Regional Colloquia 2015

Chair

Tara Furlong, Chair and Webweaver

Tara Furlong webweaver@rapal.org.uk has twenty years’ experience in adult education and training in the private and public sectors in the UK and abroad, specialising in integrated English language, literacies and digital learning. She is involved in delivering professional development via national organisations in the UK, and publication work; and has an established history of designing and implementing systemic curriculum quality initiatives in education providers. Tara has an ongoing interest in the relationship between multi-modal and contextualised versus abstracted learning; its mirror in social and literate practice and language across life spheres; and the function of storytelling in co-ordinating action. As well as work with Designing Futures Ltd, Tara does pro bono work for RaPAL, BALID, and is an active local school governor.

Treasurer

Sarah Freeman, Treasurer

Sarah Freeman treasurer@rapal.org.uk for queries about accounts.

Secretary

This post is currently vacant. If you might be interested in volunteering for this role, please do contact any of us, including Tara webweaver@rapal.org.uk, or Jo membership@rapal.org.uk.

Membership Secretary

Jo Byrne, Membership Secretary

Jo Byrne membership@rapal.org.uk for membership. Jo has worked in education for the last 15 years, doing various roles ranging from managing regional and national projects to providing an active role in supporting colleagues across the education sector as well as managing events across the region. She is actively involved in supporting RaPAL so please do contact her with any membership  enquiries you may have.

Website Manager

This post is currently vacant. If you might be interested in volunteering for this role, please do contact any of us, including Tara webweaver@rapal.org.uk, or Jo membership@rapal.org.uk.

Regional Advocate Co-ordinator

This post is currently vacant. If you might be interested in volunteering for this role, please do contact any of us, including Tara webweaver@rapal.org.uk, or Jo membership@rapal.org.uk.

Ordinary Members

Sam Duncan, Regional Advocate Co-ordinator

Sam Duncan sam.duncan@ucl.ac.uk for queries about Regional Advocacy. Sam is an adult literacy teacher, teacher educator and researcher working at the UCL Institute of Education in London. Sam has been teaching English language, literacy, poetry and drama to adults since 1997, and is the author of Novels, Reading Circles and Adult Reading Development (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Reading for Pleasure and Reading Circles for Adult Emergent Readers (NIACE, 2014). Sam is currently researching contemporary reading aloud practices.

Ordinary member posts are currently available. If you might be interested in volunteering for these roles, which run for a year or more and generally involve participating in working groups on current projects, please do contact any of us, including Tara webweaver@rapal.org.uk, or Jo membership@rapal.org.uk.

Publications Group:

Journal Co-ordinator

Yvonne Spare, Journal Co-ordinator

Yvonne Spare journal@rapal.org.uk for access to and distribution of the journal. Yvonne has been Journal Coordinator since 2015, having also been Membership Secretary for five years, enjoying being the first point of contact for RaPAL members. She has been involved in adult literacies teaching and training for 25 years, with a special interest in family literacies and workplace learning. Before joining the RaPAL management group she was working for several years carrying out research for the University of Sheffield, NRDC, National Literacy Trust and the Reading Agency, among others. She also runs a proofreading and editing service for business and academic writers.

Reviews Editor

Dr Irene Schwab has worked for over 40 years in the field of literacies as a teacher, teacher educator and researcher. She is currently based at UCL Institute of Education and can be contacted on reviews@rapal.org.uk.

Journal Production Editor

Claire Collins, Production Editor

Claire Collins  productioneditor@rapal.org.uk for queries about production of the journal.