2027 Middle Years Conference: Call for participation

2027 Middle Years Conference: Open for Ideas

ACMI, Fed Square – Friday 14 May 2027


Call for participation open now

The call for participation closes at midday on Wednesday 4 November 2026

'...an idea can end a world. An idea is alive. It can mutate, it can replicate, it can predate on other ideas...and it can hide.' 
– There is no Antimemetics Division, p.79

New ideas linger in the corners of our classrooms, on the shelves of our libraries, and in the margins of our timetables. They hide in the silence between bells and at the bottom of our inbox. What are the conditions that give rise to new ideas – to reimagined and newly meaningful ideas – and how can we nurture and celebrate them?

 

The 2027 VATE x ACMI Middle Years Conference Open for Ideas invites us to think about the space we give to our students’ ideas and to our own pedagogical principles and the ideas they foreground. It challenges us to examine the limits of our own educational ideas. Where did all the big ideas go or are they just in hibernation? Hierarchies and taxonomies have their place, but whose ideas count when it comes to the educational experiences of our students?

 

Open for Ideas is about the messy process of ideas; an examination of the work of having and generating ideas – asking where ideas come from, how can we encourage ideas to multiply, what makes one idea better than another, and how do we take the risk of translating our ideas into action. Open for Ideas is not just a celebration of ideas that have made it out of our imagination, but a reminder to stay open to the unconventional, draw inspiration from others, and be curious and creative in our English teaching practice.

 

Open for Ideas will be delivered in-person on Friday 14 May 2027 at ACMI, Fed Square. To ensure equity of access, a selection of workshops and the keynote speaker will be selected for livestream. 

 

VATE is seeking expressions of interest from members who would be interested in delivering a 60-minute workshop that highlights the ideas they are having in their middle years classroom – philosophical, pedagogical, curriculum and personal ideas are welcome. We are also interested in hearing from members who would like to deliver a workshop that responds to the specific professional learning needs identified by our members in our recent professional learning survey.  More information can be found here.

 

Abstracts of no more than 100 words can be submitted here. Your abstract should:

  • Outline the aims of the workshop

  • Articulate what delegates will do in the workshop

  • A selection of sample workshop abstracts can be viewed here.

Workshop proposals can be submitted via this Google Form.

The Open for Ideas image is by Milhad on Unsplash.