Regional Colloquia 2015

Chair

Tara Furlong, Chair and Webweaver

Tara Furlong webweaver@rapal.org.uk for any queries about RaPAL. Tara 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. She has an ongoing interest in the relationship between multi-modal and contextualised versus abstracted learning; and its mirror in social and literate practice and language across life spheres. As well as work with Designing Futures Ltd, Tara does pro bono work for RaPAL, BALID, is an active local school governor; and is engaged in postgraduate studies in educational leadership with UCL, Institute of Education.

Treasurer

Sarah Freeman, Treasurer

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

Secretary

Claire Collins, Secretary and Production Editor

Claire Collins secretary@rapal.org.uk for queries about the network and its meetings.

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 either Tara webweaver@rapal.org.uk, Claire secretary@rapal.org.uk or Jo membership@rapal.org.uk.

Regional Advocate Co-ordinator

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 Members

These posts are currently vacant. 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 either Tara webweaver@rapal.org.uk, Claire secretary@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

Rachel Stubley, Reviews Editor

Rachel Stubley reviews@rapal.org.uk for writing reviews. Rachel works at the University of South Wales (formerly University of Wales, Newport) on the Adult Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL teacher education programme. We run subject specialist PGCEs and Cert Eds for new and practising tutors, and in-service Level 5 specialist certificates for qualified literacy, numeracy and ESOL tutors. Most of our literacy and numeracy participants teach on Essential Skills Wales (ESW) courses. All of which tells you that things in Wales are developing differently from over the border, though the future is (as ever) far from certain. My teaching background was as an ESOL (and occasionally literacy) tutor in community education and FE in London. I was delighted to discover RaPAL – home to the best minds and biggest hearts in adult literacy research and practice! And I couldn’t have developed our literacy courses in Newport without the inspirational writing of RaPAL members.

Journal Production Editor

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