CfCFS Newsletter – August 2024

Hi everyone, read on to find out about the last few months’ activities of our Centre members.

Farewell

In July we wished Prof Kerryann Walsh well as she embarked on her Industry Placement with the eSafety Commissioner. Kerryann will be leading a project to build child safety knowledge and capability across the education continuum, inclusive of ECEC and schools. The eSafety Commission is very lucky to have Kerryann as part of the team. We look forward to hearing more as the project unfolds.

 

 

Congratulations to A/Prof Judith Howard of the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, who has received a 2024 Australian Council for Educational Leaders National Award for Education Leadership for her leading work in trauma-aware education.

 

 

 

CIESJ Curriculum Project Ideation 1 Workshop on 29 July.  Congratulations to Dr Susan Chapman who was among several staff selected to represent the School of ECIE. This group will work with the project team, Associate Professor of Indigenous Practice (Justice) Chris Emzin, Indigenous Chair in the Creative Industries / Professor of Indigenous Practice Wesley Enoch and Professor of Practice (Educational Leadership and Partnerships) Lee Anne Perry to consider market analysis, alumni and industry feedback and sector trends, and develop ideas about new products. 

 

 

ARC Discovery Project

Centre member Associate Professor Megan Gibson is one of six Chief Investigators from six universities on the recently funded Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery (DP240100249) project “Attracting, preparing, and sustaining quality teachers in early education”. Known as the Teachers in Early Education or the TEE project this research has been developed to generate new knowledge about, and innovative approaches to address, longstanding ECT supply and ECE quality issues.

The project is guided by the overarching research question, How can the supply of a quality ECT workforce in Australia be developed and maintained? The TEE project website is now launched and will capture the study over the next four years. Teachers in Early Education – Teachers in Early Education (teachers-in-early-education.org.au)

 

Congratulations!

 

We congratulated three Centre members, Dr Cynthia Hicban, Dr Roxanna Alonso and Dr Kristen Baird-Bate as they celebrated the completion of their doctoral studies at the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice Graduation Ceremony.

 

Celebrating with their supervisors: A/Prof Maryanne Theobald, Dr Julia Mascadri, Prof Beth Saggers, Dr Cynthia Hicban, Dr Roxanna Alonso, Dr Kristen Baird-Bate, Dr Lyndal O’Gorman and Prof Kerryann Walsh.

 

Grant Success

Congratulations to Prof Sue Irvine who has received an Education Horizon 2024 Grant. Sue will work with a team of researchers from QUT (Queensland University of Technology), Griffith University, the University of the Sunshine Coast, and Southern Cross University and the Queensland Department of Education of Education including Dr Mallihai Tambyah, Loraine McKay, Eunjae Park, Prof Frances Press, Dr. Renee Morrison, Alison Willis, A/Prof Wendy Boyd, Lana McCarthy, Kristy Springer.

The grant will support their research project titled ‘The Affordances and Constraints of the Turn to Teaching (TTT) Program: Strategies to Strengthen the Effectiveness of Mid-Career Change Teacher Preparation’.

The study acknowledges the pressing need for additional research to guide evidence-based decisions for expanding bespoke mid-career ITE programs. One such program is the Queensland Department of Education’s Turn to Teaching (TTT) program, which was introduced in 2022. This research is of great importance for enhancing the effectiveness of teacher preparation for those making a mid-career change.  We look forward to hearing about findings as the come forth Sue!

 

Congratulations to the following CfCFS members whose applications for the CfCFS small grant funding have been successful:

HDR scholar Emma Carpendale

Middle childhood profiles of social-emotional competencies and difficulties: Do these predict adolescent mental health diagnoses? Using data from a longitudinal, population sample (~n=26,800), the proposed study seeks to delineate middle childhood profiles (~11-12 years) of social-emotional competencies (including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making) and psychopathology (including emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, conduct problems, and hyperactivity-inattention). The project will then explore patterns of association between these mental health profiles and adolescent (12-18 years) mental health disorder outcomes. The CfCFS small grant will contribute to CI Carpendale’s licensing costs to access the data from the Government Custodians, and accessed via the Secure Unified Research Environment (SURE) (https://www.saxinstitute.org.au/our-work/sure/using-sure/ for the purposes of conducting this project.

Dr Glenys Mann

The aim of this research is to investigate parents’ communication with teachers of students with disability in regular schools from the perspective of teachers. A qualitative research design is being used to explore teachers’ views and experiences of parents’ communication with teachers of students with disability. Data was collected through semi-structured individual interviews with teachers of students enrolled in regular schools. 14 individual interviews have been conducted. Teachers were recruited from different areas of Queensland, for example, from rural and urban areas, and from both primary and secondary schools. All interviews were conducted via ZOOM. This funding will assist in transcription of audio recordings and preliminary data analysis.

 

Dr Lyndal O’Gorman, Dr Kirsten Baird-Bates and Prof Beth Saggers

This research explored how parents (primary carers) of autistic children conceptualise wellbeing and the factors that promote and diminish wellbeing for this group. Data has been collected using mixed methods with survey and visual narrative data producing rich, nuanced insights into wellbeing and proving a valuable way to work with parental participants. Funding will assist in the publication of the research findings through employment of a research assistant who will assist with drafting the paper. After recent presentation by Dr Baird-Bate of the findings at the Australian Institute of Family Studies there has been considerable interest in these findings and further affirmation of the importance of this research and importance of dissemination.

 

Dr Sally Savage

The aim of the research activity is to explore how mothers who are musician-performers navigate paid work and caring responsibilities. This is a pilot study with potential for a bigger study to assist with family-friendly provisions at bigger arts organisations to support mothers to be able to work in their chosen careers and assist with caring responsibilities. A recent study “Artists as workers: A summary and response by Creative Australia”, Throsby & Patatskaya (2024) found that caring responsibilities were a major barrier to mothers continuing their careers in the arts.  Data collection is via semi-structured interview of one hour duration over zoom.

 

We look forward to hearing about these important projects as they progress.

Those who attended the June Research Forum enjoyed meeting our visiting scholar Alicia Lucendo Noriega from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. Alicia presented her doctoral research on intervention music programs and its potential benefits for school aged children. Alicia is currently situated in the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and is undertaking their PhD in co-operation with the University of Helsinki. If you missed the presentation you can view it on our website.