Recently Associate Professor Joanna Tai was invited to give a keynote at the Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia Faculty of Education 4th annual conference, which was about “Assessment and Equity in Education”. Here, she shares some of her reflections on the conference.
Members of Deakin and Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII) have been partners and collaborators for several years, and I was excited to contribute to the growing relationship by accepting the invitation to be a keynote speaker at the UIII Faculty of Education 4th annual conference. UIII is a relatively new university and the Faculty of Education has so far accepted four cohorts of Masters and PhD students, who were all in enthusiastic attendance alongside their Faculty members. The Faculty are small in number but mighty in productivity: in addition to offering four theme streams across the Masters and PhD programmes, they also edit a journal, Muslim Education Review, host visiting scholars, run an annual conference, and are soon to be admitting undergraduate students.
It was my first time visiting Indonesia, despite it being one of our closest neighbours, and I’m glad I had such welcoming hosts. UIII is situated in Depok, about one hour from Jakarta airport, and I was collected and returned to the hotel each day by a pair of volunteer students. The roads and traffic were definitely something I wouldn’t have wanted to navigate on my own! On arrival, the campus seemed vast, and the buildings were impressive – including an eight-floor library! Being an international university, they are building a collection across many languages – Bahasa Indonesia, English, Arabic, and several others.
So now, to the conference itself. After a lovely opening ceremony with a traditional Indonesian dance performance representing the different regions (put on by students from the Faculty!), I had the honour of being the opening keynote speaker. With a topic like designing assessment for inclusion, it’s always hard to tell exactly which aspects will be most pertinent for a broad audience.
I focused my talk on considering how culture might be acknowledged and incorporated in inclusive ways
My work with our own CRADLE Indonesian students has helped me to understand how Indonesia is a place of many cultures and languages. This seemed to resonate with many of the attendees, and we had an excellent discussion session afterwards which demonstrated how attentive they’d been – even more impressive, since English (as I learned from some students with a linguistics background) is frequently a third, fourth, or even further down the list language for many people.
Professor Bahrul Hayat followed with his keynote immediately after, discussing the importance of large scale educational assessment and its potential impact on equity. It was great to hear the same underlying messages about the purposes of education from a different perspective. Professor Yan Zi from the Education University of Hong Kong (and CRADLE Honorary Professor) also gave his keynote to open the second day, highlighting the importance of student agency even within teacher-constructed systems, and offering implications for what we might do about learning and assessment in a digital world.
I had the opportunity to also attend some of the panel sessions, with presentations from scholars representing several institutions. Again, I was impressed by the quality of discussion and interaction amongst participants – and chuffed to see work by CRADLE colleagues and collaborators referenced in presentations.
Beyond the intellectual climate, the food was also delicious, with snacks in the morning, and a full cooked lunch showcasing typical Indonesian food. The conference dinner took place on the first day, and what started as a singing performance turned into karaoke for staff and students. Of course, I had to participate (thanks Dr Destina for being my duet partner!) too. One notable difference between Indonesia and Australia is the importance of photos: I was happy to pose with many students and now also have a great collection of memories from the conference. With the ongoing connection between institutions, I hope we’ll meet again in the future!