Mike Nicholson (Progressive Masculinity) - 'Exploring Masculinities'
This session challenges our perceptions of masculinity and explores the impact of 'upstream' strategies by focussing on three key questions:
• What are the prevalent views of masculinity amongst many of our young people?
• What socio-cultural factors are shaping these views?
What evidence-based strategies can we employ to challenge regressive, dominance-based models of masculinity and promote a healthier, more aspirational understanding of what it can mean to 'be a man' in today's world.
About Mike
After an 18-year teaching career Mike founded Progressive Masculinity in order to create safe, nonjudgemental spaces to explore what it can mean to be a man in today's world. With 4 billion men in the world Progressive Masculinity believes there can be 4 billion different ways to be a man; their work gives boys/young men the freedom and agency to design the kind of man, friend, partner and fathers they wish to be.
Professor Patricia Mannix-Macnamara - Leading with Heart in a Complex World: Culture, Values, and Thriving in Practice
The modern landscape of education leadership is defined by unparalleled levels of change. Post pandemic we see previously under-considered challenges for school leadership, not least of which are profound shifts in expectations around work, well-being, connection, belonging and organisational commitment/service. Leaders find themselves navigating cultural paradoxes such as expectations of being decisive yet distributive; rebuilding trust in cultures that are less trusting of leaders; responding to work life balance for teachers while experiencing exponential levels of burnout themselves; balancing relational depth with work imperatives and fairness; being cultural architects in often entrenched cultural norms. Culture is not static, it is people created, dynamic, and often contradictory. Culture shapes values, behaviours, and leadership sustainability in ways that demand nuanced understanding. Policy is often A-cultural in its design, and yet effective navigation of culture lies at the heart of implementation success. Our people culture is both a critical asset and a profound challenge.
Drawing on research and the Irish perspective, this input will examine how personal leadership culture, depth-full and explicitly articulated leadership values and courage in cultural leadership are key to sustained school leadership that allows space for flourishing. Courage etymology is ‘of the heart.’ Leading with heart is about recalibrating our leadership to anchoring in purpose and self-trust, in effect, a recalibration of our ‘leadership centre of gravity,’ shifting from traditional authority and control toward values-driven practice and the freedom to be courageous in our leadership.
About Patricia
Patricia Mannix McNamara holds an established chair in Education Leadership at the University of Limerick in Ireland. She began her career as a teacher of English and Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) in post-primary schools. She led curriculum change and innovation in health education while in the post-primary sector. Patricia embarked upon an academic career in the late 90’s. Upon joining the University of Limerick, she developed the Graduate Diploma & master’s in health education and Promotion; the Diploma in Drug and Alcohol Studies, the Postgraduate Diploma in School Leadership, the Master’s in School Leadership and the Master’s in International Education Leadership, and the PhD in Education Leadership. She established and leads the Education Leadership and Learning Academy (ELLA) and the Behaviour in Organizations Research Group (BORG). She is an experienced leader having been Head of School and Deputy Head of School for over a decade. She has held honorary professorships in Belgium, (the Catholic University Leuven), France (University of Clermont Ferrand) and Norway (Western University of Applied Sciences).
She is perhaps best known, both nationally and internationally, for her work in organisational culture and workplace bullying and incivility. With over 80 peer reviewed journal papers, 4 books and another underway, 16 book chapters, and over 100 conference papers, she is a regular keynote speaker at national an international conferences. She co-hosts a very successful leadership podcast (Leadership Unwrapped) and when time permits, she shares her skills as a life-coach with school leaders pro bono in Ireland and she also works with school leaders who experience complex people cultures providing support and strategy development.
Gavin Oattes – Tree of Knowledge - Confidently Lost
Confidently Lost is Gavin Oattes at full power, a 60-minute joyride through the glorious chaos of being human. It won’t hold your hand, whisper sweet nothings about manifesting your best life or offer up a vision board smeared in yak milk on a Peruvian mountaintop.
This is real life. The mess. The mayhem. The magnificent overwhelm.
With his trademark blend of raw honesty, razor-sharp humour, and absolutely no tolerance for self-help fluff, bestselling author and acclaimed speaker Gavin Oattes invites you to embrace the glorious mess of being human.
About Gavin
Gavin is a truly motivational speaker. A former teacher, he is now highly sought after by the world’s leading brands, effortlessly leading audiences on an uplifting journey of self-reflection, igniting fires in the bellies of each and every individual.
Delivering on themes such as leadership, engagement, resilience and wellbeing, he has inspired millions of people to rediscover and embrace their “wee piece of magic”.
Gavin’s brand new book, Confidently Lost: Finding joy in the chaos and rediscovering what matters most, lands in October 2025, available online and in all good bookshops.