Sydney School of Education and Social Work

Professor Tim Allender's principal research over the past 30 years concerns Indian education and empire studies using multidisciplinary approaches that focus on gender and feminism. His most recent book with Manchester University Press (Studies in Imperialism Series), entitled Empire Religiosity, explores female Roman Catholicism in colonial and postcolonial India and is now available in paperback. This book is the WINNER of the Triennial Distinguished Book Award, 2022-25, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, Notre Dame University, South Bend, USA. His previous book, Learning Femininity in Colonial India, also with Manchester University Press (Studies in Imperialism Series), now also available in paperback, develops key gender, feminist and knowledge transfer themes concerning India. This book is the WINNER of the Anne Bloomfield Triennial book prize awarded by the HES (UK) for best history of education book published between 2014 and 2017. As the nominee of the NSW/ACT Committee of Chairs of Academic Boards and Senates, Tim has consulted over many years with the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) on the development of the Australian National Curriculum (History).

Tim has held visiting fellowships at the University of Winchester and the University of London. He has held research Professorships at the Georg Eckert Institute, Braunschweig, Germany; at the University of Toronto, Canada; at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Shimla, India; at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India; at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, at the University of Birmingham, UK and, most recently, at Heidelberg University, Germany. He is co-editor of a forthcoming book on visual literacies and history. Tim was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain in 2024.

Tim has published earlier single-authored books, 53 mostly single-authored international journal articles and book chapters, illuminating other sociological, medical and cultural aspects of empire. He is the lead co-editor of four edited books, five special issues of international journals and he is on the editorial boards of six leading international journals. Tim is founding co-editor of two successful international book series: ISCHE global histories (Europe); and Studies in Visual History (de Gruyter, Berlin). He has held two successfully completed ARC grants. In recognition of his international standing as a scholar of education of India he delivered the keynote address to the world ISCHE conference in Turkey (June 2015) - the first Australian invited to do so. He has also delivered 45 invited keynotes and other sole presentations in international and national forums in Europe, the US and in Asia.

Dr Michael Anderson is Professor of Creativity and Arts Education in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney and Co-Director of the CREATE Centre. He is an internationally recognised educational leader in school transformation processes. He has taught, researched and published in education and transformation for over 20 years, including 20 books and 65 book chapters and journal articles. His international research and practice focuses on how the 4Cs can be integrated using coherent frameworks to support leaders as they work towards transformation in their contexts. Michael's most recent work emerging from his research and partnerships with schools include How Schools Transform (2024 ed), Transforming Education (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Transforming Schools (2017)

• Transforming Organizations (with Miranda Jefferson, Bloomsbury, 2019)
• Transforming Schools (with Miranda Jefferson, Bloomsbury, 2017)
• Applied Theatre: Research (with Peter O'Connor, Bloomsbury, 2015),
• Partnerships in Education Research: Creating Knowledge that Matters (with Kelly Freebody, Bloomsbury, 2014),
• Masterclass in Drama Education (Continuum, UK),

The research reported in these publications uncovers innovative linkages between drama, the arts play, creativity and learning that have the potential to significantly improve learning for young people. Michael was a drama a teacher and Creative Arts Consultant with the NSW Department of Education and has worked for NESA in senior assessment and curriculum roles.

Derrick Armstrong is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Education and Social Work. His roles in the University included:Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) and Registrar; Deputy Provost & Pro-Vice Chancellor Learning and Teaching; and, Dean of the Faculty of Education & Social Work. From 215 to 2020 he was Deputy Vice Chancellor Research, Innovation and International at the University of the South Pacific.

His research field is the sociology of education. Major projects have included: the Global Challenges Research Fund (UK) "One Ocean Hub", global partnership of universities and stakeholder organisation investigating the investigating development challenges at the nexus between the worlds oceans and local and indigenous communities who are connected to the ocean environment;Economic and Social Research Council Research Priority Network"Pathways Into and Out of Crime", exploring the experiences and perspectives of children and young people in relation to anti-social and criminal behaviour in contexts of multi-agency intervention; and, the national evaluation of the UK government's "On Track" crime-reduction program which examined the efficacy of multiple interventions with childrren aged 6-12 year and their families. He has also undertaken work on the history of special educational policy since 1944, on 'Self-advocacy, Civil Rights and the Social Model of Disability', on the construction of motivational styles in the context of school subject and classroom contexts, and he has a longstanding interest in the experience and perspectives of children and their parents involved in special educational assessment.

In addition, Professor Emeritus Armstrong has worked extensively with teachers, non-government organisations and education ministries in educational development and capacity building in developing countries, particularly in the Caribbean and China.

Currently, he serves on the Executive Committee of the Network for Interdisciplinary and Transdiscplinary Research Organisations which includes universiteis in Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania. He has published 9 books and over 150 journal articles and papers.

BPhysEd (ACPE), BEd (Deakin), MEd (Sports Coaching) (USYD), Prof.Dip (Adv. Sports Nutrition) (Barc), PhD (USYD), FTGN

Dr James Barkell is an experienced educator, university academic, and sports coaching specialist with more than 20 years of teaching experience across primary, secondary, and tertiary education. He currently teaches and coordinates several undergraduate and post graduate units at the University of Sydney in the areas of Health and Physical Education, Sports Nutrition, and Sports Coaching. He also supervises PhD and master’s research students. James is an Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA) accredited Sports Scientist and Exercise Scientist, an Australian Strength & Conditioning Association (ASCA) L2 Coach and a Rugby Australia L4 High-Performance Coach. In 2024 he was awarded the Rugby Australia Coach of the Year and a finalist in the Australian Sports Commission awards. 

Before moving into academia, James worked as a senior health and physical education teacher, holding leadership positions including the Head of Sport, HPE Coordinator, and Master in Charge of Rugby. James is a mid-career researcher with more than a dozen publications exploring topics in Sports Performance, Physical Education, Nutrition and Coach Development. His combined skills bring together, classroom teaching, academic research, curriculum leadership, and high-performance coaching to create practical, evidence-informed learning experiences for students.

BScAgr MScAgr GradDipEdStu PhD Sydney, SFHEA

Kath is a senior lecturer within the Sydney School of Education and Social Work. She teaches in the areas of educational psychology, research methods, and educational leadership; and supervises PhD students in educational psychology. Kath is deputy chair/chair of two of the University of Sydney's human research ethics committees, is first year coordinator of postgraduate research students in the School of Education and Social Work, and co-convenor of the Educational Psychology Research Seminar Series. Her research is focused on the area of motivation.

Kath was previously Head Quality and Analytics within the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Portfolio, an insititutional leadership role involving quality evaluation, analytics, and data governance. Before that she worked as an academic developer in the Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL), and prior to that in the Faculty of Pharmacy. Kath's original academic appointment at the University was in the Faculty of Agriculture where she was involved in teaching, consulting, and researching in applied statistics and experimental design for seven years. Her PhD was on the relation between academics' epistemic beliefs and culture. She has studied in the fields of agricultural science, applied statistics methodology, higher education, and educational psychology.

MEd(Res), MTeach(Secondary), BACommunications(Theatre/Media)

Dr Natasha Beaumont is a lecturer in Creative Arts K to 6 in the School of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney. Her research interests include creativity, Arts-based pedagogy, digital filmmaking, drama and additional language literacy. She also contributes to primary school programmes across Sydney as a creative arts mentor. Natasha has served as a Vice-President for Drama NSW and on the board of the Professional Teachers’ Council. Her practice and research contribute to arts-based approaches that develop connection and creativity for children and their teachers.

SFHEA, BEd(Sydney), MEdAdmin(Hons)(UNSW), PhD(UNSW)

Professor Janette Bobis is a mathematics educator and researcher in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She teaches in the areas of primary and early childhood mathematics education and curriculum studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her teaching, research and publications focus on two interrelated areas: (a) teacher learning in mathematics education, particularly knowledge, beliefs and practices of primary and middle years teachers; and (b) student learning, predominantly concerned with their motivation and engagement in mathematics and their understanding of estimation and mental computation strategies.

After completing her bachelor's degree, Janette taught in a range of primary schools for eight years. She has previously lectured in early-childhood education, computer education, primary mathematics education and general curriculum studies at the University of Western Sydney, University of Technology and Macquarie University.

Janette is recipient of several research and teaching awards, including a Thompson Research Fellowship (2014), a national Practical Implications Award (2007) for her research on teacher pre-service education, an Early Career Researcher Award (1992), a Commonwealth Prostgraduate Award (1990), a national Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2007), two Vice Chancellor awards for Outstanding Teaching (2009 and 2016) and twoFaculty Excellence in Teaching Awards (2002 and 2016). In 2017 she was granted Senior Fellow by the Higher Education Academy, UK.

Janette has held a number of senior administrative roles throughout her career, including: Research Director of the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, Pro Dean and Associate Dean Research, Associate Dean Postgraduate Programs, Director of the Master of Teaching program and Postgraduate Research Student Coordinator.

Deb is a Senior Lecturer in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work (SSESW). She is the immediate past co-convener of the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA) English and Literacy Teacher Education Special Interest Group (TESIG) and, until mid-2023, held a three-year nominated national position as co-editor of ALEA’s practitioner journal Practical Literacy: the Early and Primary Years. In 2023, she was awarded the Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in recognition of her personal and institutional commitment to professionalism in learning and teaching in higher education. She teaches in both the Bachelor of Education and Master of Teaching programs, specialising in English primary education. Deb received the 2022 Excellence in Teaching award for her outstanding contribution to teaching and student learning - her second teaching excellence award. Deb holds a PhD in literacy and text production pedagogies from Griffith University, Australia, and a Master’s degree in literacy and boys’ education from the University of Newcastle, Australia. She brings over 20 years of experience as a classroom-based early years teacher, having worked in both state and private schools.

Throughout her career, Deb has maintained a sustained commitment to advancing literacy education, supporting teachers, and fostering high-quality literacy learning for children across the early and primary years.

After completing a Bachelor of Education at University of Sydney, Nikki taught in alternative and mainstream schools. She has experience in early childhood, primary and secondary schooling as a teacher and principal. Nikki’s research interests include children’s social and emotional wellbeing, Initial Teacher Education (ITE) pedagogy, alternative schooling and innovative qualitative methodologies. Current research projects include an exploration of children’s experiences when school has not ‘fit’; pre-service teacher and teacher educator perceptions of ITE pedagogy; and the experience of moving from home education to being a teacher. Nikki is interested in post-qualitative and arts informed inquiry approaches to research. Her PhD thesis involved an interpretation of Lawrence Lightfoot’s portraiture overlaid with patchwork, which won the NSW Institute for Educational Research’s Beth Southwell Award for Outstanding Thesis.

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.

I am an Associate Professor of Teacher Education and Educational Psychology who is passionate about helping teachers action research to support their own and their students' motivation, engagement, wellbeing, and sense of connection at school.

Kellie is a historical sociologist interested in the intersections of gender, sexuality, health and schooling. She is currently investigating the socio-historical role of schools as public health spaces across the late nineteen and early twentieth centuries, examining how ideas about childhood disease and health were constructed. She is also engaged in various projects about vaccination literacy and school-based vaccination clinics, historically and contemporaneously.

BA(Sydney), DipEd(Sydney),MEd(Sydney), EdD(UWS), GradCert(Sydney)

Jon is an experienced teacher, having worked in primary schools, universities and in professional development for teachers. His areas of expertise include primary English and literacy teaching. His research areas include visual literacy, multimodality, the use of ICT to support literacy and multimodal learning, as well as student creativity and engagement.

As a professional literacy consultant, he has worked alongside teachers in their classrooms, in Australia and the US. He is passionate about engaging and equitable education for all his students.

BEd(UNSW); MEd(Research)(USYD); PhD(USYD)

Katherin Cartwright is a passionate mathematics educator and is currently Senior Lecturer Primary Education (Numeracy) at the University of Sydney teaching pre-service teachers. Katherin’s PhD research was on teachers' understanding of mathematical fluency and the characteristics of fluency students display. Her current research involves exploring young children's ways of using embodied modes as thinking and communicating tools to represent mathematics. Katherin is the Vice President Development and an active member of the Mathematics Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). Katherin is also a past president of MANSW (NSW’s mathematical association). Katherin’s teaching background is with primary-aged students. She has a particular interest in researching mathematics approaches for primary teachers that will have a future impact on classroom practice.

PhD(OISE/Toronto), MEdMan(UWA), Postgrad DipEd(NIE), BA(Hons)(NU Singapore)

Dr. Yeow-Tong Chia is Senior Lecturer in History Curriculum Education at the University of Sydney, where he teaches history curriculum units in the combined degree and the Master of Teaching programs. He is also the Country Convenor for Singapore with the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre.

Yeow-Tong completed his Ph.D. from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto in the fields of history of education as well as comparative, international and development education. His research examined the role of education in the formation of the Singapore developmental state, in which he explored the interconnections between changes in history, civics and social studies curricula, as well as the politics of nation building.

His other research interests include history education and citizenship education in Singapore and Australia, the teaching of Chinese history in Ontario’s high schools, Chinese Canadian history in Canadian history education, and education and developmental state formation.

Dr Sarah Ciftci is a Research Fellow in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She conducts empirical resesarch focused on improving the experiences and outcomes of children and families involved with the statutory child protection and out-of-home care system.

Sarah is an experienced qualitative researcher and utilises participatory and co-design methods for conducting research. She regularly contributes her expertise to a range of research initiatives, including the development and implementation of program evaluations.

Sarah and her colleagues at the Research Centre for Children and Families were awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Research Engagement and Innovation in 2020 and FASS Research Impact Award in 2022.

Neriman Coskun is a Lecturer in undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programs, where she explores the complex and multidimensional nature of teaching and research with pre-service teachers. Her work is guided by key contemporary perspectives concepts such as transformational education, human-centered design thinking, educational reform and innovation, interdisciplinary approaches, international and comparative education, teacher education, K-12 schooling, refugees and forced migration, and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).

Neriman earned her PhD from the University of Sydney, focusing her research on the educational experiences of young people navigating forced migration through pre-, trans-, and post-migration stages. She began her career as a K-12 teacher in Türkiye and Australia, gaining extensive experience in various school settings. Throughout her career, Neriman has designed, evaluated, developed, and coordinated teaching programs for K-12, VET, undergraduate, and postgraduate courses. Describing herself as 'a lifelong educator,' she enjoys her own transformative learning experiences with her students across and beyond borders.

DipEd(Sydney), GradDip(TESOL)(UTS), PhD(UTS), BA(Sydney), MA(UTS)

Ken Cruickshank is Professor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in Sydney School of Education and Social Work (SSESW). His principal work concerns language and literacy in multilingual contexts. His first book Teenagers, Literacy and School (Routledge, 2006) drew on his doctoral study of literacy practices in Arabic-speaking families in Sydney and explored how young people’s languages and literacies were extended or excluded in school contexts.

Professor Cruickshank has also focused on community/heritage languages. He is Director of the Sydney Institute for Community Languages Education. SICLE was established in 2017 in an agreement between the university and the NSW government with the aims of building research in the field of community/ heritage languages education, providing professional learning pathways for teachers and building capacity in community languages schools.

Phil is the Hooke Family Professor of Practice in Educational Leadership in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, where he is also the Founder & Director of the Sydney Character Initiative, and a Member of the Sydney Academy of Teaching Excellence. He is an Honorary Senior Fellow of the University of Melbourne. He is the Managing Partner of a School for tomorrow. (a global consulting and research network in education that serves school communities and systems in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, South-East Asia, Africa, North America, the United Kingdom and Europe) and Managing Director of its research institute: CIRCLE - The Centre for Innovation, Research, Creativity and Leadership in Education. He’s the host of the Game Changers podcast, one of the world’s leading education podcasts, now in its 18th series with over 1,000,000 episodes downloads in more than 75 countries.

Phil has a passion for helping people to locate their purpose and connect it to their practice through an appreciation of people and place and planet. Phil leads the world’s longest-running and largest global research program into character education. He believes that an education for character is the reason why we do “school”; it's the whole work of a school. He's learned that we teach who we are and we lead from the core of our being, and speaks and lectures across the world about the importance of A Life of Purpose. 

BA(Wis), BS(Wis), MS(Wis), PhD(Wis)

Dr Jen Scott Curwood is an Associate Professor in English Education and Media Studies in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, Director of the Sydney Games and Play Lab, and core member of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Trust, and Governance. Her research explores the intersections of literacy, creativity, and technology in order to advance social change and build more sustainable futures. As a university teacher educator, she examines how teachers can leverage innovative technologies to cultivate young peoples' digital and critical literacies. She has been a visiting scholar at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and the Universitetet i Oslo in Norway.

Jen is the co-founder and Chief Learning Officer of Ludolio, an educational games distribution platform developed at the University of Sydney that makes commercial video games accessible to university courses, libraries, and researchers. Ludolio grew out of her work co-designing curriculum for teaching with games in schools — work that was driven by a commitment to equity and access, particularly for students in under-resourced settings where technology barriers limited meaningful engagement with games-based learning.

She is passionate about advancing equity at the University of Sydney, where she is the Chair of the Career Progression and Equity Working Group for the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) self-assessment team. She also serves as a Research Integrity Adviser and was previously Chair of the Humanities Ethics Committee. In her work to build capacity at the University, she has been a mentor in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mentoring Program, the Faculty Mentoring Program, and the Academic Excellence Framework Mentoring Program. She also serves as the English Curriculum Coordinator within the Sydney School of Education and Social Work and an Initial Teacher Education accreditation panel member for the New South Wales Education Standards Authority.

Jen received the 2025 Divergent Award for Excellence in Literacy in Digital Age Research. She also received the 2016 Teacher Educator of the Year Award from the Australian Teacher Education Association, the 2025 Teaching Innovation Award and the 2023 Teaching Leadership Award from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Faculty's 2013 and 2017 Excellence in Teaching Awards. She completed her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Her major area of emphasis was Literacy Studies, with minors in composition and rhetoric as well as educational psychology. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, Jen was a government school teacher. She taught middle school and high school English, and she is accredited as a K-12 reading specialist.

Dr Evans is Professor of Special Education in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. He is the convenor of the special and inclusive education designation in the School; the School delivers courses to more than 600 pre-service and postgraduate students each year. His research interests include design of curriculum to meet the needs of students with special education needs, and evidence-based practices in special education.

AM, FACE, BEd(Hons)(Sydney), PhD(Sydney)

Robyn Ewing AM is Professor Emerita, Teacher Education and the Arts and Co-Director of the Creativity in Research, Engaging the Arts, Transforming Education, Health and Wellbeing (CREATE) Centre. Her teaching areas include primary curriculum, teaching and learninng, English, literature, drama and early literacy development. Robyn is passionate about the arts and education and the role quality arts experiences and processes can and should play in creative pedagogy and transforming the curriculum at all levels of education.

In the areas of English, literacy and the arts, Robyn's research has particularly focused on the use of drama-rich pedagogy with authentic literary texts to develop students' imaginations and critical literacies. She has been published widely in this area. She worked in partnership with Sydney Theatre Company on the teacher professional learning program 'School Drama' from 2009-2024. The program aimed to ensure primary teachers have the expertise and confidence to embed drama with literature to enhance students' English and literacy outcomes.

Other current research interests include teacher education, especially the experiences of early-career teachers, mentoring and the role of reflection in professional practice; picturebooks and early literacy development; sustaining curriculum innovation; inquiry and case-based learning. She is particularly interested in innovative qualitative research methodologies including the role of the arts in educational research.

Robyn is Co-Director, Big Sky Stories, an Honorary Associate with Sydney Theatre, Principal Fellow and Life Member of the Australian Literacy Educators Association (ALEA), Life Member of Drama NSW and the Pirmary English Teaching Association Australia, Visiting Scholar at Barking Gecko Children's Theatre, and Co-Convenor, Foundation for Learning and Literacy, 

She was a Council member of AFTRS from 2013-9, Deputy Chair, WestWords (2015-2022), president of the Primary English Teachers Association Australia (2001-2006) and president of ALEA (2011-15). She is a former vice president of Sydney Story Factory. Board

Within the faculty, Robyn was inaugural co-director of the innovative Master of Teaching degree and has also been Acting Dean; ProDean, Associate Dean, Academic Programs; Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning; Director, Program Director BEd(Primary); and Director, Division of Professional Learning.

An experienced primary teacher and teacher educator, Robyn has a commitment to quality teaching and learning at all levels of education. She enjoys working collaboratively with classroom teachers interested in innovative curriculum practices. She has worked as an academic mentor with teachers at a range of Sydney primary and secondary schools with the major focus on transforming the curriculum using the arts as critical, quality pedagogy.

I am interested in the governing of early childhood services, initial teacher education, and teachers, and the impact this governance has on quality, accessible, and inclusive early childhood education. I utilise Foucauldian, ecological, and social justice theory to analyse the effects of government architectures (e.g., regulation, marketisation, subsidy arrangements, workforce development and professional teaching standards) and service leadership and management on quality early childhood education, particularly for families experiencing adversity. My teaching and research focus on early childhood education policy; the early childhood teacher workforce; leadership and mangement in early childhood contexts; partnering with families on the margins; and professional communication. I have strong established links with the early childhood sector, having delivered keynote and conference presentations in Australia and internationally. I am a strong advocate for children and the early childhood teaching profession. I have led submissions to federal government departments on early childhood policy and established and served as Chair of the Australian Early Childhood Teacher Education Network from 2017-2024. Currently I am leading national research investigating the supply and quality of the early childhood teacher workforce in Australia, and serve as a member of the NSW Education Standards Quality Authority Early Childhood Reference Group.

My research merges my key interests in drama, education, creativity and social justice.Itseeks to develop theoretical and practical understandings of the ways in which drama of, for, and about social change operates in a variety of institutional and educational settings. Using innovative methodologies drawn from the fields of critical policy studies, ethnomethodology, sociology, and education, my work aims to provide new perspectives for researchers and practitioners in applied theatre, drama education, and creativity education.

I am a secondary drama and English teacher, with experience teaching in Australia, the UK, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I currently coordinate core pedagogy units in The Bachelor of Education (Secondar). My teaching focuses on creative and critical pedagogy, school-community relationships, and pedagogies of hope.

Dr Steve Georgakis was appointed to the University of Sydney in 2002 and has a long standing interest and passion in physical education and school sport, teacher education, history and sociology of sport and pedagogy for learning. He is the current director of the Health and Physical Education Program and has taught in all undergraduate teaching programs in the faculty, including primary undergraduate, primary and secondary Master of Teaching, double degree, general education, Online Learning Environment and study abroad. The author of more than 50 academic publications, he has published on wide and varied aspects of physical education and sports studies including archaeology, history, sociology, pedagogy, comparative and international.