ProfessorCatherine Burgess

Dr Cathie Burgess is a Professor in Community-led Education and Associate Dean Indigenous Strategies and Services. She coordinates Learning from Country and Leadership in Aboriginal Education programs at the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at The University of Sydney. Cathie has extensive teaching and leadership experience in secondary schools and higher education and maintains strong connections with school-communities through teacher professional learning, research projects and community collaborations. Her work in Aboriginal Education is acknowledged through an Honorary Life Membership, NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and Life Membership, Aboriginal Studies Association NSW, and was awarded Australian Teacher Educator of the Year in 2024.

Along with co-author and President, Aboriginal Studies Association NSW Kylie Captain, Cathie published Amazon Best seller (2023) ‘Be that Teacher who makes a Difference and Lead Aboriginal Education for all Students’ based on over 40 years’ of educational and leadership experience in primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Cathie has a strong publishing track record in highly ranked peer reviewed journals and book chapters, reflecting original teaching and research on culturally nourishing approaches to schooling that foreground the role of local Aboriginal families and communities as education leaders and mentors. The Learning from Country Framework emerging from the 2018-2022 teaching/ research project, repositions thinking towards the significance of sovereignty, social justice and equity when led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islandercommunities.

Her research involves community-led initiatives positioning Country, Aboriginal voices and Aboriginal community educators and Elders as leaders and collaborators in curriculum, pedagogy, teacher professional learning, educational leadership and research. Significantly, the Learning from Country in the City (LFC) teaching/research project is transformative for graduates entering the teaching profession. Cathie has recently extended the LFC project by creating an interdisciplinary team to develop in front-line service personnel such as nurses and social workers, the confidence and skills to provide culturally safe practices in Aboriginal communities. Significant research projects also include the Aboriginal Voices Culturally Nourishing Schooling Project, Sparking Imagination Education: Transforming Inequality in Schools, and Aboriginal Pedagogical Tools Navigating the Truth-Telling Interface in Teacher Education.