Dr Sonja Kuzich (President)

Curtin University

Dr Sonja Kuzich is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education, Curtin University. Sonja is a passionate educator who advocates strongly for teachers, teacher education, and the promotion of educational research through service as a (former) VP of the Professional Teaching Council of Western Australia (PTCWA); AITSL Teacher Accreditation panelist; co-convenor of the United Nations (WA) Education Committee; and, President of WAIER. Sonja was recipient of the 2021 WAIER Early Career Award. My research interests include social justice and equity, literacy practices in schools, educational policy development and implementation particularly through a sustainability agenda, and the impact of nature on children’s affective and cognitive outcomes. My Ph.D. is in education for sustainability and I have published articles in the fields of teaching and learning, educational policy, literacy, and sustainability.

“I have been commissioned by UNESCO to investigate Global Citizenship Education (GCED) within schools and in teacher education across Australia. Of particular interest is the ways GCED may be interpreted in Australia – for example, as sustainability education, peace education, and human rights education This project will result in a practical handbook for teachers across the Asia Pacific region to embed the principles of GCED into their classroom practice.”

“For the last three years, I have been working on the Centre of Excellence in the Explicit Teaching of Literacy project with the Department of Education. This project has drawn on the knowledge and expertise of exemplary schools to create a bespoke literacy professional learning (PL) program for teachers and school leaders. This unique model of PL provided classroom teachers and school leaders with role models and mentors for the explicit teaching of literacy and to be able to see the practices in situ. The project has resulted in a positive and sustained impact on whole school literacy teaching practices in 65 schools across Western Australia.”

In teacher education, I have three current research projects: 1) Teachers as writers/writers as teachers – investigating the writer identity and confidence of pre-service teachers and the impact it may have on their work as teachers. 2) First-year student engagement, support, and retention- investigating the needs of first-year education students to thrive in a higher education environment. 3) Storybuilders – examining the use of interactive, collaborative story creation on the development of oral and written narrative knowledge of primary children.

“I was invited to join the WAIER Committee by a colleague as an introduction to the educational research community. As I progressed through my PhD and started writing papers, I found the collegiality and support of the WAIER community were invaluable in developing my ideas and skills in educational research. I would like to be able to offer those same opportunities to others.”

Dr Gregory Hine (Treasurer)

University of Notre Dame Australia

Greg’s teaching career spans 22 years, and he commenced his tertiary teaching role in 2011. As a Senior Lecturer, Greg teaches classes in general pedagogy, education research methods, and secondary mathematics content and pedagogy. He is currently the Program Coordinator for the Bachelor of Secondary Education.

My main research area and teaching interests lie within secondary mathematics education. The purpose of one recent study was to examine and monitor changes over time in pre-service, secondary mathematics teachers’ (PSMTs) views about their approaches to teaching mathematics in secondary schools, before and after undertaking mathematics teaching methods courses (including practicum teaching). These views included their perceived readiness to teach secondary mathematics, as well as an indication of their likelihood to use particular teaching approaches for mathematics. PSMTs at two Australian universities were surveyed before and after they undertook their respective teaching methods courses, and interviewed upon course completion. Overall, survey data did not indicate a significant change in PSMTs’ views of readiness to teach mathematics from either university (N = 61 pre-survey, N = 34 post-survey). An analysis of interview data revealed that PSMTs were not ready to teach secondary mathematics, with their emphasis focused on their mathematical content knowledge and mathematical pedagogical knowledge as areas of requiring improvement. Nearly half of the interviewees reported feeling confident to teach mathematics to lower secondary classes (Years 7-10). Despite these concessions, all interviewed PSMTs outlined at least one area where they had experienced professional growth since commencing a teacher education degree.

“My reason and motivation in joining the WAIER committee is to work with highly committed people to promote high quality educational research in Western Australia.”

Dr Clare McBeath

WAIER Life Member

PhD (Curtin), MA(Ed) (Southampton UK), BA (Adelaide), Diploma in Teaching (Adelaide CAE), Diploma in Training & Assessment Systems (Curtin), Diploma in Applied Language (Central TAFE, WA), Advanced Cert in Media Production (Kilkenny Tech, SA). 

WAIER Life Member; WAIER Fellow; PCTWA Outstanding Professional service Award.

“As a trained secondary school teacher I taught in Sarawak and Brunei for 15 years before undertaking a Master of Arts in Education in the UK. On return to Australia I worked with Adult Aboriginal Education in SA, Deakin University and the Gordon Technical College in Victoria, and the TAFE National Centre for R&D in Adelaide. I was appointed to Curtin University where I coordinated the Training and Development Program, offering degree and graduate diploma courses in further education. I believe it was the most diverse and interesting program in the School of Education!”

For list of publications see http://www.clare-mcbeath.id.au/

“Since retirement in 2003 I have continued my involvement with WAIER, undertaking programming and publishing for the annual Forum, and editorial and publishing responsibility for Issues in Educational Research.”

Dr Saul Karnovsky

Curtin University

“I am an experienced pre-service teacher educator and early career researcher, specialising in the fields of teacher emotions, pedagogy, professional ethics, and classroom management. My recently completed thesis explored pre-service teacher emotions in learning to teach. In my research I draw upon post-structural theory to examine how emotions emerge within the modern neo-liberal contexts of schooling from the historical, social, and political processes in which they are enacted. I embrace an alternative ontological space, seeking to deeply engage with new ideas and different theoretical perspectives of education. My current research interests are in supporting schools and pre-service teachers to provide open and understanding spaces for educators to address emotional labour in a professional and ethical manner.”

“I am currently working on a Curtin University funded teaching & learning project: “Developing an authentic teaching video resource for pre-service teacher professional development in managing the secondary learning environment.” The projects aim is to provide pre-service teachers with an authentic and engaging rich-media resource that simulates real-world scenarios of classroom management. The project is partnering with the West Australian Youth Theatre Company (https://waytco.com/) to hire young actors to play the part of school students in an authentic scenario-based video resource. Once produced for implementation in course design, the project will research teacher educators and pre-service teachers as to their confidence and understanding of key positive classroom management skills. My research interests include in-service and pre-service teacher wellbeing, emotional labour, teacher education, organisational self-care.”

“I joined WAIER as I was supported in a substantial way by the organisation when I was a doctoral student and wish to give back to other emerging education researchers in WA.”

Dr Patricia (Trish) Collins

Edith Cowan University

Dr Trish Collins is a lecturer in Early Childhood Studies in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. Trish worked in Pre-K to Yr2 early childhood classrooms for 20+ years before becoming an early childhood consultant for CEWA in the Kimberley region and then across the state. She has also worked as a consultant for Early Life Foundation (Walker Learning). Her research focuses on personal values (i.e., motivational goals) in childhood and how these impact children’s well-being and behaviour.

“My research interests include personal values, wellbeing, behaviour, social support and motivational goals. I am currently examining early childhood pre-service teacher’s knowledge of their own personal values (i.e., motivational goals) to give them an insight into how they will impact the children they teach and how children’s values may be similar or opposing to their own.”

“I joined WAIER as I believe that it is important that research being conducted in WA is promoted and disseminated to the community. WAIER also provides the opportunity for me to network and collaborate across institutions.”

Dr Janene Sproul

Murdoch University

Dr Janene Sproul is a lecturer in Science and Inclusive Education (secondary) at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. After more than twenty years teaching in secondary Science labs in both rural and metropolitan, government and independent systems, her focus is to further support pre-service and early career Science teachers in their inclusive pedagogy. Research interests lie in determination of two areas in secondary schooling post-Covid; support and retention of early career Science teachers (rural WA) and best-practice classroom adjustments for students with hypersensitivity to visual light. Educational research has the potential to reveal evidence based processes to increase engagement of students as well as identification of un-intended marginalisation. For these reasons I joined the committee to further promote these investigations in the context of Western Australia.

“My published research to date has focused on minimisation of adverse effects from environmental lighting (including computers and screens) in the classroom. This can be seen in secondary classrooms as students diagnosed with migraine and concussion typically have periods of visual light hypersensitivity (VLH); the physical effects ranging from fatigue to pain, the effect on cognition evidenced by decreased germane cognitive load. The Vygotskian lens of Defectology (1993, translated by Andy Bluden) outlines the different rather than delayed development for students with disabilities, whether they be episodic or continuous, evolving or permanent. Choi et al (2014) expanded on Sweller’s Cognitive Load theory (1988) to include the physical learning environment. It is within this sphere, incorporating post-Covid reliance on hybrid and online learning, that I focus my research. The aim being to determine best practice for different academic engagement by adolescents with VLH, thus avoiding educator assumptions of delayed development for these students.”

“Two or three times a year I present at conferences on Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Science. In 2022 I began the year with Davydov, secondary science teaching and native Australia Plants and will continue with Inclusive practice In Secondary Science Classrooms in June. These connections with secondary and tertiary educators link research into practice enabling action research moving forward. “

Research interests include Science education, Inclusive education, early career teachers, secondary and adolescent.

Dr Cindy Smith

Curtin University

Dr Cindy Ann Smith serves as a Lecturer and Researcher in the School of Education Curtin University supporting pre-service teachers, particularly in the areas of learning theory and learning diversity.   Cindy has extensive classroom experience teaching children with severe emotional/behavioural disorders, particularly those whose behaviours manifest as a result of childhood trauma, or neurological differences such as Autism or ADHD. Before joining Curtin, Cindy taught at universities in the U.S. and the Middle East and has a passion for high quality, equitable education for all students.  Cindy has extensive experience in classroom management, online and classroom learning for students with diverse learning and behavioural needs and collaborates with colleagues from around the world to provide rich inter- cultural experiences for pre-service teachers. 

“My research interests include pre-service teacher development, women’s studies, and effective mentoring of university students, adolescents, and students with Autism”.

 Cindy also serves as  the educational consultant for the non profit organization: Furthering Autistic Children’s Education and Schooling (FACES), which has a goal to develop increased educational options for Western Australian children with Autism. 

Dr Sian Chapman

Murdoch University

Dr Sian Chapman is a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. With a background in dance, Sian teaches arts education across the undergraduate and graduate initial teacher education programs at Murdoch. Published research to date examines arts curriculum implementation practices in primary schools, and inclusive education perspectives of pre-service health and physical education teachers. Upcoming publications explore teacher wellbeing and generational characteristics.

“My research interests lie in arts and movement, inclusive education, curriculum theory, and education policy practices with a focus on improving educational outcomes for all students. I have a particular interest in complexity theory and how the nature of complex systems interact across school contexts”.

“I joined WAIER as a way to connect to other educational researchers across Western Australia. I joined the WAIER committee as a way to support and promote educational research more broadly.”

Michelle Murphy

Department of Education WA

Michelle Murphy is a passionate educator of many years with extensive experience in English Literature, Media and Communication Studies. She is currently an educator–trainer and actively involved in many professional communities. She is the current Vice President of the Level Three Classroom Teacher Association. She is has been a member of WAIER since 2010 and enjoys the opportunity to examine how contemporary research impacts her daily work practice.

Associate Professor Wendy Cumming-Potvin

Murdoch University

Dr Sally Lamping

Curtin University

Jette Oksis

Department of Education WA

Roger Atkinson

WAIER Life Member

Dr Patrick Hampton

University of Notre Dame

Dr Felicity McLure