SCHOOL AUTONOMY REFORM AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
IN AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC EDUCATION
An ARC funded investigation of the social justice implications of school autonomy reform
​
Our Researchers
Contact details of researchers available through their Institutional profiles
Professor Amanda Keddie
Lead Chief Investigator
Deakin University
Amanda is the lead chief investigator of the project. Her research interests and publications are in the broad field of social justice and schooling.
Professor Jillian Blackmore
Deakin University
Jill is one of the project’s chief investigators. Her research involves mapping education as a rapidly changing transnational social field through a focus on leadership, organisational change, the changing nature of professionalism and equity.
Professor Jane Wilkinson
Monash University
Jane is one of the project’s chief investigators. Her research interests are in the areas of educational leadership for social justice, with a particular focus on issues of gender and ethnicity; and theorising educational leadership as practice/praxis.
Professor Scott Eacott
University of New South Wales
Scott is one of the project’s chief investigators. His publications address educational leadership theory and leadership preparation and development, focusing on the systematic development of a relational research program.
Associate Professor Richard Niesche
University of New South Wales
Richard is one of the project’s chief investigators. His research interests include educational leadership, the principalship and social justice.
Dr Brad Gobby
Curtin University
Brad is one of the project’s chief investigators. His research examines government policies, programmes and technologies in the areas of school autonomy reforms, school choice and community.
Dr Katrina MacDonald
Deakin University
Katrina is a senior lecturer in Educational leadership at Deakin University and was a post-doctoral research fellow on the project. Her research and teaching interests are in educational leadership, justice and the sociology of education.
Past team members
Irene Fernandez
Monash University
Irene is a PhD candidate on this project. She is researching educating in Victorian public education, with a particular focus on teacher professional autonomy in school autonomy reform. She is passionate about teacher voice and participation in educational discourse for social justice in education.
Dr Caroline Mahoney
Deakin University
Caroline was a research fellow in the early stages of the project. Her research and teaching focuses on languages education, intercultural relations and the sociology of education.
Professor Pat Thomson
University of Nottingham, UK
Professor Thomson has written extensively on the educational leadership and social justice implications of the restructuring of the English public system, including the rise of non-government players establishing school academies and networks. As well as writing about the Australian education system, and comparing Australia and England, she has been directly involved in Australian schooling as a principal and policy maker.
Professor Pauline Lipman
University of Illinois, Chicago, US
Professor Lipman’s interdisciplinary research focuses on race, class, and political economy of urban education, particularly the inter-relationship of education policy and urban restructuring and radical social transformation. In coalition with community organizations, parents, and the Chicago Teachers Union, she has been involved in struggles against school closings, education privatization, sustainable community schools, and racial justice.
International Expert Reference Group
Professor Jorunn Møller
University of Oslo, Norway
Professor Lisbeth Lundhahl
Umeå University, Sweden
Professor Lundahl has written extensively on the Swedish school choice revolution and its policy and equity implications and what that means for the Nordic model of education which has been historically aimed at social justice, equality and cohesion.
Professor Møller’s expertise arises from involvement in international research networks on educational policy, management and leadership and in particular the impact of Norway’s policy-borrowing from Anglo-American nations in regard to school self-management on administrators and teachers. Her current projects involve a) disentangling the complexity of legal standards and school leaders’ professional judgment and b) examining how school leaders make sense of social justice and democracy in their practice.