Two outstanding scholars have been elected to serve as officers of the World Education Research Association (WERA) in the positions of President Elect (two-year term) and Vice President (two-year term). This association of 28 national, regional, and international specialty research associations aim to advance education research as a scientific and scholarly field world-wide to serve the public good.
The newly elected leadership is:
President Elect: Joe O´Hara is the Inaugural Professor of Education at the Dublin City University (DCU-I0E). He was Head of the School of Education Studies, DCU from 2011-2016 and is Director of EQI- The Centre for Evaluation, Quality and Inspection. He is also Adjunct Faculty at the Centre for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Having qualified as a secondary school teacher, he worked as Director of the Wadzanai Education Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe (1990-1994), before returning to Ireland where he was employed as a teacher prior to joining DCU. Joe O’Hara has worked in a variety of contexts as a teacher, researcher, evaluator, and administrator and he brings these experiences to his professional engagement with education. He is specifically interested in the areas of educational evaluation, networking, and culturally responsive evaluation. These interests have developed throughout an active career which contributed to a Ph.D. in Educational Evaluation (2007).
His experience as a researcher has allowed him to successfully bid for research grants from a large number of EU funding programmes with total institutional funding over the past 5 years of €1,475,786 and project value above €6,000,000. He is a committed researcher and has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in addition to numerous policy papers. As a research mentor he is an active supervisor at Doctoral level and has graduated 31 students over the course of his career.
At national level he was awarded with the President’s Research Fellowship and the Government of Ireland IRCHSS Research Fellowship. He also worked with several international bodies including the UNDP, OECD, TAIEX, and Irish Aid. Joe O’Hara has played key leadership roles in education. Between 2002 and 2004 he was appointed by the Government of Ireland as a Director of APSO/Irish Aid and served as a member of the Teaching Council of Ireland from 2012-2016. Joe O’Hara has significant experience in representing institutions and associations at national and international level, namely as Past President of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland and Founding Director of the Irish Evaluation Network (IEN).
He represented Ireland on the Council of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) from 2008 to 2013 and served as its President from 2018-2023. During this period, he helped EERA navigate the COVID-19 crisis ensuring that the Association emerged from this period financially and organizationally intact. He was committed to ensuring that all of EERAs 42 National Associations and 33 Networks had a voice in the strategic direction of the organisation, creating in partnership a 5-year strategy and implementing it during the COVID-19 crisis. He prioritised the development of Early Career Researchers and remains a Senior Fellow of the Emerging Researchers Group. Joe O’Hara was a member of the Executive Committee and Council of the Initiative for Science in Europe and represented EERA on the Council of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities. Joe O’Hara was a member of WERA Council from 2018 to 2023.
Vice President: Geovana Mendonça Lunardi Mendes is President of ANPEd (2019-2021/2021-2023)-National Association of Research and Graduate Studies on Education (Brazil). She was Vice President of ANPEd, during 2014 to 2019. She is Full Professor at the Faculty of Education and Human Sciences, at the State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. She holds a degree in Special Education Pedagogy from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (1994), a master’s degree in education from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2000), and a Ph.D. in Education: History, Politics, Society from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (2005), with a research exchange period in the area of Curriculum and Technologies at the University of Minho, in Portugal. She was a postdoctoral researcher in Argentina (2010) and in the United States of America (2011), in the area of Curriculum and New Technologies, at the University of San Andres in Buenos Aires and at Ashland University in Ohio, having received a CAPES scholarship throughout the period. Geovana Mendonça Lunardi Mendes was postdoctoral researcher in the United States of America (2018/2019), at the Arizona State University and having received a CNPq scholarship throughout the period.
Geovana Mendonça Lunardi Mendes was postdoctoral researcher in the United States of America (2018/2019), at the Arizona State University and having received a CNPq scholarship throughout the period. She was the institutional representative of ANPED in WERA-World Education Research Association, being part of the WERA Council since 2016 and institutional representative of ANPEd in the AERN-American Education Research Association since 2016 and vice-president 2022-2023. She is a National Research and received a scholarship a CNPq, since 2017. She is a coordinator of different research projects and participates as a guest researcher in national and international research projects. Her research and productions have focused on curriculum and school practices, education policies, especially issues related to changes, digital technologies, and curricular innovations in the school space, as well as the curricular practices aimed at including people with disabilities.
WERA’s new officers assume their positions on 1 July 2024. The Council which governs WERA is composed of the officers who were elected by member associations and one representative from each of the 28 WERA member associations.