Speakers
Paula Tesoriero
Hon Jan Tinetti
Jan is a list Member of Parliament based in Tauranga. Before entering Parliament, Jan pursued a career in primary school teaching which saw her working in schools in Invercargill and Greymouth before embarking on a career as a school principal. Over her 20 years as a primary school principal, she led four schools across Southland and Tauranga. Jan’s last position as principal before entering politics was Merivale School, Tauranga’s sole decile 1 school. Throughout her career in education, she has fiercely advocated at a national level for equal educational opportunities.
Jan’s entry into politics stemmed from her belief that the Government has a role to play in ensuring all New Zealanders have access to the services they need to help them to be the best they can be.
Jan is currently the Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Women, and Associate Minister of Education.
Paula Tesoriero is New Zealand’s Disability Rights Commissioner. It is her role to protect and promote the rights of disabled New Zealanders.
Paula is Chef de Mission for the NZ Paralympic team in Toyko. She is also a Paralympian cycling gold medalist, a former lawyer, was a general manager at Stats NZ and at the Ministry of Justice. She is a life trustee with the Halberg Foundation, and has held a range of governance roles on various Boards, and she is a mum.
Liam Rutherford
Liam has been a teacher for 12 years and is currently serving as the President of NZEI Te Riu Roa.
His teaching career has had him working mainly with 11 and 12-year-old students where he has a passion for student led curriculum, design thinking, and linking learning into the local community. He has a strong interest in PB4L and mixed ability pedagogies.
During his time with NZEI Te Riu Roa, Liam has been involved with a number of important pieces of work, most notable he led the Primary Teachers negotiating team during the Kua tae te wā campaign
Liam is from Palmerston North, New Zealand where his wife Aleisha serves as a city councilor and has two children under the age of 5.
Mere Berryman
Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Whare.
Professor at the University of Waikato, Division of Education.
After 20 years of teaching, Professor Mere Berryman began working as a researcher in the 90s. She wanted to understand why what we had been doing with Māori learners and others in education was perpetuating trajectories of disparity. What followed was over two decades of working with schools to promote Māori students’ educational success as Māori. In this time, historical truths from kaupapa Māori and critical theories have begun to see the disruption of deeply entrenched prejudices. With critical consciousness educators can lead more equitable contexts for learning where Māori learners and others with identified needs can finally be understood, included and feel they can belong.
Kate McAnelly
Dr Gill Rutherford
Kate McAnelly is a qualified, certificated early childhood kaiako who has worked for the past 5 years as part of the SPACE (Supporting Parents Alongside Children's Education) programme running at the Valley Baptist Community Centre in North East Valley, Dunedin. Walking alongside pēpi and their whānau, and empowering them in their learning, are immense privileges to Kate. Her research outputs (including a Masters - for which she was awarded a 2017 NZEI Te Riu Roa early childhood scholarship - and very nearly completed PhD) have focused on issues of equity and inclusion experienced by disabled tamariki and their whānau in early childhood education. Children's rights, the sociology of diverse childhoods, and working inclusively with/for whānau are also strong research interests of Kate's. She is currently leading the completion of the literature review underpinning the Ministry of Education's Highest Needs Review.
Dr Gill Rutherford is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago College of Education, Dunedin, New Zealand. A former high school teacher, Gill’s teaching and research focuses on disabled students’ perspectives and experiences of school, students’ rights, the role of teacher aides, inclusive schooling, and inclusive teacher education.
She is currently involved in research that explores New Zealand student teachers’ values and beliefs about disability, ‘special’ and inclusive education and how these factors influence teaching practice. Students are the heart of Gill’s work, and underpin her commitment to working alongside students in teaching and research projects.
Dr Jude MacArthur
Jase Williams
Jude began her working life as a primary teacher. She has since worked at the University of Otago in Teacher Education and Education Studies; as a part-time senior researcher doing disability research at the Donald Beasley Institute in Dunedin; and more recently on Massey University's Specialist Teaching team, coordinating an endorsement for teachers in education for children and young people with complex educational needs.
Jude joined the School of Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland in 2019 where she teaches in the areas of Inclusive Education and Disability Policy. Her passion and research interests are in inclusive education, particularly in the ways that policy and teaching practice can support children and young people with disabilities, their families and whānau to be valued, fully participating members of their local school community.
Jase Williams is the Principal of Henry Hill School in Napier. The school has adopted a Trauma Informed Approach based around the Neurosequential Model in Education developed by well known child trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry.
Jase is the only Māori certified trainer in this NME model in the world, and facilitates a monthly Trauma Informed/Aware Hui in Hawke's Bay for local schools, ECE, and health professionals, as well as a 'Dad's Hui' focused on men's mental health and wellbeing from a 'keeping it real' perspective.
Henry Hill School is a finalist in the wellbeing category for the upcoming 2021 Prime Minister's Education Excellence Awards. Jase helped to develop Te Āhuru Mōwai - an award winning sensory space at the school made primarily from recycled materials. Te Āhuru Mōwai has also been shared by Dr. Bruce Perry, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Neuroscientist Nathan Wallis, and has been visited by hundreds of educators and health professionals.
MCs
Shane McInroe
Alice Mander
Alice is the inaugural President and founder of the National Disabled Students' Association. NDSA was established in 2021 and aims to address the lack of disabled student voice in the tertiary space at a national level. They work closely alongside other national student associations, Government, tertiary providers, and disabled persons' organisations to address barriers and inequities in the education space for disabled students. While physically disabled herself, NDSA represents students with varying disabilities and impairments. NDSA hopes to support the development of disabled student voice locally where it does not already exist. Alice is also a fourth year Law and Arts Student, studying at Victoria University of Wellington. She has been heavily engaged in the disability space, having worked with not-for profit organisations such as ImagineBetter, and written for publications such as TheSpinoff, AttitudeTV, and student magazine Salient.
Shane McInroe has a learning disability. He’s the Vice President of People First NZ and a member of the National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group and CDHB Disability Steering Group. He’s on the establishment steering group for the new Ministry for Disabled People and is helping set up a youth hub in Christchurch.