Newcastle University

Heather is a Lecturer in Education at Newcastle University, in the North East of England.  She joined the PGCE Primary team in September 2004 and her main area of responsibility is the teaching of Diversity and Equality. Her PhD research concerned the microgenetic analysis of small group talk for bilingual pupils learning English as an additional language. 

Heather's underlying research interest lies in equity in education. Recent research involves an investigation of teaching critical whiteness studies to Initial Teacher Education students in England.
Prior to joining the University I taught in UK, Zimbabwe and New Zealand, as well as working as an EAL specialist teacher for Gateshead EMTAS (Ethnic Minority Achievement Service).

Leena Robertson is an Associate Professor at Middlesex University London.  

Leena started her teaching career in England some 30+ years ago. She has worked as a teaching assistant, playgroup leader, community school teacher and a primary school teacher in and around London. For the past 14 years Leena has worked in two universities; currently she is the Director of Primary and Early Years Programmes and the PGCE Early Years Programme Leader.

As a Principal Lecturer Leena teaches on a number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and supervises doctoral students.She is interested in meeting the needs of adult learners from both traditional and non-traditional academic backgrounds, as well as those from various international backgrounds. She also supervises teacher training students and engages in mentor training in London schools.

Fred Dervin is Professor of Multicultural Education at the University of Helsinki (Finland). Dervin also holds several professorships in Canada, Luxembourg and Malaysia.

In May 2014 he was appointed Distinguished Professor at Baoji University of Arts and Sciences (China). Prof. Dervin specializes in intercultural education, the sociology of multiculturalism and student and academic mobility. Dervin has widely published in international journals on identity, the ‘intercultural’ and mobility/migration. He has published over 20 books.

Fred is responsible for the ROMtels project in Finland. 

Nathalie Auger is full professor of linguistics and didactic in the University of Montpellier (France) since 2010. She has obtained a PhD with specialization in teaching French as a foreign language and deconstructing cultural stereotypes in Europe (study on linguistic and cultural dimensions) and in second language in France (researches on migrants pupils 2004, partnerships with the Council of Europe and the European Commission). She runs studies and reflection on what teaching French “as a mother tongue” can mean in plurilingual/ multicultural France in the 21^st century. She has compared her studies with teaching French in Canada (migrant children, English immersion and Francophone minority 2005). She has also compared the teaching of French in the CLIL classes in Europe (2007). She takes into account multilingualism and multiculturalism in majority language classes in Europe (project Maledive, ECML, Council of Europe, 2011) and studies  the conditions for success for gypsy children in French schools (European Social Fund, European Commission (2013).

Nathalie Auger has been working with 10 different pre-elementary, elementary and secondary schools in the region of Montpellier including many languages and different newly arrived children (migrant, gypsy, Roma pupils) in the Acémie of Montpellier (from Nîmes to Perpignan). Her methodology always involves the teachers and more recently the parents. 

Nathalie is responsible for the ROMtels project in France.

Nicu Gal established the People to People Foundation in response to the plight of the abandoned child.  

He and his wife, Miha, began with a vision to improve the lives of the abandoned children in their area.  In particular they worked with children whose parents have no longer been able to care for them at home. Services that stop children being abandoned or promote them being reintegrated into family life gave children in the region new hope.

Nicu is responsible for the ROMtels project in Romania. 

Arthur's Hill Federation of Primary Schools includes Moorside and Westgate Hill primary schools in the West End of Newcastle upon Tyne.  Arthur's Hill teachers and staff involved in this ROMtels project include: 

• Patrick Wilkins
• Elizabeth Binks
• Nan Corbett
• Rachel Lowery
• Zaneta Karchnikova

Lydia Wysocki is a Research Assistant on this ROMtels project.  She is also a PhD student at Newcastle University.  She worked as an English language teacher in Nanjing, PR China for 2 years. and has worked at Newcastle University since 2010, first in the Learning and Teaching Development Service and now in the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences.  Her research interests include comics and the communication of information, national identity, and networks of communication. 

Heidi Layne is a researcher in the Education for Diversities Research Group at the University of Helsinki, Finland, Department of Teacher Education. Currently she is also a member of the Nordplus funded DELA-NOBA Developing Language Awareness - research project.. She is in the final stage of completing her PhD dissertation on the intercultural contact zones in Finnish education.  Her research interests are critical pedagogy, whiteness studies and postcolonial perspective on intercultural education in teacher education and internationalization of higher education, immigration and social justice.

Christel  Houée is a teacher at Collège  Victor Hugo (Middle school)  Sète, France. She has taught French since 2008. The following  year she specialized in the teaching of French as a foreign language. Since then she has been in charge of special classes for  all 11 to 17 year old  foreign students from the "Bassin de Thau" district  in the  Languedoc-Region in the south-east of  France . They attend her classes 12 hours a week for  one or two years according to their level.

I am a primary school teacher. Since 1999,I have been teaching French as a foreign language to non-native speakers near Montpellier (France). My students are from 6 to 12 years old and attend lessons of French as a foreign language several hours a week. They mainly originate from North Africa or Romania (ROMA pupils) . I have been in charge of several teacher training sessions dealing with the issue of interlanguage and multilingualism in a regular class.

I have concurrently started some research work for a PHD in collaboration with the Praxiling laboratory of Montpellier University 3. The subject of my research is focused on the study of the interlinguistic space among learners of French within a school environment My research interests include:Conversation Analysis, Multi- & Bilingualism , Classroom Interaction, Second Language Acquisition, Dialogism, and Polyphony .

Jérémi Sauvage is associate professor at the University Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 & Praxiling CNRS. His research interests include: Language education, Language acquisition, Phonetics for teaching  French as a foreign language. His latest book is entitled "L'acquisition du langage. Un système complexe" and is about epistemology and language acquisition.

Brahim Azaoui is associate professor in the school of education department at Aix-Marseille University. He started his teaching career in France 15 years ago. He worked as an English teacher in French secondary schools before specializing in the schooling of immigrant children in France (as a teacher, as head of the Centre pour la scolarisation des élèves allophones et des enfants de familles itinerants et de voyageurs - CASNAV, then of “l’Espace Senghor, plateforme d’accueil des élèves migrants” in Montpellier).

His research interests include: plurilingualism, teaching gestures, multimodal classroom interactions, context-sensitive teacher/student identity, and discourse in interaction analysis.

Sophie Dufour is an assistant professor at Praxiling-Montpellier. She is a specialist in teaching French as a foreign language especially as a mediation to learn schooling contents. She has a PHD on running dual lessons and focusses on digital tools to learn a new language.

Christelle Dodane is assistant-professor in Praxiling in the team 3 on language acquisition. Her field of research are:

• Phonetics and Prosody
• Acquisition of language
• Early language learning
• Bilingualism
• Laughter and humor in children
• Multi-modality and negation in children
• Language and Music

She runs many projects, especially with Brasil on bilingualism during childhood.

Frédéric Miquel is holder of the aggregation of Letters and doctor of Letters (University Paul Valery - Montpellier III). After teaching in middle school, high school, preparatory classes and the university, he is currently Academy Inspector - Regional Pedagogical Inspector at the Régional education authority of Montpellier. He is the responsible academic for French as a foreign language teachings - French Second Language, sections of theater and dramatic expression and creative writing projects. He works with a team on the education of Roma children. He was a member of the commission "artistic and cultural education" and "french curriculums" upper Program Council - French Ministry of Education. He is founding editor and editorial director of the International Anthology of French budding writers : digital publication and books (7 volumes since 2009) of literary texts written by young students worldwide.

Anna Slotte is an Associate Professor at Abo Akademi University, Finland. 

Her research interests include: Conversation Analysis, Multi- & Bilingualism & Biliteracy, Classroom Interaction, Second Language Acquisition, Bilingualism, Language Planning and Policy, Teaching-learning interactions, Intercultural Education, Ethnography, and Digital Ethnography