Theory Workshops

When: Friday September 20th, 5pm - 6.30pm & Saturday September 21st, 9.30am - 3.30pm

Where: University of South Australia, City West Campus, Room GK2-12

Workshop Overview

The 2024 AARE Theory Workshop will collaboratively build skills and expertise in participatory research approaches. Researchers a range of paradigms have increasingly recognised the importance of integrating the perspectives and interests of participants and others who hold knowledge, giving rise to methodological and theoretical innovations. On one hand, the expertise and knowledge generated by practitioners are being drawn upon through notions of co-design and partnership. On the other, the voice and interests of wider communities and youth constituencies are shaping how researchers understand their own roles. The participatory turn responds to ethical demands for research to provide benefits to those who are being researched, and to ensure that procedures are respectful. The workshop will support participants to integrate participatory approaches in their own research and to reflect on the future directions for such work under changing social and institutional conditions. Presenters include both academic leaders and leaders bringing diverse professional, community and youth perspectives.

Two Alison Lee ‘Theory in Educational Research’ scholarships will be offered (1 Indigenous HDR or ECR, 1 open HDR or ECR).

Cost:

AARE Members: $30.00

Non-members: ECR/HDR: $100.00

Other non-members: $200.00

Host University ECR/HDR: Free

Friday September 20, 5pm - 6.30pm, UniSA City West room GK2-12

Participatory research then and now panel discussion:

• Professor Barbara Comber (UniSA)
• Ms. Helen Grant (Gilles Street Primary School)
• Dr. Sam Schulz (University of Adelaide)
• Associate Professor Lisa O’keeffe (University of South Australia)
• Dr. Sarah McDonald (University of South Australia)

This round-table discussion will examine what community-based, participatory and co-designed approaches to educational research have contributed to the field over the past thirty years, as well as discussing what is needed in the future to strengthen and further develop such collaborations. As an open forum, there will be opportunities to share experiences, ideas and feedback amongst participants.

6.30pm - 8.30pm Workshop Dinner: participants cover the cost of dinner themselves

Saturday September 21, UniSA City West room GK2-12

9.30am Morning tea and welcome

10am - 12pm Session 1: Youth participatory research: theories, methods, challenges and possibilities for anti-oppressive approaches

• Ms. Habibat Ogunbanwo
• Ms. Mwangaza Milunga (African Diaspora Youth Belonging ARC participant-researchers)
• Ms. Shaza Hamed
• Dr. Melanie Baak (UniSA)
• Dr. Sophie Rudolph (University of Melbourne)

This workshop examines models of collaborative research involving young people, including as peer researchers.  Examples are drawn from projects focused on addressing issues of youth participation and exclusion in schools. The workshop will begin with a conversation between the lead researchers two projects employing innovative participatory methodologies, exploring of the theoretical underpinnings, methods, challenges and opportunities that emerge. Youth co-researchers from Mel’s project will discuss their experiences collaborating on research with other young people as well as with teachers. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own research - past, current or planned - using some of the theoretical tools and methods shared and guided by questions that have arisen through the conversation.

12pm - 1pm Lunch

1pm - 3pm Session 2: Engagements with Aboriginal communities: treading lightly between knowledges, languages and territories

• Mr. Dom Barry (Director, Iwiri Aboriginal Corporation)
• Dr. Sam Osborne (UniSA)
• Dr. Janet Armitage (UniSA)

This workshop explores the elements of respectful and sustainable community partnerships involving both research and teaching, drawing on the experiences of the long-term APY Lands partnership at the University of South Australia. Participants will gain an understanding of principles that can usefully underpin the sharing of knowledge across cultural, linguistic and epistemological systems, as well as an appreciation of considerations researchers need to be mindful of on Country in Indigenous community settings. Participants will be able to apply insights from the workshop to developing strategies for inclusive approaches to research development, conduct and sharing of findings in the contexts of their own research agendas.

3pm - 3.30pm Sharing reflections, actions to take forward, and wrap-up

In this session participants will draw together ideas, considerations and principles that can inform the development of ethics guides, conference protocols and other policy in educational research organisations, including AARE and universities. In particular, we will seek to identify formats for sharing research that involve co-researchers in more inclusive ways than afforded by dominant dissemination models.

3.30pm - 4.30pm post-workshop social gathering

Presenters include:

	Ms. Habibat Abiola Moyosore Ogunbanwo is an Olympian and communications/media student at the University of Canberra. Her sporting journey, highlighted by her participation in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, showcases her resilience and unwavering determination. Beyond the pool, Habibat is dedicated to making a difference as a Youth Project Assistant, passionately advocating for African diaspora youth and promoting inclusivity within Australian schools. In her personal time, Habibat finds joy in crafting homemade chocolates and exploring diverse cultures through travel and food
	Ms. Shaza Hamed is an Eritrean university student born in Melbourne but now based in Adelaide. Her family originally came to Australia to further their studies after being displaced to Sudan, Egypt and Saudia Arabia. She is currently in her second year of university at Flinders, studying a Bachelor of Health Science, specialising in Vision Science with a Master of Optometry, as a double degree program. After experiencing the Australian schooling system, Shaza hopes to be witness and contribute to positive change for future generations offered throughout this project.
	Mr. Dom Barry is Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara man from Kaltjiti (Fregon) community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands. He is a nationally accredited interpreter and translator in Pitjantjatjara and teaches Pitjantjatjara at the UniSA Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara language course. Dom is also a provisional psychologist currently undertaking a Master of Psychology (Clinical) degree at UniSA. Dom has a keen interest in decolonising psychology and introducing Aboriginal/Anangu ways of healing to a predominantly western field with his most recent paper published in the Australian Psychologist titled "Conceptualising Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara mental health beliefs".

When: Friday September 15th, 5pm -7.30pm & Saturday September 16th, 9am–4pm

Where: University of Southern Queensland, Springfield Campus Auditorium (Friday) and B-Block (Saturday).

Workshop Overview

AARE is proud to host the 2023 Theory Workshop for HDR and early career researchers at the University of Southern Queensland, Springfield Campus. The theme of the workshop is The future of method and education research, providing opportunities for PhD and ECR participants to learn about a range of qualitative, quantitative, participatory and digital methods.

Methodologies make the world. The ways in which we undertake education research has implications for what kinds of action are made possible and plausible. Yet, the future of method, and the relevance for education, is unclear. 15 years ago, Burrows and Savage (2007) argued that the realm of social research has expanded well beyond the academy, to the point that academic methods (e.g., interviews, surveys) are, at best, peripheral. Relatedly, methodological innovation – crucial to the development of the methodology in the mid 20th century – has become outsourced to commercial organisations.

An opening presentation on Friday evening by Professor Lyn Yates will set up the workshop by asking: ‘What does good education research look like?’ – a reprise of her 2004 book – with a panel responding to this presentation with a focus on methodology.  Following the presentation there will be a dinner at a local establishment. Participants’ dinner will be provided on the Friday evening (RSVPs are requested as part of registration for the event).

On Saturday, concurrent sessions will be aimed at: providing insights into the method outlined; grappling with the question of whether the method is relevant for dealing with the complex challenges facing contemporary education; and speculating on what the future of method might be.

The workshop will conclude with a plenary where presenters and participants can address the question: What is the future for methods in educational research?

For those remaining in Springfield, there will be a further networking opportunity at a local pub.

Topics include:

• Indigenous methodologies
• Quantitative methods
• Participatory approaches
• Mixed method research
• Digital methods
• Ethnographic approaches

Presenters include:

• Professor Nicole Mockler (University of Sydney)
• Associate Professor Danielle Armour (University of Queensland)
• Dr Naomi Barnes (Queensland University of Technology)
• Professor Andrew Hickey (University of Southern Queensland)
• Associate Professor Jason Lodge (University of Queensland)
• Professor Greg Thompson (Queensland University of Technology)

Cost: This is a free event for members of AARE. Non members $30 registration fee.

Registration close: 10 September, 2023

For more information, please email:

Sarah Langman, AARE Post Graduate Student Representative sarah.langman@myacu.edu.au 

Ellen Larsen, AARE Early Career Research Representative Ellen.Larsen@usq.edu.au

Kal Gulson, AARE Research Development Coordinator kalervo.gulson@sydney.edu.au

When: Friday October 7th (3.00pm-6.00pm AEDT) & Saturday October 8th (11.00am-2.00pm AEDT)

Where: This will be an online workshop held in two parts, co-hosted by the University of Canberra

What and Why: AARE theory workshops aim to promote critical and engaged dialogue, to test and explore new ideas, theories and approaches, to meet and interact with other researchers who are at different stages in their research and careers, to make connections, to encounter intriguing  ‘big ideas’, and to enjoy the challenge of intellectual exchange.

Workshop overview
Curriculum is a key organiser of schooling and is fundamentally concerned with the production, circulation, and distribution of forms of knowledge. Curriculum is also key to the sorting and selection functions of formal schooling, affording both advantages and disadvantages, including exacerbating relations of inequality. A long line of educational scholarship has examined the ideological aspects of curriculum, documenting for example, hegemonic or class and gender-based processes of differentiation. Other research traditions have explored the radical and emancipatory dimensions of curriculum and its role in challenging inequities, while yet other research has looked to the conceptual, philosophical, or historical aspects of the curriculum field. 

Drawing on a range of theoretical and methodological approaches, this workshop will engage with new and old questions about curriculum in the contemporary era, seeing curriculum as both a topic of research and as a window onto various forms of educational research. Across two days, matters of place, history and equity will be foregrounded as we explore questions about what and whose knowledge counts, the influence of national and transnational political priorities on curriculum policy, and Australian and international agendas to decolonise curriculum. Sessions will consider the role of theory in curriculum research and policy analysis and examine the role of curriculum today in challenging educational inequalities and asymmetries in educational participation, experience, and futures.

Topics include:

• Teachers as curriculum workers and researching teachers' practice
• Curriculum and its role in achieving equity in education
• Learning Whiteness: Education and the Settler Colonial State
• Conceptual, philosophical, and historical aspects of the curriculum field

Presenters include:

• Honorary Professor Marie Brennan
• Emeritus Professor Robert Hattam
• Professor Annette Woods
• Associate Professor Philip Roberts
• Dr Sophie Rudolph
• Associate Professor Jessica Gerrard
• Emeritus Professor Bill Green

Cost: Free for members of AARE.  Non members $30 registration fee each day.

For more information, please email:

Natalie Downes  Natalie.downes@canberra.edu.au; 

Ellen Larsen Ellen.Larsen@usq.edu.au; 

Julie McLeod j.mcleod@unimelb.edu.au

AARE Theory Workshop 21 October 2020 10am-12noon AEDT/11am-1pm AEST via Zoom 

Presenters:

Professor Tracey Bunda
Professor Bob Lingard
Dr Liz Humphries

On behalf of AARE you are invited to participate in the Theory Workshop Zoom, 2020. The Workshop targets ECR and HDR students and aims to make theory explicit for them through this workshop theme of Neoliberalism. Other interested colleagues might also wish to attend to also support ECR/HDR discussion in such uncertain times.

The theme is a question ‘What is Neoliberalism (and what are the implications for Higher Education Futures)?’ A panel of four esteemed presenters with varying specialty research areas, working from diverse theoretical perspectives are being invited to share how theory informs their methodologies and the ways this plays out in research design, data collection, analysis, and research translation activities. These four speakers, with expertise in work about Neoliberalism, will speak for 10 minutes, facilitate smaller discussion breakout discussions where you can meet and ask questions of the speaker, and then return to participate in a whole-group forum for a Q&A session. The place of theory in research agendas attending to Neoliberalism will be addressed.