Dr Jo Fahey has over thirty-five years experience as a teacher, researcher, curriculum writer and workshop leader in Australia, the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. For many years Jo has alternated between teaching in schools and kindergartens, working in the university sector and leading professional learning. Jo has created two early childhood online courses for Professional Learning International.

While teaching in international schools in the 90’s, Jo became a curriculum developer for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program, with special emphasis on the early years. On returning to Australia she conducted extensive research in schools, leading to a doctoral dissertation. This, in turn, led to the publication of a book, Ways to Learn Through Inquiry: Guiding Children to Deeper Understanding, published in 2012 by the International Baccalaureate.

Jo is very passionate about children’s rights being upheld when it comes to the very best ways for them to learn in the early years. She is a strong play advocate and she has a strong desire for children to learn playfully. She realizes the immense pressure that many early childhood educators are under to teach children to read and write in prescriptive ways that may go against their beliefs, values and feelings.  

In this Master Class she is advocating for a middle ground to be found because it has been shown that the current overemphasis on decontextualised phonics is detrimental to the way many children naturally learn.