Projects - ARC Discovery Grants

The Faculty has enjoyed a long history of success at winning national competitive grants.
The following are current ARC Discovery grants, for which members of the Faculty are principal researchers:

Examining play-based approaches to teaching and learning in early childhood education and care

Dr Susan Edwards,  Dr Amy Cutter-Mackenzie

ARC Discovery Grant 2010 - 2011:    $60,000

Project Summary:

Children's learning in pre-school settings is important to their current and later educational success. This project offers a significant opportunity to examine how teachers teach, and children learn, through different approaches to play. It is anticipated that the conceptually-sustaining approach to play will support children's learning outcomes more so than other forms of play. Knowing about this approach to play will help teachers better understand the relationship between teaching, play and learning, instead of focussing only on play and learning. This will also help the field interpret the forthcoming Australian Early Years' Learning Framework, which advocates for the role of play in early childhood education.

Elite independent schools in globalising circumstances: a multi-sited global Ethnography

Australian Professorial Fellowship: Prof Jane Kenway

Prof Jane Kenway, Dr AS Koh, Prof D Epstein, Prof FA Rizvi, Prof C McCarthy

ARC Discovery Grant  2010 - 2014:    $710,182

Project Summary:

This is a study of elite independent schools in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Barbados, South Africa, the USA and England. Because such schools are often seen as the gold standard for school education, and because their alumni are often highly influential in economic, political and professional circles, understanding what they do and the ideals they stand for is important nationally and globally. This study will identify the impact of increased global connections on such schools and will enhance understanding of how many national and international leaders are formed through their education and with what possible implications.

Respectful encounters: Enhancing understanding and engagement between Western and Confucian-heritage educators

Dr Janette Ryan, Prof K Louie

ARC Discovery Grant 2010 - 2012:   $114,100

Project Summary:

One in four students in Australian universities is an international student and Chinese students are the largest group. International education is our third largest export and contacts between Australian and Chinese universities are rapidly increasing. This, however, is often based on outmoded or stereotyped assumptions about scholarship and learning. This project on both sides will build Australian educators' knowledge of complexities and contemporary developments within China's cultural and intellectual paradigms. It will thus increase the appeal and relevance of Australian education to Chinese students and academics, enhance our engagement with China, and improve the international reputation and competitiveness of our universities.

A social geography of school choice: Educational decision-making and markets in the new age of accountability

Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship: Dr Joel Windle

Dr Joel Windle

ARC Discovery Grant 2010 - 2012:    $240,546

Project Summary:

The functioning of school choice is a major government and public concern because of increasing reliance upon individual use of information as a mechanism for driving system-wide innovation, excellence and equity. This project will strengthen the empirical and conceptual basis for developing future policies strengthening the relationship between families and schooling. It will provide particular assistance to education systems striving to provide greater equity and inclusion. Knowledge of how school choice works will thereby produce benefits for the future wellbeing of individuals, and for the capacity of schooling to contribute to national social cohesion and economic prosperity.

The Teaching Occupation in Learning Societies: A global ethnography of occupational boundary work

 Prof Terri Seddon, Dr Cynthia Joseph, Dr Anita Devos, Dr LLHenriksson, Dr B Niemeyer

ARC Discovery Grant 2009 - 2011 - $235,000

Project Summary:

Education is a key instrument for governments and communities managing economic and social development. Yet the historical model of closed centralised national school and training systems cannot meet current government policy or community expectations in open global economies. This global ethnography contributes to knowledge about changes in teaching as an occupation; provides evidence about re-ordered relationships, cross-border demands and boundary work in teaching; suggests policy solutions to address occupational renewal and teacher workforce development; develops innovative global research methodologies and strategies; and consolidates expert global networks in education and human service work as a resource for Australian research.

Early career teachers' personal wellbeing and professional commitment

Dr Helen Watt, Dr Paul Richardson

ARC Discovery Grant  2009-2012 - $320,000

Project Summary:

Australia is facing retention difficulties in the teaching profession which will increase staffing and financial burdens  on the educational and wider community. This project will document the experiences of early career teachers with  a view to establishing levels of personal wellbeing and professional engagement and commitment. It is expected  that the study will show that low levels of wellbeing and school climate factors are major contributors to the loss of  early career teachers. This evidence will be invaluable to government and educational policymakers keen to  sustain early career teachers' wellbeing and best support them to reduce attrition from the profession.

Mandated literacy assessment and the reorganisation of teachers' work

Prof BM Comber, A/Prof PA Cormack, Associate Professor Brenton Doecke, Dr Alex Kostogriz, Dr RJ Kerin, Dr DE Smith, Dr AI Griffith

ARC Discovery Grant  2009-2011 - $173,000.  Administered by the University of South Australia.

Project Summary:

The study will inform practitioners, teacher educators and educational policy-makers about the ways that teachers' work is being changed by the introduction of mandated standardised assessment and reporting processes.  The  research will provide insights into the ways in which teachers need to adapt standardised processes and policies to account for the varied student and community populations they serve.  This is significant for educational policy as recent international studies of students' literacy performance suggest Australia is lagging in terms of equity for low SES students.

Food, Traditional Aboriginal Knowledge and the Expansion of the Settler Economy

Professor Lynette Russell; Professor Marcia Langton; Dr Zane Ma Rhea

ARC Discovery Grant 2008-2010 - $210,000

Project Summary:

This project will strengthen our understanding of Australian Indigenous‑settler history by focusing on the role of food and traditional Aboriginal food knowledge.  It will also represent a timely engagement with worldwide debates about the role of Indigenous knowledge in a modern world.  As well as producing scholarly outcomes including books the project will establish and maintain a data‑base of this knowledge which will be accessible to Indigenous communities, scholars, land users and managers.  A further benefit will be the repatriation of knowledge and information located in archives and other repositories to    descendant Aboriginal communities in culturally sensitive, socially and historically contextualised Community Reports.

Generating Science Content Knowledge through Digital Animation in a Knowledge building Community of Preservice Teachers

Associate Professor Garry Hoban; Professor John Loughran; Associate Professor Brian Ferry; Dr Amanda Berry; Professor Galeen Erickson; Associate Professor Anthony Clarke

ARC Discovery Grant 2008 - 2010: $240,000

Project Summary:

Sustaining Australia's growth and prosperity is dependent on continuous innovation in the teaching of science. Yet science is one of the least taught subjects in the primary curriculum because teachers lack content knowledge and confidence. This research engages preservice primary teachers in using new technologies to develop their understanding of science content knowledge through digital animation and to collaborate with other preservice teachers interstate and internationally. The products and processes of digital animation will help maintain and expand Australia's base as a knowledge economy as well as provide a social benefit of improved science teaching in schools.

Moving ideas: Mobile policies, researchers and connections in the social sciences and humanities - Australia in the global context

Professor Jane Kenway

ARC Discovery Grant 2006-2009 - $317,000

Project Summary:

Researchers are increasingly moving across national borders to work and live. Around the world, their countries of origin seek to benefit from the exchanges of knowledge and culture and the new connections that arise. There is scant research on this topic, particularly with regard to social sciences and humanities researchers. This study identifies the new configurations of knowledge, culture and connection that come about through such researchers' movements. It will enrich socio cultural studies of contemporary knowledge flows and global research governance. It will also identify the most fruitful research policies on researcher mobility in Australia.

Motivations for choosing teaching as a career and development in the profession: A multicohort longitudinal study of beginning teachers

Dr Paul Richardson, Dr Helen Watt, Prof J Eccles

ARC Discovery Grant  2006-2009 - $185,000

Project Summary:

Schooling contributes significantly to the preparation of young people for citizenship so it is essential for the social infrastructure of the country that State Governments, employing authorities, teacher educators, the Federal Government and recruitment bodies better understanding the different motivational profiles of those entering teacher education now and why people are not retained in the profession, suffer burnout or become disgruntled less effective teachers. It is also critical that we better understand the link between motivations, self-efficacies and the support networks and strategies needed to sustain teachers in the profession, particularly in difficult to staff regions, districts and schools.