Karen Yager has over 25 years’ experience in education in the public and private sectors and over 18 years in leadership. Karen has provided critical advice to NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) on syllabus implementation and development and is a life member and vice president of the English Teachers Association NSW. Karen is the 2022 president of the Professional Teachers’ Council NSW (PTC), vice president of the Australian Professional Teachers Association (APTA), and the 2023 president-elect of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE).
In 2006, Karen was awarded the NSW Premier’s Scholarship to travel to the UK to research using Shakespeare in schools. She has published three English texts with the Oxford University Press, winning a national publishing award. In 2020, Karen was awarded the National Reading Australia fellowship to research how to improve student writing and created a website of resources developed for primary and secondary teachers.
In 2020, she received a leadership scholarship to travel to China to visit leading schools. Karen is a Lab Champion for Learning Creates Australia that is researching alternative credentials for pupils.
Karen’s ongoing commitment to education is evidenced by the recognition she has received. She was awarded the first International Teaching Fellowship by the Singapore Ministry of Education in 2011, the NSW PTC award in 2009, the APTA award in 2014 for her contribution to the teaching profession in 2021, the NSW PTC award for exceptional contribution to the teaching profession over a significant period, and in 2022, she was awarded the NSW Teachers’ Guild fellowship.
Karen is currently doing a PhD focusing on how an effective professional learning model can enable teachers to foster global competency and academic excellence. With an emphasis on developing each student’s unique strengths, agency and voice, Mrs Yager will continue to nurture, grow, and inspire our Hills Originals to achieve their potential for greatness.
About this Session
“To succeed in this ever-changing world, students need to be able to think like entrepreneurs: resourceful, flexible, creative, and global” (Professor Yong Zhao, University of Kansas).
When young people leave school, they will be facing a complex, dynamic, and uncertain world that will require them to be resilient, courageous, and agentic. The literature confirms that the last two years of COVID and the uncertainty that has been caused by this pandemic have impacted the wellbeing of young people. The Education Council (2020) reports that young people are becoming increasingly anxious about the uncertainty of their futures. Our young people know they are inheriting global challenges, such as climate change, international conflict, and health epidemics. The rate of change in society and the workplace is such that all we can say for certain is the future will be very different.
What is needed in schools is a focus on supporting our students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and the crucial enterprise and life skills of creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, citizenship, and collaboration.
What is becoming increasingly evident, is that schools need to find ways to enable young people to find ways to cope with this uncertainty and experience greater hope and optimism. According to Jan Owen from Learning Australia (2022) at a recent AIS Conference, for young people to flourish and experience wellbeing, they need to experience mastery, agency, and purpose.
This presentation will share the approaches that Hills is currently using and implementing in 2023 to enable our young people to develop resilience, courage, agency, and hope so they can meet the demands of our complex future.
Session Date and Time
Venue: Hills Grammar - Details provided to Registrants prior to the event
Date: Term 1, Week 6B, Tuesday 7 March
Time: 6 – 7.30pm
Click here to RSVP
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