Research

Research

Research in the School of Education

The RMIT School of Education’s research is innovative, with academic staff and HDR students employing a variety of traditional and cutting-edge methods and theories that contribute to our understanding of education in domestic and international education settings. We examine important educational issues, and work to contribute new insights that will advance equity, excellence and efficiency that benefits individuals and educational organisations.

Interested in studying with us? The School of Education offers a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) and a Master degree by research. Click on the “Postgraduate Research” link below.

Interested in our research? Learn more about our researchers and their areas of expertise by clicking the “Our Researchers” link below.

Interested in our evaluation, policy analysis, professional development programmes and research projects? Click on the “Our Projects” link below.

For all inquiries related to research in the School of Education, please contact any of our dedicated staff:

Professor Amanda Berry, Associate Dean, Research & Innovation

Senior Lecturer Naomi Wilks-Smith, HDR Coordinator

With the Creative Agency research lab, the School of Education contextualises research within recent developments of the Asian Century, marked by global shifts toward the developing economies of Asia. Our researchers undertake research and create knowledge to understand, support and improve the education industry.

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Postgraduate research

The School of Education offers a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) and a Master degree by research. Find out about the research program structures, entrance requirements and other application information.

Our projects

The RMIT School of Education has partnered with many individuals and organisations to engage in high-quality research projects, evaluation, policy analysis, and professional development programmes.

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Our researchers

RMIT School of Education researchers are conducting leading research on many important areas of education.

Research Themes

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The School of Education at RMIT has a strong and innovation Languages and Literacy teaching and research team with a focus on the diversity of linguistic backgrounds that students bring to the teaching and learning situation. Our work brings together strong aspects of the evidence based and the science of reading whilst recognising and catering for the language worlds that students in an urban setting bring to the classroom. Recent theorising around translanguage and the recognition of young children’s linguistic expertise in languages other than English drives the research focus of the group. A further element of our work is linked to children as readers and the books and materials that they read. A focus on children’s literature which represents to myriads of worlds that children bring to school drives our research and teaching focus. One project works with Teachers as Readers with a purpose for teachers to grow their appreciation of the importance of quality reading materials. A further focus of our work is the role of emotional and social learning through books and literacy materials in the early years.

Aligns with: SDG #4 (Quality Education) & SDG10 (Reduced Inequalities)

Aligns with DCP ECP research priorities:

  • Resilience, health and care
  • The social and sustainable

Aligns with Social Change ECP research priorities:

  • Transformations in Quality of Life
  • Transformations in Global Mobility

Aligns with Urban Futures ECP research priorities:

  • Urban transformation
  • Understanding and engaging communities

Lead: A/Professor Robyn Cox

Members

Dr Naomi Wilks-Smith
Dr Susan Rook
Dr Lynne Bury (sessional)
Professor Emerita Heather Fehring

The School of Education at RMIT has a strong STEM teaching and research emphasis, reflective of our position as a university with a reputation for being at the forefront of technology, design and innovation. Our STEM work and understandings continue to expand as society moves closer to the higher-skilled knowledge and service-based industries that directly contribute to the transition to Industry 4.0, which is characterised by new and emerging technologies and the opening up of global markets. Our research approaches view STEM as existing on a continuum with our applied research improving practice in the singular discipline areas of mathematics, science, design engineering and technology.  We contribute to a growing body of knowledge in interdisciplinary STEM and learning sciences, incorporating diverse areas of human endeavour such as, neuroscience, cognitive science, instructional design, computer science and innovative teaching practices.  Our research is grounded in approaches that are underpinned by attributes such as curiosity, creativity, higher-order thinking, problem-solving and innovation and contributes to the key 21st century skills of critical and computational thinking, reasoning, communication and collaboration. Through our research work, we seek to contribute to a society where all individuals can both comprehend and utilise STEM skills and knowledges to navigate their daily lives in increasingly complex working and living environments.

Aligns with: SDG #8 (Decent work and economic growth) & #9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure)

Aligns with DCP ECP research priorities:

  • Resilience, health and care
  • The social and sustainable

Aligns with Social Change ECP research priorities:

  • Transformations in Quality of Life
  • Transformations in Global Mobility

Aligns with Urban Futures ECP research priorities:

  • Rethinking urban economics

 

Lead: Dr Tas Barkatsas

Members:

  • Tasos Barkatsas
  • Tricia McLaughlin
  • Amanda Berry
  • Kathy Smith
  • Mel Nash
  • Rebecca Seah
  • Angela Rogers
  • Dan Jazby
  • Di Siemon
  • Marj Horne 

The School of Education at RMIT are leaders in educational research and innovation. Learning and teaching are central to our work which covers the lifespan of learning, including early childhood, primary, secondary, and adult higher educational and life learning. Our research focuses on supporting teachers and educators at all career stages to build resilient futures for themselves and the students and communities they serve. It often involves collaborations with industry partners, including place-based and school-based research which is sensitive to unique teaching-learning contexts, including in urban, regional, rural and remote locations. Research may also focus on global, international contexts. Our educational research values praxis-based pedagogy that drives research-informed teaching and teacher-informed research and utilises a variety of research methods to explore these. In an ever changing and uncertain world, teachers and educators need to be well prepared and equipped to support diverse student needs and futures. Our research broadly aims to contribute to ongoing knowledge and positively impact the directions of future teaching-learning practice, improving the education of learners and effecting transformative change in classrooms and schools.

Aligns with: SDG #4

Aligns with DCP ECP research priorities:

  • Resilience, health and care
  • The social and sustainable

Aligns with Social Change ECP research priorities:

  • Transformations in Quality of Life
  • Transformations in Global Mobility

Aligns with Urban Futures ECP research priorities:

  • Urban transformation
  • Understanding and engaging communities

 

Lead: Dr Naomi Wilks-Smith 

Members:

  • Naomi Wilks-Smith
  • Allison Byth
  • Jonathan Leo Ng
  • Kathy Littlewood
  • Susan Rook
  • Serene Lin-Stephens
  • Mel Nash
  • Thembi Mason
  • Simone White
  • Rucelle Hughes
  • Sarah Costigan
  • Gideon Boadu
  • Elise Waghorn
  • Phil Poulton
  • Toni Hilland
  • Angela Rogers

The School of Education has a long history of learning, teaching and researching issues of diversity, difference and inclusion. We have a deep understanding of formal and informal educational spaces which includes engaging with public pedagogies. This works takes place in collaboration with the Social Change ECP and other spaces within and outside of RMIT that are dedicated to social justice and equity. In an increasingly fractured world, it is important to interrogate the hopes and possibilities for social justice and equity and their relationships to education.  Education plays a vital role in addressing issues of inequality for minorities across the globe, and we seek to imagine different possible futures within which education writ large works to meet the needs of individuals and communities to ameliorate intersecting inequalities, and therefore to address social justice more broadly.

Associated UNSDG’s: SDG 1 No Poverty; SDG 4 Quality Education; SDG 5 Gender Equality; SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

 

Aligns with DCP ECP research priorities:

  • Resilience, health and care
  • The social and sustainable

Aligns with Social Change ECP research priorities:

  • Transformations in Quality of Life
  • Transformations in Global Mobility

Aligns with Urban Futures ECP research priorities:

  • Ethical use of big data and technology
  • Understanding and engaging communities

 

Lead: Associate Professor Emily Gray 

Members:

  • Gideon Boadu 
  • Julie Carmel 
  • Daniel Harris 
  • Toni Hilland 
  • Rucelle Hughes 
  • Kathy Littlewood 
  • Susan Rook 
  • Samantha Vlcek 
  • Jonathan Ng 
  • Elise Waghorn 
  • Bin Wu 

The United Nations acknowledges that education is the single most important factor in effectively mitigating and adapting to climate change and achieving more sustainable futures across local and global scales. RMIT’s School of Education has a longstanding commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and produces cutting-edge research which directly addresses Goal 4 (Quality Education), Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and Goal 13 (Climate Action). The school’s research on climate change and sustainable education futures is world-leading in its integration of multiple disciplines, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks, in many cases bridging approaches across the social sciences, art and design, the humanities, and physical sciences. This methodological diversity is essential to addressing climate change as a planetary-scale crisis which also manifests locally in highly specific ways. The complex implications of climate change effectively demand a re-imagining of the entire field of education, including how we think, live, practice, and understand educational systems and institutions, curriculum and pedagogy, teaching and learning, research and impact, justice and community-building under 21st century conditions. Research in the School of Education research is breaking new ground in facilitating this re-imagining through critical and creative research in collaboration with diverse educational communities. Our innovations in participatory research, co-design, and social practice have led to collaborative outcomes and impacts that reflect the values of children, young people, and communities whose lives and educations will be most severely impacted by climate change. Our researchers are active within leading national and international networks of knowledge exchange and collaboration in the field of climate change education, and supported by close associations with other research entities across RMIT, including the Creative Agency Research Lab; Enabling Capability Platforms (ECPS) in Design and Creative Practice, Social Change, and Urban Futures; the Mapping Future Imaginaries (MFI) network as well as the newly established Climate Change Research Network (CCR-Net). 

 

Lead: Dr David Rousell

Members:

  • David Rousell
  • Seth Brown
  • Linda Knight
  • Gideon Boadu 
  • Annette Gough

Creative Agency Research Lab

The Creative Agency Research Lab is a thriving hub for multi-disciplinary studies of creativity across the educational life-course. We are an open community of researchers, educators, creative practitioners, and industry professionals who share a commitment to creativity as a catalyst for social change in response to global challenges. Our members are actively developing new ways to address the most pressing issues of our times, including climate change, socio-economic inequality, the mental health crisis, and rapid advances in science and technology. We specialise in co-developing creative pedagogies and methodologies in collaboration with communities, working closely with children, young people, and diverse communities of all ages to co-create educational benefit, impact, and transformation. As a seed bed for creative research and social innovation across educational, cultural, community, industry, and governmental sectors, the Creative Agency Research Lab offers a generative and radically inclusive space for re-imagining what education can be, do, and become in the 21st century. 

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

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aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

More information