|
Update my staff profile
Teaching commitmentBiographyI started my teaching career in the early seventies after some time as a research/welfare worker with the Brotherhood of St Laurence's Family Centre Project in inner Melbourne. It was during this time that I first became aware of the power of language in either limiting or extending people's lives. After completing a Diploma of Education I worked as an ESL teacher in Victorian government schools for over twenty years. During this time I was involved in the development and implementation of the Victorian Certificate of Education' s provision for ESL students and in the development of ESL curriculum materials. I started work in the Faculty of Education at Monash in the 1990s and have taught in a range of pre-service and post-graduate programs since then. I supervise student research at doctoral, masters and honours level and am also responsible for a number of international programs in TESOL.
Research InterestsA major focus for research is on varying aspects of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher work and identity including beginning teacher identity construction and ESOL teacher work in a range of different contexts.
I am also involved in research on the needs of refugee ESL students with interrupted education in mainstream subject classes, the language demands of secondary education and the most effective ways of assisting subject teachers in their work with these students.
Another research interest is the school experiences of refugee, migrant and indigeous children and I am currently involved in an international study of this area.
I have research grants to explore the educational needs of refugee students with interrupted education and to develop appropriate teaching materials to cater for these students in mainstream classes.
Professional Associations
- Victorian Association of TESOL and Multicultural Education (VATME)
- Australian Council of TESOL Associations (ACTA)
- Australian Association of Research in Education (AARE)
SupervisionSupervision of Doctoral, Masters and BEd Honours includes such topics as:
Beginning Teacher Identity
Meeting the Needs of ESL Students in the SOSE Classroom
Communicative Language Teaching in Indonesia
Metaphors for the Work of the Language Teacher
The transition of ESL Students from Language Centre to Mainstream Schools
Transition from primary to Secondary School
The needs of international students in Australian secondary schools
Transition to work - NESB adults
Reading in First and Second Language
Refugee ESL Student Experiences in senior secondary school
Creating common ground in the use of English as an international language
Leaving teaching & what comes next.
PublicationsThe Self-Defining Other - ESL Teachers talk about their students. AARE Conference Proceedings 2003.
Warrior or Mother - Metaphors for ESL Teacher Work. Nordic journal of Teaching and Learning. Volume 14, Number 1: 2004.
Seduction and Betrayal Revisited: Ethical Dilemmas of Insider Research. AARE Conference Proceedings 2004.
'I love teaching ESL' - constructions of ESL teacher work and identity. TESOL in Context. Volume 15 Number 1 August 2005.
African refugees with interrupted schooling in the high school mainstream: dilemmas for teachers (co-author). Prospect. Volume 20, Number 2, August 2005.
Interrupted schooling and the acquisition of literacy: experiences of Sudanese refugees in Victorian secondary schools (co-author). Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. February 2006.
|
