The English in Action team participated in two international conferences in the UK during September 2013. These are: the annual conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA), held at Sussex University and the UKFIET conference, held at Oxford University.  Both of these forums have long-standing international reputation for working in the field of education and research. As always, the goals behind attending these conferences were to share EIA’s work with a wide variety of audience, in particular, education and development practitioners.

Dr. Sharmistha Das, Education Adviser, English in Action attended the 12th UKFIET conference and presented a paper - ‘English language education reform initiatives: Challenges for sustainability’ under the conference sub-theme - New Imperatives for Education, Teaching and Learning.  The UKFIET conference on education and development provides a platform for sharing experiences of educational research and development activities in the Governmental as well as Non-Governmental contexts through multi-lateral partnerships. Rich discussions on this platform are directly relevant for defining new initiatives for changing times globally.

Farhan Azim, Deputy Head, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, English in Action also presented a paper at the BERA Conference 2013. The paper was titled ‘Interaction between school and media based interventions to influence English language learning: a case of Bangladesh’.  The British Educational Research Association (BERA) is a member-led charity which exists to encourage educational research and its application for the improvement of practice and public benefit.

These conferences provided several opportunities for interaction and exchange of views with regard to English in Action’s work in Bangladesh. A lot of interest for the programme was generated which created further scope for learning and developing dissemination networks.