Familiar faces
As the 15th anniversary of EAPRIL unfolds, it's exciting to see familiar faces return to this vibrant conference year after year. In this blog post, we hear from two long-time attendees, Lia Spreeuwenberg and Maria Custers (Fontys University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands). We were curious to find out what inspired Lia and Maria to visit our lovely conference again. Here’s what they said.
When did you first visit EAPRIL?
Lia: I think my first visit to EAPRIL was in 2013 or 2014. It was 2015 when I first visited EAPRIL in my role as program manager of the Master Learning and Innovation (MLI) of Aeres Wageningen in the Nederlands. In that year, we decided that students would have to participate in this conference as part of their educational program. So, we went to this conference with all of our first year students. These students are all professionals in the field of education or learning & development. They bring in their practical knowledge. We thought, it would be very helpful for them to be part of this conference and as such become acquainted with practice based research(ers).
Maria: That was 8 years ago, in 2016. It was the Porto edition. I have lovely memories about that first visit. We went there with our entire cohort of the MLI, like Lia explained. I was a first year Master student back then and had to present a ‘round table’ as part of the educational program of the MLI. Everyone was super nervous. Some were insecure about their English language skills, others were afraid they would not be able to answer difficult questions. To me, this round table felt like a formal introduction to academia. I got the hang of it and figured: ‘I did this once, I can do it again’. So that’s why I decided to write a proposal for the next edition in Finland. And the year after and after, until this year on.
How did you find out about EAPRIL?
Lia: It was Frank de Jong who introduced me and my former colleagues to EAPRIL. His enthusiasm about this community and event convinced us to integrate this in our study program.
Why do you keep coming back?
Maria: I just really like the atmosphere. The people you meet at EAPRIL really know practice and therefore present research work that is suited to practice. I sometimes miss that in other conferences, where I feel it’s more about the data than the practice.
Because of my role in the MLI, I participated in the conference together with the first-year students every year. What inspires me, also this year, is that many of these people who first came into contact with EAPRIL through the MLI now also have their own contributions to the conference. Such as Maria, who is working on a design-oriented research study into responsive curriculum design and had a spotlight session this week. And for example, Annabel Hofhuis, who, gave a workshop this week as well as a paper presentation on the application of an art-based framework for finding answers to complex issues. Hanke Leeuw, the current training manager of the MLI of Aeres, wrote a nice post about this on LinkedIn: Plaatsen | Feed | LinkedIn
What is the added value of EAPRIL to you?
Lia: The connections that were made back then, are still alive today. That not only goes for my own network, but that of (former) students as well. Several students started to feel passionate about doing practice-oriented research themselves and were inspired to develop themselves further in that field. And I also see many former MLI members who keep coming back to EAPRIL because of their current work. To gain ideas, to find new sparring partners, to network, to collaborate, and to take another step forward as a reflective professional. That is also what these conference visits mean to me.
Maria: After my study program at the MLI, I got involved in several practice-oriented research projects in the fields of boundary crossing, responsive learning environment design and the integration of research in education. For me, conference contributions are always a nice motivator and something to work towards. Also now, in my PhD project, the EAPRIL community is highly valuable. I research how to optimally support design teams in curriculum co-design towards more responsive education. Especially the discussions I have with my colleagues in CLOUD 2 on Educators’ professional development, progress my thinking and help me move forward with the supports my colleagues and I are developing for teachers that engage in participative curriculum design.
So, you can expect to see us back next year at EAPRIL2025 in Malta!
