Professor Michael W. Apple is the John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is also the Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London; and World Scholar and Distinguished Professor of Educational Policy Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai.

Professor Apple teaches courses in curriculum theory and research and in the sociology of curriculum. His major interests lie in the relationship between culture and power in education. He has served as Vice-President of the American Educational Research Association and has been honored with national and organizational awards for his outstanding contributions and research in education. He is author of numerous books on education, power, culture, ideology and curriculum. His current research centers on the limits and possibilities of critical educational policy and practice in a time of conservative restoration. Some of his most recent books include: Educating The “Right” Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality, 2nd edition (2006); Global Crises, Social Justice and Education (2010).

A former elementary and secondary school teacher and past-president of a teachers union, Professor Apple has spent more than three decades working with educators, governments and unions in the field of education to democratize educational research, policy, and practice and is widely recognized as one of the 50 most important educational scholars of the 20th century. His teaching, lectures, talks and material have been extremely influential in the development of more democratic educational policies and practices.

Professor Apple has been variously described as insightful, progressive, contemporary, and a critical educator; but he is certainly one of the significant, influential modern education theorists.

Professor Dato’ Dr Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid is the Deputy President/ Deputy Vice Chancellor INTI-UC Laureate International Universities (INTI International University) and Professor of Management, Education and the Social Sciences. Professor Bajunid is the First Director of the Regional Center for Educational Planning (UNESCO-RCEP), Al Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. He was Professor of Management, Leadership and Policy Studies and the Founding Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at University Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) for seven years before taking the post of Director, RCEP. He is the former Director of Institut Aminuddin Baki (IAB) – The National Institute of Educational Management and Leadership. He was a member of the Task Force that established Institute Aminuddin Baki in 1979.

For more than two and a half decades, Professor Bajunid has been a key figure in the Field of Educational Management and Leadership in Malaysia and exercises many leadership roles and has provided services as consultant in policy-making governmental committees, private sector and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). He was President of the Senior Educators’ Association, Fellow of the Council of Education Management in Commonwealth Countries, Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, Fellow Emeritus of the National Institute of Educational Management and Leadership (IAB), Fellow of the National Research Institute on Youth, Senior Fellow of the Malaysian Social Institute, Consultant Fellow of the International Institute of Educational Planning (IIEP). Member of the Advisory Board of Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC), Hong Kong Institute of Education, and, Honorary Life Member of the Malaysian Association for Music Education (MAME). He was actively involved as a Trade Union leader and is currently leading professional associations, including, as President of the Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management (MIHRM), Malaysian Association for Education (MAE), and, the Malaysian Educational Management and Leadership Association, and Board Member and President Elect of the Asia–Pacific Educational Research Association (APERA).

He has been a consultant in Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Botswana, and Cambodia and had the opportunity of contributing to the activities of UNESCO, UNDP, ASEAN Council of Teachers (ACT), and Education International (EI).

Professor Bajunid is Editor and Editorial Advisor for several educational journals, locally and internationally. He has presented keynote addresses at various national and international conferences in Malaysia and abroad. He was the National Advisor/Consultant for Asia–Europe Initiative on Lifelong Learning in Malaysia, and, is currently engaged in several research projects and is supervising several Masters and Doctoral scholars. Professor Bajunid is on the Academic Advisory Boards in several national universities. He has written over five hundred articles and academic papers covering significant issues in national development relating to education, social and intellectual capital creation, the strengthening of families and communities, and the enhancement of human potentialities. He has been a Panelist in many public media fora discussing issues on education, human resources development, and societal change. He was a regular columnist in the New Straits/Sunday Times with a weekly column every Sunday, titled, ‘As I Wonder’. His latest publication is Bajunid, I. A (2008) (ed.). Malaysia – From Traditional to Smart Schools – The Malaysian Educational Odyssey. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford Fajar Sdn. Bhd.

Professor Bajunid has also been recognized by the Malaysian Historical Society and the Malaysian Library Association for his contributions to the promotion of historical literacy and knowledge culture respectively. He has been recognized for contributions to the Teachers Trade Union Movement by the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP), as well as by the Malaysian Association of Music Educators (MAME) for his support of their works. He is Member of the National Committee on the Study, Review and Reform of Higher Education in Malaysia. He is Adjunct/Visiting Professor at several universities. He has exercised several key roles pertaining to the National Quality Agenda in Education in the Educational Quality Journey over the last two and a half decades particularly in initiating Training Programmes, in Quality Control Circles, Quality Control, Quality Assurance, and in Total Quality Management in Education. He has been involved in the National Accreditation Board and Malaysian Qualifications Agency Processes both as practitioner and as member of the wider policy making community (in the education bureaucracy, in private sector education leadership and as contributor from the Non Governmental Organization Stakeholder – the Professional Association Sector).

Professor Dr. Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid is the recipient of the “Tokoh Kepimpinan Pendidikan Kebangsaan” the National Educational Leadership Award, the highest Educational Leadership Award in Malaysia granted/awarded only to a few individuals who have demonstrated distinguished and exemplary leadership across institutional, national and international contexts

Professor Philip Hallinger is the Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, China. Professor Philip Hallinger is recognized internationally as an innovator in leadership development. A prolific author, trainer and consultant, he has lived in Asia for the past 18 years and works extensively with both private and public sector organizations. Prior to joining Hong Kong Institute of Education in 2008, Professor Philip Hallinger served as Chief Academic Officer and Professor of Management in College of Management at Mahidol University, Thailand from 2000 to 2008. From 1987 to 2000 he was Professor of Leadership and Organization and Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Educational Leadership at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA.

Professor Hallinger is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of Educational Leadership and Change. He has published 10 books, 35 book chapters, over 100 journal articles on leadership and management including 30 in SSCI journals and twice serving as a Senior Co-editor of the International Handbook of Research in Educational Leadership and Administration. He has co-authored the most widely cited series of reviews of empirical research on school leadership published in the field.

Professor Hallinger is acknowledged as an innovation leader in the areas of instructional leadership, educational change, leadership development, and school improvement. He authored the Principal Instructional Leadership Rating Scale (PIMRS), the most widely used survey instrument in the world employed internationally by researchers for measuring school/ instructional leadership. More than 125 doctoral dissertations have used the PIMRS internationally.

Professor Hallinger, with collaborator Prof. Edwin Bridges, pioneered the use of problem-based learning in management education and has trained professors from throughout the world in the use of PBL. Most recently, he led in design and implementation of a “problem-based learning track” in a large Master of Management degree program in Asia. He authored a series of problem-based, computer simulations for use in management education that have been translated and adapted into Thai, Korean, Malay and several European languages.

He has been instrumental in stimulating the initiation and development of school leadership development centers in the USA, Canada , Thailand , Singapore , Malaysia , Hong Kong , Taiwan and Australia . He has been selected by education ministries in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand to be personally responsible for designing and implementing (i.e., training) induction and professional development programs for large numbers of school principals. As Chief Academic Officer of the College of Management, Mahidol University, he led the development of a highly successful student-centered graduate program in management education.

Dr Phuong-Mai Nguyen, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands, is an Interculturalist and a Researcher. She started her career as a journalist in Viet Nam and traveled extensively around the world. She obtained her PhD in intercultural communication and education from Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
As a journalist and a researcher, she has been publishing broadly both, in Viet Nam and foreign countries. Dr Nguyen currently teaches Cross-culture Management at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences where she is involved in a variety of research projects on Multi/Cross-cultural education. Her own agency Culture-Move delivers consultancy and training in international negotiation and management.