Associate Professor Larissa McLean Davies
Associate Professor Larissa McLean Davies is a leading Australian academic in literary education, with her research spanning the fields of literary studies and English education. Larissa is currently Associate Professor – Language and Literacy Education and Associate Dean – Learning and Teaching and at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne.
Larissa is also the lead Chief Investigator of the ARC Discovery Project Investigating Literary Knowledge in the Making of English Teachers.
Larissa’s international profile in clinical teacher education is rapidly developing as she challenges traditional disciplinary and institutional boundaries to offer innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary solutions (e.g. between education and literary studies, or teacher education and medicine) to complex learning and teaching problems to improve student outcomes. In her previous role as Deputy Director – Learning and Teaching, she had oversight over the Master of Teaching Early Childhood, Primary, Secondary and Secondary Internship, and led the re-development of the Master of Teaching for re-accreditation in 2016. Larissa is a Senior Researcher in the International Teacher Education Effectiveness Hub, where she leads research at the interface of pre-service curriculum development and teacher education effectiveness research.
In addition to frequent conference presentations, Larissa is regularly asked to talk about teaching and has given invited presentations at the House of Lords as part of the UNESCO Educational Futures Forum, at Oxford and Plymouth Universities, and for the Victorian Institute of Teaching and the Victorian Department of Education and Training.
Professor Wayne Sawyer
Wayne Sawyer is Professor of Education at Western Sydney University where he is a senior researcher in the Centre for Educational Research. He has a background in both literature and English education and was formerly a Head Teacher of English in Western Sydney.
His research interests include:
- secondary English education
- curriculum history in English
- the teacher-as-researcher
- engaging pedagogies in low-SES contexts.
His PhD was on English curriculum history in New South Wales. His publications include:
- Exemplary teachers of students in poverty (with Munns, Cole and the WSU Fair Go Team, 2013)
- Exceptional outcomes in English education: Findings from AESOP (with Paul Brock and David Baxter, 2007)
Recent edited collections include:
- Contemporary issues of equity in education (with Susanne Gannon, 2014)
- Language and creativity in contemporary classrooms (with Brenton Doecke and Graham Parr, 2014)
- Creating an Australian curriculum for English (with Brenton Doecke and Graham Parr, 2011)
- Charged with meaning (with Mark Howie and Susanne Gannon, 2009)
- Imagination, innovation, creativity (with Jacqueline Manuel, Paul Brock and Don Carter, 2009)
- Only Connect: English teaching, schooling and community (with Brenton Doecke and Mark Howie).
Wayne is a former editor of English in Australia and former Chair of the NSW Board of Studies English Curriculum Committee. He is an Honorary Life Member of both the NSW English Teachers Association (NSWETA) and the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE).
Professor Lyn Yates
Lyn Yates is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Foundation Professor of Curriculum at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne. Lyn has a background in history, sociology and philosophy, and a longstanding interest in knowledge, the changing social world and curriculum, beginning with her 1987 PhD on Curriculum Theory and Non-Sexist Education.
She has previously conducted eight major ARC-funded projects, including a study of curriculum change in Australia (Australia’s Curriculum Dilemmas with C. Collins and K. O’Connor, MUP 2011) and a study of physics and history as fields of knowledge in schools and higher education (Knowledge at the Crossroads? with P. Woelert, V. Millar & K. O’Connor, 2017).
Lyn’s previous publications include:
- The Education of Girls: Policy, Research and the Question of Gender (1993)
- Reconstructing the Lifelong Learner (with C. Chappell et.al. 2003)
- What Does Good Education Look Like? Situating a Field and its Practices (2004)
- Making Modern Lives: Subjectivity, Schooling and Social Change (with J. McLeod, 2006)
- Curriculum in Today’s World (with M. Grumet, 2011).
Professor Brenton Doecke
Brenton Doecke is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Education at Deakin University. Brenton has a PhD in Literary Studies and has published widely in the fields of teacher education and English curriculum and pedagogy.
His research has involved a sustained focus on the professional learning and identity of teachers within a policy context shaped by standards-based reforms, including his work on the Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia (STELLA), and many other projects.
He is an Honorary Life Member of both the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English and the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, and is a former editor of English in Australia, and co-editor (with Jennifer Rennie and Annette Patterson) of The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy.
Professor Philip Mead
Philip Mead is inaugural Chair of Australian Literature and Director of the Westerly Centre at the University of Western Australia. Philip teaches Australian literary studies and English units in the Master of Curriculum Studies (English) course, a collaborative course between the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education.
Philip’s research is at the intersection of national and transnational literary studies, cultural history and theory, poetics, literary education, and digital humanities. He has led nationally competitive research and teaching grants, most recently:
- the ALTC funded project, Australian Literature Teaching Survey (2009)
- the ARC Discovery Project grant for 2010-2012, Monumental Shakespeares: an investigation of transcultural commemoration in 20th-century Australia and England (with Gordon McMullan, King’s College London)
- the OLT funded Extension project, Update and Expansion of the AustLit Resource Teaching with AustLit site (2013-2014).
Philip is currently an Australasian team leader for the German BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and DAAD (Academic Exchange Service)-funded, and University of Tübingen-led, International Thematic Network Literary Cultures of the Global South (2015-18). This includes participants and partners in Germany, Africa, Latin America, India and Australasia.
He is the author of Networked Language: History & Culture in Australian Poetry (2010), and of numerous articles on Australian literary studies and literary education.
Dr Lucy Buzacott
Lucy Buzacott is the Research Manager and Fellow for the Investigating Literary Knowledge in the Making of English Teachers project. She has a PhD in Literary Studies from the University of Queensland. Her PhD explored the intersection of race and gender in the work of William Faulkner.
Lucy has extensive experience in research and project management in the arts and academic sectors. Her previous roles have included Coordinator of the Women of the World Festival Australia and Research and Project Coordinator for cultural consulting firm Positive Solutions.
Contact: lucy.buzacott@unimelb.edu.au
