Learning together: Reflections from the FOOTT PRINTTS Conference in Vienna, 26-28 May 26

Chrissi Nerantzi, Professor of Creative and Open Education and founder of the Imaginative Curriculum research centre, has recently attended the FOOTT PRINTTS Conference.

While attending this conference, Chrissi served as the opening keynote speaker, attended sessions and workshops, connected with other attendees, and on her return, Chrissi has kindly shared some of her experiences.

I have just returned from the FOOTT PRINTTS Conference in Vienna, part of the Erasmus+ project FOOTT PRINTTS – Focus on Teacher Training. The project brought together partners from seven European countries and aimed to strengthen continuing professional development (CPD). The project has generated a rich range of outputs, including empirical research and the CPD Success Factors Framework  designed to make a difference to professional learning of teachers in different settings. Learning how the framework is already being used in practice was enlightening. In one of the workshops led by Rikke Lübæch Christensen & Anders Møller Jakobsen from the Aalborg Municipality, Denmark, ‘Planning CPD in Technology using the FOOTT PRINTTS Framework’, we learnt how the framework supports teachers in developing their understanding and use of AI in schools. The lighthouse approach to scaling CPD offered concrete insights into implementation. This grounding in practice created a strong connection between research, experimentation and everyday professional learning, with clear potential to make a difference in schools.

The conference brought together colleagues and students from 17 countries, creating a vibrant and diverse space for exchange.

I felt honoured to contribute as the opening keynote speaker. In my keynote ‘Facts, Fairytales and Freedoms’, delivered in a room named after the actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr, I reflected on her achievements across the arts and sciences and her generosity. Through these three lenses, I invited participants to think about professional learning and to consider how challenges can become opportunities for curiosity, creativity and connection. I created space to start reimagining familiar (fairy)tales in ways that empower educators and their students, bring us together in a community and deepen boundary-crossing connections. Our new Imaginative Curriculum Centre aims at doing exactly that. I am grateful for the active participation throughout the session and for sharing the experience of tasting kumquat together.

The second keynote speaker, Cormac Noonan, Founder and CEO of the Wolf Academy, offered a complementary perspective, focusing on wellbeing and heart intelligence and the important role these play in education. His contribution deepened the human dimension of the conference, drawing attention to the importance of caring for how educators feel, how they connect with themselves, and how they relate to others in their professional lives.

Throughout the conference, there was a strong sense of shared purpose. Sessions and workshops emphasised professional learning as relational, situated and meaningful. Ideas were explored through dialogue, collaboration and reflection, creating opportunities to learn with and from one another.

For me, conferences like this matter because of the connections they enable. Conversations unfolded between sessions, during workshops and in informal moments. These exchanges supported the sharing of experiences, the testing of ideas and the formation of new relationships. A sense of creativity and openness ran through the event. Music, conversation and thoughtful facilitation contributed to an atmosphere where people could engage and contribute in diverse ways.

A heartfelt thank you to Dirk, Anna, Georgia and the whole FOOTT PRINTTS team, as well as colleagues from the University College of Teacher Education in Vienna, for organising such a thoughtful and engaging conference. Thank you also to Christian, whose care and attention as sound engineer made a real difference to my experience.

The FOOTT PRINTTS project and conference show what becomes possible when research, practice and community come together with purpose. I return with new ideas, new connections and a renewed appreciation for professional learning as something we do together.

Click here to learn more about the Imaginative Curriculum research centre at the School of Education.