2025 Postgraduate Research Conference

Open

Wednesday 6 August 2025

Close

Friday 27 August 2025

Qualtrics Submission Link 

Details

We are delighted to invite Southeast Queensland postgraduate students in the field of education to The University of Queensland for the 2025 School of Education Postgraduate Research Conference on Saturday 1 November 2025. This conference is an opportunity for Southeast Queensland postgraduate students to showcase their research through presentations or posters and network with peers and experts. The conference will occur in person at UQ, St Lucia and virtually.   

This year’s theme “Education for Human Flourishing: Bridging Local Realities with Global Challenges” emphasises our collective responsibility to design educational experiences that empower individuals and communities to thrive while remaining attuned to the complex forces shaping our shared future. Human flourishing spans emotional, social, intellectual, ethical, cultural, and ecological dimensions, demanding that we weave local knowledge and practice into broader global concerns. 

We invite you to consider how your research engages with human flourishing wherever you are in your scholarly journey: curriculum and pedagogy, educational policy, philosophy of education, language and literacy, technology and innovation, community partnerships, leadership and teacher professional development, student voice and agency, or other areas that illuminate the connections between local realities and global challenges.  

For further information on the abstract requirements, please consult the submission form. If you have any queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at pg.ed.conference@uq.edu.au

School of Education Postgraduate Research Conference 2025 Organising Committee

MD Rabiul Alam, Noor Mohammad Masum, Ann Nguyen

Conference Registrations Open

Monday 25 August 2025 – Friday 15 October 2025

Conference Organising Committee

MD Rabiul Alam

Md Rabiul Alam is a PhD candidate in TESOL Education at the University of Queensland, where he also works as a casual academic. He tutors postgraduate courses including Critical Perspectives on TESOL, Language in Education Planning, and TESOL Curriculum and Pedagogy. With over ten years of experience in tertiary-level English language teaching, his research explores the intersections of language management, sustainability, and multilingual practices within spiritual tourism contexts. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, including a recent chapter with Routledge on the interrelationship between language, tourism, and environmental sustainability in Bangladesh.

Noor Mohammad Masum

Noor Mohammad Masum is a PhD researcher at The University of Queensland’s School of Education, investigating public perceptions of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Bangladesh. His study employs a holistic multi-theoretical framework, integrating Amartya Sen’s capability approach, Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction, historical institutionalism, Appadurai’s concepts of scapes and aspiration, and the integrated behavioural model. By focusing on the perspectives of TVET non-users—a critically underexplored group—his research addresses a significant gap in both developed and developing contexts. His work aims to transform TVET systems to promote human flourishing, wellbeing, and enhanced social recognition

Ann Nguyen

Thuy-Anh (Ann) Nguyen is a PhD candidate at the School of Education, The University of Queensland. Her research focuses on the social and emotional development of teachers and students in Vietnam. She is passionate about promoting teacher and student wellbeing in an ever-increasing stressful world, especially those working in disadvantaged contexts. Ann also loves teaching and exploring new ways (often through technology) to engage her students.

Conference Organising Sub-Committee

Tarissa J. Hidajat 

Tarissa Hidajat is a PhD candidate, currently researching family–school–community partnerships to promote school attendance in Australian high schools. Her research interests include families' roles in children’s development, wellbeing in educational settings, diverse learning needs, and student motivation and engagement in learning. She is particularly interested in how the relationships students form with peers and adults, together with the connections among families, schools, and communities, can foster supportive environments that promote student learning, wellbeing, and development

Ting Zhou 

Ting Zhou is a PhD candidate at the School of Education, The University of Queensland. Her research explores the interplay between emotional development, executive function, and academic performance in school-aged children. In addition to her doctoral studies, she works as a casual academic, tutoring courses in global education and career counselling. Ting is particularly interested in how cognitive and emotional processes shape learning outcomes and support student wellbeing. 

Dedi Febrianto 

Dedi Febrianto is a PhD Candidate at the School of Education, The University of Queensland. His research focuses on Medium of Instruction policy in Indonesian Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), with broader interests in language policy, and stakeholder perspectives in multilingual education. He investigates how internal and external stakeholders perceive the use of Indonesian and English in TVET, uncovering tensions and expectations to help shape more context-sensitive and locally relevant language policies in the sector.

Nofrina Eka Putri 

Nofrina Eka Putri is currently pursuing her PhD at the School of Education, University of Queensland. She is interested in exploring teachers, teaching, and the questions around what education is for—especially how we might think about education differently, beyond the pressures of neoliberalism. She is keen to collaborate with other teacher educators to imagine more meaningful ways of doing education and to open up space for genuine and critical conversations about it. 

Amalia N. Sari  

Amalia N. Sari is a PhD student at the School of Education, The University of Queensland. Her research examines global language assessment as a social field, drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice and Sara Ahmed’s affect theory to explore test‑takers’ struggles, desires, and investments in IELTS as a pathway to mobility. She is particularly interested in how power, identity, and aspiration intersect in high‑stakes testing, and how lived experiences of assessment reflect broader sociocultural and economic forces. Her work aims to foreground test‑takers’ voices and contribute to more equitable understandings of global language education. 

Solomon Mangai 

Mangai is a PhD candidate in the School of Education, The University of Queensland. His research focuses on exploring how undergraduate students think creatively by applying knowledge of chemistry concepts in real-world context through dialogic context. Mangai has interests in innovative pedagogies, formative assessment, STEM education, and critical creative thinking for meaningful learning and problem solving in chemistry. He also has interests in promoting teacher education through reflexivity and content, pedagogical and learning engagement practices. 

Jemima Rillera Kempster 

Jemima Rillera Kempster currently serves as an Academic Tutor in pre-service teacher education at UQ. Her doctoral research examined how educational experiences impact language learning among adult migrant English learners in Australia, particularly focusing on their identity development and sense of belonging. Her research interests in multilingualism and migration societies have developed from over twenty years of teaching experiences in diverse learning contexts across Japan, the USA, and Australia.