ESOL SIG AND IP&SEN SIG

7 April 2025 – Join Us in Edinburgh!

PCE PROGRAM

10.15-  10.30 

• Welcome and presentations of SIGs

10.30 – 11.45

• Embracing conflict with courage – creating brave spaces in language classrooms by Rose Aylett

11.15 – 11.45 

• Coffee Break

11.45 – 12.30  

• Classroom Practices for Cultural Inclusion in ESOL Adult Classes with Refugee and Migrant Learners by Chathuska Undugoda

12.30 – 13.00  

• Identity and inclusion by Giovanni Licata

13.30 – 14.00

• Lunch

14.00 – 14.45

• Why should we talk about women in English language classrooms? by Agnieszka Dzięcioł-Pędich

14.45 -15.15

• Panel: What’s up with this world? by ESOL SIG and IP&SEN SIG Committee

15.45 – 16.30

• Adult migrants decolonising citizenship: Participatory research in the North ofEngland by Ally Shepherd

16.30 – 17.15

• Empathy, Diversity, and Inclusion: Preparing Students for Global Engagement by Jana Jilkova

Speakers’ bio

Rose Aylett is a teacher, trainer and CELTA tutor, based in Liverpool. After beginning her career in North Africa and the Middle East, she now works as a freelance training consultant on a variety of ELT projects around the world. Rose has a long-standing professional interest in critical pedagogy, global citizenship and social justice education. She is course leader for the NILE Online ‘Global Citizenship in Language Education’ course, a programme informed by her own MA thesis on critical literacy in teacher education. Rose speaks regularly at national and international conferences about how to teach controversial issues, promoting critical dialogue in the classroom, and the integration of critical perspectives into ELT.

I am Chathuska Undugoda, from Colombo, Sri Lanka. I currently work as an EFL teacher at British Council English Online and as an ESOL teacher at Coventry College in the UK. In 2023/2024, I completed my master’s studies at Coventry University. Previously, I worked as an ESL teacher at the British Council Sri Lanka for nearly ten years, teaching adult and young learner courses. Since I started working as an ESOL teacher in the UK, I have developed an interest in teaching refugee, migrant and multilingual learners and promoting cultural inclusion and diversity. Applying dialogic and translanguaging approaches to promote multilingualism is an important aspect of my current teaching. 

Agnieszka Dzięcioł-Pędich teaches General English and English for Specific Purposes in Foreign Languages Teaching Unit at the University of Białystok, Poland. She also trains pre-service teachers of English at the Faculty of English Philology at the University of Białystok. Her training courses focus on teaching English as a foreign language to students with special educational needs (autism, ADHD, dyslexia). She is also a member of Inclusive Practices Special Educational Needs Special Interest Group (IP SEN SIG IATEFL  – https://ipsen.iatefl.org/) which promotes genuinely inclusive practices, that lead to a sense of belonging and full participation for all within the ELT community. Her research interests lie in the area of inclusive education, specialised tertiary language education, language teachers’ professional needs and technology in language teaching.

Ally Shepherd is a teacher and researcher with a PhD in Education Policy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on ESOL for adult migrants, particularly for people from a refugee background who are in the UK. She has been an educator for 15 years and has worked as a teacher, trainer, and manager in 8 different countries across ESOL, EFL, ESP, and EAP in formal and non-formal settings.

Jana Jilkova is a lecturer at Charles University with a passion for supporting both teachers and students in their educational journeys. She serves as President of the Association of English Language Teachers (ATECR) and is a board member of IATEFL’s IP&SEN SIG. Her diverse experience spans primary and secondary education, including collaboration with the British Council and her roles as an eTwinning and Scientix ambassador.

Certified in Competency Mapping and Career Advisory, Jana uses her skills to guide educators and learners in navigating their professional paths while promoting self-esteem, lifelong learning, new technologies usage, empathy, and cultural awareness in an increasingly interconnected world.