Dr Dorothy Bottrell is a Senior Research Associate in Child and Youth Studies in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. Dorothy’s background is in secondary teaching, juvenile justice, youth and community work and teaching in welfare studies. With a social justice orientation, Dorothy’s work aims to shift understandings of disadvantaged and marginalised young people away from categories of ‘problem youth’. Identity work, resistances and resilience are central themes of her research, explored in relation to schooling, transitions and community life.
Leigh Burrows has a long interest in working across boundaries in education, social work and health. She has worked in a variety of settings including a women’s refuge, Steiner and government schools, universities and the Department of Education and Children’s Services as a project officer with a policy focus. Her PhD research is focused on a co-constructed, dialogic and holistic methodology she has developed to respond to highly complex cases involving schools, families and human service agencies. She is currently seconded to Flinders University to work on an ARC linkage project on building capacity for wellbeing in school communities.
Dr Everarda Cunningham is the Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Higher Education at Swinburne University. She is an experienced teacher and an internationally published researcher in educational psychology. Her specific research interest is in maximising the potential of students at risk in the school system through whole school approaches. Together with Cathy Brandon, she is co-author of the Bright Ideas program that builds resiliency skills in young people and has been implemented in Australian schools for over 30,000 students. Dr Cunningham is a significant author of the program: Engaging and empowering students with learning disabilities/dyslexia. vi
Suzanne Egan is employed as a Research Officer at Rosemount Good Shepherd Youth and Family Service in Sydney and worked previously in direct service provision in the youth and sexual assault sectors. She is currently undertaking a PhD in Social Work at the University of Sydney.
David Evans is currently Associate Professor of Special Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. He has had university appointments at Edith Cowan University (Western Australia) and the University of Western Sydney. His research programs include education of students with autism, literacy and numeracy difficulties, whole school approaches to managing diverse learning and behavioural needs, and researching the needs of families catering for a child with disability across the life span.
Angela Fenton is completing a PhD at James Cook University where she also currently lectures with the School of Education in the area of early childhood education. She has previously worked substantially in England and Australia as a classroom teacher, Director of Early Childhood services and Manager with the Queensland Indigenous Children’s Services Unit. Significant projects have included the development of the publication Our place … our dreaming, an Indigenous child care resource book and the Building blocks, a child protection resource kit (QCOSS, 2003). Most recently her work has been focused in adult education as a facilitator, particularly in the area of child protection. Her work has frequently crossed education and social work boundaries and has led to a specific interest in the potential of strengths based frameworks for education.
Gabrielle Meagher is Professor of Social Policy and co-convenor of the Social Policy Research Network in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. Her research interests include the organisation and experience of paid care work and social attitudes to the welfare state, particularly social service provision, and to unions. She is Editor of the Australian Review of Public Affairs (www.australianreview.net). vii
Kay Munyard is an English and literacy teacher with 20 years experience in secondary and primary schools. Her main areas of interest are language acquisition and the reasons some students encounter problems with this. Her overall aim is to complement the academic research with pragmatic suggestions and strategies to help classroom teachers maximise learning outcomes for students with learning disabilities. Kay has previously worked in schools with Dr Everarda Cunningham and is part of the Learning Disabilities Project Team at Swinburne. She is a co-author of the professional development program for teachers: Engaging and empowering students with learning disabilities/dyslexia.
Sue Nichols is an educational researcher with the interdisciplinary Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies at the University of South Australia. Her research interests include families’ relationships with education, literacy practices across diverse contexts and practitioner inquiry. She has published widely in international journals including the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Early Years, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood and Early Childhood Development and Care. She is currently in receipt of an ARC Discovery Grant with Helen Nixon for the project ‘Parents networks: the circulation of knowledge about children’s literacy and learning’.
Associate Professor Jenny O’Dea is a dietitian, researcher and lecturer in nutrition and health education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney. She has been an Associate Editor for Health Education Research for several years. Recent research from Dr O’Dea’s group of collaborative researchers and students includes a national Australian Research Council study titled ‘Youth cultures of eating’ and a five-year study of children’s participation in sport and physical activity. Dr O’Dea has conducted several large research studies into body image, weight issues, self-concept, self esteem, and eating issues among children, adolescents and college students. She is the author of four books, the latest being Everybody’s different: a positive approach to teaching about health, puberty, body image, nutrition, self esteem and obesity prevention (ACER Press, 2007).viii
Dr Margot Rawsthorne is currently employed as a Lecturer (Community Development) in Social Work and Policy Studies at the University of Sydney. She has a long history of policy-relevant research, particular in partnership with non-government organizations. Much of her recent work has aimed at building knowledge about community processes and programs that create sustainable change. She is increasingly adopting mixed methodology in her research. She is a strong advocate for violence prevention, particularly for young people as well as women in rural settings.
Kerry Russo is the Regional Education Leader for Blended Distributed Delivery (BDD) and Community Services studies at the Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE (BRIT) in North Queensland. Based at Ingham campus, Kerry holds a Master of Education majoring in Learning Technologies from James Cook University. Prior to commencing a teaching position with BRIT, Kerry was a community worker and counsellor in a women’s shelter and neighbourhood centre. Kerry continues to work in her local community as an advocate for people with disabilities and is involved in various community groups. Kerry is passionate about equitable access to quality education for rural communities and maintains technology bridges the gap between urban and rural people by enabling opportunity.
Dr Lesley Scanlon is a lecturer in education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She has extensive experience in the development, implementation and facilitation of mentor programs designed to assist students in the transition to university. Her research work involves developing an integrated approach to identifying and applying better understandings of teacher identity formation and development. Major dimensions of her work include the situated nature of learning and ‘becoming’; the place of identity formation in becoming a student and teacher with specific emphasis on the importance of contextual factors and the role of experience; the place and significance of transitional experiences in professional identity formation; and the function of reflection in creating knowledge and identity.ix
Jason Skues is conducting doctoral research with Swinburne University of Technology’s Learning Disabilities Project Team, with a particular emphasis on assessments and classroom accommodations for those with learning disabilities. He has previously completed research in schools on mobile phone use and bullying behaviours. Jason has published in a national journal and is a co-author of the professional development program for teachers: Engaging and empowering students with learning disabilities/dyslexia. In the United States of America recently he completed Susan Barton’s course on ‘Diagnosing Dyslexia’.
Iva Strnadová is Senior Lecturer in Special Education at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She is currently involved in teaching in special education programs at Charles University, and the Erasmus Mundus Master of Arts (Special Education Needs) program in collaboration with staff from Fontys University, Tilburg, The Netherlands, and Roehampton University, London. Dr Strnadová leads a series of projects examining the experiences of families caring for a child with a disability across the life span. She has other research interests in the area of inclusive education and numeracy and students with dyscalculia.
Lyndall Sullivan has a background in education policy and research and also clinical psychology. She is interested in how research in education and psychology can inform school practice to promote positive experiences of learning and social development for all students. She has contributed to the development of many resources to support schools’ capacity to deal productively with such interlinked areas as student behaviour and learning, bullying, social competence, and partnerships with communities and families. Lyndall is part of Swinburne University’s Learning Disabilities Project Team and is a co-author of the professional development program for teachers: Engaging and empowering students with learning disabilities/dyslexia.x
Dr Frank Tesoriero has 33 years’ experience as a social work practitioner, manager, researcher, author and academic since graduating in social work at the University of Sydney. His major areas of expertise and experience include community development, cross cultural social work, social development in primary health care and community health settings. He has 12 years’ experience working in local communities in south India, as well as experience in Kenya, South Africa and Fiji. He has co-authored a major Australian text on community development with Professor Jim Ife and has published widely in his areas of expertise. He worked and taught in south India for 12 months in 2006 and continues with his action research/community development project in rural south India. He was instrumental, with the Madras Christian College Department of Social Work and university partners in Taiwan, Philippines, USA, Canada, north Europe and UK, in establishing the Centre for International Social Work, based on an international perspective and a human rights foundation.
Tony Vinson’s professional career has alternated between academic appointments and government and community positions. He has held professorial appointments in behavioural sciences in medicine at the University of Newcastle and social work at the University of NSW. From 1979 to 1981 he headed the NSW Department of Corrective Services during a period of intense reform. In 2001 he was invited to chair a year-long Independent Inquiry into Public Education in NSW, resulting in his receiving an inaugural NSW Government Award for Meritorious Services to Public Education. In 2007 he published a national study of the geographic distribution of disadvantage, called Dropping off the edge.
Ebeny Wood is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology, University of Tasmania. Her research focus is social change and schooling and she is particularly interested in how recent social change has impacted teacher’s work and young people’s engagement with school. Her PhD research is a qualitative study exploring the alternative school options offered to disengaged young people at a public high school in Tasmania. Ebeny is the research and evaluation coordinator at the Beacon Foundation. xiShe is also involved in ‘Future builders’, a project involving the design and implementation of an evaluation framework to be used by not for profit ventures running programs with young people, in order to measure and report on the success of these programs.
Lana Zannettino is a research fellow in the Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies at the University of South Australia. Lana has a background in social work practice and research and has conducted several research projects concerned with the development and evaluation of collaborative models of intervention within and between the areas of child protection and welfare, domestic and family violence, and schooling and student support. She has published in national and international journals including Gender and Education, Women against Violence and Journal of Student Wellbeing. She has recently co-written a research report Our actions to prevent the abuse of older South Australians 2007 for the Office for the Ageing, Department for Families and Communities, South Australia.