Maha Bali is Associate Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo. She has a PhD in Education from the University of Sheffield, UK. She is co-founder of virtuallyconnecting.org (a grassroots movement that challenges academic gatekeeping at conferences) and co-facilitator of Equity Unbound (an equity-focused, open, connected intercultural learning curriculum, which has also branched into academic community activities Continuity with Care and Socially Just Academia). She writes and speaks frequently about social justice, critical pedagogy, and open and online education.
Maha Bali blogs regularly at http://blog.mahabali.me and tweets @bali_maha.
Gert Biesta is Professor of Public Education in the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University, Ireland, and Professor of Educational Theory and Pedagogy at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, UK. He is visiting professor at the University of Agder, Norway, working with colleagues in the departments of education, arts and mental health, and adjunct professor at the University of Southern Australia in Adelaide. During 2020 and 2021 he was visiting professor at Uniarts, the University of the Arts in Helsinki, Finland. Gert Biesta writes about the theory of education, education policy, and the theory and philosophy of educational and social research. He is interested in such areas as teaching, teacher education, curriculum, arts education, citizenship education, religious education, vocational education and adult education, and always tries to ask the questions that are forgotten or in the margins of the mainstream. Recent books include The Rediscovery of Teaching (2017); Letting Art Teach (2017); Obstinate Education: Reconnecting School and Society (2019); Educational Research: An Unorthodox Introduction (2020); and World-Centred Education: A View for the Present (2021). So far his work has appeared in 20 different languages.
You can learn more about Gert Biesta on his website www.gertbiesta.com
Dr. Martha Cleveland-Innes is Professor and Program Director, Master of Education Program, Athabasca University. She is the author of The Guide to Blended Learning and instructor, co-designer, and researcher for the open online course lended Learning Practice. The 2nd edition of Introduction to Distance Education: Teaching and Learning in a New Era, which she co-edited, has just been released by Taylor & Francis for 2021. She has held major research grants supporting research on the technology-enabled student experience. In 2019 Martha received an Honorary Doctorate from Mid-Sweden University and the Leadership Award from the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education. Her research interest areas include 1) online and blended learning 2) communities of inquiry 3) higher education reform and 4) leadership in education.Martha is currently Visiting Professor of Pedagogy at Mid-Sweden University.
For more information, see www.athabascau.ca/martha-cleveland-innes