When Will We Ever Learn? Ten Great Educators and their Legacy

Alan Maley surveys the work of ten great educators, some of whom have been prestigious and highly influential innovators, while others were isolated, passionate experimenters, whose pioneering work is relatively little known.

This presentation will survey the work of ten great educators, some of whom have been prestigious and highly influential innovators, such as Rudolf Steiner and Paulo Freire, while others, such as Sylvia Ashton-Warner and David Horsburgh were isolated, passionate experimenters, whose pioneering work is relatively little known.

An attempt shall be made to winnow out the essential beliefs and principles which animated their life work, so as to compare what they were advocating in education then, with what effectively counts as education today. Is there any overlap? Will we ever learn the lessons they were trying to teach? What examples of an enduring commitment to their principles can be cited which inspire some hope for the future of education?


Professor Alan Maley

Alan Maley worked for The British Council from 1962 to 1988, serving as English Language Officer in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, and China, and as Regional Director in South India (Madras). From 1988 to 1993 he was Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust, Cambridge. From 1993 to 1998 he was Senior Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature of the National University of Singapore, and from 1998 to 2003 he directed the graduate programme at Assumption University, Bangkok. For 20 years he was series Editor for the OUP Resource Books for Teachers series. He has published over 40 books and numerous articles. He is currently a freelance consultant. For the past 10 years he has been involved with the Asia Teacher Writers’ group, which publishes original stories and poems in English for use with students in the Asia region. His main current interest is in creative writing.

Alan Maley was a Keynote Speaker at The European Conference on Education 2015 (ECE2015) in Brighton, England.

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