Past event Part of series: Presidential Seminar Series 2024–2026
Following on from the previous seminars in Edinburgh and Leeds, the Â鶹ÒùÔº Four Nations Presidential Seminar Series will be held in Wales on May 1st, 2025. Through an anti-racist lens, this day will connect policy makers, academic researchers and leaders in practice to explore theoretical perspectives, examine policy development and plan for next steps in Wales and beyond. Our session will be situated in The Senedd, Cardiff Bay / Docklands; a poignant space to explore Welsh policy, practice and research centred around the formation and impactful endeavours of a pan-Wales anti-racist movement called DARPL (Diversity Anti-racist practice and professional learning).
The World looks into Wales, holding high expectations for an anti-racist nation by 2030 through the implementation of the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan (ARWAP). The rising expectation and temperature for racial literacy, Cynefin completeness and ethical global citizen anticipations within the Curriculum for Wales is at the core of DARPL’s work. How realistic is the ARWAP ambition? What’s really happening on the Welsh ground in education to step towards 2030? What are the barriers and what are the opportunities?
Wales is a place steeped in historical struggle and bold in opportunity across generations of global majority communities. Through keynotes, panel discussions and lightening talks from the field in education, childcare and playwork we have set out the seminar to consider traditions in Welsh race-consciousness which, in 2021, led to Wales becoming the first nation in the UK to make the teaching of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (Welsh and global) history mandatory within the Curriculum for Wales.
DARPL’s work spans education, childcare, playwork and is funded by the Welsh Government. The work takes a national approach to lead and enable affective professional learning cascades and implementation across the education system tiers. DARPL comprises a dynamic and diverse Community of Practice based within Cardiff Metropolitan University which draws together lived and professional experience. Working with grassroots organisations and unusual community focused innovation this Welsh movement is dismantling and reshaping the landscape in regional and national policy influence, practice and academic research. Drawing on lessons learnt, DARPL’s work is heading into the wider public sector.
Racial consciousness in contemporary education in Wales, stems from migration seeds within Butetown and across Wales particularly in the early nineteenth century up to now and sets a unique backdrop. Whilst in the now, through research on recruitment and retention issues resulting in national requirements for published ITE action planning, we redirect attention to the lack of diversity in the education workforce. Positively disruptive leadership is shaped whilst ensuring intellectual activism and diverse Welsh voices are articulated and truly heard to lead and engineer the diverse and complementary anti-racist legacies which are realised within the work of DARPL. Anti-racism mobilisation in education and childcare in Wales is covering a lot of ground. Now could even be deemed an optimal time, shaped by political support, intellectual struggles, historic community wisdom, opportunities and hurdles on new territory. The chiming of the Welsh Government ARWAP, Curriculum for Wales, future generations and learning organisation focused policies surely brings an optimum era to maximise impact and change legacy. At the same time, in our small county we are mindful of the potential for international comparison and collaboration in countries that are also developing autonomous curricula or even more generally addressing the question of how to transform an education workforce towards global equalities.
Our discussions on May 1st, 2025, will draw together the interacting themes of diverse Welsh identity, Cynefin (belonging / habitat) and hiraeth (love of home/country) in exploring DARPL as a contemporary and community focused national movement helping to define and differentiate a cascade model of anti-racism, professional unlearning and professional relearning. DARPL’s approach is rooted in historical dialogues within the Welsh context. DARPL’s experimental approach to tackling ‘new’ professional learning territory provides space to challenge concepts of inclusive education and to consider theories of change and pedagogies of critical consciousness, enquiry and noticing.
But is all of this enough? Many ‘DARPLers ‘are telling us that their ‘DARPLing’ is deeply affective whilst at the same time there are too many still untouched. Our research in 2023 tells us that racism is still prevalent in the lives of children in Wales. Our in-learning surveys tell us that high numbers of educators still don’t know about Welsh Government’s Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan (ARWAP) and The Communities, Contributions and Cynefin: Black Asian Minority Ethnicities in the New Curriculum for Wales Report’ 2020-2021 but when they do, their personal and professional learning starts to run deep.
What do the leaders, educators and intergenerational learners really think and feel about anti-racism in education culture, curriculum and pan-Wales community approach? What else is needed? And what’s next in Wales? Will you join us in this movement?
Draft Programme
09:15pm Registration
09.30am Croeso (Welcome) from local children
09:45am Welcome Â鶹ÒùÔº: Presidential seminar review and aims; Marlon Moncrieffe,
Â鶹ÒùÔº
10:00am Welcome DARPL: The Spirit Runs Deep, DARPLing here and pan-Wales
10:30am Respondent 1 and discussion; Charlotte Williams, Bangor
University – Cynefin, Curriculum for Wales and Critical
11:00am Respondent 2 and discussion: Wales’ Nationwide Approach – Anti-Racist
Wales Action Plan (ARWAP) issues and opportunities arising; Emmanuel
Ogbonna, Cardiff University
11:30am Break
11:45am Lightning Talks (Storm 1) from the Welsh field; (Anti-racist leadership
and learning in Education, Childcare and Playwork in practice)
12:15pm Children’s Commissioner talk; Rocio Cifuentes, Children’s Commissioner For
Wales
12:45pm Visit from Welsh Government Minister; Jane Hutt, Welsh Government; Riaz
Hassan, Welsh Government
13:15pm Lunch
13:30pm Real talk and national legacy through local Heritage Culture Exchange;
Gaynor Legall , The Heritage & Cultural Exchange
13:45pm Lightning talks (Storm 2) from the Welsh field; (Anti-racist leadership and
learning in Education, Childcare and Playwork in practice)
15:00pm Panel discussion, Q&A
15:20pm Summing up and next steps; Chantelle Haughton, DARPL; Emmanuel Ogbonna
15:30pm Preview of seminar 4 for Northern Ireland; Rebecca Loader, University Belfast
15:35pm Wrapping Up and thanks; Marlon Moncrieffe
15:40pm Cynefin and reflections – Local Young Leader/Poet Spotlight(supported by
Show Racism the Red Card, Wales)
16:00pm Coffee, Tea and Barabrith / Welsh Cakes; Networking
16:45pm Close of Event
Â鶹ÒùÔº President 2024-2026 at British Educational Research Association
Marlon Lee Moncrieffe (Â鶹ÒùÔº President 2024-2026) is a former primary school leader and university research and knowledge exchange leader. As an educational researcher, he has worked extensively across the globe on multiple large-scale UKRI AHRC...
DARPL Founder-Director and Principal Lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University
Chantelle Haughton is the Director and Founder of DARPL (Diversity and Anti-Racist Professional Learning). Chantelle is a principal lecturer in Early Years Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University and a National Teaching Fellow. Chantelle is...
Professor of Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University
Professor Gary Beauchamp is Professor of Education at the Cardiff School of Education and Social Policy at Cardiff Metropolitan University, and Honorary Professor in the School of Education at Durham University.
The Heritage & Cultural Exchange
Dr Gaynor Legall is Chair of Tiger Bay and The World: Heritage Culture Exchange. . Gaynor Chaired the pioneering audit to challenge commemoration in Wales ‘The Slave Trade and The British Empire Report’ published by Welsh Government in 2021...
Professor at Cardiff University
Emmanuel Ogbonna is Professor of Management and Organization at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. He gained his PhD from University of Wales Cardiff in 1990 and was awarded a chair in 2002. His recent research interests have been in...
Professor at Bangor University
Charlotte Williams OBE , FLSW is Professor Emeritus in the School of History, Law and Social Sciences, Bangor University. She is co-editor of the ground-breaking text ‘A Tolerant Nation? Revisiting Ethnic Diversity in Wales’ (UWP 2003 and...
Lecturer at University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Lilian Yuet Ling Martin is funded by the Welsh Government to evaluate the Diversity and Anti-Racist Professional Learning (DARPL) programme as part of the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan. Her professional doctorate, also aligned with the Action...
DARPL National Outreach Teacher / Senior Lecturer / Curriculum Engagement Officer at Cardiff Metropolitan University
Leon Andrews is DARPL's National Outreach Teacher and Senior Lecturer at CMet; currently seconded from Llanwern High School, the first recipients of the Betty Campbell Award for promoting the contributions and perspectives of Black, Asian and...
Children's Commissioner for Wales
Rocio is the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, taking up the post in April 2022. Rocio was born in Chile, arriving in Wales as a 1 year old with her parents as political refugees from Chile. Growing up in Swansea, she went to Parklands...
Head of Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan Team at Welsh Government
Riaz Hassan was appointed as the Head of the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan (ArWAP) in May 2022. He leads the implementation of the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan, which was co-produced with our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people to tackle...
Cabinet Secretary at Welsh Government
Jane Hutt spent part of her childhood in Uganda and Kenya, and was educated at the University of Kent, the London School of Economics and Bristol University. Jane has lived and worked in Wales since 1972. Jane was an elected member of the former...
Assistant Research Professor at University of Cambridge
Dr Rebecca Loader is an Assistant Research Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, where she coordinates the Cambridge Positive Peace Education Hub and is a member of the THRiVE research group. Her research interests...
Â鶹ÒùÔº rejects any form of discrimination on grounds of sex, gender, gender reassignment, age, race, ethnic or national origins, colour, marital status, sexuality, family responsibility, disability...
Save the date We are delighted to announce a new event – the Celebrating the Impact of Educational Research. We will have ‘lightning talk’ presentations about cutting edge research...
When Andy Burnham became UK prime minister, he argued that four decades of neoliberalism had failed the communities that built the Labour movement and called for a new economic path. Whether this...
Advancing Equity and Inclusion in Educational Research, Policy and Practice 2024–2026 Â鶹ÒùÔº Presidential Seminar Series provides compelling research reviews offering a state-of-the-art...