sustainED 2025/2026

Klaudia Bednárová graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Nitra with a major in English Language and Literature and Pedagogy. In 2009, she founded The Bridge English Language Centre, which went on to become a founding member of the Slovak Association of Language Schools in 2010 and achieved international accreditation as an EAQUALS language school in 2020. Klaudia is actively engaged in adult education and teacher development. She serves as a member of the presidency of AIVD, played a key role in establishing the Slovak Chamber of English Teachers, and is dedicated to advancing teacher education. In 2020, she founded KOGNEO, a civic association focused on adult education. Her contributions have been recognized with the TREND Businesswoman of the Year Award in 2022, and in 2023, The Bridge Language School was honoured with the “Best Educational Programme of the Year” award.

Jonathan Dykes has spent most of his professional life in the language teaching industry. He started out as an English teacher, working in Spain, Germany, and the UK, but soon moved into management, and ending up running a small multinational group of schools, several of which he started. He also set up Net Languages, one of the world’s first Web-based language schools, and in 2020 he co-founded Green Standard Schools, a global association of language schools that are committed to protecting the environment. Jonathan has also worked on several Erasmus KA2 projects, including Virtual Reality for Language Learners (VR4LL) which was named as a finalist for the 2022 ELTons awards, in the category of Digital Innovation. He has also managed to obtain Erasmus funding to develop study materials for language learners that focus on environmental issues.

Alan has been connected with English Language Teaching for 60 years.He worked for the British Council from 1962-1988 – in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, China and India.  He resigned from the BC in 1988 to become Director General of the Bell Educational Trust in Cambridge where he stayed for 5 years.  From 1993-98, he was Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore.  He then moved to Assumption University, Bangkok as Dean of the Institute for English Language Education, to set up post-graduate programs in ELT.  After leaving Bangkok in 2004, he took up a number of posts with the Open University, Ho Chi Minh City, The University of Nottingham, Leeds Metropolitan University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and the University of Augsburg, Germany. He has published over 50 books and numerous articles.  He served as Vice-president, then President, of IATEFL from 1988-92 and received the ELTons Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.  He was a founder member of the IATEFL Global Issues SIG , The Extensive Reading Foundation and the C Group. His main interests are in creative writing, creative methodology and global survival. He currently coordinates the activities of an international creative writing group (Worlds into Words) with members from 29 countries.