Education experts

Dr Nado Aveling

Anti-discriminatory education and social justice

Dr Nado Aveling is an expert on anti-discriminatory education within a post-colonial framework. Her research focuses on the social construction of gender and race identities and deconstructing the “normativity of whiteness" through field-based research.

She is a senior lecturer in Education teaching social justice studies.

Professor Barry Down

Teacher education, youth policy and vocational education and training

Professor Barry Down is an expert in teacher development at pre-service and in-service levels, critically reflective practice, action research, student engagement and retention and school reform.

He also has extensive involvement in Commonwealth-funded teacher development programs including Innovative Links, Quality Teacher Project and the Values Education Good Practice Schools Project.

Professor Down recently completed Enhancing School Retention: School and Community Linkages in Regional Western Australia (2005-2007) and is working on Addressing the Teacher Exodus: Enhancing Early Career Teacher Resilience and Retention in Changing Times (2008-2011).

He is the City of Rockingham Chair in Education at Murdoch’s Rockingham campus. 

Cal Durrant

Delivering literacy through technology and media education

Mr Durrant is an expert in English literacy and technology, and media education. In 2008 he produced the edited text, Media Teaching: Language, Audience and Production on media education with Andrew Burn from the Institute of Education at the University of London.

Mr Durrant has also been involved in projects applying IT to different aspects of teaching and learning as a member of a Deakin/Murdoch/Australian Association for the Teaching of English team, which delivered a $2.4 million Federal Government Summer School for Teachers of English initiative in 2008.

He also serves on the Editorial Board of English in Australia.

Barry Kissane

School curriculum development and outcomes-based education

Mr Barry Kissane is an expert in school curriculum and assessment practices, the educational use of the internet, numeracy, curriculum development and outcomes-based education.

He also specialises in the effective educational use of graphics calculators. A senior lecturer in Education at Murdoch, Mr Kissane has written textbooks for secondary school mathematics students on algebra and statistics and is an Honorary Life Member of the Mathematical Association of WA and a Member of the Board of the Western Australian College of Teaching.

Dr Libby Lee-Hammond

Early learning – literacy, numeracy practice and development outcomes

A passionate advocate for the early learning years, Dr Libby Lee coordinates Murdoch’s early childhood education programs.

Dr Lee researches parent/school partnerships, and development and learning outcomes for young Aboriginal children. She is running community consultation on a proposed integrated early learning centre on the former Sister Kate’s Children’s Home site in Queen’s Park for the Beananging Kwuurt Institute. 

Dr Lee was the Western Australian investigator in a 2003 national project examining early childhood literacy and numeracy practices in distance education. 

Dr Judy MacCallum

Motivation change and enhanced learning strategies in child education

Dr Judy MacCallum is a senior Lecturer in educational psychology and respected researcher in motivational change and strategies to enhance children’s participation in learning.

She was part of a team pioneering Australian research on mentoring and strategies such as intergenerational exchange, which has since been used as the basis for policy development and implementation at national, state and community levels.

Dr MacCullum works with the Youth Mentoring Network and colleagues from the University of Western Sydney to develop a national research strategy on mentoring. Her collaborative research with a primary teacher colleague is also at the cutting edge of theory building on motivational change.

Dr Peter Wright 

Creativity and arts in educational learning and development

Dr Peter Wright researches artistically-based approaches to educational research, creativity and community cultural development.

He studies drama education, applied theatre, transformational learning and teacher development in the arts, and playback theatre.

Dr Wright is currently involved in projects with Big hART, a social impact of the arts company.