Over the course of one month, I attended four conferences: the Centre for Research in Education and Social Transformation (CREST) Conference, the Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching (TILT) Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, The International Education Studies Association (TIESA) Annual Conference, and the Horizons in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Higher Education Conference.

Although each conference had a different focus and audience, together they provided opportunities to share ideas, hear new perspectives, and reflect on how we create communities around teaching and scholarship.

It can be tempting to measure the value of a conference by the number of presentations attended, contacts made, or pages of notes collected. Looking back, however, the moments that stayed with me were those that shifted my perspective or encouraged me to think differently. Each of the four conferences offered a distinct highlight.

CREST: Seeing science scholarship through an education lens

At the Centre for Research in Education and Social Transformation Conference, I shared work from my doctoral research exploring how teaching and scholarship careers are understood and valued within United Kingdom biosciences. As CREST is a general education research conference, rather than one focused specifically on science or STEM, I was presenting the work to an audience with different disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives.

This made the conversations particularly interesting. The questions and observations encouraged me to consider how ideas rooted in the experiences of bioscience academics might be understood from a broader education viewpoint. Colleagues engaged with the educational structures, identities, and inequalities underpinning the research, rather than approaching it primarily through the disciplinary context of science.

As someone whose work sits between bioscience and education, these discussions were a valuable reminder of the benefits of taking research beyond its immediate disciplinary community. Moving outside familiar spaces can expose assumptions that might otherwise remain unexamined and can reveal new ways of interpreting the same findings.

TILT: Exploring what counts and who decides

At the Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, I facilitated a workshop titled What Counts, and Who Decides? A Co-produced Signals Map of Teaching and Scholarship Recognition.

The workshop invited participants to consider the different signals academics receive about which forms of work are recognised and rewarded. These signals may be formal, such as promotion criteria, job descriptions, or workload models, but they can also be communicated informally through institutional language, everyday conversations, and assumptions about what academic success should look like.

The highlight was seeing participants collectively identify and discuss these signals. Ideas that can appear abstract when written about became much more concrete when connected to people’s experiences. The session also demonstrated that the same policy or process may be interpreted differently depending on an individual’s role, career stage, or institutional position.

These conversations reinforced the importance of involving academic communities in discussions about recognition. If we want to understand what institutions truly value, it is not enough to examine what is written in formal documents. We also need to listen to how those messages are received and experienced by the people working within them.

TIESA: Creating connection through crochet

My highlight from The International Education Studies Association Annual Conference was rather different. Alongside the formal conference programme, I ran a knitting and crochet corner to offer attendees another way to participate in the conference environment.

I was delighted to see so many people stop by, have a conversation, and give knitting or crochet a try. Some people remained at the corner, while others took their work with them and continued crafting as they listened to presentations. I also spent the conference crocheting a rainbow, which became a small but colourful feature of the space.

Academic conferences often rely on a relatively narrow model of participation, involving sitting still, listening, taking notes, and moving between scheduled sessions. However, people engage, concentrate, and connect in different ways. For some attendees, keeping their hands occupied can support concentration. For others, a shared activity provides a more relaxed and less intimidating way to begin a conversation.

The crochet corner was a small intervention, but it prompted some lovely conversations and helped create a sense of connection. It was a reminder that inclusion is not only something we discuss in presentations or include in conference statements. It is also shaped by the practical decisions we make about spaces, activities, and the ways people are invited to take part.

Horizons in STEM: Recognising shared challenges

My final conference of the month was the Horizons in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Higher Education Conference. Here, what stood out was the extent to which issues emerging from my research in a bioscience context were echoed across the wider STEM community.

Although disciplinary cultures differ, colleagues working across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics recognised many of the same challenges around teaching-focused academic identities, career progression, recognition, and the relationship between teaching and research. Concerns that can initially appear specific to bioscience were instead part of a much wider conversation.

This was both reassuring and challenging. It demonstrated that these experiences are not isolated, but it also suggested that the structures producing them may be deeply embedded across STEM higher education. Addressing them will therefore require conversations that extend beyond individual courses, departments, or disciplines.

Finding these connections also creates opportunities. If academics across STEM are encountering similar challenges, there is considerable value in developing shared language, exchanging evidence, and learning from approaches being tested in different disciplinary communities.

Looking across the four conferences

Across the four conferences, the recurring themes were perspective and connection. The Centre for Research in Education and Social Transformation Conference allowed me to see a science-based research problem through a broader education lens. The Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching Conference provided an opportunity to explore how institutional signals are collectively interpreted. The International Education Studies Association Conference demonstrated how a simple creative activity could support inclusion and connection. Finally, the Horizons in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Higher Education Conference showed that issues identified within bioscience are echoed across a much wider disciplinary community.

Together, these experiences reminded me that scholarship does not develop only through reading, data analysis, and writing. It also develops through conversation, challenge, experimentation, and opportunities to encounter our work from different perspectives.

Four conferences in one month was certainly busy, but each offered something distinct. I returned with new questions, wider connections, and a stronger appreciation of the different communities that contribute to teaching and scholarship within and beyond bioscience.