Purpose
Inaugurated in 2001, the Betty Watts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Award recognises an outstanding conference paper related to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander education, presented at the Annual AARE Conference.
The award is intended to recognise excellence in research by individual researchers or teams of researchers across all career stages.
This award honours the memory of Emeritus Professor Betty Watts. A former primary school teacher, Professor Watts was twice Chair of the Board of Teacher Education in Queensland and her eminent academic career included many years employed at the University of Queensland with a specific focus on education for those who education systems have traditionally failed.
In 1973 she initiated the journal The Aboriginal Child at School which continues to this day as The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education and is still edited at the University of Queensland.
Betty Hazel Watts was born in 1928, and passed in1997. She had a great influence on the development of the teaching profession in Queensland and nationally. In 1976 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire – Officer (Civil) in 1976 for her service to education.
Betty Watts is remembered for the ways in which she opened up doors of possibility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers in the field of education.
Please note that from 2005 to 2022 the award was titled the Betty Watts Indigenous Researcher Award and recognised an outstanding conference paper by a researcher who identified as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person. In 2023, the award reverted to its original criteria.
Award
Funding round: single round per annum
Applications due: 11:59pm on 31 August, 2023
Status of round: Closed
Benefits to Awardee: Certificate and up to $1,000 to assist with conference attendance expenses
The winner/s of the Award may be invited by the editor of The Australian Educational Researcher to submit the paper for consideration for publication in the journal (subject to double blind peer review).
Applicant
Eligible persons may apply for the Award themselves, or may be nominated by another person (e.g., a colleague or supervisor or referee)
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for consideration, applicants must demonstrate that they meet all the following criteria:
- be a member of AARE
- meet the closing date for abstract submission
- submit a first-authored conference paper for review by the conference awards committee via the online submission process (see below) by the advertised due date
- be able to attend the full conference
- have an abstract accepted for presentation at the conference through the abstract submission process via the AARE conference website
- deliver the presentation at the conference as scheduled
- have not previously received a Betty Watts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Award
It is possible to submit a jointly authored paper for an award. Award applicants must be the first named author on the paper. AARE places the responsibility for full disclosure to co-authors with the first author of a paper submitted for consideration in these award categories.
Merit Criteria
As the intent of the award is to honour and facilitate high quality scholarship, applications will be judged on the basis of the following academic merit criteria:
- Originality
- Contemporary significance and/or scholarly relevance
- Conceptual, methodological and theoretical soundness
- Disciplined, focused and persuasive argument
- Coherent organisation and clarity of written expression
- Comprehensive reference to appropriate literature
Only one paper per researcher or research team should be submitted for the Award in any year. Papers previously submitted may not be re-submitted. The same paper cannot be submitted for more than one award in any year.
Conditions
Funds will be made available following the conference paper presentation.
How to apply
Applications should be submitted via the Conference Awards Application Form
Selection process
Applications will be assessed against the merit criteria by the Awards Panel, which is convened each year by the Awards Convenor.
The panel’s decision will be final and no further correspondence will be entered into.