STORIES Conference: Global discussions on pressing issues in education
The STORIES Conference 2025 took place on 10 April 2025. The annual conference was an electrifying event with the timely theme Reimagining the Landscape of Education and Beyond. STORIES, which stands for Students’ Ongoing Research in Educational Studies, brought together scholars and practitioners for scholarly exchanges on the dynamic evolution of education in the face of global challenges and opportunities.
This year’s conference posed thought-provoking questions such as: How can we transform learning spaces, policies, and pedagogies to create a more inclusive, equitable, and accessible future? The response from the postgraduate student community and the wider audience was phenomenal, with all 300 tickets ‘sold out’ on Eventbrite (the event was free to attend) and an overwhelming number of submissions from researchers and practitioners around the globe.
After a fiercely competitive selection process, over 60 exceptional entries were chosen, showcasing inspiring presentations from 17 different countries with 29 prestigious universities. These figures represent the overall diversity of the conference and its alignment with University of Oxford’s commitment to global accessibility.
Designing the Programme
In the weeks running up to the conference, our team of 15 screeners carefully reviewed 120 abstracts using a clear and consistent rubric. Each submission was evaluated for its fit, relevance, and quality, with careful attention to maintaining a good balance of presentations across the conference’s 3 research strands: (1) Pedagogy, Learning, and Knowledge, (2) Language, Cognition and Development, and (3) Policy, Economy, and Society.
In addition to quality assurance, it is also a shared goal for us to reflect the diversity of perspectives, experiences, and methodological approaches represented in the submissions. The result was a strong, well-rounded programme that showcased a wide range of voices and topics across the field of education (more information available in the Book of Abstracts on our website). There was a total of 11 themed sessions hosted by our team members as parallel sessions throughout the day.
Highlights from Keynotes
The Conference commenced with a warm welcome and an opening address from our Director, Professor Victoria Murphy, who highlighted the vital roles presenters and the audience may assume in shaping the future of education and overcoming challenges arising from the recent instability around the world.
Dr Tom Crawford delivered an engaging and interactive session showcasing the teaching of mathematics in practice. Through engaging story-telling strategies, from a mention of Aristotle to Pokémon, Tom wonderfully demonstrated how mathematics can be taught as a meaningful, participatory experience, challenging traditional notions of the subject pedagogy and inspiring attendees to rethink what transformative teaching and learning could look like.
After the first parallel session, Dr Ruanni Tupas (from IOE, UCL), whose keynote, Unequal Englishes as ‘Global English’, offered a powerful critique of the ideologies underpinning global English. Ruanni argued that what is often celebrated as a unifying linguistic force is, in fact, a system of hierarchy and exclusion. His talk has inspired heated discussion in the chat, with participants reflecting on linguistic inequalities, localisation, and the need for more inclusive educational practices.
As we concluded the conference, Dr Ana Pellicer-Sánchez (from IOE, UCL) shared her cutting-edge research on vocabulary learning using eye-tracking methodologies. Her well-pitched presentation, coupling both theoretical depth and empirical clarity, offered valuable insights into how cognitive data can inform language teaching and assessment. Ana’s talk also inspired frontline teachers, who actively participated in the discussion, to reflect on current pedagogical approaches and focus.
Dr Nigel Fancourt, Our Director of Doctoral Research, also gave a featured talk to give the wider audience a sense of how timely, relevant, and impactful our research outputs are. He talked about the notion of engaged scholarship in research methodology, with his project on the Grenfell curriculum (which focuses on disaster justice) as a case study. The talk also addressed key questions around research journeys, academic growth, and institutional support. Nigel gave the closing address and reflected on the global- and future-facing discussions of the day.
Reflections and Key Takeaways
This year’s presenters came from a wide range of disciplines, each bringing thought-stimulating contributions that elevated the quality of the conference. The sessions covered a good variety of innovative topics for timely discussion – some examples include AI-generated music to enhance entrepreneurial learning, arts-based inquiry to address teacher disengagement, sustainability pedagogy in early years education, and reimagining dance archives through a Black feminist lens.
These presentations offered fresh perspectives and new directions for research and frontline implementations. For many student attendees, the conference served as an invaluable introduction to academic presentation, and this authentic experience has equipped them with the confidence and insight they need to navigate future scholarly spaces. Lively discussions unfolded across sessions, driven by genuine curiosity and shared enthusiasm from which new connections and future collaborations may stem.
Behind the scenes, none of this would have been possible without the tireless efforts of our own student organiser team, whose meticulous planning ensured seamless time management and smooth transitions throughout the day.
Looking Forward
Thanks to the hard work of three teams of students in our Department (Event Management, Logistics & Operation, and Communications & External Affairs), the conference was swimmingly smooth and well-received. We have received very positive feedback on its design, global outreach, and how the sessions have enabled academic exchanges on many critical issues in education:
‘Thank you very much for this outstanding conference. STORIES was truly one of the most inspiring and intellectually engaging events I’ve attended. I appreciated the warm atmosphere, the diversity of voices, and the opportunity to connect with researchers from all over the world. Each session sparked meaningful reflection and left me feeling deeply motivated. I’m grateful to have been part of it!’
Participants also complimented on the user-friendliness and design of publicity materials. Fiona Chan, who is the Manager of our Communication & External Affairs Team and Editor-in-chief, worked diligently and carefully to make sure that our contents, including our website and book of abstracts was easily accessible.
In future STORIES Conferences, we aim to further strengthen the transmission of knowledge, accessibility, equity, and inclusivity by connecting our students with academic peers across the world with the help of online conferencing technology which was once seen as a great source of uncertainties over the pandemic. It is also hoped that some existing members of the organising team may stay on and consider serving as mentors to the upcoming committee. Organising an academic conference could be daunting to many, but it is also our goal to make this a uniquely authentic learning opportunity for our students. Finally, we must also thank our wonderful Communication, Operation, and IT Team in the Department and our former SLC, Amelia Farber, whose timely support greatly contributed to success of the event. We will endeavour to put together new events following the footstep of our past STORIES Conferences (5 years on since our first!) and exercising our creativity in the process. If you are interested in being part of the team and/or in participating in future conferences, please follow us on Instagram for latest updates!
Written by Pippa Naegeli-Evans, Tong Yi, Thomas Procter-Legg, Dongxia Nie, Ren Qiu Xu Rose with Ivan Au
