Barry Down

BSocSc, DipEd, BEd, MEd, PhD Murd.
City of Rockingham Chair of Education, SOE

Research Interests

1. Teachers’ work
2. Action research
3. Policy ethnography
4. School and community capacity building
5. Student engagement
6. Vocational education, youth and culture

Projects

1. Addressing the teacher exodus: Enhancing early career teacher resilience and retention in changing times (Funded by Australian Research Council (ARC) linkage project grant, 2008-12)
2. Our Children, Our families, Our Place; Enabling Communities for Child Health and Well Being (Funded by Australian Research Council (ARC) linkage project grant, 2008-12)
3. Enhancing school retention: School and community linkages in regional/ rural Western Australia (Funded by Australian Research Council (ARC) linkage project grant, 2005-7)

Publications

1. Smyth, J., Angus, L., Down, B., McInerney, P. (in press). Critically Engaged Learning: Connecting to Young Lives. New York: Peter Lang.
2. Smyth, J., Angus, L., Down, B., McInerney, P. (forthcoming). Activist and Socially Critical School and Community Renewal. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
3. Smyth, J., Angus, L., Down, B., & McInernery, P. (2006). Critical Ethnography for School and Community Renewal in Disadvantaged Settings. Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts. Available from: http://www.cdu.edu.au/ehs/lrg/journal.html
4. Down, B. (2006). A Critical Pedagogy of Vocational Education and Training in Schools and Communities Struggling with Shifts in the Global Economy. Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts. Available from: http://www.cdu.edu.au/ehs/lrg/journal.html
5. Down, B. (2006). Educational Science, Mental Testing, and the Ideology of Intelligence. Melbourne Studies in Education, 47(1&2), pp.332-357 (Special 50th Anniversary Edition).
6. Down, B. (2004). From Patriotism to Critical Democracy: Shifting Discourses of Citizenship Education in Social Studies. History of Education Review, 33(1), pp.14-27.

Higher Degree Research Topics

1. Education and Social Justice
2. Sustainability Education for Social Change
3. Equity and Access Policies in Tertiary Education
4. Outcomes Based Teaching and Learning
5. Governmental Rationality and Education Policy
6. Student Behaviour Management Regimes
7. Student Engagement in Middle Schooling

Contact Details

b.down@murdoch.edu.au