of Educational Leadership at the University of Malaya.
  • Dr Pak Tee Ng, Associate Dean, Leadership Learning, and Head of the Policy and Leadership Studies Academic Group at Singapore’s National Institute of Education.
  • Dr Pasi Sahlberg, former Director General of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation at Finland’s Ministry for Education and Culture, and a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.
  • Dr Allison Skerrett, Associate Professor in Language and Literacy Studies at the University of Texas.

The Deputy First Minister is also in the process of appointing a panel of teachers whose experience will help shape the programme to reduce teacher workload and monitor its impact. Among the teacher panel’s first tasks will be to consider ideas the Scottish Government has invited from teaching unions to improve teacher workloads. Both panels will meet for the first time next month.

Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education John Swinney said:

“I have set out the actions we will take to substantially close the attainment gap and deliver a world-class education system in Scotland. This work will be informed and shaped by leaders in the profession and lessons learned elsewhere.

“The International Council of Education Advisers will bring a global perspective from highly qualified educators with expertise shaping and delivering education reforms around the world. The teacher panel will ensure our plans are informed by the views of practitioners who work in our schools every day. Both will challenge and scrutinise our plans for education and ensure we consider the best evidence and expertise from our classrooms and around the world. I look forward to meeting both panels next month.”

Notes to editors

The First Minister will appoint the chair of the International Council of Education Advisers at its first meeting. The Deputy First Minister will chair the teacher panel. Both panels are expected to meet twice a year.

Teacher panel members have been nominated by Education Scotland and the Scottish College for Education Leadership and are drawn from 14 local authority areas.

Dr Carol Campbell
Dr Carol Campbell is Associate Professor of Leadership and Educational Change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. She is education adviser to the Ontario Premier and Minister of Education and director of a tripartite between the Ontario Ministry of Education, University of Toronto and Western University to advance the mobilisation and application of research for educational practice in Ontario. Dr Campbell is well-known for her commitment to connecting research to policy and practice for educational improvement. She has worked for the Ontario Ministry of Education as Senior Executive Officer for The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, was appointed Ontario’s first Chief Research Officer for Education, and became the founding director of the Education Research and Evaluation Strategy Branch. Originally from Scotland and having completed her PhD at the University of Strathclyde, she has a range of international experience, including as Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. She is an international adviser to the Scottish College for Educational Leadership (SCEL).

Professor Christopher Chapman
Chris Chapman is Chair of Educational Policy and Practice at the University of Glasgow where he established the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change. He is also Co-Director of What Works Scotland, a three-year research and development project supporting public service reform. Previously he was Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Manchester and has held academic posts at the Universities of Nottingham and Warwick. Chris is the Senior Academic Adviser to the Scottish Attainment Challenge, Treasurer for the International Congress for School Effectiveness and School Improvement and has served on the Inaugural Board of the Scottish College for Educational Leadership. Professor Chapman has consulted and advised agencies, universities and governments across a number of educational systems.

Professor Graham Donaldson
The most recent recipient of the Robert Owen Prize, Graham Donaldson has spent over 40 years in education and has worked in schools, universities and local and central government. Professor Donaldson was chief executive of Scottish Inspectorate (HMIE) and Chief Professional Adviser on education to the Scottish Government from 2002 – 2010.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia
Jayne-Anne is Chief Executive of Virgin Money, a Non-Executive Director of Business in the Community, and has roles on a number of advisory groups including the Financial Services Advisory Board, the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group, and the FCA Practitioner Panel Advisory Group. Jayne-Anne led a review into the representation of women in senior managerial roles in the financial services industry and published her report in March 2016. Jayne-Anne trained as an accountant before becoming marketing director of Norwich Union’s Unit Trust business. She was one of the founders of Virgin Direct and launched the market-leading Virgin One account. She led a number of RBS business units, ultimately joining the RBS Retail Executive Board where she was responsible for the RBS Group’s mortgage business. Jayne-Anne rejoined Virgin Money in March 2007.

Dr Avis Glaze
The first recipient of the Robert Owen Prize and one of Canada’s outstanding educators, Avis Glaze has been recognised for her work in leadership development, student achievement, school and system improvement, character development and equity of outcomes for all students. As Ontario’s first Chief Student Achievement Officer and founding CEO of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, she has contributed to improving student achievement in Ontario schools, and has served as Ontario’s Education Commissioner and Senior Adviser to the Minister of Education. Dr Glaze has experience at several levels of the education system, in both rural and urban areas, from working as a classroom teacher, guidance counsellor and secondary school administrator to being a director of education on school boards. She has extensive experience in international education, having worked with educators from across the globe and assisted with educational reform in South Africa.

Professor Andy Hargreaves
Andy Hargreaves is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Prior to this appointment, he was the co-founder and co-Director of the International Centre for Educational Change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He is an adviser in education to the Premier of Ontario, and also President Elect of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and School Improvement (ICSEI). Professor Hargreaves consults extensively with governments across the world, and was a member of the OECD review team that recently evaluated Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence. In 2015 he was ranked the sixth most influential university-based scholar on US education policy.

Professor Alma Harris
Professor Alma Harris is Director of the Institute of Educational Leadership at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She is internationally known for her work on organisational change and development, educational leadership and school improvement, focusing particularly on improving schools in challenging circumstances. She began her career as a secondary school teacher and has held a number of senior academic posts, including Pro-Director (Leadership) and Professor of Educational Leadership at the Institute of Education, University of London. Dr Harris has worked with various governments and agencies around the world, supporting their school and system improvement work. Between 2009 and 2012, she was seconded to the Welsh Government as a senior policy adviser to assist with the process of system-wide reform. Dr Harris is a past President of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and School Improvement (ICSEI), and in January 2016 was awarded an honorary lifetime membership.

Dr Pak Tee Ng
Dr Pak Tee Ng is Associate Dean, Leadership Learning, and Head of the Policy and Leadership Studies Academic Group at the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Singapore. He completed his studies in the UK and trained as a teacher at the NIE. His specialist areas include educational leadership and quality assurance in education, and he is a respected contributor to the international field of educational change. He has been a visiting fellow at Cambridge University and a visiting scholar at Boston College and is a well-respected speaker on educational policy, practice and reform.

Dr Pasi Sahlberg
The second recipient of the Robert Owen Prize in 2014, Pasi Sahlberg is a Finnish educator, author and scholar. He has worked as schoolteacher, teacher educator, researcher and policy advisor in Finland and has studied education systems and reforms around the world. His expertise includes school improvement, international education issues, classroom teaching and learning, and school leadership. He is a former Director General of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation (CIMO) at Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki, and is currently a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. Dr Sahlberg has worked with governments and educators in Europe, Central Asia, North America, Africa and Asia-Pacific region to help them in improving education policies and implementing system-wide education reforms.

Dr Allison Skerrett
Dr Allison Skerrett is Associate Professor in Language and Literacy Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her areas of teaching and research include adolescent literacy and sociocultural influences on teaching and learning, and she was awarded an Early Career Achievement Award from the Literacy Research Association in 2013. She also has a focus on multicultural education and the influence of transnationalism on teachers’ practice, and young people’s experience of literacy education.

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