Panel discussion
Challenging hate, Building hope: the roles of teachers and education for Citizenship

Sabina Kadic-Mackenzie
Beyond Srebrenica

Sabina Kadić-Mackenzie is a Bosnian-born senior communications professional and social justice campaigner best known for her leadership of the Scottish charity Beyond Srebrenica, where she serves as chair of trustees. The organisation raises awareness of the Bosnia war and the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, promoting tolerance, education and remembrance in Scotland and beyond.
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Sabina’s lived experience of conflict and displacement has deeply influenced her advocacy. Under her leadership, Beyond Srebrenica has expanded its educational programmes and commemorative activities, reaching thousands of pupils and wider
communities to ensure the lessons of genocide and prejudice are understood by future generations.
Professionally, Sabina is a senior partner at Charlotte Street Partners, advising some of the world’s best-known brands and institutions on communications, strategy, risk and crisis management.

Professor Bryony Hoskins
G-EPIC Project, Roehampton University

Professor Bryony Hoskins has a chair in Comparative Social Science at the University of Roehampton. She is a world-leading expert on Citizenship Education, how inequalities shape political socialisation and testing education interventions to increase the citizenship competences of girls and disadvantaged students. She leads various international research projects including the Gender Empowerment through Politics in Classrooms (G-EPIC) 5 lesson intervention that supported disadvantaged girls to increase their confidence in political engagement across 5 countries and funded by UKRI/EU Horizon.
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She works with international and national organisations to ensure that her research results are translated into policy and teaching practices. At the national level Professor Hoskins is working with ACT to ensure the long term legacy of G-EPIC teachers network and resources. At the international level, she is currently working with the OECD to develop indicators
on inclusive education and the Council of Europe on developing Gender Inequality in Education national and school self-evaluation scorecards.

Female Voices
John McCloskey and students from Our Lady and St Patrick’s College Knock

John’s current project, Female Voices, is a student‑led challenge to sexism and misogyny across education and society. Along with a group of his students, John delivered this interactive session, which showcases the Female Voices project’s pioneering work in amplifying female voices and challenging misogyny in education.

Participants explored strategies for fostering democratic agency and modelling active citizenship, and left with practical resources and approaches to facilitate student-led initiatives and embed gender equality in classrooms and beyond.
About John
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John is a teacher of 15 years with experience in Spain, London and Northern Ireland, and is now Head of Religious Education at Our Lady and St Patrick’s College, Knock. He creates platforms for young people to speak about what matters to them, beginning with Religious Voices and later Refugee Voices, a film and resource series highlighting
refugee experiences in NI. In 2022 he received the ACT Secondary Teacher of the Year award.

Workshops

Workshop 1: Lessons from a Divided Nation

Steph Morrison, Beyond Srebrenica, Scotland
Beyond Srebrenica is a Scottish genocide-education charity which delivered an interactive workshop introducing their new digital resource based on Inseparable: Lessons from a Nation Divided.

Using drama clips and lesson plans, the session supports citizenship and oracy, tackles hate and intolerance, links to the conference theme, and offers practical,
classroom-ready tools for teachers. 

About Steph: Steph is a teacher of History in Aberdeen. She is passionate about
the pedagogies around teaching ‘difficult histories’ and also studied African American Slavery at the University of Aberdeen. She is a Board Member of Beyond Srebrenica and has visited Sarajevo on delegations to meet survivors and those generations living with the impact of the past conflict. She also does much work with the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Workshop 2: From Hope into Action: Building Solidarity and
Resilience in Countering Misogyny

Steph Hanlon, Carlow College, St. Patrick’s, Ireland
This session offers case studies to spark discussion on the practical dimensions of feminist activism and the roles teachers can play in grassroots campaigns. Drawing on experience across issues such as anti-racism, LGBTQ rights, domestic violence, and anti-deportation, it highlights how citizenship education can centre solidarity, empower students, and respond to current democratic challenges, including rising misogyny.
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About Steph: Steph Hanlon is Programme Director of Social, Political and Community
Studies and the Higher Diploma in Politics and Society at Carlow College St.
Patrick’s. She is also a doctoral researcher at University College Dublin’s School
of Social Policy, specialising in citizenship and migration studies. With nine years
of teaching experience in higher education and over a decade working with civil
society organisations on women’s rights and anti-racism, Steph is committed to
transformative education and Freirean pedagogy in her teaching practice.
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Her research also examines strategies of misinformation and disinformation in
contemporary Ireland. Steph has presented on the government response to far-right
extremism to the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and
Youth, and consults with Education and Training Boards across Ireland on responding
to far-right disinformation.

Workshop 3: Good Intentions, Partial Progress: Rethinking
LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Education

Ian Timbrell, More than Flags and Rainbows, Wales
This interactive workshop examines how well-intentioned school responses to homophobia have sometimes reinforced harm rather than reduced it. Through reflection, case studies and structured dialogue, participants will explore what these missteps teach us about citizenship education, and take away practical strategies for deeper, more effective civic action in schools.
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About Ian: Ian Timbrell is the Founder of More Than Flags and Rainbows, a not-for-profit specialising in supporting schools to develop an inclusive curriculum and strengthen LGBTQ+ inclusion. A former deputy headteacher and local authority adviser, he is the author of It’s More Than Flags and Rainbows, a practical guide to helping schools usualise diverse families and create safer, more welcoming environments. Drawing on 17 years of experience in education, Ian works with schools, trusts, and organisations to build confidence, improve practice, and equip  educators with the language and strategies they need to ensure every child feels seen, valued, and supported.

Workshop 4: ​Countering Racism and Misogynoir in Schools: Centering Black Girls Through Active Citizenship

Jamila Thompson, King’s College London, England
This session explored race and misogynoir in schools, drawing on Jamila’s research with Race on the Agenda, Interrogating the Experiences of Race, Racism and Misogynoir for Black Girls in Education. With reference to “Child Q”, the session addressed racialised harm, and offer strategies to engage students critically, and to promote social justice and inclusive learning within the curriculum.

About Jamila: Jamila Thompson is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Birkbeck, University of London, and a Research Assistant in the School of Education, Communication and Society at King’s College London, working on the Understanding Colourism Among Young People in the UK project. She has also conducted community‑based education research and published reports with organisations including BLAM UK and Race on the Agenda. Jamila contributes to the All‑Party Parliamentary Group for Race Equality in Education, where she has presented on issues of racial equity in education, as well as curriculum and safeguarding reform. A former teacher, Jamila has held roles such as Head of Sociology, Ethnic Minority Coordinator, and ECT Mentor, and has taught Citizenship (Years 7–10) and History.

Workshop 5: ​Advancing Gender Equality Through a Children’s Rights Approach: Insights from Children’s Parliament

​Jack Stancliffe, Children’s Parliament, Scotland
This interactive talk explored a children’s rights-based approach to addressing gender inequality across both the taught curriculum and children’s lived experiences in school. It reflected on a Children’s Parliament research
project on gender inequality, through which a theory of change was co-created with children across Scotland. The project captured everyday experiences and identified meaningful ways in which learning settings can respond and improve.

Building on this, we reflected on the implementation of these findings through a whole-school project in Stranraer. This project used creative and disruptive pedagogies to critically examine gender within the school community, while grounding all activity in the concept of dignity. These pedagogies promoted dialogue, agency, belonging and active citizenship, while directly challenging misogyny. Practical resources were shared with teachers for use in their classrooms.

About Jack: Jack Stancliffe is a Scotland-based project producer and practitioner specialising in children’s rights, participatory arts practice and education, working across schools, cultural organisations and public-sector partnerships. He currently works with Children’s Parliament, contributing to a range of rights-based programmes and projects in schools that support dignity, participation and child-centred learning. This work focuses on making children’s rights meaningful in everyday school life and ensuring pupils’ voices are actively heard, respected and embedded within learning cultures, decision-making and curriculum practice.