FoE Conference Booklet Detailed - FINAL2023

Faculty of Education
Research Conference
Detailed program
26/10/2023
[Identifier-first line] | Faculty of Education Research Conference Page 1 of 37

Faculty of Education Research Conference: Adapting to a
Changing Landscape
Date: 26 October 2023 Time: 8:30AM – 6:00PM
Venue: Arts West Building, Parkville Campus
Registration: Outside Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre Time: 8:30AM
Program
8:50 – 9:50 Opening Session (Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, Arts West Building)
8:50 – 9:00 Welcome
Larissa McLean Davies and Russell Cross
9– 9:50 Keynote: Who's afraid of ChatGPT? Generative Large Language Models and the Future of
Education
Eduard Hovy, Executive Director Melbourne Connect
10:00 – 11:20 Parallel Session 1 (Rm 253, Arts West Building)

Chair: Nicky Dulfer
10:00 – 10:20 Measuring a school’s readiness for change: Development and validation of a multi-timepoint,
program-neutral, readiness for change instrument (The RedPed Tool)
Kate Scott
Supervisors: Jon Quach & Georgia Dawson
There is emerging evidence that school staff who are “ready for change” are more likely to
successfully implement new programs introduced into their school communities. However, a
recent scoping review, conducted by the authors, identified a lack of readiness for change
instruments designed for repeated use in educational settings.
This presentation outlines the development, and validation of a multi-timepoint, program-
neutral, instrument (the RedPed Tool) which measures constructs associated with school staff
readiness for change. A scoping review informed the instrument’s configuration as well as the
creating of a pool of potential instrument items. Two surveys were developed; the
commencement survey, designed to be used as the new program is introduced to school staff
and the repeat survey, used at all other timepoints. The surveys were piloted as part of four
research studies which introduced new programs into primary school settings. Exploratory Factor
Analysis (EFA) was used to determine the factor structure of each survey.
It is hoped that the RedPed Tool will amplify staff voice during the implementation of a new
program, highlighting staff-identified barriers and facilitators of readiness for change. Schools can
then take action to reduce or remove these barriers, increasing the likelihood of implementation
success.
10:20 – 10:40 The mirroring effect of teacher feedback literacy on peer reviews
Vicky Chang
Supervisors: Chris Deneen & Sophie Arkoudis
This study explores the mirroring effect of teacher feedback literacy on student uptake of peer
feedback in two English for academic purpose (EAP) classes at a Taiwanese university. Within
higher education (HE), the intricate interplay between the feedback literacy of both educators
and learners has been acknowledged for its role in fostering effective feedback integration.
Employing a comparative case study design, this research drew upon various data sources,
Faculty of Education Research Conference │ 26/10/2023 Page 2 of 37

including course syllabi, course materials, teacher feedback, peer feedback, student writing, and
interviews. The study extends its scope by using Carless and Winstone’s (2020) feedback literacy
framework to examine its applicability in HE EAP settings. Findings revealed a distinct contrast
between the two cases. Teacher A’s negative beliefs of peer reviews led to scepticism and
dissatisfaction among Case A students, reflecting a mirroring effect of teacher feedback literacy.
On the other hand, Teacher B's endorsement of peer feedback facilitated positive responses and
improved feedback literacy in Case B students, highlighting the synchronisation between teacher
feedback literacy and student uptake. These findings underscore the importance of teacher
feedback literacy in shaping students' responses and attitudes towards peer reviews, providing
valuable insights into feedback dynamics in HE EAP contexts.
10:40 – 11:00 Use of data by Australian School Leaders: a qualitative study
Robert Sbaglia, Pauline Thompson & Helen Stokes
Australian schools are strongly encouraged by system-wide structures to use data to improve
student learning outcomes; prior research supports this approach, showing that effective data
use can associated with increases in student learning. Leaders play a crucial role in this process –
the existing literature suggests there are several characteristics of effective data literacy,
including: moving from data analysis to improved practice; distributing data leadership; guiding
teacher collaboration; providing professional learning around effective data use; developing a
strong data culture; modelling effective data use; and establishing norms and protocols in the use
of data. In this study, 63 leaders from schools around Australia were interviewed around their
data use. The leaders’ roles included principals, deputy principals and middle leaders. Their
responses were coded according to the presence of the characteristics of effective leadership of
data use. Our results show that school leaders do lead the transition from data analysis to
changed practice, but many other data leadership practices are not commonly evident. In
addition, our analysis shows that leaders use achievement data to plan for targeted teaching
practices, but do not commonly use growth data to determine their school’s impact. Implications
of these findings will be discussed.
11:00 – 11:20 Synthesising research on Evaluation from 2015-2019: Identifying areas for future research
Ruth F Aston, Katina Tan, Stephanie White, Kat Franks & Hannah Morgan
In 2020, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and Western Michigan commenced a
systematic review of research on evaluation for the period 2015-19, replicating the landmark
review led by Professor Chris Coryn (2017). In 2022, the University of Melbourne joined the team
to support the systematic review, focussing primarily on reviewing research conducted in
Australasia, including but not limited to articles published in the Evaluation Journal of Australasia.
Along with supporting the systematic review, student researchers led three nested reviews of the
research on values, valuing, ethics, and evaluation consequences through their Master of
Evaluation studies. In this presentation findings of the systematic review will be detailed,
followed by presenters reflecting on the implications of the findings for evaluation research,
theories, methods and/or practice. The next phase of the study, focussing on building an agenda
for research on evaluation will also be detailed.

10:00 – 11:20 Parallel Session 2 (Rm 356 Arts West Building)
Chair: Stefanie Mallow
10:00 – 10:20 Creating the conditions for inclusion: investigating optimal physical spaces for supporting
neurodiverse staff and students
Matthew Harrison, Cheree Murrihy, Jessica Riordan, Sarah Timperley, Courtney O'Brien
As a reimagining of historical, deficit-laden concepts, neurodiversity represents a seismic shift in
how we understand conditions such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. A neurodiversity-affirming
lens recognises and celebrates the natural variation in human neurological conditions. The
objective of this collaborative pilot research project was to investigate the lived experiences of
current students and staff members within a facility of education who have self-identified as
having sensory differences. Researchers with lived experiences of neurodivergence interviewed
13 participants to share their experiences of the physical and cultural environment, identifying
enablers and barriers for participating in activities in campus spaces. The researchers used Braun
and Clarke's Reflexive Thematic Analysis framework to analyse the data in order to the address
the central research questions and reflect on their own positionally. Through this process, they
identified a series of recommendations for optimising existing spaces to meet a range of sensory
needs. By having facilitators with lived experiences conducting the data generation and analysis,
they served as researcher-participants in this project. As a result of this dual positioning, new
understandings of the enablers and barriers for researchers with lived experiences of
neurodivergence were also generated.
10:20 – 10:40 Equity and access in the identification and diagnosis of ADHD and Autism: an attenuating role
for school psychologist?
Georgia Dawson and Chelsea Hyde
Through an equity lens, this project seeks to highlight the cost-based inaccessibility of diagnosis
for ADHD and Autism and explore the role of the school Psychologist as a system-based response
to overcome these barriers. The project leveraged from the release of clinical guidelines for
diagnosis and treatment of both ADHD and Autism. While these guidelines are critical to
providing rigour and consistency to the diagnostic process, they do not acknowledge the cost of
diagnosis. Very little research exists globally on the costs to diagnosis for Autism and ADHD
however there is significant evidence indicating reduced access to diagnosis based on health
inequities such as race, gender and socioeconomic status and concerns regarding wait times for
support and care. This paper will present the costs associated with diagnostic models in these
guidelines using Australian health care parameters and comparisons to family based
socioeconomic indicators and propose a potential access solution to diagnosis by considering the
role of school-based psychologists in contributing to the diagnostic process as a more accessible
alternative to the private health system. This approach would seek to clarify and explore the role
of the school psychologist as a leverage point between education and health.
10:40 – 11:00 Social-emotional experiences of gifted learners in schools: The personal accounts of gifted
learners and the attitudes of teachers. Diane Hately. Supervisors: Vicki McKenzie & Chelsea
Hyde.
Diane Hately
Supervisors: Vicki McKenzie and Chelsea Hyde
Gifted learners often feel that they are not understood, accepted, or supported, in schools. They
are also found to be different to their non-gifted peers in their social-emotional characteristics
and development, as seen in overexcitabilities, putting them at risk of disengaging and
withdrawing from education. Teachers are influential in the development of gifted learners but
have reported that they feel largely unaware of the personal experiences and specific needs of
these diverse learners. This paper explores the literature regarding the social-emotional
experiences of gifted learners in schools as well as the attitudes of teachers towards gifted
learners, and reports on an in-progress research project involving two studies: one using a
phenomenological interview to gain an understanding of the lived experience of gifted learners in
schools, viewed through the lens of overexcitabilities; the second using a survey to measure the
attitudes of teachers towards gifted learners and their understanding of their social-emotional

needs. Preliminary interview analysis has identified emerging themes including gifted learners’
lack of belonging, friendship difficulties, isolation, lack of support, and feeling underestimated
and constrained by an inflexible school system. This research aims to increase understanding and
to cast light on this neglected area of inclusive practice.
11:00 – 11:20 School climate and school identification as protective factors of adolescent psychological
wellbeing and learning engagement: A longitudinal investigation before and during COVID-19
Kate Reynolds, Siyu Chen and Diana Cardeas
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant disruptions for youth around the world, ranging
from school closures to shifts in teaching modes (on-line and hybrid). However, it remains
unclear how these disruptions impacted the well-being and learning engagement, given a
reliance on cross- sectional and/or short-interval surveys. The current research employs a quasi-
experimental design by using a four-year longitudinal survey: data collected pre-pandemic (2018
and 2019) were compared to data collected post-pandemic (2020 and 2021) among students
from Grade 7 to 10 (N = 12,140 from 20 schools). Importantly the survey included potential
known factors that could buffer against adversity: school climate and school identification as well
as a broad set of indicators (depression, anxiety, positive affect, behavioural and emotional
engagement in learning). Key hypotheses were supported; 1) during COVID-19 students’
engagement and wellbeing significantly declined and 2) students with higher perceptions of
school climate and identification pre-COVID-19 fared better. However, these same students
suffered from a steeper decline which could be due to the loss of a valued school group. This
decline was evident after controlling for gender, academic year, parental education, and
socioeconomic status. The results provide important insights into how schools can prepare for
the impact for crises.

Chair: Laura Smith
10:00 – 10:20 Leveraging Ed Tech to enhance school-based wellbeing education: Strengths and limitations
Anneliese Gill, Kent Patrick & Dianne Vella-Brodrick
The strain on mental health services has increased the need to equip young people with a mental
health and wellbeing toolkit to assist them to self-manage their wellbeing needs. Schools are well
placed to provide this wellbeing education. Their challenge is to implement effective and
engaging programs that can be facilitated by school staff. A face-to-face wellbeing program
delivered by non-school staff was developed to meet these needs. The program was adapted to
an online format to make it engaging, scalable, accessible, and flexible. This presentation will
outline the steps taken to make this transformation, including key findings arising from discovery
sessions held with schools, the challenges in incorporating biodata, and the initiatives
implemented to ensure that the online program was engaging, and could be flexibly delivered by
school staff without any specialised wellbeing knowledge. It is essential that wellbeing education
is relevant, fun and tailored to young people thus increasing their engagement with learning,
training and application and ultimately leading to improved mental health and less burden on
public health. Our findings indicate that technology matters to young people when learning
about wellbeing, particularly if it aids their self-knowledge by making wellbeing education more
tangible and personalised.
10:20 – 10:40 Digital well-being experiences of Australian young adults during the pandemic
Eric Fu, Maddison Sideris
This paper examines the digital wellbeing experiences of Australian young adults during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on interview data about their experiences of social media use in
the first year of the pandemic, we explored their strategies of maintaining digital wellbeing
through disconnection and the enablers of their digital well-being practices. The results show
that participants employ a wide variety of disconnection strategies to maintain digital wellbeing
ranging from disconnecting from devices to specific features of an app. The enablers of their
digital wellbeing practices comprises two aspects, digital literacy and affective emotions
generated from social media use. Interpreting these strategies and enablers using Vanden
Abeele’s (2021) conceptualisation of digital-wellbeing as a dynamic constellation of factors
specific to person, device, and context, we argue that support for youth digital wellbeing must
not concentrate narrowly on educating young people to be effective and responsible users of
digital technologies. Instead, the social and technological conditions that are co-responsible for
the structural challenges of youth digital wellbeing should also be considered with equal
importance.
10:40 – 11:00 Measuring, quantifying and tracking wellbeing: Young people, digital media and emotions at
school
Natalie Hendry
Media and technologies have long been perceived as sources of risk for young people,
exacerbating their health problems, in and out of school. Yet, they are also lauded for their
potential to enhance youth lives. Driven by genuine concerns and a logic of techno-solutionism,
health and wellbeing-focused edtech platforms, applications and devices track students’
emotions and experiences to produce personalised and aggregated analytics to guide schools'
and teachers’ decision-making. These interventions promise engaging interaction and real-time
wellbeing data, even when the implications of tracking student wellbeing are unclear. To consider
the possibilities and challenges of digital health and wellbeing interventions in schools, this
chapter brings together critical studies of digital technologies, media and culture into
conversation with wellbeing and health education research. Using school-based digital platforms
that track and aggregate individual student emotions as a case study, I question what is new
about these digital innovations. I connect long-standing concerns about quantifying, measuring
and surveilling youth health to how these practices have been ‘scaled up’ and made digital by

datafying emotions and experiences. I ask if, instead of relying on these platforms, can we
imagine digital wellbeing beyond quantifying and tracking, and if so, what might it look like?
11:00 – 11:20 Youth and Digital Intimacies: Affective Practices of Dating Disconnection
Maddison Sideris
Supervisors: Hernan Cuervo and Natalie Hendry
Whilst dating app research has explored the crisis of love, hook up culture, gendered norms, and
how cultural scripts around love and sex have changed, how these different practices have been
sustained, changed, or been reinforced is yet to be uncovered. This presentation explores
preliminary findings of my PhD research on how Australian young adults (34-35 years) negotiate
intimacy through digital practices. This presentation seeks to investigate how youth perceptions
and practices of dating app use have resulted in practices of connection and disconnection over
time. I draw on the longitudinal mixed methods Life Patterns Project, which has tracked a cohort
of young Australians for 17 years, and present findings from two case studies using data from a
first round of interviews, supported by analysis of 17 waves of survey data. I focus on affective
practices (Wetherell, 2012) to examine how youth experiences with dating apps have changed
over the course of their youth. Ultimately, this presentation grapples with questions around
authenticity in online spaces, how practices of disconnection manifest and how affective flows of
online dating disrupt and/or reinforce practices of intimacy over time.

Chair: Larissa McLean Davies
10:00 – 10:20 Investigating early childhood teachers' intercultural storying and relationalities
Sonja Arndt
This presentation foregrounds a project focused on early childhood teachers' cultural wellbeing
and on strengthening anti-racist orientations and inclusion in ECE teaching teams. Whilst rich
cultural contexts of children and families are recognised in curriculum mandates for teachers,
existing research in Australasia largely disregards how teachers’ own cultural realities, wellbeing
and belonging affects their orientations towards their teaching, and towards children’s and
others’ cultures and wider diversities. Theorised through feminist poststructural and posthuman
philosophies, this project responds to this critical area focusing on ECE teachers’ cultural
wellbeing, racially diverse identities and marginalising experiences within their teaching teams.
Acknowledging teachers’ influence on young children’s forming attitudes places them at a crucial
juncture for (re)shaping future attitudes and behaviours towards racial injustices and experiences
within communities and society. The presentation outlines complexities and nuances that
emerged in a pilot project, as affecting teachers’ overall sense of cultural wellbeing and intra-
relationalities. The power of teachers’ multiple (hi)stories, relationships and behaviours
illustrates the transformative potential of ongoing shifts in attitudes and pedagogies in ECE
settings, on teacher professional development, initial teacher education, local communities and
wider society.
10:20 – 10:40 Examining Students’ Cultural Diversity Experiences at University
Jiadi Cai
Supervisors: Chi Baik and Tracii Ryan
As one of the most culturally diverse nations, Australia attracts a large number of international
students in its education sectors. Most Australian universities value the benefits students can
receive from engaging in cultural diversity activities in and outside of class at university. In
particular, value is placed on the promotion of cultural diversity-related graduate outcomes such
as intercultural awareness, willingness to contribute to the international community, and global
employability. However, it remains unclear whether graduates are actually developing these
attributes based on their cultural diversity experiences at university. In response, this mixed
methods study investigates students’ cultural diversity experiences and offers insights regarding
cultural diversity-related outcomes. More specifically, this study explored the factors influencing
undergraduates’ participation in cultural diversity activities at university, and the relationships
between their participation and levels of intercultural competence, intergroup anxiety, and sense
of belonging. This study suggests areas of consideration regarding the design and implementation
of cultural diversity activities to improve students’ experiences and the effectiveness of such
activities in promoting positive student outcomes.
10:40 – 11:00 How schools shape society through student subject choice: a view through a Bourdieusian lens
Ross Phillips
Supervisors: John Quay, Hernan Cuervo
The normalisation of completion of senior secondary school in Victoria, purportedly to benefit all
students, signifies a maturing of the education field and its status as a force in society. My thesis
explores this field’s use of subject choice in senior secondary schools to distribute and consecrate
the allocation of students to pathways leading to positions of social power. My case studies of
eight schools are based on data from my sixteen semi-structured interviews with curriculum
leaders and course counsellors. Bourdieusian concepts of field, habitus and forms of capital guide
my analysis.In this session I will present my findings on how schools locally structure the
education field for students through their provision of subjects. A well-established hierarchy of
subjects, with vocational courses ranked below academic university prerequisites, continues to
signal higher value of certain forms of learning and learners. There are differences of provision
and valuing of the curriculum programs of the study schools that reflect the relative educational
advantage of the school population. These differences are at once both outcomes and causes of

school positioning. This research will interest those concerned with equality, schools evaluating
their purpose and brand, and parents choosing a school for their child.
11:00 – 11:20 Draft research initiatives for the 2024 Divisional Indigenous Development Plan
Russell Cross

Chair: Mati Keynes
10:00 – 10:20 Understanding the role of arts-rich bookmaking experiences in developing language and
literacy outcomes for young multilingual learners
Julie Choi and Rafaela Cleeve Gerkens
Recent multilingual literacies studies in Early Childhood and school-level education show
language and literacy practices that value people’s diverse experiences, whole knowledge
repertoires, and cultural identities, strengthen family connections, build ethical relationships, and
enact agency and authentic expressions of voice, creating spaces of wellbeing for communities.
However, little is known about the interaction of children’s multilingual literacies and identities
and arts-based practices. Through a project with community organization Kids’ Own Publishing,
this paper investigates how arts-based bookmaking experiences support children to express their
multilingual lifeworld, and the educational implications of integration of arts-based experiences
in multilingual language and literacy education.
10:20 – 10:40 An intentional approach to meaningful teacher-child musical interactions

Lynn Lee-Pang
Education that promotes the development of the whole child and young children’s wellbeing is
becoming increasingly important amidst current challenges in today’s world. Teacher-child
interactions that are undergirded by pedagogical love—which precedes child wellbeing and
achievement—requires intentionality, appropriateness, and responsibility towards the child’s
being and becoming (Hatt, 2005; O’Connor et al., 2020). However, requirements for
accountability leave little time for teachers to ponder on the purposes and significance of their
pedagogical relationships (Van Manen, 1991). This is exacerbated in the early childhood
education and care (ECEC) sector by teacher shortages albeit wider recognition for quality
education (Cohrssen et al., 2023). This presentation reports on a pilot research project exploring
a novel approach towards enhancing the quality of teacher-child interactions by supporting in-
service ECEC teachers and educators in adopting an intentional approach towards purposeful
meaning expression through music. ECEC teachers and educators attended two music training
workshops and data was collected through focus groups, surveys, and follow-up interviews. Early
formative understandings of how intentional consideration of meaning expression through
teacher-child musical interactions influences pedagogical enactment and child outcomes will be
shared.
10:40 – 11:00 Exploring educators’ enactment of plurilingualism in language and literacy teacher education
Melissa Jufenna Slamet, Julie Choi, Rafaela Cleeve Gerkens, Tharanga Kalehe Pandi Koralage
Supervisors: Julie Choi
A growing body of literature in language education sheds light on the complexities of ‘plurilingual
repertoires’, defined here as the unique sets of semiotic and knowledge resources of each
multilingual speaker, in language learning and use. While most studies focus on the enactment of
students’ plurilingual repertoires for learning purposes, few studies investigate how educators
are thinking about and drawing on their own complex linguistic repertoires for instructional

purposes. This study aims to illustrate the rich ways in which four language and literacy teacher
educators and researchers at an Australian university used ‘collegial conversations’ over a
semester to enact their unique set of plurilingual resources to teach graduate students from
diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The study shows how reflective dialogs facilitated
through this community of practice enabled four educators to reflect on their teaching
experiences. They were able to think critically about their successes, limitations, and challenges
of enacting their linguistic resources. Using Looking, Listening, Talking, and Thinking concept as
an analytical tool to unpack narratives of each educator, the findings show the importance of
creating spaces for eliciting and supporting the inclusion of educators’ plurilingual resources to
create meaningful and transformative experiences for both teachers and learners.
11:00 – 11:20 Copy-pasting vs complex cognitive processing underpinning L2 writing in interaction with
advanced online digital tools
Tharanga Kalehe Pandi Koralage
Recent developments in artificial intelligence technology have catalysed the way students
produce texts across all levels of education with the assistance of sophisticated tools such as
ChatGPT and advanced online translators. These tools promptly generate content customised to
students' homework/assignment requirements and instantly translate them to a second language
(L2) with higher levels of accuracy. However, some of the ways in which students use these tools
have been much scrutinised in academia, raising critical concerns about plagiarism and academic
misconduct. Further, a lack of clarity around the use of technology for academic purposes has led
to confusion and anxiety among students about tapping into these resources without plagiarising
unintentionally. This research draws on the concept of digital translanguaging to examine two
multilingual students’ process of composing an academic text in English by drawing on their
entire meaning-making repertoire. The data derived through screen sharing and online
stimulated recall interviews specifically looked at the students’ process of deriving English
equivalents for words and phrases/expressions in their mother tongue during the writing task.
The findings demonstrate students engaged in complex meaning-making processes that went
beyond copy-pasting translations generated through digital tools. The decisions underpinning
their linguistic choices indicated students engaged in cognitive and metacognitive processes of
skimming, scanning, and analysing to grasp different layers of meaning attached to
words/phrases (e.g., literal, implied meanings and nuances), sometimes in consultation with
multiple digital tools, the knowledge of which helped them generate their own sentences to
communicate ideas. We argue the need for more research that examines the meaning-making
process to better understand the role of digital technology and the extent to which it expands
linguistic knowledge. This study provides insights to educators on students’ effective and complex
ways of tapping into cutting-edge technology to self-support L2 academic writing through
meaningful and responsible use.

Chair: Carmel Mesiti
10:00 – 10:20 Timetables: Understanding change in the School Environment
Susanna Mandic
Supervisors: Natasha Ziebell and Wee Tiong Seah
Schools are rapidly changing environments that adapt to new challenges each year. A significant
instrument in enabling change within schools is the timetable. Making timetable changes in
schools is a complex issue that involves many factors in the decision-making process. Leadership
teams have a difficult task of deciding when and if to make changes to the timetable and foresee
how these changes might impact on teaching and learning. Recent literature has demonstrated
that there is a lack in understanding the rationale for change and the true impact on teaching and
learning as experienced by teachers and students. The aim of this study is to understand why
school leaders make changes to the timetable and what impact does this change have on
teachers and students through teaching and learning. Participant perspectives are key to
answering the research questions and hence a qualitative methodological approach will be
adopted. The voices and experiences of as many key stakeholders within the school environment
are sought out to explore the impacts of timetabling changes within each individual school. This
presentation will explore the methodological approaches of the study.
10:20 – 10:40 Primary teachers’ adaptive expertise in interdisciplinary mathematics and science teaching
Jan van Driel
Teaching is a complex undertaking, requiring teachers to create inclusive environments for all
students and adapt constantly to the rapidly changing political, curricular and classroom contexts.
Therefore, teachers are required to have adaptive expertise to respond and adapt flexibly to
unexpected and novel situations. This study is part of an ARC research project that explores
primary teachers' adaptive expertise in interdisciplinary mathematics and science teaching. This
presentation reports on preliminary analysis of data obtained from two Melbourne primary
schools, as teachers co-planned and co-taught an interdisciplinary sequence ‘journey through
space.’ The findings suggest that the levels of teacher adaptive expertise differ depending on
teachers’ understanding of science and mathematics and its connections in teaching, but also
how they apply this understanding flexibly and deliberately in novel and non-routine teaching
and learning situations. This study can contribute to knowledge about primary teachers’ adaptive
expertise and its development in interdisciplinary mathematics and science teaching.
10:40 – 11:00 How Makerspaces Encourage Deep Learning in Young Children
Emma Ross
Supervisor: Nicola Yelland
Makerspaces are making a significant impact on the educational landscape around the world as
schools rethink traditional classrooms and pedagogies to better prepare students for a successful
future. Rapid technological change has created an ever-changing workforce where increasing
importance is placed on the ability to think creatively and strategically problem solve; skills
makerspaces have the potential to develop. However, a lack of research examining the value of
makerspaces in early years settings indicates a gap in knowledge needing to be addressed. This
Exploratory Case Study generates new knowledge in relatively unexplored horizons by identifying
connections between the physical makerspace and the acquisition of Deep Learning
Competencies: creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills. Detailed vignettes created from
makerspace lesson observations, teacher semi-structured interviews and the collection of
learning artefacts describe the dynamic learning ecology of a makerspace and act as an exemplar
for widespread inspiration. Clear patterns and themes emerged from the research findings,
leading to the identification of key enablers and the development of a Makerspace Pedagogical
Framework. The findings invite future research around teacher professional development,
assessment of Deep Learning in a makerspace and the potential for further case study research
comparing makerspaces.

11:00 – 11:20 Adapting teaching in mathematics to meet individual learning needs
Alison Morias, Natasha Ziebell, Cath Pearn
The Learning+ online mathematics tutoring initiative was conducted in co-operation with the
South Australian Department for Education. Over two years, 1:1 online tutoring was conducted
by 277 qualified teachers with 2890 students in Years 6, 7, 8, and 9. Students received two half-
hour tutoring sessions per week for ten weeks. Number Interviews were developed specifically to
identify the methods or strategies that students use for mental and written calculations. While
implementing the interviews tutors were expected to prompt students to explain their thinking
processes. This provided unique insights into the student’s understanding of mathematical
concepts and informed subsequent instruction. This presentation will focus on the different
approaches used to analyse student learning, with an illustrative example using comparative case
study to examine factors that influence contingent support given in a year 7 online mathematics
1-1 tutoring setting. In examining contingent support, this research endeavours to inform
educators both in the changing landscape of online learning settings, and in adapting to specific
learning needs of students in a range of educational settings.

Chair: Vincent Liang
10:00 – 10:20 Discomfort, hysteresis and adaptation: Bringing a Bourdieusian lens to the study of educational
change
Rhiannon Simpson
Though Bourdieu’s concepts are often criticised as being deterministic (see Carpecken & Apple,
1992; Yang, 2014), this paper positions his concept of hysteresis as a theoretical tool which lends
insight into the ways paradigmatic changes are fostered within the field of education. Bourdieu
(1984; 2000) positions hysteresis as a phenomenon that occurs when the capital (knowledges,
skills and possessions) considered valuable in a field changes. He argues that this change often
occurs more quickly than an agent’s dispositions and behaviours (habitus) are able to adjust. This
in turn creates a feeling of discomfort which Courtney (2017) notes can cause agents to either
embrace paradigmatic changes, or actively resist it. This presentation examines the ways in which
a state of hysteresis was navigated by four Australian high school music educators. It explores
strategies these educators used to adapt to changing educational landscapes; including attempts
to acquire newly valued capital and an active resistance to the policies which prompted
hysteresis. This data is drawn from a dissertation research study employing multiple case study
methodology to explore factors which aid/prevent paradigmatic change in the field of Australian
music education. However, its theoretical implications apply across discipline fields.
10:20 – 10:40 BMX for Life
Dave Camilleri, Richard Sallis, Ruth Williams, Jon Quach, Chelsea Hyde, and Aaron Simson Woods.
This presentation delves into current research in the BMX for Life project which seeks to
understand how BMX riding can contribute to a person’s personal and social wellbeing as well as
creativity. Creativity, physicality, and spatial awareness are embodied in BMX riding however this
research has uncovered an overlooked dimension – the promotion of SEL and mental health. A
richness, which is yet to be explored in academia, emerges out of relationships between the
individuals, the socio-cultural context and the environment. In particular, the collaborative nature
of dirt jump construction can foster interpersonal skills and empathy, while the physical and
creative engagement contributes positively to mental and social wellbeing. This presentation will
reimagine BMX as vibrant educational tool that integrates physical, mental, social, and
environmental domains. Future directions of the project will also be shared.
10:40 – 11:00 Student perceptions of education programs and campaigns which aim to reduce the incidence
and acceptability of sexual assault and sexual harassment amongst young people
Donna Davies
Supervisors: Chi Baik and Nicky Dulfer
Sexual violence is a serious global public health issue that has a lasting impact on communities
and individual’s health, well-being and human rights. More recently Australian universities have
made concerted efforts to develop prevention education programs to reduce sexual violence
within their populations however very few campaigns or education programs have been guided
or evaluated, incorporating the perceptions and lived experience of the students they were
designed for. This presentation discusses the findings from a qualitative study exploring
participants’ experiences of sexuality education programs and campaigns at secondary school
and university. The aim of the study was to gain insights into university students’ perceptions and
experiences of sexual assault and sexual harassment prevention programs and campaigns. The
findings offer valuable guidance for designing education programs and campaigns that align with
the needs and perspectives of the student community, thus potentially leading to more
successful efforts in reducing sexual assault and sexual harassment incidence and acceptability.
Ultimately, this research adds to the broader efforts of Australian universities to comprehensively
address sexual violence and foster environments that prioritise safety and respect.
11:00 – 11:20 Return to Learn: Multi-tiered systems for attendance
Lisa McKay-Brown, Glenn Melvin, Catherine Smith, Matt Harrison, Kate Scott, Johanna Taylor

Ensuring the attendance of students at school is integral to optimizing child and youth
development. Data suggests that school attendance problems (SAPs) are increasing in Australian
education jurisdictions with existing problems magnified by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is
estimated that across Australia over 200,000 students are at risk of SAPs. Multi-Tiered Systems of
Support (MTSS) is a framework used globally that enables educational systems and school
settings to target support at the level of need with a particular focus on prevention and early
intervention. This presentation will share preliminary findings from a feasibility study that is
investigating the ways that MTSS can be used to support attendance in Victorian schools. The
overall aim of the project is to determine to what extent it is feasible and acceptable to
implement a MTSS framework to improve school attendance. Eighteen schools covering primary,
secondary and specialist settings have attended workshops and are receiving coaching to support
the implementation of the tiered framework. It is anticipated that the outcomes from this study
will enable a trial of the MTSS framework for attendance on a larger scale.
11:20 – 11:45 Morning Tea

Chair: Julie McLeod
11:45 – 12:05 Harvesting the Connection: Cultivating Agricultural Education and Careers in a Changing
Landscape
Emily Cook
Supervisors: Hernan Cuervo and Quentin Maire
The demand for skilled workers in the rapidly changing Australian agricultural landscape
continues to outstrip supply, necessitating a focus within secondary schools, when young people
are exploring and establishing their career interests. This study, part of a broader mixed-methods
investigation, examines regional year 12 participants’ perspectives on agricultural subject choice,
experience, and career aspiration. Emerging themes reinforce previous findings that familial or
school exposure to agricultural careers is integral for developing agricultural career interests.
Importantly, learning experiences in the agricultural classroom were found to have the greatest
impact on agricultural career goals, improving academic self-efficacy and expanding young
peoples’ perceptions of available agricultural careers. Contrary to previous studies, growing up on
a farm was found to generate pressure to return as a primary producer, encouraging young
people to use their classroom experiences of agriculture to look beyond the farm gate in their
career aspirations. These findings challenge previous reports that school agricultural programs
perpetuated outdated views of agricultural careers. Instead, the study suggests a shift in outlook
among young regional people, presenting an opportunity for curricula, policy, and industry
interventions to address the acute agricultural worker shortages before global food supply chain
disruptions become unavoidable.
12:05 – 12:25 The experience of doctors from non-science backgrounds: a phenomenological study
Neville Chiavaroli
Supervisors: Dianne Mulcahy; Kylie Smith
Most graduate medical programmes in Australia accept applications from students from any
discipline, including those with non-science backgrounds (NSB). Like their science-background
peers, most NSB students will successfully complete the course and become medical
practitioners. However, little is known of their experience of the medical course and practice.
Using phenomenology, my research explores the lived experience of NSB doctors through
medicine, drawing on both interview and documentary data. Findings suggest that NSBs face
unique epistemological and ontological challenges. Upon entry into medicine, NSB students are
characterised as, and constantly made aware of, having a significant deficit in terms of science
knowledge, while those from humanities backgrounds must also negotiate very different
teaching approaches, which can challenge their own epistemic beliefs about learning and medical
practice. Ontologically, NSB students also experience significant challenges to their own personal
and professional identities, as they work to reconcile notions of diversity, indistinguishability, and
competing values. These experiences challenge the traditional linear pedagogical models of
professional formation in medicine. I discuss limitations of these models, and suggest that a more
nuanced and multidimensional construct of becoming might provide a more suitable framework
for understanding what it means to be a doctor from a non-science background.
12:25 – 12:45 The influence of the “rebarbative” character of higher education curriculum governance: A
case study of literary studies curriculum in two Australian universities
Robyn Barallon
Supervisors: Victoria Millar, Julie McLeod
This paper explores how different ways of conceptualising curriculum are shaping the
construction of literary studies curriculum within two Australian universities, eliciting deeply held
views among stakeholders. Mechanisms in place in the Australian Higher Education sector are
intended to assure the quality of higher education curriculum across all academic disciplines and
they filter down into institution-based policies which various university staff find themselves
tasked with upholding. Yet at the same time, the nature of what the curriculum is that they are
contributing to seems to be a slippery target. Some staff orient themselves toward curriculum as
the what (content), the how (pedagogy), or perhaps the selection of literary texts. Despite the

shared policy emphasis at both institutions towards higher education curricula that are
outcomes-based and constructively aligned, the way curriculum is described, negotiated,
documented, and interpreted in different ways leads it to take on a character that is both
polysemic and polymorphous. Drawing on discourse theory, I share my findings from an analysis
of observational, interview and documentary sources related to curricula development work to
highlight how multiple conceptualisations of curriculum co-exist and interact and point to their
potential effects as they conduct what they consider their “curriculum work.”
12:45 – 1:05 Appraising curriculum alignment models
Pamella Stefania Picinin de Mesquita
Supervisors: Natasha Ziebell and Catherine Pearn
Curriculum alignment researchers claim that intended, enacted, and assessed curriculum must be
aligned in an integrated education system. This presentation focuses on examining different
models of curriculum alignment according to their complexity, variation in criteria and metrics,
and giving examples of their applicability to accommodate differences in alignment purpose and
focus. A two-dimensional alignment model was selected to be tested on a data set captured on
the Learning+ Initiative. The program was a partnership between the Department of Education of
South Australia and researchers from the University of Melbourne, which aimed to improve
mathematics learning outcomes and accelerate student learning on mathematics curriculum via
two 30 minutes 1:1 tutoring session per week for 10 weeks. The enactment of the curriculum is
represented on the tutoring sessions recordings of 10 tutors during one study term of Learning +.
The alignment model chosen allows investigation of curriculum coverage and scope of practice,
and correlational analysis with student performance on pre and post assessments. Concerns
related to alignment judgements and differences in opinion regarding what criteria should be
employed will be discussed, and the justification for applying a two-dimensional quantitative
matrix model to the data set will be stated.

Chair: Sonja Arndt
11:45 – 12:05 Leading pedagogy in early childhood education and care: exploring relationality through human
and more-than-human encounters
Rachael Keating
Supervisors: Jane Page; Penny Levickis; Sonja Arndt
While it is understood that effective pedagogical leadership has a profound impact on children’s
learning outcomes, little is understood about how pedagogical leaders engage with, and
experience this important work within the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector.
Despite numerous models that identify the behaviors associated with effective pedagogical
leadership, few have sought to grapple with the concept of relationality that resonates
throughout existing empirical research. Supported by feminist posthuman scholarship, this
research explores how everyday encounters with human and more-than-human others can be
used to gain a deeper understanding of the forces that affect, empower and constrain
pedagogical leaders in Victorian ECEC services. Using data from a post-qualitative doctoral
inquiry, I suggest how Deleuze’s (1994) account of individuation can be read diffractively through
the data to make sense of what endures through material-discursive contexts and intra-actions,
that shape how leaders deploy structural tools within their practice. It is anticipated that this
research will make significant contributions to a reconceptualization of pedagogical leadership in
ECEC that resists the re-inscription of power dichotomies that see the separation of knower from
learner, and leader from follower.
12:05 – 12:25 Successful school principalship in a remote school in the Northern Territory
Klate McFarlane
Supervisors: David Gurr & Helen Stokes
This paper presents preliminary insights from research conducted by a Doctor of Education
candidate and includes reflections from the researcher’s time as principal of a remote school. The
research considers school success and principal success in terms of the school’s context, including
the changing landscape of the school’s position within the education system, local community
and Australian society. The study forms part of the International Successful School Principalship
Project (ISSPP), which has produced more than 200 case studies on successful principalship since
it was established in 2001. It aims to identify the characteristics, values, strategies and practices
of a successful principal of a successful remote school in the Northern Territory. Using a mixed-
methodology, the case study incorporates multiple perspectives from interviews with the
principal, school leaders, teachers and support staff; focus groups with students and parents; a
review of school documents and quantitative data from a survey of teachers. The research design
is expected to yield valuable insights into successful principalship in a school setting with
significant challenges, complex needs and a lack of comprehensive and targeted research to
guide improved educational and social outcomes for students.
12:25 – 12:45 Playing the Game - Women's Experiences of Leadership in Australian Independent Boys'
Schools
Melinda Davis
Supervisors: Wes Imms and Daniela Acquaro
Using a Standpoint Feminist methodological framework and a thematic analysis approach, this
research explores the leadership experiences of women in Independent boys’ schools to
elucidate why there are currently so few women as Principals in boys’ schools in Australia (there
have been only five appointed, and all since 2020). By way of explaining this disproportionate
gendered leadership demographic, this research presents qualitative findings pertaining to the
individual experiences of women who have experienced leadership in boys’ schools across
Australia and suggests barriers that may currently exist for women who aspire to lead a school of
boys. The research findings present three key themes: the rules of ‘the Game’ women must
choose to play by to navigate ‘The Boys’ Club’ which exists in boys’ school leadership cultures, the
lack of equitable opportunities and attitudes for women to successfully lead in these

environments, and the spectrum of support other women can exert towards those who do aspire
to lead within these male dominated settings. It is hoped this research will give academic context
to the statistical absence of women in Principal roles and bring into the public domain an
articulated experience that many women in education share, but few will discuss.
12:45 – 1:05 Understanding route to principalship for women in middle leadership in Australian secondary
schools
Pauline Thompson and Helen Stokes
The data for this study is derived from interviews with 14 female secondary school principals in
Australian secondary schools. As part of the interview process each participant was asked to
describe their career pathway and specifically discuss the middle leadership roles undertaken
along the way. The transcriptions of the interviews were compiled, coded and analysed to
enable comparisons of the experiences of each person’s route to principalship.
What was evident from the data is that the principals undertook a range of middle leadership
roles and that a broad experience was generally needed in order to develop the necessary skill
base to take on a principal role. What was also apparent was that it was commonplace for
leadership roles to be undertaken very early in their teaching careers and for leaders to be very
strategic regarding the range of roles they undertook. Additionally, there was a reported
willingness to take some brave decisions such as relocating from family and place of residence to
maximize their career opportunities. The leaders also discussed the issues regarding family and
caring responsibilities and importance of family and colleagues as key affordances on a pathway
to principalship.

Chair: Eric Fu
11:45 – 12:05 Aspirations for post-school study: A comparison of two cohorts of Year 11 students from the
Life Patterns project
Jenny Chesters
Senior secondary students face many challenges during their final two years of school as they
prepare for their post-school lives. Although there is an expectation that students will embark on
the post-school study journey and become lifelong learners, the COVID-19 pandemic may have
curtailed the enthusiasm of the current cohort of senior secondary students. Having to study
from home for large parts of 2020 and 2021 may have impaired the social development of
adolescents by denying them the usual school environment in which they can develop the peer-
to-peer relationships that become increasingly important in the latter years of secondary school.
Drawing on data collected by the Life Patterns project, this paper compares the aspirations for
post-school study of two cohorts of Year 11 students. One cohort of students were in Year 11 in
2005 and the second cohort were in Year 11 in 2022. The 2005 cohort were finishing school
during the boom years prior to the onset of the Global Financial Crisis whereas the 2022 cohort
were finishing secondary school in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary analysis
indicates that members of the 2005 cohort were more likely than their 2022 counterparts to
indicate that they wanted to take out before continuing their studies after finishing Year 12 and
were also more likely to indicate that they were planning to seek work after graduating from Year
12. Students in both cohorts placed a high level of importance on extrinsic reasons for continuing
study. For example, continuing study as a step in the career that they wanted was the most
important reason for both cohorts of students.
12:05 – 12:25 Meaning and Self-Efficacy in Democratic and Mainstream Schools

Neha Singh
Supervisors: Peggy Kern, Nicky Dulfer, Matthew Courtney
Meaning in life (ML), meaning in work (MW), and general self-efficacy (GSE) have positive life
impacts. Meaning offers a balanced approach to navigating challenges, especially in changing
times. However, the influence of schools on these aspects and the role of meaning in schools
(MS) consisting of academics, family's role in school, and psychosocial factors remain unexplored.
My study investigated differences in these variables in democratic and mainstream schools, the
role of MS on adult life outcomes, and the differences between the effects of MS on the adult
variables by school type. Ex-students (n=641) worldwide from mainstream and democratic
schools answered questionnaires on retrospective MS and current ML, MW, and GSE. These were
analysed using structural equation modelling methods. The democratic sample reported higher
MS, but ML, MW, and GSE were similar. MS influenced ML via family and psychosocial factors,
independently and moderated by school. Academics impacted GSE directly, and psychosocial
factors affected GSE when moderated by school type. Democratic students' academics did not
impact GSE, while mainstream's academics did; psychosocial factors significantly influenced only
the democratic sample's GSE. Results imply democratic school systems can enhance MS, adult
ML, and GSE for better overall well-being amid global instability.
12:25 – 12:45 The pursuit of happiness in Australian education and schooling: A critical approach
Natalie Calleja
Supervisors: Hernan Cuervo, Natalie Hendry
Raising children’s and young people’s happiness is gaining increasing attention in Australian
education and schooling. This can be exemplified by measuring and monitoring students’ sense of
school belonging, post-pandemic responses in education to improve student wellbeing, and the
appointment of private enterprises to teach students practical wellbeing strategies. Whilst such
approaches are well-intentioned, it is important to consider how they acknowledge and attend to
factors affecting students’ happiness. In this presentation I draw on my doctoral project’s

conceptual work regarding school belonging and happiness. I examine how pursuits of happiness
in Australian education and schooling may be shaped by a particular orientation toward
happiness during a time when therapeutic and neoliberal policies, practices, and programs look
to the individual for change. From here, I consider some of the factors to be affecting children’s
and young people’s happiness that can be overlooked when education and schooling are
oriented toward the imperative to be happy. This is not an argument against supporting students’
happiness; instead, I seek to signal some critical questions researchers, program and policy
makers, and educators can consider regarding the complex, relational, sociomaterial, mediated,
and often politicised factors affecting children’s and young people’s happiness within and beyond
school.
12:45 – 1:05 Early childhood educators' wellbeing and views on mathematics
Katherine Canobi, Halina McNally and Jane Page.

Despite a growing recognition of the crucial role that ECEC (early childhood education and care)
educators play in supporting young children's numeracy learning, surprisingly little is known
about their views on mathematics and numeracy teaching practices. However, some research
points to a lack of confidence among ECEC educators in relation to mathematics and indicates
that their general wellbeing is associated with children’s mathematics achievements. Therefore,
the present study was designed to explore educators’ reports of their experiences of
mathematical teaching and learning in ECEC, the kinds of support they need to foster children's
numeracy, along with their feelings about mathematics and their professional wellbeing (i.e.,
sense of community belonging, safety and security and professional identity.) By the end of
August, 2023, 66 Australian educators had completed a fifteen-minute online survey of their
professional wellbeing as well as their feelings, attitudes, practices and beliefs relating to
mathematics. They also responded to an invitation to participate in a focus group in which they
could explore survey responses in greater depth. The study’s findings are expected to highlight
the kinds of mathematical learning experiences currently being implemented in different ECEC
settings and provide insights into ways to help educators support children's numeracy
development.

Chair: Jan van Driel
11:45 – 12:05 Teachers’ perceived benefits of interacting with science centres
Chloë Nelson
Supervisors: Jan van Driel & Victoria Millar
Whilst there is a body of research on pre-service science teachers’ benefits from interacting with
science centres, including science museums and zoos, less is known about the benefits that in-
service science teachers may experience. This study presents the results of a two-phase
investigation into in-service teachers’ perceived benefits of their past interactions with science
centres. The aim of this research was to establish the benefits teachers may receive in these
settings and investigate how they may occur. In Phase I, 53 in-service science teachers completed
a survey about their past interactions with science centres. This phase of the study confirmed
that in-service science teachers perceived they experienced a range of cognitive and affective
benefits from their interaction with science centres. In Phase II of this study, 10 teachers
elaborated on their past experiences in science centres through an interview. This phase of the
study identified that there are a range of mechanisms that enable teachers to experience
benefits at science centres including teachers participating in educational experiences alongside
their students and teachers networking with other science professionals and teachers. The
findings of this study highlight the role science centres have in contributing to in-service science
teachers’ professional growth.
12:05 – 12:25 Teacher Job Crafting for Wellbeing
Gavin Slemp, Dianne Vella-Brodrick and Jacqui Francis
Abstract Australian teachers are struggling, with wellbeing, workload (Fray et al., 2023), stress
and burnout (Carroll et al., 2022). There is urgency for change in educational contexts to improve
teaching conditions and support teacher wellbeing. Teachers can make positive changes through
job crafting. Job crafting involves initiating work changes to make the job more meaningful and
engaging, and can occur via task crafting, cognitive crafting, or relational crafting. Our research
involved 46 in-depth interviews with Australian teachers to identify the extent to which teachers
job craft, barriers to job crafting, and examples of job crafting. We also conducted follow-up
interviews with a subgroup to get their feedback about a draft job crafting program for teachers.
12:25 – 12:45 Proposing a distinctive model of the elements of effective professional learning for music
teachers
Sue Arney & Jeana Kriewaldt
Abstract Professional learning plays an essential role in extending, strengthening, and updating
teachers’ professional knowledge and practice throughout their career. Whilst a significant body
of research has examined the impact of professional learning on teaching practices, less research
has considered the specific needs of music teachers. This study reports on a mixed methods
approach to explore the experiences of music teachers in classroom, instrumental and ensemble
positions in school education in one Australian state. Research was conducted in two phases: an
online Scoping Survey (297 respondents) followed by an investigation of emerging themes
through a second online Depth Survey (50 participants). Data were analysed for perceptions of
the elements of effective professional learning for music teachers. The findings were evaluated
against existing literature and research into the characteristics of effective professional learning
that identified general and distinctive features. The study proposes a set of seven guiding
principles for professional learning in music education that offer new insights for education
leaders and providers to strengthen professional learning tailored to the needs of music teachers.
12:45 – 1:05 Teacher Turnover: A synthesised model
Hugh Gundlach
High teacher turnover from schools continues to be a problem, exacerbated by the global
pandemic. Consequences for schools include adverse impact on student learning, time and
resources spent finding suitable replacements and effects on staff culture and institutional

knowledge. Consequences for individuals leaving can include the personal costs of reduced
wellbeing and finding a new teaching position or career. This presentation uses the results of a
systematic review of the teacher turnover literature to synthesise several turnover models into a
practical model school leaders can use to assess whether turnover in their school is functional or
dysfunctional. It also identifies antecedents of turnover and retention of teachers in schools and
the profession. Comments from a survey of over 1000 Australian teachers help provide an
understanding of teachers’ experiences when deciding on whether to stay or to leave schools and
teaching; the antecedents affecting their decision; and the strategies and support required for
enabling them to stay and flourish.

Chair: Kate Reynolds
11:45 – 12:05 Beyond stereotypes: Children of the reform and opening-up in Australia
Huiqi Wang
Supervisors: Natasha Ziebell and Nicola Yelland
New generation of Chinese immigrant parents, who were born during the era of China's reform
and only-child policy, espouse different values and beliefs to previous generations. This project
aims to offer contextual insights into how Chinese parents’ sociocultural background and
immigration experiences shape their parental expectations and views on play-based learning. To
achieve this, a multiple-case study involving ten parents from mainland China was conducted,
and data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The analysis encompassed both
inductive thematic analysis and theoretical thematic analysis.
This presentation will focus on literature concerning China's new generation during the era of
reform and one child policy, along with preliminary findings from the research data. The findings
indicate that rather than emphasising just hard work, they prioritise their children's well-rounded
development, encouraging them to work smarter and be happier.
This research stresses the importance of delving deeper into the social and cultural context of
Chinese participants when interpreting research findings. Early childhood educators and
stakeholders at all levels of the system can provide targeted support for children and families
with a more comprehensive understanding of the intricate factors shaping this unique group of
Chinese immigrant parents’ parental expectation and views on play-based learning.
12:05 – 12:25 Investigating the Positioning of Non-Anglo Immigrant Early Childhood Teachers in Victorian
Early Childhood Education Policies
Sonia Pranatha
Supervisors: Sophie Rudolph & Sonja Arndt
This study is a critical analysis of the positioning of non-Anglo immigrant early childhood
education (ECE) teachers in integral ECE policies in Victoria. In the last few years, the Australian
government has made significant changes in immigration policies to attract immigrant ECE
teachers to work in Australia. This strategy is targeted to alleviate the ongoing workforce
shortage in the sector. However, immigrant ECE teachers are often automatically subjected to
the power relations inherent not just in the country’s immigration policies, but also in teaching
accreditation requirements, ECE policies and curriculum - adding extra barriers for immigrant ECE
teachers to transition in the workforce. This study asks the following question: How do Victorian
ECE policies position non-Anglo immigrant ECE teachers? The analysis of this study draws on
Aileen Moreton-Robinson's theorising of the settler colonial state and Prasanna Srinivasan’s
conception of discursive Othering by the dominant group, to examine the dominant discursive
strategies and practices found in the policies. Early findings reveal that strategies, such as the
discourse of citizenship/residency, are frequently used and continue to marginalise immigrant
ECE teachers against the dominant group in Australia.
12:25 – 12:45 New Media and Identities: Greek Migrant Youth Perspectives
Melina Mallos
Supervisors: Nicola Yelland and Kathryn Coleman
The aim of my doctoral research was to explore how the new media usage of Greek migrant
youths living in Melbourne, aged 18-24 years, shaped and communicated their identities. This
presentation will focus on how combining my role as an a/r/tographer—artist, researcher and
teacher—with participatory narrative inquiry and Bakhtinian concepts of selfhood, broadened
understandings of new media and migrant identity. Artefacts produced by the participants and
me, including social media applications, storyboarding and digital narratives, will be discussed.
Data collection was undertaken during the COVID-19 lockdown in the months of April-May 2020,
prompting new opportunities for both education and research into identity construction through
new media, as well as considerations for virtually connecting migrant youths in diaspora
communities across the globe.

12:45 – 1:05 The generativity of dissonance in museum encounters
Lena Gan
Supervisors: Dianne Mulcahy & Richard Gillespie
Museums offer complex, diverse and dynamic spatio-temporal fields of conditions. In a single real
place, they juxtapose places, epochs, worlds, discourses and other strange objects that are
incompatible and contradictory. On encountering this richness and diversity, visitors are forced to
think; to actively engage, to consider other possibilities and so expand their horizons. Taking a
new materialist theoretical approach and using innovative methods, the study underlying this
presentation had as its focus, the wellbeing of older museum visitors. It was undertaken in four
museums in four countries. This presentation explores the highly engaging, compelling and
generative nature of dissonance, controversy, inconsistency, uncertainty, contradiction and
ambiguity as reflections of the entangled messiness of life. What the study found was that they
stimulate curiosity and provoke thought, exploration, experimentation, transformation and
assimilation, all of which open up and encourage the rearrangement of possibilities and
potentialities. These findings have implications for museums as spaces or places in which
controversial, ethical and global matters of concern such as war, climate change and social
injustice, can be openly discussed and where meanings can be made, unmade and remade.

Chair: Lisa McKay-Brown
11:45 – 12:05 Postcards of Practice: Capturing the shifting work of teaching in Higher Education
Nicky Dulfer, Mark Selkrig, Catherine Smith
Globally, Higher Education (HE) has undergone fundamental changes through massification,
globalisation and marketization (Hil, 2014), and more recently through the impact of COVID 19.
Some of these changes have led to a heightened emphasis on teaching and the emergence of a
quality teaching discourse with HE (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, 2021).
However, tensions emerge between consistency required by institutions and the creativity
academics may want to employ in their teaching. Similarly, opportunities for academics to
interrogate, discuss and reflect on their teaching can be problematic. In this session we will
examine perspectives of those working amidst these challenges to explore how learning and
teaching approaches are changing in the current higher education climate. Drawing on data from
academic staff working in a faculty of education who shared their understandings through both
text and visual responses about their prior, current and imagined future approaches to learning
and teaching, we will explore how academics affectively and reflexively respond to uncertainty
and disruption in ways that contribute to understanding and adapting to the challenges of our
increasingly digital world.
12:05 – 12:25 Unpacking research translation in two main moves: (1) practice to research (theorizing) and (2)
research to practice (praxizing)
John Quay
Research translation is often considered to be unidirectional. Following the conduct of research,
the outcomes can/should be translated into various forms designed to positively impact practice.
I suggest that such translation is preceded by the move from practice to research, making
research translation bidirectional (at least). Every research project is challenged by both moves:
(1) theorizing and (2) praxizing (making praxis into a verb). In this presentation I shall unpack the
challenges of both moves using examples from my experiences. These include (1) theorizing: my
school teaching experience, flavoured by a growing awareness of issues; attempts to
comprehend this situation via relevant theories; attempts to comprehend empirical data through
these theoretical lenses and the consequent evolution of a theoretical framing. And (2) praxizing:
my puzzlement at trying to find ways to articulate the relevance of what I believed I had
discovered for a wider education audience; grappling with how this theoretical lens could inform
teaching practice; arriving at the importance of unit planning as a means (perhaps one amongst
many) for bringing this theory to practice; crafting a unit planning design process that could
support teachers’ achieving their goals by thinking about their teaching in ways supported by this
theory.
12:25 – 12:45 An active first day at university!”: A case study of a gamified orientation day
Lize Vanderstraeten
Supervisors: Evelien Opdecam (Ghent University)
Various difficulties characterize students’ adaptation to university. Engage first-year students
from the first moment of university entrance is crucial, to support their transition from secondary
to higher education, and to facilitate their learning experiences and learning outcomes. This
study builds on a dual premise. First, orientation activities offer first-year students important
transitional support to cope with the stressful challenges while enabling a sense of community.
Second, as students sometimes consider orientation activities as tedious, gamification might
make orientation activities more enjoyable, while stimulating students’ motivation and
information retention. Based on educational literature on both gamification and first-year
experience, a case study of a gamified orientation day is presented. The design principles are
based on eight gamification features: players, story, goals, rules, problem solving, feedback, safe
environment, and sense of mastery. The case study provides a theoretical design framework as
well as a practical implementation guide. Qualitative data serve to evaluate the gamified
orientation day. The data show that students perceive the gamified orientation day as a pleasant

learning experience, especially the peer collaboration and the active participation in knowledge
acquisition. This case study aims to inspire universities how to facilitate the transition and
orientation of first-year students.
12:45 – 1:05 Experiences of higher education for regional, rural and remote youth in a metropolitan
university
Hernan Cuervo, Quentin Maire, Melyssa Fuqua & Nadishka Weerasuriya
In this paper we explore how youth from regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas experience
higher education in a metropolitan institution. We are interested in their university experience,
how it is shaped by the institution, as well as how students’ rural subjectivity and identity fits,
adapts or is challenged in this new environment. Rather than focusing on issues of learning and
academic progression, as more commonly found in the existing literature, we approach RRR
students’ university experience from the point of view of welfare and subjective experiences of
feeling connected to their new environment. As they move to a metropolitan university, RRR
young people live away from their home and need to construct new spaces of sociality with other
students and university authorities. We examine the identity work that RRR young people, some
of them also from a low socio-economic status background, have to do to negotiate new
institutional values, norms and discourses, and social relationships.

Chair: Sarah Healy
11:45 – 12:05 Stories of hope: A generative story of an interdisciplinary research collaboration that privileges
student experience
Rachel Colla, Amanda Belton, Kabir Manandhar Shrestha, Emily Fitzgerald
Hope, as both a protective and enabling factor, is a crucial construct for educational researchers
to explore as we prepare our youth for a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA)
world. However, a recent critical analysis suggests the need for a deepened understanding of
how hope emerges, one that is grounded in the lived experience of young people. This
presentation tells the story of an interdisciplinary team’s approach to innovating methods of data
collection and analysis to examine enablers of hope in young people in a gamified storied
approach. We outline our approach to creating a proof of concept, including the challenges in
blending different epistemologies. As we adapt to a changing landscape in research where it is
imperative to consider ethical uses of AI in our research designs, this collaboration provides
insights into the questions we grappled with in this endeavour. Our presentation is designed to
generate conversations in our research community, as we share key insights from our approach
that sought to preserve student voice while leveraging scalable methods that can offer a nuanced
understanding of the enablers of hope through participant-mediated analysis.
12:05 – 12:25 Conducting educational research in China
Wee Tiong Seah
Just as a Chinese researcher is expected to learn about the research culture in the West, we will
also need to know and understand the norms and expectations associated with conducting
educational research in China. For example, how do teacher participants in China and their peers
in the ‘West’ perceive their relationships with researchers similarly or differently? Is it true that
data can be collected in China without research ethics approval? What should be considered
when designing Likert scale survey items for administration in China? In this session, Wee Tiong
will reflect on his experiences with these and other questions, and facilitate further collective
knowledge sharing. This session should be useful not just for researchers conducting research
directly or indirectly in China, but also to Chinese GRs trained in Western research etiquette
returning to China for their academic careers.
12:25 – 12:45 Do learning environments play a role in the development of autonomous, self-regulated
learners?
Kelly Day
Supervisors: Wesley Imms, Sean Kang, Julia Morris
Innovative learning environments are designed with the idea that a fixed way of learning is no
longer sufficient, and they can provide opportunities for the varied teaching and learning
practices that may support more effective learners. Within these spaces there is an aim for the
development of autonomous, lifelong learners with the adaptive competence to thrive in a
complex world. These outcomes are not dissimilar to outcomes for self-regulated learners. Given
the continued development of innovative learning spaces, it is imperative that we understand if
they are having the desired results for their most important occupant, the student. The field of
self-regulated learning has produced a large amount of research on factors that can influence the
development of more effective learners. And, whilst it concedes to the importance of context,
factors outside of those instructional elements have received little attention. With a focus on
motivation and self-efficacy, this session will discuss how a novel field of research seeks to
understand the impact of different learning spaces on student perceptions of themselves as
learners and their use of the environment as an important tool in their learning.

1:05 – 2:00 Lunch

2:00 – 4:00 Panel Discussion on Theme 1: Doing Education Research Globally (Rm 253 Arts West Building)
Chair: Lindsay Oades
2:00 – 2:20 Exploring teachers’ understandings and practices of truth-telling in Australia and the northern
Nordics
Mati Keynes
In Australia and the northern Nordics (Norway, Sweden, Finland), truth commissions concerning
Indigenous peoples and colonial histories are currently ongoing. These formal truth-telling
processes and related knowledge campaigns, reforms, and requirements, are creating new
demands on teachers’ knowledge and pedagogical skills. This paper discusses the first phase of a
broader 3-year McKenzie postdoctoral research project exploring how school communities in
Australia and the northern Nordics are navigating those demands. It briefly outlines some of the
relevant history, politics, and policy context of truth-telling as a means of coming to terms with
the difficult past, with a focus on the field of school education. Then, it introduces a programme
of comparative qualitative research with history teachers in Australia and Sweden, that is
exploring how history teachers understand and practice truth-telling in their school communities
and teaching practice. This is a work-in-progress paper intended to invite dialogue about the
research questions, and process, within the MGSE community.
2:20 – 2:40 A comparative study of critical thinking between Australian and Chinese higher education
students
Sundance Zhihong Sun
Critical thinking, a key competency for individuals to live and thrive in the 21st century, has been
emphasised worldwide. Yet limited and contradicting empirical evidence has been produced
regarding the extent to which critical thinking performance varies between individuals from
different cultures. The inconsistency in understanding this issue directly impacts the effectiveness
of critical thinking education. This study aims to assess and compare critical thinking between a
convenience sample of Australian (N=233) and Chinese (N=247) higher education students.
Latent regression analysis (LRA) and latent profile analysis (LPA) were conducted to compare the
performance patterns of critical thinking between the Australian and Chinese samples. The LRA
showed that the Australian sample significantly outperformed the Chinese sample in all
dimensions of critical thinking. The LPA identified four profiles among the Australian and the
Chinese samples, and the distribution of the two samples across these profiles significantly
differed. These findings suggest that individuals from different cultures are likely to show
different performance patterns of critical thinking, and tailored strategies are recommended to
enhance critical thinking in different cultural contexts. The limitations and implications of this
study are discussed at the end.
2:40 – 3:00 Hospitality in elite schools: conceptualising social (ir)responsibility
Diana Langmead
Supervisors: Julie McLeod & Jane Kenway
Policies addressing the inequities of school stratification are increasingly arising around the
world, providing fertile ground for research into how this changing landscape is received in
schools. This paper presents the conceptual resources guiding the deconstructions of data,
collected ethnographically in my case study, on the reception and rearticulation of equity
legislation in an elite school in India. Pairing Derrida’s hospitality with Young’s notions of
responsibility makes an unusual combination in sociology of (elite) education research.
Nonetheless, I contend, this theoretical blend, plus my new analytic resources, can fruitfully
inform research on elite schooling and on equity and education policies. My paper exemplifies
the insights this conceptual synthesis offers on the conditional hospitality underlying this elite
school’s ostensible compliance with the equity legislation. Instead, subversion of the legislation’s
social justice aims, (re)production of relations of power and social (ir)responsibility are revealed.
It also introduces analytic resources I developed - ‘circles of worry’ and ‘sentiment tools of
oppression’ – which represent key enactments of (ir)responsibility in this school’s conditional
hospitality. This theoretical approach shows potential for studies of schools’ interpretations of

other mechanisms to advance just schooling and for the development and implementation of the
social justice interventions themselves.
3:00 – 3:20 A learning journey of primary STEM in Singapore
Yasmine Luu
Supervisors: Stanley Koh
A study tour funded by the University of Melbourne's John and Eric Smyth Travelling Scholarship
was undertaken by the author to gain insights into the landscape of teaching primary science,
technology, engineering & maths (STEM) in Singapore. The learning journey included mentoring
by a Master Teacher at the Academy of Singapore Teachers and an Head of Department (Science)
visited at a local primary school, teacher educators (primary) at the National Institute of
Education and the local community. Insights were gained into the similarities and differences in
the content and structure of primary STEM courses, showing a greater coverage of explicit
knowledge in the Singaporean system. Other key findings include how investment in initial
teacher training and continuous professional learning of primary Science teachers, and national
cultural historic developments (for example, structures of the education systems and national
culture) in Singapore have influenced STEM education. The reflection provides recommendations
to primary STEM educators on what Australia and Singapore can learn from each other to
improve primary STEM education in both countries.
3:20 – 3:40 Out of adversity comes opportunity: New learning opportunities from an online international
literacy project involving pre-service teachers
Rhonda Di Biase, Sarah Baldacchino, Ann Dongyu Gu, Katrina Burge
This study explores the opportunities for professional learning through an international online
project, referred to as the International Literacy Project (ILP) that evolved through the pandemic
border closures. Pre-service teachers, who volunteered to participate in the project, connected
with primary students in classes in schools overseas. Each session was centred around story-
telling and story making, producing ebooks of local relevance after each session. PSTs had the
opportunity to plan and co-facilitate sessions and play a role in creating books. Using vignettes
this study explored the professional learning of three pre-service teachers involved in the project.
These reflections considered the ways in which involvement in the project 1) aided the
development of practical skills and capacity for PSTs; 2) provided opportunities for application of
coursework into practical teaching experiences; and 3) presented opportunities personal and
professional learning from interacting with schools in diverse settings. This practical experience
gained, from involvement in the project, also provided a point of comparison to placement
experiences in local schools by offering opportunities for pre-service teachers to reflect on their
assumptions about what constitutes a good education; appreciation of the complexity of
teaching and how to work more effectively in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.
3:40 – 4:00 Discussion

2:00 – 4:00 Panel Discussion on Theme 2: Education Research and the Future of Teaching (Rm 356 Arts
West Building)
Chair: Russell Cross
2:00 – 2:20 Ethography: generating practices for learning with and from our local Places
Catherine Hamm
This paper shares practices for activating the vital role of Place in learning in early childhood. I
share ethographic practices from the Out and About with Kulin seasons pedagogical inquiry on
Boonwurrung/Bunurong Country in Melbourne, Australia. Ethographic practices focus firstly on
more-than-human ways of life, and then over time draw humans into the story. Ethographic
practices generate ways of noticing places differently, where more than human lifeways are
foregrounded. In the Australian context, this includes respectfully foregrounding First Nations
worldviews, and taking seriously the response-abilities and accountabilities of engaging with
ongoing colonial inheritances and activating environmental justice. I share lively multispecies
stories that respond to the provocation; How do we learn with our local Places? This storytelling
process is speculative, partial, experimental and includes being present in ordinary moments, to
learn with and from the world.
2:20 – 2:40 Carbon Footprint, or Collective Action? Australian Teachers Respond to Climate Change
Concern
Claudine Lagier
Supervisors: Jeana Kriewaldt, Rhonda Di Biase
Global student activist movements of recent years have amplified calls for international action in
response to climate change, foregrounding its socio-political drivers alongside the scientific
processes. Student activism also has highlighted the psychological impact of climate change on
young people internationally. This presentation reports on research of Australian primary and
secondary teachers, investigating whether and how Australian teachers are teaching about
climate change, with a focus on the socio-political and emotional dimensions. Results indicate
teachers are hearing widespread student concern about climate change, with most responding by
highlighting individual measures available to students - such as reducing one’s carbon footprint -
rather than recommending collective or political action. This trend is despite most respondents
agreeing that climate change teaching should go beyond science or geography and expressing
their in-principle support for students attending climate-related political demonstrations. This
research suggests many Australian teachers accept climate change as a “truth” and recognise the
importance of acknowledging students’ climate-related concern. It also implies individual actions
remain a common response to climate change in teaching and in discussions with students,
despite widespread agreement among experts that collective, large-scale action is what’s needed
for effective climate mitigation.
2:40 – 3:00 Where powerful knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge intersect: The case of
knowledge and beliefs for teaching school geography through inquiry
Shu Jun Lee and Jeana Kriewaldt
In geography education, few studies examine knowledge for teaching using Lee Shulman’s
concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Instead the knowledge debate amongst
geography education researchers has centered on Michael Young’s concept of powerful
knowledge which represents a pushback against curriculum shifts towards generic skills like
inquiry. Curiously however, inquiry increasingly features as the recommended teaching and
learning approach for school geography in professional texts for geography educators and
curriculum directives around the world. Little is known about teachers’ knowledge for teaching
geography through inquiry, representing a missed opportunity to investigate the intersections
between PCK and powerful knowledge. This study represents a first in addressing this research
gap. Secondary geography teachers in Victoria, one of the most populous states in Australia
where the national curriculum strongly advocates for geography inquiry, were surveyed on their
knowledge, beliefs and practice of geography inquiry. The study concludes that knowledge for
teaching geography through inquiry is a dynamic collection of rich and situated knowledge

constructed in and with practice, and teachers’ beliefs are deeply intertwined. These conclusions
augment PCK concepts by incorporating concepts of powerful knowledge and curriculum-making,
signalling a way forward on knowledge for teaching powerful subject knowledge through inquiry.
3:00 – 3:20 Exploring the Relationship Between Preservice Teachers’ Dispositions, Intended Behaviour as a
Teacher, and Readiness to Support Student Wellbeing
Laura E Smith
Supervisors: Janet Clinton, Ruth Aston & Mathew White
Teachers are continually tasked with adapting to the changing landscape of the education sector.
A key example is the emphasis on student mental health and wellbeing and the resulting
expansion of teachers’ roles to explicitly provide related support. Currently, little is known about
how ready, willing, and able preservice teachers are to do so. This paper will present evidence to
support the value of investigating teacher dispositions in this context, discuss issues of
conceptual clarity, and lay the foundation for future research. This paper presents findings from a
desktop analysis of initial teacher education (ITE) entry assessment data exploring potential
teacher candidates’ health and wellbeing related dispositions and intended behaviour as a
teacher. The findings demonstrate the value of measuring teacher dispositions. Secondly, a study
investigating the concept of teacher readiness to support student wellbeing and associated traits
and dispositional factors will be introduced to illustrate the complexity of the related concepts
and argue the need for refined measures. This research raises important questions about how we
can understand the extent to which teachers are ready to support student mental health and
wellbeing. Further research is needed, given the implications for teacher selection, ITE, student
wellbeing, and measurement of classroom readiness.
3:20 – 3:40 Climate Change Education for a more than human world
Andrew Deuchar, Marcia McKenzie, and Mariana Campos
The Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Change Communication and Education (MECCE) Project is
an international partnership that aims to increase the quality and quantity of climate change
education to advance global climate literacy and action. In 2022, the MECCE project funded 12
case studies of existing climate change education (CCE) projects to generate and share
knowledge with policy makers, practitioners, and researchers across the globe. This paper
discusses three of these case studies including a dry season gardening initiative led by women in
rural Ghana, a school set up by environmental activists in rural Indonesia, and a school focused
on sustainability in Argentina. Learning in these projects was a situated process conducted in,
with and through the materiality of the natural environment. They often coupled a focus on
environmental and social justice, emphasising the value of Indigenous knowledges,
intergenerational collaboration, and the capacity of marginalised groups for creating change. We
suggest these initiatives were premised on a more-than-human relational ontology that
emphasised care and interconnections with other people, other species, and the environment. In
doing so, they gesture toward the pedagogical value of a more-than-human relational ontology
for underpinning CCE and for generating effective climate change mitigation and adaptation
practices.

2:00 – 4:00 Panel Discussion on Theme 3: Systems and Policy Landscapes for the Sector (Rm 453 Arts West
Building)
Chair: Gosia Klatt
2:00 – 2:20 From ‘demand driven’ to ‘job ready’: discursive reconfigurations of the national contributions
public universities make to Australian society
Noha Khalaf
Supervisors: Gwil Croucher and Peter Woelert
Over the past two decades some scholars and sector leaders have raised concerns over a
perceived lack of coherency in national higher education policy in Australia. When combined with
how the events of the pandemic have brought to light the vulnerability of Australia’s public
universities, this raises questions about the impact of the national policy framework on
Australia’s higher education system, and in particular public universities. As policy is underpinned
by assumptions about the national contributions of universities, the study will conduct a
Foucauldian informed critical discourse analysis to examine how these have been discursively
reconfigured by government and universities. The study will analyse how the discursive framing
of key national contributions of universities changed in documents published in relation to the
demand-driven system and the Job-Ready Graduates package, and what the observed discursive
shifts imply for reconfiguration of key national contributions of universities and the role of higher
education in Australia.
2:20 – 2:40 Reflecting on the Karmel Report and fifty years of education policy settlement in Australia
Tim Delany
Supervisors: Sophie Rudolph and Lisa McKay Brown
The Australian Schools Commission’s Schools in Australia report (the Karmel Report) was released
in May 1973. The report found that school education in Australia was being hampered by a lack
of resources, inequalities in provision and opportunity, and inadequate teacher development and
curricula. The report created a template for education policy and research in Australia. This
paper draws on early findings of a literature review which considers how policy aimed at
addressing educational inequalities has ‘settled’ since Karmel. Marginson (1984) characterised
the Karmel report as a settlement that failed to address educational inequality. This political
definition of settlement was appropriate given the place that educational policy had assumed in
Australian politics. But settlement has a range of other meanings in settler colonial Australia. For
example, since the occupation of Gadigal land in 1788, settlements have pre-empted towns and
cities across the continent. This paper explores this and other concepts of settlement to identify
new theoretical and analytical possibilities. This paper argues that an education policy settlement
has existed, with minor disturbance since 1973 and considers the consequences of this
settlement for students, schools, and communities. I conclude by discussing possibilities for
unsettling this settlement and imagining changed educational landscapes.
2:40 – 3:00 Exploring temporality in education policy: Rural education modernization in China
Hanyue Zhong
Supervisors: Gosia Klatt; Eric Fu; Melyssa Fuqua
The temporality of policy is a relatively new and undertheorized conception in policy sociology.
This study contributes to policy sociology by adding China’s case to the investigation of the
temporal dimension of policy. It explores the temporal dimension of China’s policy discourse
"education modernization" drawing upon historical sociology. It traces the history in which the
discourse emerged to analyze how Chinese rurality is interwoven into the nation’s pursuit to be a
modern country from 1904 to 2012. Two temporal threads are identified: the rural as a problem
and the rural as a modernization plan. The rural can be either a constructed problem for the
nation’s modernization, or integrated into distinct political plans and turned into a reform or
revolution power since its social-cultural meaning is tightly attached to the national identity. The
two conflicting threads reveal the paradoxical position of the rural in China’s modernization
agenda: the problematized rural is a potential emancipation power. In light of the threads, this
article exposes the temporal construction of China’s current education modernization policy,

demonstrating how the policy inherits and utilizes historical and cultural assumptions as a
governing technique, meanwhile, on the other hand, is shaped and constrained by them.
3:00 – 3:20 How do we get (and keep) paying industry partners for our research?
Wesley Imms
A recent summary of funding sources for university research stated 35% came from the federal
government, 60% from internal university funds, and a scant 5% from paying industry partners.
This presentation discusses strategies for attracting external funding for our research,
highlighting seven critical criteria.
3:20 – 3:40 Administrative burden at Australian universities: Key findings from a national staff survey
Peter Woelert, Jenny Chesters, Maree Martinussen, Jessica Gannaway
Anecdotally, there is growing concern about levels of administrative burden among staff working
within Australian universities. However, despite indications that levels of administrative burden
at Australian universities are relatively high by international standards (see Bentley & Kyvik,
2012), there has been a dearth of comprehensive empirical studies into how specifically different
types of staff at universities in Australia experience such a burden on the ground. In our
presentation we present initial findings from the first ever staff survey specifically devoted to
examining the issue of administrative burden at universities in Australia conducted over the
period August to September 2023. Drawing on a comprehensive sample of survey responses
coming from a wide range of universities, we outline what academic and professional staff
working at Australian universities regard as some of the key dimensions, drivers, and effects of
administrative burden in their workplace, and, on that basis, identify potential strategies for
reducing administrative burdens within universities on the ground.

2:00 – 4:00 Panel Discussion on Theme 4: Methodology for Education Research (Rm 456 Arts West
Building)
Chair: Dianne Mulcahy
2:00 – 2:20 Rural and Remote Community-Focused Research: Methodological Considerations for
Sub/Urban-Based
Melyssa Fuqua
This presentation explores methodological issues related to designing and undertaking rural and
remote research that is grounded in the specificities of place when the researcher is located in an
urban university. There is growing acknowledgement in the field of rural education research that
research should be done with and for the participants’ local communities. This changing influence
on rural education research raises methodological and ethical questions for researchers who are
not local. In this paper, I contribute to the emerging body of literature that considers the
tensions, challenges, and creative opportunities that arise in developing ‘quality’ rural/remote-
focused research projects while based in a sub/urban university. Using a self-study methodology,
I critically reflected on the design and initial fieldwork stages of my ethnographic project which is
situated in rural sporting clubs. Key findings include tensions arising from being an insider-yet-
outsider to the participants’ communities; challenges with practicalities of planning and
undertaking fieldwork far from the university, including managing ethical considerations in small
communities; and opportunities generated from a perspective enriched by collaborations with a
variety of academic peers. Finally, I provide some strategies and questions for sub/urban-based
researchers to consider when they design their own rural/remote-based projects.
2:20 – 2:40 Hacking the Anthropocene: Speculative Wandering in the Metaverse
Kathryn Coleman and Sarah Healy
Educational research has undergone a transformative shift in dissemination practices due to the
influence of virtual and immersive technologies. One of the catalysts for creative researchers was
the extended pandemic lockdown which prompted many to explore other avenues for scholarly
publication beyond traditional academic channels. The phenomenon of "data creativities,"
emerged as a response to the limitations of physical spaces (Spreadborough et al., 2022) and
reified the interplay of data as practice and practice as data. Our paper will explore this
intersection of creative research and the evolving landscape of virtual worlds, focusing on the
concept of the metaverse as an innovative platform for scholarly engagement and educational
research. We will trace the origins of the metaverse concept to Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk
novel "Snow Crash" (1992) and its subsequent cultural representations. Building upon this
legacy, we introduce the "Hacking the Anthropocene Metaverse," an integral facet of the global
project by SWISP Lab. Drawing on our experience as artist-academics immersed in digital realms,
this paper examines the potential of the metaverse as a dynamic site for educational research.
We will pose speculative metaverse-thinking as having the potential to reshape the boundaries of
data, practice, academic research, and creative scholarly publication.
2:40 – 3:00 Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Qualitative Research: A Proof-of-Concept Study
Yue Pan
Supervisors: Peggy Kern
Whilst qualitative approaches are commonly used in social sciences, analysing such data is time-
consuming and labour-intensive. Natural language processing (NLP) from the computer sciences
uses machine learning algorithms to extract themes from massive qualitative data and generate
insights. Yet few studies have directly compared NLP with other qualitative analysis methods.
This proof-of-concept compares similarities and differences between themes generated by NLP
from conventional qualitative analysis methods. Drawing on existing qualitative data (interview
transcripts about conceptualisations and experiences of wellbeing), we compared the themes
generated from conventional qualitative analysis with three NLP analyses based on conceptual
similarities. Themes from NLP were comparable with results yielded from traditional approaches,
suggesting that NLP might be useful in conjunction with conventional qualitative analysis
methods, although supervision of the NLP models is necessary to ensure the results align with

relevant theories. This project adds to the methodological tools available in analysing qualitative
data, fuelling the development of data-driven methodologies in the field of computational social
science.
3:00 – 3:20 Ethical video methodology: Crashing through an invisible wall in early childhood learning
Chris Speldewinde
The forest school and nature kindergarten approach to early childhood education and care has
been established for well over 50 years in the UK and across parts of Europe including
Scandinavia. One example of where the nature kindergarten approach to early childhood
education and care has recently taken a foothold is the Australian ‘bush kinder’. Bush kinders are
gaining popularity in the context of the delivery of early childhood education to four- and five-
year-old Australian children. Bush kinders provide children an opportunity to learn through a
play-based experience, often where the child leads their learning which is then supported by the
educator. This research project examining bush kinders began in 2015 and is ongoing. This paper
aims to use the context of the bush kinder setting, which is often a wide-open space where
children can freely move about, to explore the methodological use of video in recording the
experiences of educators and children in this environment and the ethical dilemmas that become
prevalent while video recording a bush kinder session.
3:20 – 3:40 Enhancing relationality in context: Video conferencing in phenomenological research related to
place specific experiences
Rachele Sloane
Supervisors: Annie Gowing and Mark Selkrig
Semi-structured interviews have long served as a cornerstone for gathering rich insights and
nuanced perspectives in qualitative research and have traditionally been conducted in person.
The global pandemic created many barriers to in person meetings, necessitating change and
greater flexibility in researchers' approaches. Many researchers adapted by engaging with cloud-
based video conferencing technology. Several methodological benefits have emerged from the
use of digital technologies including the potential for increased participant comfort in familiar
and self-selected surroundings, leading to more candid responses. The digital environment also
allows for greater flexibility in scheduling, accommodating participant preference more
effectively and fostering greater inclusivity in research participation through removing barriers. In
this presentation I will draw on recent experience engaging with video conferencing to conduct
semi structured interviews with Wellbeing leaders working in Victorian secondary schools. Video
conferencing was chosen initially for this project to increase access and ease of participation
across the state. Interestingly, participants chose to be interviewed whilst physically situated
within their workspaces which seemed to enhance exploration and reflection on the lived
experience of leading Wellbeing in that context. Where an experience is specifically connected to
place it is possible that video conferencing interviews have benefits beyond mere convenience.

4:00 – 4:20 Afternoon Tea
4:20 – 5:00 Plenary (Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, Arts West Building)

Collaborative policy making: The role of research in education policy design
Marcia McKenzie
5:00 – 5:10 Closing (Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, Arts West Building)

Wrap up
Gosia Klatt and Linday Oades
5:10 – 6:00 End of day celebration (University House, Professor's Walk)

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Faculty of Education

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10:00 – 11:20 Parallel Session 1 (Rm 253, Arts West Building)

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10:00 – 11:20 Parallel Session 5 (Rm 361 Arts West Building)

10:20 – 10:40 An intentional approach to meaningful teacher-child musical interactions

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11:20 – 11:45 Morning Tea

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12:05 – 12:25 Meaning and Self-Efficacy in Democratic and Mainstream Schools

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Katherine Canobi, Halina McNally and Jane Page.

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4:20 – 5:00 Plenary (Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, Arts West Building)

5:00 – 5:10 Closing (Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, Arts West Building)

5:10 – 6:00 End of day celebration (University House, Professor's Walk)

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