Keynote Speakers

Takayoshi Maki, Ph.D. is a Professor of Human Resource Development for Education at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan. His research focuses on teacher education reform, teacher educators’ identities, comparative education, and educational equity, particularly in Asia and Africa. He has extensive academic and research experience in Southeast Asia, including studies at Chulalongkorn University as an exchange student, service as a visiting researcher at the Thai Ministry of Education, work as a visiting scholar at Mae Fah Luang University, and an appointment as a Visiting Professor at Yogyakarta State University, Indonesia. In addition to his work in graduate education, he teaches in the Multicultural and Global Education Program in the School of Education. Professor Maki currently leads several research projects supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), including a comparative study of teacher educators’ identities and professional lives in Asia and Africa and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) project on equitable teacher education in remote and small schools across mainland Southeast Asia. He has also contributed to research on teacher policy, university admissions, educational disparities, overseas Chinese communities, multicultural education in Japan, and the KOSEN. His research laboratory brings together traditional and non-traditional teacher educators from Asia and Africa and is guided by the motto, “Research as My Daily Meal.”

Sean White is professor of English Communication in the Faculty of Business Administration and Interfaculty English Communication Course at Ryukoku University, Kyoto. He received his Ph.D. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University of Kansas, USA, and M.Ed. in Japanese Language Education from Shimane University, Japan. He has taught English in Japanese higher education for more than 25 years, with the last 15 involving internet and mobile technology-based virtual exchange. In addition to teaching at Ryukoku, he has served as Dean of the university’s International Center and Executive Board Member of the Center for the Promotion of Global Education. His research interests include reading and writing instruction, technology and culture in language education, and educational policy.

Invited Speakers