Joseph Athiende
Exploring the experience and the impact of positive behaviour supports from the perspective of high school students on the autism spectrum, their parents and teachers in Queensland
The implementation of Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) within secondary school education systems varies with significant variable impact on the engagement, well-being, and educational outcomes for students on the autism spectrum. While education policies guiding the practices and processes in supporting students’ behaviour promote a proactive approach to behaviour support, educators struggle to effectively meet the basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness) of students on the autism spectrum who often experience significant behaviour challenges. This qualitative study will explore the experience and the impact of PBS from the perspectives of secondary school students on the autism spectrum, their parents and teachers. This empirical investigation will be informed by the Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT), which is embedded within the self-determination theoretical (SDT) framework.
Principal Supervisor: Dr Sofia Mavropoulou
Associate Supervisor: Dr Glenys Mann
Elise Bray
Exploring how students on the autism spectrum experience learning in contemporary flexible learning spaces
School learning environments are changing, with innovative and flexible spaces being designed in an effort to improve student outcomes and 21st century learning skills such as collaboration and problem solving. Within these new spaces, students encounter adjustments to the learning environment that often include increased incorporation of technology, changes to teaching practices and social and sensory elements of the environment. For students on the autism spectrum (ASD) who may experience difficulty with processing changing environments and stimuli, the increased collaborative pedagogy, noise levels and movement is under researched and may intensify anxiety levels, impacting their learning, academic performance and wellbeing.
With the intention of ensuring school learning environments promote inclusion and wellbeing for all students, this study will focus on capturing the experiences of students with ASD in contemporary flexible learning spaces. Using a qualitative approach, the interaction of the students with their peers, teachers and their learning environment will be explored as they navigate their learning within these spaces. Student perspectives and experiences of potential barriers or enablers will provide insights that can inform future changes in policy and practice, importantly addressing the need to prioritise student voice in teaching, learning and educational design considerations.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Beth Saggers
Associate Supervisor: Dr Natalie Wright
Melissa Close
The evolution of systemic reform initiatives for student mental health and wellbeing: An international comparative case-study
Educators play a crucial role in preparing students for an uncertain future, with rapid and profound social, economic, and environmental changes worldwide due to globalisation and developments in technology. Providing students with more than just academic instruction is vital for their mental health and wellbeing. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an approach that aims to address and attend to the social and emotional development and wellbeing of children. The study aims to characterise the evolution of SEL within and across the United States and Australia to expand understandings of how SEL is operationalised in both contexts, and whether these processes foster adequate learning and support for student mental health and wellbeing. The study will also seek to provide insight into improved SEL implementation in each context to inform future practice.
Principal Supervisor: Professor Linda Graham
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Jenna Gillett-Swan
Associate Supervisor: Dr Callula Killingly
Jacinta Lisec
Facilitating student voice to understand how assessment experiences influence academic wellbeing and achievement
Students’ assessment experiences have been found to influence their conceptualisations of academic wellbeing and achievement. Also, research from the last few decades indicates ongoing issues of decreasing wellbeing and achievement for middle years students. Therefore, this research project aims to facilitate student voice so they can share experiences about classroom summative assessment with each other and their school teachers and leaders. Through co-designed contributions, students will be invited to talk, write/type and draw to conceptualise how assessment experiences influence their academic wellbeing and achievement. Findings aim to identify authentic student voice processes for school implementation, to strengthen assessment practices that support student academic wellbeing and achievement.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Jenna Gillett-Swan
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Jill Willis
Hoa Thanh Do
Developing an understanding of inclusion of children on the autism spectrum in mainstream primary schools in Vietnam
The purpose of this study is to understand current inclusive practices in Vietnam to include children on the autism spectrum in mainstream primary school settings. The study will proceed in three phases. The first phase of the study will be a qualitative exploration of inclusive education at primary schools, where semi-structured individual interviews will be collected from three principals at primary schools in Hanoi. In Phase 2, self-reported questionnaires will be collected from 60 participants (or 20 triads of a parent/carer of a student on the autism spectrum, the student’s mainstream teacher, and the student’s teacher aide). The third phase will be non-intervention observations of practice in classroom settings and confirmatory interviews with participants from Phase 2. Information from this phase will help to interpret findings from Phase 1 and 2.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Beth Saggers
Associate Supervisor: Professor Philip Baker
Danielle Gordon
Developing teacher self-efficacy in a context of reform
High Teacher Self-Efficacy (TSE) is a strong indicator of teacher resilience, longevity in the profession and improved student outcomes. However, reform can negatively influence TSE. This study explores the development of TSE from initial teacher education into the first year of teaching, in a context of significant curriculum and assessment reform. Using a longitudinal sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, the relationship between developing TSE and reform will be examined. This study will be the first of its kind, contributing to ongoing conversations between schools, universities and policy makers about support mechanisms which encourage the development of high TSE, in a context of reform.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Terri Bourke
Associate Supervisor: Dr Chris Blundell
Associate Supervisor: Dr Reece Mills
Sentha Govin-Vel
Association between Overparenting, Social Media Use and Anxiety
This research aims to conduct a correlational study of overparenting on social media and anxiety in both parents and children in an Australian context. The research will include parents and emerging adults aged 18 to 20 using a mixed method research design. Focus groups for parents and emerging adults will be conducted to develop a survey on overparenting on social media. The findings could help to raise awareness and deepen the understanding of the complexity of parenting styles and social media use, and their impact on emerging adults and their parents. The impact of the research seeks to inform parents on how parenting styles both enhance and limit their children’s future, specifically with regards to their mental wellbeing, by making recommendations on parenting strategies.
Principal Supervisor: Professor Marilyn Campbell
Associate Supervisor: Dr Stephanie Tobin
Shanelle Fiaalii
A First Nations Pedagogical Framework for Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives in the Teaching of English
There is an expectation in the Australian Curriculum that teachers embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures through the cross-curriculum framework based on Country/Place, Culture, and People. To do this effectively, they must have a deep understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing. This can only be achieved by developing a relationship with Country and Community.
This qualitative study will adapt the Country, community and Indigenous research framework by Bobongie-Harris, Hromek and O’Brien (2021) for use with English teachers in an Independent school system. It will use the Indigenous methodologies of storytelling and yarning. With a local elder guiding them, the participants will engage in an on-Country experience to determine the impact that connection to Country and Community has on attitudes to embedding, and understanding of, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. The research project will be analysed through Decolonising Race Theory.
Principal Supervisor: Dr Francis Bobongie-Harris
Associate Supervisor: Dr Radha Iyer
Helen McLennan
Agency in Education: Perspectives of Young Neurodivergent Children
Children’s agency provides them with a sense of empowerment and allows them influence over their everyday environments. Giving children voice in matters relevant to them can support their agency when engaging in their everyday environments. Historically, children in early primary school have had less opportunity for agency in education. This is particularly the case for neurodivergent children, who think and perceive the world in different ways. My research will explore the concept of agency in education by listening to the perspectives of neurodivergent children in the early years of primary school.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Beth Saggers
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Jenna Gillett-Swan
Smita Nepal
Preparedness of Nepalese teachers to implement inclusive pedagogy
Despite being on the global education reform agenda for over two decades, interpretations and practices of inclusive education vary widely across the world. In Nepal, similar to many other developing countries, inclusive education is still an emerging concept, and limited research is available to date in relation to how inclusive education is conceptualised and implemented here. Moreover, very little is known about how teachers, who are at the forefront of providing inclusive education, understand this concept and how well they are prepared to teach inclusively. Hence, this PhD research intended to address this research gap by investigating an overarching research question, “How prepared are Nepalese teachers to practise inclusive pedagogy?” using a sociocultural conceptual framework and adopting a sequential mixed method research design. This research will have significant implications for initial teacher education and professional development policies and practices.
Principal Supervisor: Professor Suzanne Carrington
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Nerida Spina
Adjunct Supervisor: Professor Sue Walker
Anita Newell
Agency in Education: What educational decisions are uniquely influenced by urban vertical school (UVS) spaces and what has been the impact on student agency?
Student agency, though a global educational priority, remains a challenging concept to both define and implement. Despite these challenges, student agency ideals have significantly influenced the design of vertical schools in Australia. These innovative high-rise educational buildings on compact urban sites present unique structural and cultural conditions for learning. They also offer a valuable case study for understanding enabling and constraining factors that influence educational decisions impacting student agency.
Characterised by their close-knit environments where students and teachers share spaces in close proximity, these urban vertical schools are designed to foster student agency through structural permutations such as, innovative curricula, flexible learning spaces, and digital integration. Importantly, whilst this study asserts that teachers cannot directly give students agency, it contends that they can create opportunities for students to make meaningful choices and take action on things that matter to them. In addition, it also understands that for teachers to design learning experiences that cultivate student agency, they must first have a clear understanding of what agency is and how to leverage the affordances of their environment to encourage it.
My research gives voice to the experiences of teachers in urban vertical schools and, through interviews and observations, explores how these unique school spaces influence their decision-making and shape the agency opportunities available to their students.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Nick Kelly
Associate Supervisor: Professor Jill Willis
Associate Supervisor: Dr Prue Miles
Shannon O’Brien
Factors Impacting on Australian School Staff Intervention in Bullying Incidents
Bullying among school students is an issue that is widespread across the globe. The potential consequences of bullying at school, both short and long term, can be dire for both the person being victimized and the person who is doing the bullying. These consequences include poor academic performance, school attendance issues, drug and alcohol problems, and mental health concerns including suicidal ideation. Bullying can be considered a public health issue.
This study will initially investigate what school staff members are involved in managing cases of bullying. It will then explore how the identified staff knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy in respect to bullying are associated with the interventions they employ. This project will utilize an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. The findings from the study aim to inform teacher training and professional development on the topic of bullying.
Principal Supervisor: Professor Marilyn Campbell
Associate Supervisor: Dr Chrystal Whiteford
Lauren Piltz
Exclusionary school discipline and justice system involvement: Identifying opportunities to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline
This project uses linked administrative records from education, justice, health, and community services to characterise the use of exclusionary school discipline practices within a large NSW population cohort, and to examine the relationship of disciplinary exclusion with different forms of justice system involvement. The project expects to deliver new information to inform policy makers, educators, criminologists, and psychologists regarding opportunities to avert the adverse outcomes of exclusionary discipline practices in Australian schools.
Principal Supervisor: Professor Kristin Laurens
Associate Supervisor: Professor Linda Graham
External Supervisor: Professor Melissa Green
External Supervisor: Professor Kimberlie Dean
Ying Sun
Promoting self-determination of young learners on the autism spectrum: Exploring early childhood educators’ knowledge, understanding, perceptions, and teaching practices in Australian inclusive settings
Self-determination is recognised as an important personal and social capability in the Australian Curriculum and teachers play a key role in promoting self-determination in all students from the early years of schooling. The aim of this study is to explore Australian early childhood teachers’ knowledge, understanding and practice in relation to the development of self-determined skills in young learners on the autism spectrum in inclusive educational settings. To achieve this aim, the current project will apply an explanatory sequential mixed-method design, utilizing surveys (phase 1) and semi-structured interviews (phase 2) with early childhood educators supporting students on the autism spectrum. It is anticipated that the findings of the study will inform teaching practice and professional development opportunities for early childhood teachers to better support the development of self-determination skills in young children on the spectrum in inclusive contexts.
Principal Supervisor: Dr Sofia Mavropoulou
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Beth Saggers
Loren Swancutt
Curricular inclusion for students with complex learning profiles in Australian secondary school classes: A multi-case study investigation
The benefits of inclusive education are well documented. Decades of research have evidenced that when students with disability experience inclusive education, the result is superior social, academic and post-school outcomes. The impacts of such outcomes transfer long term and result in greater independence and increased social and economic participation. Despite the reported benefits, including students with complex learning profiles in age-equivalent secondary school curriculum is an aspect that presents a particular challenge for schools and education systems. Research tells us that most students with complex learning profiles are more often removed from the regular classroom and have little access to age-equivalent content. A review of the literature also indicates that there is less extant research on inclusive practices at the secondary school level, particularly in the Australian context. This results in a lack of exemplars and guiding processes that can be drawn upon when teachers are looking to build their confidence and capability to enact inclusive curriculum provision. This research aims to respond to the gap in the research by investigating a systematic way in which students with complex learning profiles can be included in the age-equivalent curriculum in Australian secondary school classes.
Principal Supervisor: Professor Linda Graham
Associate Supervisor: Professor Suzanne Carrington
Claire Ting
Self-advocacy and access to assessment adjustments: Exploring the knowledge and experiences of Queensland high school students with dyslexia
Students with disability, including dyslexia, have the legislated right to access education on the same basis as their peers. Australian schools are required to provide reasonable adjustments to enable equitable access to students with disability. Schools are also required to consult students about their preferred adjustments to assessment. Despite these legislative obligations, it is well documented that students with disability face barriers to fair assessment in high school, and are not always consulted about their preferred adjustments.
According to the theoretical literature, when students with disability understand their rights and entitlements, they are likely to be empowered to self-advocate for reasonable adjustments to assessment. However, the perspectives of high school students with dyslexia have rarely been sought in this body of research. Therefore, this research project will use online interviews and focus groups to talk with Queensland high school students with dyslexia about their experiences receiving assessment adjustments, and how their experiences could be improved. By listening to the experiences of students with dyslexia this study aims to enhance our understanding of barriers and facilitators to student self-advocacy, and to gain insight into how students with dyslexia would like to be supported to self-advocate for reasonable adjustments to assessment.
Further information can be found on the project website http://research.qut.edu.au/dyslexia
Principal Supervisor: Dr Sofia Mavropoulou
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Jill Willis
Carolina Vidal
Title: Accessible peer assessment: improving inclusion in Australian schools
Improving equity and fairness has been a growing priority for education, in the field of assessment, one of the most recognizable students led strategy for it is peer assessment. Peer assessment is a complex process that involves a dialogic relationship between teacher and students which enhances metacognitive thinking. Also, peer assessment involves cognitive skills and social demands that could imply additional barriers for students with learning difficulties. There is growing recent research that shows that assessment interactions have the potential to overcome these barriers. Yet, little is known how peer assessment enables all students to learn, or how these interactions are designed and implemented in inclusive classrooms. This study aims to address these gaps by collecting data from teachers and students in Australian classrooms. The data collection will focus on the process where teachers work collaboratively in Professional Learning sessions, designing and implementing peer assessment strategies with their pupils to make this process more inclusive for all students.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Jill Willis
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Nerida Spina