Future of Training Conference 2026 Save the date - Saturday 14th November 2026
International House London are very excited to announce our annual Future of Training Conference 2026. This will be a face-to-face conference on Saturday, November 14 at IH London.
This year’s theme: The Elephants in our Rooms – Recognising Challenges and Rethinking Practice.
Every year, the Future of Training Conference brings together the people shaping the next chapter of English language teacher education – CELTA, DELTA, and Trinity trainers and educators, academic managers, MA TESOL and Applied Linguistics lecturers, and experienced teachers preparing to step into these roles.
Our 2026 theme, “The elephants in our rooms,” invites speakers and participants to shine a light on the issues we recognise but rarely have the time or space to explore in depth in teacher education and development.
These include persistent challenges experienced across different contexts, such as participant support, teacher learning, course design, assessment practices, and inclusivity.
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What will we cover?
This year, we will address emerging questions around the changing nature of ELT itself, including:
– Will English Language Teaching as we know it remain the same, or is the field shifting towards multilingual repertoires, mediation skills, and English‑as‑a‑resource rather than English‑as‑the‑target?
-What implications does this have for teacher education and assessment?
-How do trainers and teacher educators respond to changing definitions of teacher expertise, shifting learner expectations, and new pathways into teaching?
-How do we equip future teachers with professional skills and identities that may look very different from those we’ve traditionally trained for?
How will it be delivered?
The Future of Training Conference is highly interactive.
It features talks, workshops, and activities designed to provide practical strategies and ideas to apply in training and leadership roles.
We welcome both first‑time presenters and returning voices with fresh perspectives to help bring these important topics into the open.
Erica Lindley
Beyond performative inclusion: additional needs in teacher education
SEND and neurodiversity shape every layer of education, yet inclusion in teacher education often remains reactive, inconsistent or performative. Drawing on interviews, lived experience and organisational practice, this talk explores uncomfortable questions about participation, power and institutional responsibility in ELT. It asks what it would mean to move beyond reactive support towards genuinely inclusive cultures within teacher education.
About the speaker
Erica has been teaching and training for 20 years in the UK and internationally. She is Head of Teacher Training at St Giles Brighton, supporting trainers, teachers and trainees across pre-service and in-service programmes, and a consultant trainer on NILE’s MA in Professional Development for Language Education. Erica is a CELTA, Trinity CertPT and DELTA tutor, and a qualified Access Arrangements Assessor and dyslexia tutor. She regularly provides training on neurodiversity and inclusive practices.
Michaela Hendriks
Teaching in Polarised Times: Towards Anti-Racist Practice for ELT Classrooms
Racism and anti-immigration ideologies are increasingly visible in public discourse and affect all our students. Yet teachers may feel uncertain about how – and whether – to address them. This session draws on critical education frameworks and practical resources to explore how teachers can create inclusive, trauma-informed spaces that support students in processing complex reactions, developing critical literacy and cultivating hope.
About the speaker
An educator and trainer, Michaela Hendriks brings international experience and two decades of teaching expertise at a multicultural London FE college. Inspired by her training in trauma-informed teaching and peace education, she has developed a practice rooted in action research. Interaction with students who have experienced racism or supported it (or even both) led her to research anti-racist approaches in the language classroom, creating spaces for dialogue and critical thinking, resilience and hope.
Georgia K. Papamichailidou
Managing The TikTok Generation (Without Losing Your Mind!)
You can’t lead people the way you were lead. In this practical session, I explore how to manage staff members shaped by short attention spans, strong boundaries and shifting values. Walk away with practical ideas to strengthen team culture, enhance psychological safety, and foster engagement in fast-paced ELT environments.
About the speaker
Georgia K. Papamichailidou is an award-winning International Education Leader and public speaker based in the UK. She is Chair of English UK East, Trustee and Digital Committee Chair at IATEFL, where she leads the IATEFL Live! initiative and annual Themes Conference. Georgia regularly presents on leadership, professional development, wellbeing, and innovation in ELT. Her work focuses on helping educators and organisations thrive through reflective practice, emerging technologies, and human-centred leadership.
Ana Jereb
What sustains trainer capacity? A workshop
This interactive workshop explores trainer capacity as a systemic and relational phenomenon shaped by emotional labour, cognitive load, institutional consistency, and group dynamics. Through collaborative tasks and discussion, participants will examine what sustains or erodes trainer capacity in intensive teacher education contexts and identify practical ways to create more sustainable training environments.
About the speaker
Ana Jereb is a teacher educator, CELTA tutor, and workshop facilitator with over 20 years’ experience in English language teaching. She has taught and trained teachers in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and is particularly interested in sustainable teacher education, teacher wellbeing, and the role of systems in shaping both teacher and trainer capacity. Ana enjoys creating practical, interactive sessions that combine research, reflection, and real-world classroom experience
George Pickering
Supporting Teacher Trainers: A Call for Sector-wide Responsibility and Responses
ELT teacher training appears well supported. Yet many trainers enter the role without structured preparation, access to development is uneven, formal pathways are limited, and research is scarce. AI adds further urgency to improving the current situation.
About the speaker
George is a coach, consultant and trainer who has worked in 70 different countries in his career. He is a senior inspector for the British Council and the academic director of the English UK DELTM. He was the founding director of the Bell Teacher Training Campus, Cambridge and was a Trustee of IATEL for 12 years, for whom he is an ambassador. The views expressed in this talk are entirely his own and not those of any organisation he has worked with.
Rose Aylett
The Professional Playground: reimagining spaces for teacher learning and growth
This session explores alternatives to the traditional CPD talk or workshop, arguing for more inclusive, dialogic, and teacher-centred models of professional learning. Through examples such as AMAs, audio galleries, debates, panel discussions, film clubs and human libraries, it examines how diverse formats can amplify practitioner voices, promote co-constructed learning, and strengthen human connection in an increasingly digital world.
About the speaker
Rose Aylett is a teacher, trainer, and CELTA tutor based in Liverpool. She works globally as a freelance ELT consultant and is the course leader for NILE’s Global Citizenship in Language Education course. Her work focuses on critical pedagogy, global citizenship, social justice in English language teaching, and creative approaches to teacher education. A regular international conference speaker, she has delivered plenary sessions at the EAQUALS, IATEFL, and IH London Future of Training conferences.
Lucy Shakespeare
Multilingualism: The Elephant in the ELT Classroom
Is multilingualism still an elephant in the ELT classroom? This session explores how teachers understand and respond to multilingualism in their classrooms, drawing on an Action Research project in a private language school. Focusing on teacher beliefs, classroom practice, and professional development, it considers how teacher education can help challenge monolingual assumptions and support more inclusive approaches to language teaching.
About the speaker
My name is Lucy Shakespeare, and I’m currently working as an Assistant Academic Manager at Regent’s School of English in London. I have 12 years’ experience in EFL as a teacher, DELTA trainer and examiner, having worked in universities in Vietnam and Malaysia before moving to Italy. I’m also undertaking an MA in Applied Linguistics and ELT, with a particular interest in sociolinguistics, teacher education and linguistically inclusive approaches that value learners’ full linguistic repertoires.
Jane Maria Harding da Rosa
The Future of ELT May Not Be in ELT Classrooms: Rethinking teacher expertise in multilingual educational contexts
As multilingual classrooms become increasingly common, language development is no longer confined to English lessons. This practical and reflective session explores how ELT expertise, including scaffolding, mediation, interaction, and language-aware pedagogy, may increasingly need to move beyond traditional ELT classrooms. The session considers what these shifts mean for teacher expertise, professional identity, and the future of teacher education.
About the speaker
Jane Maria Harding da Rosa is an EAL and ELT consultant, teacher educator and founder of Enriching ELT. With over 30 years’ experience in language education, she now specialises in language-aware pedagogy, multilingual classrooms and teacher development across educational contexts. Jane works with schools, universities and international organisations, helping teachers make learning more accessible through practical, evidence-informed approaches.
Paul Ashe
Lessons from Live Online Teaching: Rethinking the Future of ELT
Live online teaching was a reality long before COVID, yet much practice still reflects Emergency Remote Teaching. Drawing on teacher and tutor research, this talk explores practical aspects which facilitate effective live online learning. It also examines wellbeing, inclusive practice through UDL, alternative pedagogies for digital contexts, and the growing need for greater professionalisation in online ELT.
About the speaker
Paul Ashe is an online educational consultant, teacher educator, and academic management tutor who works globally across the ELT sector. Since 1997 he has worked with teachers, educators, publishers, exam boards and ministries of education on large-scale online teacher training projects and regularly writes about and presents internationally on effective live online teaching, wellbeing, accessibility and the future of ELT. He is the founder of English Training Online
Adrian Webb
Rip it up and start again: Does mediation mean that we are training our teachers all wrong
About the speaker
Adrian has been working in the TEFL industry for almost 20 years as a teacher, teacher trainer and academic manager. He has worked in the UK, Malta and the MENA region for and is currently Director of Studies at Easy School of Languages in Valletta where he also leads the teacher training course Methodology for the Contemporary English Classroom.
Joanna Szoke
AI Literacy in Teacher Training - What Trainees Need to Know and Use
This hands-on workshop equips CELTA and university-based teacher trainers to help trainees use AI efficiently, safely, ethically, and responsibly. Through demo activities, participants will learn to build AI literacy in themselves and their trainees, address diverse emotional responses to AI, and develop their own training materials. Leave ready to integrate AI literacy into existing programs.
About the speaker
Jo’s a freelance teacher trainer, educational consultant, AI in Education specialist, and EFL teacher. She trains pre-service and in-service teachers at universities, language schools, and on Erasmus training programmes. She has also been working closely with international ELT publishers for years. Her co-written book on AI literacy development was published in 2025 by DELTA Publishing.
Irina Nosova
Teachers’ Pets: The Students We Warm To - and the Ones We Don’t
This session explores teacher preference in ELT classrooms: the students we naturally connect with, the learners we struggle to teach, and how these dynamics influence participation, attention, and opportunity. Through discussion and reflection, we will consider whether neutrality is realistic and how teachers can maintain fairness even when rapport differs between students.
About the speaker
Irina Nosova is a CELTA trainer and English language teacher based in Birmingham, UK, with over a decade of teaching experience. Since 2012, she has taught learners and trained teachers in a variety of international contexts. Her professional interests include teacher wellbeing, creative approaches to teaching speaking, and supporting teachers’ professional development.
Haneen Jadallah
Carrying Each Other's Stories: Reimagining Teacher Education Through Personal Story Theatre in Times of Crisis
Drawing on Voices Across Worlds, a British Council-supported project, this interactive workshop explores how personal story theatre can reimagine teacher education in times of crisis. Through video excerpts, practical activities, and two case studies, participants will engage with storytelling, performance, intercultural collaboration, and ethical facilitation as approaches for fostering empathy, reflection, meaningful professional learning, and responsible engagement with personal narratives.
About the speaker
Haneen Jadallah is a UK-based Palestinian researcher and educator from Gaza. She is a PhD researcher in Education Studies at the University of Warwick, where her work explores how online theatre and personal storytelling can support empathy and intercultural understanding. She also works as Project Coordinator for the ThirdGen research project at Warwick university.
Jacqueline Douglas and Alastair Douglas
True to yourself: helping teachers develop their professional identity through reflective practice
We will talk about fostering a growth mindset in teachers, first looking at related theory, and then practical aspects, providing you with research-based ideas and inspiring takeaways to try in your workplace. This is for you if you work with teachers in short- or long-term contexts, including specific programmes such as certificate and diploma courses.
About the speaker
Ben Goldstein
Inclusion and the Learning Environment: Teacher Tips and Takeaways
Inclusive practice is about creating the right atmosphere and building a sense of trust and belonging, a classroom culture where everyone feels valued. Students will feel more themselves and be more engaged if this safe space is created. This workshop will offer tips for designing that space with your students by encouraging peer learning, developing empathy and building community.
About the speaker
Ben is a writer, teacher, teacher trainer and conference speaker. He has taught on the MATESOL program of the New School, New York and the ITDI (International Teacher Development Institute). For students, he has authored different coursebook series including Eyes Open and Evolve (Cambridge). For teachers, he has published a number of methodological handbooks, the latest being 30 Ideas on Inclusion in ELT (Cambridge).
Kim Beadle
Ideas for developing teachers’ cultural intelligence
With increasingly diverse environments, equipping teachers, and subsequently their learners, with intercultural skills seems essential. However, training for teachers remains limited and lesson materials tend to focus on ‘country-level’ behaviours, not reflecting the nuance of ‘culture’ or intercultural communication. This workshop introduces ‘cultural intelligence’, an evolving capability for navigating intercultural situations, providing practical training ideas to use in your context.
About the speaker
Kim has been in the industry for 19 years mainly with the British Council, working in Mexico, Hong Kong and now in Spain. She has done a range of roles and qualifications in teaching, training, skills development and leadership. She currently sits on the British Council’s ‘Global Teaching Excellence’ team as thought leadership lead and is a regular presenter at ELT conferences and events.
Richard Chinn, Anna Lyons and Dani Kabbani
We all know what emergent language is, don't we? Maximising EL in a changing ELT landscape
As ELT goals evolve, it is increasingly important to recognise learners and contexts as sources of the syllabus, and EL offers one way to address this challenge. Yet, despite being widely valued, EL is often addressed opportunistically rather than systematically. Drawing on teachers’ reflections from an Action Research project, this session explores how EL can be embedded more effectively and sustainably.
About the speakers
Richard is a teacher educator working at King’s College London and International House London. His professional interests include: working with emergent language, classroom interaction, teacher development, and how teachers use materials in class. He is co-author of the book ‘Working with Emergent Language’ published by Pavilion ELT, 2023.
Anna is a General English and Exam English Teacher working at International House London. She is especially interested in emergent language, student engagement and encouraging student autonomy. She is currently experimenting with including students in lesson planning and exploring emergent language. She enjoys attending conferences and speaking to other teachers about their experiences.
Dani is an English language teacher based at International House London, working with adult learners in the classroom and online. His professional interests include Dogme ELT, working with emergent language, learner training, and the reactive use of AI in class. He is particularly interested in creative materials design and developing responsive, emergent syllabuses.
Any questions?
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Drop us an email at conference@ihlondon.com and our team will be happy to help with anything.
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