Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemFrom apology to truth? Settler colonial injustice and curricular reform in Australia since 2008(Taylor and Francis Group, 2024)This article explores how recent curricular reform in Australia has been responsive to a culture of redress. It argues that taken together, the 2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generations and the 2010 national curriculum reform marked a turning point, whereby settler colonial injustices have since been systematically included in the curriculum. This is explored through a case study analysis of the two iterations of the Victorian Curriculum: History post-Apology— 2012 and 2016—the latter of which remains in current use. Using discourse analysis methods, this article argues that the inclusion of colonial injustice in the post-Apology era signals a consensus that has emerged around the significance of representing injustice in history curriculum, and by extension, for shaping future citizens. Through close textual analysis of the curriculum documents, this article finds that representations of historical injustice have been organized by four frames: memorialization, equivalence, personalization, and human rights. It argues that these frames curtail opportunities for the development of an understanding of the structural character and effects of settler colonialism, and limit consideration of the longer history of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. These failures raise questions about how impending reforms might respond to the contemporary political context where treaty negotiations and formal truth-telling with First Nations’ polities are unfolding.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMayDay colloquium: Social media for good or evil in music learning & teaching(Canadian Band Association, 2023)
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ItemNavigating the transition to online teaching at the University of Melbourne during COVID-19: approaches, reflections and insights.( 2023-09-07)An Occasional Paper at the Melbourne CSHE describing the outcomes from an institution-wide survey distributed to teaching academics that sought to understand their experiences in moving their subjects online during the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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ItemPencil or Keyboard? Boys’ Preferences in Writing(Nova Southeastern University, 2020)Handwriting is an important subject in primary schools, especially in the Early Years. The importance of writing skill is now seen as a debate with the increasing demand on children to learn technology skills to help them with 21st Century learning—how to write on the keyboard effectively. The topic is important because handwriting is an essential life skill to have with or without technology. In this study, I looked at the importance of both in the context of the qualitative case studies in three schools in Melbourne, Australia. The aim of the research is to explore how do students understand the learning of handwriting and keyboarding in schools? This qualitative case study employed a Thematic Analysis approach in which the central intention was to understand the lived experience of six Year 6 boys across three schools and their attitudes to writing and technology. In this article, I addressed the importance of teaching handwriting to primary school students, especially in the first four years of their school life from Foundation to Year 3. The findings suggest that teachers should continue explicitly teaching handwriting to their students despite the heavy reliance on technology in today’s lifestyle.
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ItemEffects of a positive education programme on secondary school students' mental health and wellbeing; challenges of the school context(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2024-01-01)
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ItemIn Jen’s Shoes – Looking Back to Look Forward: An Autoethnographic Account(Nova Southeastern University, 2019)This paper discusses the monumental events in my life that have shaped my two professional identities, teacher and researcher. I used autoethnography as a research methodology to traverse my personal life narratives across two different countries: Vietnam and Australia to seek and to examine my dual cultural identities, and how they shaped me. I am a passionate teacher who believes that teaching can change the world through the causes that I care about such as anti-racism and equity in education for students from all backgrounds. In this case study, data were collected by semi-structured interview and reflection on journals. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings are reported under four themes that reflected the stages of my life: designed in Vietnam, made in Australia was the first phase, growing up in Australia, my schooling years and professional years. By making sense of the narratives and involved, it helped me to understand myself better, who I am as a teacher and the causes that I believe in. As an Australian with hybrid cultural identities, I am the norm in contemporary culture.
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ItemChallenges assessing young children’s early numerical abilities( 2024-06-10)The purpose of this study was to pilot a researcher designed Dynamic Assessment of Early Numerical Thinking to inform a longitudinal study with young children as they transition from preschool to primary school. The aim is to determine whether dynamic assessment improved understanding of individual differences in young children's mathematical learning potential. Standardised assessments of receptive language and mathematical ability, followed by the dynamic assessment were administered to nine children (3 boys) in Kindergarten, Prep and Year 1 in Victoria, Australia. Findings provided the basis for a more efficient version of the dynamic assessment
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ItemUnderstanding and assessing pre-schoolers’ mathematical learning potential through dynamic assessment( 2023-06-08)Early mathematical skills are foundational for later arithmetic proficiency, academic and professional success therefore, early identification and intervention for mathematics difficulties may mitigate factors placing children at risk of poor learning and life outcomes. However, effective, educator friendly tools to assess young children’s mathematics skills are limited. Dynamic assessment, which combines assessment and effective instruction through mediated 218 learning, presents an opportunity to measure learning potential by assessing students’ responses to quality instruction in a shorter period of time than typical Response to Intervention processes. Targeted dynamic assessment sequences can also provide insights into students’ cognitive processing while engaging in mathematical tasks. The purpose of the proposed longitudinal study is to understand the variability in learning potential of 60 preschool learners (aged 4-5). Specifically, dynamic assessments will be used to explore young children’s learning potential on tasks related to early mathematical competencies and general cognitive processing. Early mathematical competencies, including mathematics specific language, will be measured at three time points as children transition from preschool to the end of their first year of formal schooling. This research is significant because dynamic assessment offers an individualised method for assessing young children's mathematics learning potential and designing interventions for those who may be at increased risk of failure in early school-based mathematics.
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ItemA Q methodological study into pre-service Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers' mindsets about teaching competencies(De Gruyter, 2024)A teacher’s mindset significantly affects their engagement, development, teaching quality, and well-being. This is crucial for pre-service teachers acquiring competencies for effective teaching. While research often focuses on English language teaching in Western contexts, little explores non-Western language teaching mindsets. Given the intersections of associated social, cultural, and linguistic variables with mindset, this study investigates Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) pre-service teachers’ mindsets on teaching competencies. The study utilized Q methodology, which is a philosophical and conceptual framework for examining subjectivity, and post-sort questionnaires with 39 pre-service teachers in China. The research findings provide important insights into the diverse and contradictory mindsets of pre-service CFL teachers, and the ideologies influencing beliefs as to what constitutes effective language teaching in the Chinese socio-cultural and socio-political context, providing insights into how teacher training programs need to be tailored to challenge and extend the complex mindsets held by pre-service language teachers.
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ItemThe ontology and epistemology shaping our understanding of inclusion: A critical review of the research literature on disability and inclusion(Wiley, 2023-06-29)People with disability continue to face barriers to substantive and meaningfulinclusion in accommodation and community settings. The aim of this system-atic review was to examine the characteristics of the literature on‘inclusion’,‘integration’,‘exclusion’, and‘segregation’for people with disability inaccommodation and community settings. This literature is important becauseit provides the evidence base that informs policy and practice. We identified457 articles that primarily related to the experiences of people with intellectualdisability and psycho-social disability.We found: (1) the volume of publicationsrelating to the‘inclusion’,‘integration’,‘exclusion’and‘segregation’of peoplewith disability in accommodation and community living settings has increasedeach year since 2006; (2) high-income western countries were overrepresented inresearch outputs; (3) most research has been undertaken in the health sciences;(4) only 30% of literature directly engaged with people with disability; (5) lessthan 50% of the publications we reviewed (223 out of 457 manuscripts) identifiedinclusion, integration, exclusion andsegregation as their primary focus; (6)‘inclu-sion’,‘integration’,‘exclusion’and‘segregation’were predominantly used in thecontext of specific populations—psycho-social disability and intellectual disabil-ity; (7) there is great variation in the attention paid to the experiences of differentcommunities of people with disability; and (8) the notable absence of currentscholarly literature on the experiences and outcomes of people with disability liv-ing at home with parents and/or siblings. Each of these findings have importantimplications for the research agenda, policy, and practice