For each conference, a small number of Graduate Scholar Awards are given to outstanding graduate students who have an active academic interest in the conference area.  Graduate Scholars perform a critical role in the conference by chairing the parallel sessions, providing technical assistance in the sessions, participating in Talking Circles, and presenting their own research papers.   The Award with its accompanying responsibilities provides a strong professional development opportunity for graduate students at this stage in their academic careers. Meeting experts in the field, interacting with colleagues from other parts of the world, and creating networks and friendships are all additional benefits of this Award.

Graduate Scholars are entitled to free registration and are given special recognition during the conference proceedings. Applicants must be currently enrolled in a graduate studies program. Awardees must be available on-site the day prior to the conference (for orientation and training) and throughout the conference.

The deadline for graduate scholar applications has been extended to 23 May 2013. All applications must be received by 23 April.

Noraishiyah Abdullah

Noraishiyah Abdullah is a final-year PhD student Mathematics education at The University of Manchester, United Kingdom. She received her MEd degrees in Mathematics Education from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She holds a Diploma in Education from the International Islamic University of Malaysia. She is  a mathematics graduate from the University of New South Wales, Australia and she is currently on study leave to pursue her PhD. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysia France Institute, Malaysia. Her interest has always been about how to teach mathematics better. Her PhD research is in the field of mathematics education for engineers, she explores understanding of Differential Equations of undergraduate engineering students.

Margaret Carr

Margaret Carr works at Stonehill College in Easton, MA as Assistant to the President. She works to develop  and implement college-wide initiatives. She also works with the President on development activities and other special projects. She is a member of the President’s Cabinet. Prior to joining Stonehill, she held management position in sales, marketing, public relations and development roles in several area hospitals and non-profit organizations.She holds a B.S. in Communications from Boston University and a M.B.A. from The Carroll School of Management at Boston College. She is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at Drexel University.

Shaohua Hong

Shaohua is originally from China. She did her master in Hospitality and Business management at Birmingham University. After graduating, she had been working at an educational group and was assigned to be a teacher and then program manager. In 2010, she started her PhD in Education at the University of Manchester, UK, specifying at Chinese Parents’ Perspectives on Early Years Education. She is interested in how parents’ perspectives are formed and what influences will be involved in their choice making process. The main method used to do her research was narrative. After conducting a series of interviews and  analyzing chronologically, she found that narrative was so important to people when making choices as well as experiencing the choices.

Tatzia Langlo

Tatzia Langlo is a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. She studies in the focus of Cultural Perspectives and Comparative Education. Research interests reach into the development of global learning-teaching communities and the need for increased communication, cultural, and contextual competencies involved with interacting as global citizens on the stage of the global world. Educational background includes BA in Communication with a research focus of cultural communication in education, a minor in education, and an additional degree in Early Child Education. As a scholar and researcher she works with a non-profit organization based on principles and practices of civil participation, service-learning, and education assistance through development of local and global relationships. She maintains emphasis in Global Studies and Language Interaction and Social Organization. As a hobby she writes and facilitates the publication of children's books, stories, and anthologies. In her work she has a passion for story telling as a means of sharing ideas and information. Ms. Langlo practices principles of teaching and learning in collaboration with students, colleagues, families and communities. She approaches learning through the process of exploration and discovery in ways that meet interests and needs effectively and with purpose.

Umut Oğur

Umut Oğur was born in Antakya-Turkey in 1980. Completed his BSc. in 2002 and MSc. in 2004 at Electronics Engineering Dept. of Ankara University and continuing his PhD. on Community Education  at Lifelong Learning and Adult Education Dept. of Ankara University. He is member of Chamber of Electrical Engineers and working at ‘Training’ and ‘Library’ commissions at Ankara branch of the Chamber. He has responsibilities at ‘Adult Education and Adult Educators Association’ as a member and at ‘Contemporary Women and Youth Foundation’ as a member of Directory Board. He has been developing and managing project based training programmes, with the support of various national and international donors including United Nations and European Commision, in a wide range of topics including ‘energy and technology’, ‘promoting science in society’ and ‘women’s empowerment’. He is married and has two children.

Elias Stouraitis

Elias Stouraitis is currently a PhD Student in Didactics of History at the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. He completed his undergraduate studies in History and Archaeology at the University of Athens in Greece and undertook a Master Degree in Modern Greek History at the University of Athens. He teaches History at private education in Greece. His main research interests are: History Education, Historiography, Memory Identity and History, Design of Educational Softwares for History with the use of Information and Communication Technology.

Wynand J van der Merwe

Wynand J van der Merwe is a final-year D.Ed student in mathematics curriculum studies at the University of South Africa (Unisa). He received his M.Ed degree also from Unisa. He holds a BA degree from the University of Pretoria and a Diploma in Education from the University of the Free-State SA. His research interest is on handbook authors and teachers interpretation of the mathematical curriclum in SA. He has forty-five years experiece as mathematics teacher and School Principal at various schools in SA. He also has hands on experience of teaching mathematical concepts to teacher students and was a mathematical lecturer at Pretoria College of Education. He is highly skilled in planning effective classroom instruction and is  currently a training instructor for the Department of Education in Gauteng for presenting OBE and FET to mathematics teachers. He is also a freelance facilitator for Macmillan Treacher Campus SA helping mathematics teachers in practical presentation of mathematics in the classroom, evaluation, methodology, class-organisation, group-work and learning theories. He wrote audiovisual material for mathematics education, mathematics programmes for the SABC and mathematics study guides for the Department of Education (SA).

Honghua Wang

Honghua Wang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics at City University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include second language acquisition, translator and interpreter training, etc. She has published in refereed journals and conference proceedings in these areas. Apart from teaching English as a foreign language and translation between English and   Chinese for many years, she has edited a series of textbooks on Business English.