The research group who are doing this work comprise:
A/Prof Sharron King is the Academic Director and Deputy Head of UniSA College at the University of South Australia. Sharron has had a long term engagement with student equity and as an Equity Representative on several university committees has worked to both raise awareness of equity issues as well as advocate for students facing educational disadvantage. Her research which primarily focuses on health and wellbeing and the concept of thriving in learning environments has been informed by this ongoing interest in social justice. Sharron has led a number of previous grants investigating the student experience at university and was a member of the Staff and Students Expectations and Experience (SSEE) project funded by the ALTC.
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Dr Ann Luzeckyj is an early career researcher who achieved her Doctor of Education in 2011. Ann works in a Centre for University Teaching where her role focuses predominantly on supporting academic staff who teach first year students. She sees this role as an opportunity to develop and extend her commitment to supporting equitable access to higher education. She has experience in using qualitative research, especially critical discourse analysis and thematic analysis. She has developed surveys, interviewed research participants and run focus groups. Ann was also one of the original members of the Staff and Students Expectations and Experience research team and in 2013 led the team to win an extension grant.
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A/Prof Ben McCann. As Associate Dean for Student Experience, Ben works extensively with academic and professional staff across the University of Adelaide to support student transition to university and develop curriculum design and pedagogies that enable closer alignments with the University's key retention priorities. Ben's role also requires collaboration with both Hobsons to develop appropriate mechanisms for cohort tracking and identification of ‘at risk’ students and with the university's IT services to develop on-line and blended learning components for Level One curriculums. Ben was the co-leader of the ALTC funded project on Staff and Students Expectations and Experience.
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We are supported by our research assistant Charmaine Graham. Charmaine has a background in human resource management and employment law, and is currently completing her Bachelor of Psychology (Honours). Her research activity includes exploring and improving the mental and physical well-being of University students.
Our reference panel, who are ensuring that the work we develop maintains focus and is sound, are:
Dr Deborah Tranter who currently works as a free-lance consultant in student equity practice and research and an adjunct senior lecturer at Flinders University, following nearly 20 years as a senior equity practitioner at both the University of South Australia and ANU. In her role at UniSA she was instrumental in the establishment of the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, a member of its inaugural Board and part of the research team that produced the Centre’s foundation report for the Federal Government on Interventions early in school as a means to improve higher education outcomes for disadvantaged students (2010). President/Convener of Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia (EPHEA) for 2010, 11 and 12, Deborah has successfully combined leadership in student equity policy and practice with research into questions of university access for students from disadvantaged schools at both the level of national policy and the level of local school culture. Recent publications include:
Unequal Schooling: how the school curriculum keeps students from low socioeconomic backgrounds out of university (International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2012, Vol 16, No 9) and ‘Higher Education Participation and Partnerships: the Australian approach to widening participation’, paper presented with N. Zacharias, S. Wlkinson and C Ritchie at the First World Congress on access to Postsecondary Education in Montreal, October 2013 |
Dr Di Bills who has a long history of involvement in equity-focused educational development and research in the public school system and in higher education. She has served in school leadership positions, as a researcher and manager in National Curriculum Development Projects in disadvantaged schools, as an associate and lead researcher in university Outreach Projects, as equity representative on State and National education boards and reference groups and as a member of the editorial committee of the Australian Education Researcher. In 2008 she retired from her position as Associate Director: Research and Scholarship in the Flexible Learning Centre at the University of South Australia and for the past five years, has consulted extensively in education research and development. She has particular expertise in the intersection of educational disadvantage with rural education, literacy learning, the educational trajectories of low SES students and young people who will be the first in their family to engage with Higher Education, the education of girls and the participation of equity groups in research degree education. In 2009 she was appointed as the consultant researcher for the Rural Reconnect Project, a five-year UniSA project aimed at increasing the access and participation of rural students in higher education. In 2006 she established the first South Australian community branch of the Country Education Foundation of Australia, to support the post-school education aspirations of young people in her local rural community.
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Dr Grant Banfield has worked as an academic in the Australian Higher Education sector for nearly 30 years. One of his recent posts has been that of Research Fellow at the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education when hosted by the University of South Australia. He writes and publishes in the area of education and social justice with a particular focus on social class and its relation to social and institutional transformation. His current funded research projects investigate (i) the changing nature of academic work in UK and Australian universities and (ii) the impact of transformational pedagogy on first year university student learning.
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Ms Audrey Stratton, works as the Peer Assisted Study Session Coordinator at the University of Adelaide and in this role she supports students in their transition to university through the academic learning support program. Audrey’s professional background is in social work and counselling and through her personal experience as an immigrant child to Australia and first generation student to higher education she has developed a passion for encouraging and assisting “first in family” students to aspire to and succeed at tertiary level studies where there is potential or motivation to pursue further education. Previously Audrey has worked as a Transition Advisor where she coordinated the University of Adelaide’s SmoothStart peer mentoring program for first year country and interstate students, many of whom were ‘first in family’ at a tertiary institution. As part of this role she also participated in the University’s “First in Family” project events for 3 consecutive years.
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Mr Lee Pope is the Manager Student Access at Flinders University. This role includes the development, implementation and management of equity and access initiatives aimed at raising aspiration for university study by students from low SES and/or other disadvantaged backgrounds. Lee has a varied professional background prior to the university sector that includes corporate finance, economic development, social work in domestic and international contexts and education (secondary, vocational and Steiner). He has qualifications in Financial Planning, a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master of Education (Social Justice in Education) and has been instrumental in the development of a successful funding submission that resulted in a consortium of South Australia’s three public universities securing $9.245M over three years to expand equity initiatives state-wide. Lee brings a wealth of experience to the reference group from across multiple professional sectors that includes considerable experience in writing and securing applications for funding.
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Dr Rachael Field has been an Associate Professor in the Law School since 2012. Her key teaching interests are in the first year experience and dispute resolution. She was a QUT Teaching Fellow in 2005 and the co-Program Leader (with Prof Sally Kift) of the Scholarship of Higher Education Learning in Law and Justice Program in the Faculty’s Law and Justice Research Centre until 2011. Rachael was awarded an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation in 2008 and was made an ALTC Teaching Fellow in 2010. In 2010 Rachael worked with Professors Sally Kift and Mark Israel on the development of the Threshold Learning Outcomes for Law. In 2013 Rachael and Prof Nick James published a first year law experience and transition text entitled "The New Lawyer". In 2014 Rachael co-authored another first year text aimed at promoting positive knowledge, skills and attitudes in law students called “Lawyering and Positive Professional Identities”. Rachael has been a member of the First Year in Higher Education Conference organising committee since 2007 and now co-chairs that committee.
Rachael has published widely in her areas of research interest which include dispute resolution, legal education, women and the law and family law. She has also been a member of the Women’s Legal Service, Brisbane Management Committee since 1994 and has been President of the Service since 2004. Rachael completed her PhD through the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney under the supervision of Professor Hilary Astor in 2011. Her thesis explored the notion of neutrality in mediation and offers an alternative paradigm based on professional mediator ethics. In 2013 Rachael was named the Queensland Woman Lawyer of the Year. |