AARE blog

remote education tutors

A labour of love: Recognising the dual identities of mothers as remote education tutors 

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03 February 2025, Canberra, ACT: The Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association (ICPA) Australia is
calling on the Federal Government to commit to critical funding increases and new support
measures to ensure equitable education access for geographically isolated students. ICPA Australia
says rural and remote families are being left behind by an outdated education support system that
fails to keep pace with rising costs and increasing needs.

Karen Peel and Patrick Danaher reveal what they have learned about distance schooling in Australia.

Thousands of  children learn remotely in Australia.

And fundamental to the delivery of distance schooling is the commitment of what we call the remote education tutor (RET) who functions as a conduit between the distance schooling teacher and the student.

Our research shows that the requirement of providing a supervisor in the remote schoolrooms is creating a sense of educational marginalisation.  This can particularly impact on mothers, who are often expected to be the support providers for their children with no remuneration.

The work of the RET is essential for quality and equitable education for children living in these distant locations. 

But we treat RETs and say, for example, teachers’ aides, very differently.

The equivalent roles of RETs and teacher aides

Let’s compare the support offered to distance education students by the RET with the work of teacher aides employed to assist in general schooling classrooms in Australia.  Over the past four decades, schools increased the number of  teacher aides employed, to assist teachers in providing quality education for students. 

That’s exactly what RETs do. Unlike RETs, teacher aides get paid.

There is the direct comparison which reveals the  inequality in distance schooling and the significant cost, both personally and financially, to geographically isolated families.  

So how did we get to this?

Who performs the role of the RET in Australian distance schooling?

Research tells us there are two distinct groups of RETs: governesses, who are employed as RETs in a paid position; and mothers, who facilitate their own children’s education in the home schoolroom. 

Governesses cost a fortune and – often with limited or no training – they learn on the job. 

For many geographically isolated families, meeting the cost of employing an RET is not a reality.  As such, mothers are left with restricted rights and few choices.  Moreover, they receive no income for completing the complex role of the RET, and limited acknowledgement for undertaking this essential and mandated educational position.

Acknowledgement and remuneration for the RET

The parents who attended the 2024 Queensland Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association (ICPA) conference conducted in Townsville, Australia unanimously voted for a  proposal to provide suitable acknowledgement and remuneration for RETs. The same proposal was met with the same enthusiasm 50 years previously.

So why hasn’t the move for educational equality for families living in geographically isolated locations gained traction? Could it be that mothers are just expected to make sacrifices?

The mother as the RET 

States and territories mandate that students 12 years and under must be supervised by an adult for the whole school day. And mothers do that while also juggling with other responsibilities and the management of this substantial and time-consuming task.

Compare that to the mothers of children beginning mainstream schooling. There are opportunities for them to return to paid employment and contribute to the family income.  Mothers in geographically isolated locations don’t have that option. They have to undertake the role of the RET. These duties can extend for several years, depending on the number of children in the family.

Groups such as the ICPA repeatedly advocate for the role that rural women play in educating their children. But politicians – and the rest of us – should be forced to  acknowledge how hard it is to access compulsory education for families living in geographically isolated locations.

Researching mothers as RETs in Australian distance schooling

We wanted to know how mothers felt about their roles as RETs.

Here’s what we found. They positioned themselves dutifully to meet the demands of their dual identities. They understood that where they lived created the need to educate their child/ren through distance schooling.  

But they were all aware of the comparison between the equitable rights of mainstream schooling and those of distance education.  

One mother/RET pointed out the inequities and financial burdens of being positioned to fulfil the RET role.  She said, “Because we are geographically isolated, me doing this role is our only choice unless we want to send our kids to boarding school, which costs a lot of money.” 

Another mother/RET was critical of the perceived inequity of financing the work of teacher aides in the mainstream schooling without there being an equivalent commitment to financing the work of the RET.

However, there was acceptance by the mothers of their duties as RETs, accompanied by a sense of responsibility. They recognised the significance of their role for their child/ren’s education.  

This was clearly articulated in the statement: “I taught all my kids to read.  A half an hour lesson with a teacher online isn’t going to teach a kid to read.”  Much of the responsibility for teaching reading goes well beyond the limited time available in the online lessons with the school-based distance education teacher.  

Another mother/RET made it clear that she “is not a teacher but is willing to learn how to provide the very best start for [her] child’s education”.  She identified her RET position as a “duty of care”, and herself as a “volunteer” performing “a hugely underestimated role”.

What is the role of the RET?

Substantially, the lack of understanding and underestimation of what the RETs’ role entails are of concern.  

One mother/RET proudly lamented, “I think I have done a pretty good job with the kids, but it’s that lack of value and recognition”.  

What was especially significant in this research were the challenges for the mothers performing the dual roles of being the caregiver and the RET.  This tension cannot be overestimated.

One mother/RET admitted, “I do struggle and think that, if you were just the teacher, you’d be a little bit more patient, whereas being the mother as well, it definitely blurs.”

Recognising the dual identities of mothers as RETs 

Recognition of the dual identities of the mothers as RETs, who facilitate their child/ren’s successful learning outcomes, affirms this substantive position. Our research underscores the importance of establishing a system of government support for financial compensation so this work can extend to being more than a labour of love.

Karen Peel is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. She is an experienced classroom teacher having taught in Australian schools across decades of educational transformations. Her research interests include the implementation of practices for effective teaching and self-regulated learning, classrooms cultures that support positive behaviour and contemporary issues in education that impact outcomes for students and educators. She is on LinkedIn.

Patrick Danaher is Professor in the School of Education at Excelsia University College, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Patrick has continuing research interests in rural education, including the educational aspirations and outcomes of occupationally mobile families such as circus and show people who travel through regional, rural and remote communities. More broadly, he is interested in formal education’s ambivalent capacity to perpetuate sociocultural marginalisation and to contribute to sociocultural transformation. He is on LinkedIn.

reading

Reading: How to prioritise reading for enjoyment in classrooms

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You are probably aware of the current political and public furore surrounding children’s reading development and the decades-long reading wars. The reading skills and behaviours of young Australians are a cause of major concern for parents and carers, teachers and teacher educators, and future employers and education stakeholders. For 15 years, NAPLAN reading test results have been flatlining. As well, the Australian results for the international PISA reading test have been declining steadily for 22 years. 

The mystifying magic bullet

Recent reports suggest that as many as 30% of young Australians are not reading at a proficient level. These reports often promote phonics instruction as the primary magic bullet solution. This emphasis is puzzling since standardised tests predominantly assess reading comprehension. If comprehension test results are lower than expected, shouldn’t greater attention be given to fostering comprehension and deep meaning-making?

Phonic knowledge is undoubtedly important for developing strong decoding skills. However, over-emphasising phonics may only improve phonics skills—not necessarily reading comprehension. As one professor astutely observed, “Teaching more phonics will only make children better at phonics.” 

Problems of biblical proportion

Two well-known phenomena in the research literature, both drawn from biblical references, offer insights into classroom reading instruction challenges. In light of the current overemphasis on phonics, I propose a third.

Firstly, the notorious Matthew effect is based on a rich-get-richer and poor-get-poorer phenomenon. It draws on Matthew 25:29,. “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away”. In the contemporary classroom context, it describes how individual differences in early years reading abilities lead to widening gaps over time; struggling young readers falling further behind their peers.

Secondly, the lesser-known Peter Effect is based on the idea that people can’t give what they don’t have. It draws on Acts 3:6 “But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you”. In the contemporary classroom context, it refers to the problem of teachers who are not enthusiastic readers themselves struggling to instil a love of reading in their students. This difficult predicament has been alerted by UNESCO. 

Here, I am proposing a third phenomenon─the Martha Effect. This problem is based on the lack of attention to the most important matters. It draws on Luke 10:41-42.

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing”. In the contemporary classroom context, it refers to the prioritising of a narrow view of reading, and disregard of the vital matter of fostering students’ reading motivation and enthusiasm. The Martha effect highlights the potential pitfalls of an overly mechanistic approach to reading instruction, which neglects the richer, deeper, more meaning-full aspects of reading.

Evidence from research

In the midst of ongoing debates and government reports about improving children’s reading development, one crucial aspect is often overlooked; student engagement in reading for enjoyment. Around the world, this is referenced in interchangeable terms such as: reading for pleasure or volitional reading, or reading for aesthetic purpose. 

Decades of international research demonstrate the significant bidirectional impact of students’ reading enjoyment on reading attainment, amongst a myriad of associated personal and social benefits. Its importance is acknowledged as positively associated with reading performance in the international PISA reading tests. Children’s right to read books for enjoyable purpose is endorsed in the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, Article 17. The International Literacy Association validates this vital prerogative in its Children’s Rights to Read advocacy document.

The really good news is that the Australian Curriculum: English endorses this evidence-based entitlement. Its Aims specify enjoyment and aesthetic appreciation of literature. Across all year level descriptions from Prep to 10 it clearly states: “Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment”. 

The really bad news is that this significant student entitlement is sidelined and silenced. In fact, the term “aesthetic purpose” has been dropped from the previous version (v.8.4) year-level descriptions because…  well no official explanation has been given. Perhaps there is some misunderstanding around its verified educative and transformative value?

Classroom reading for enjoyment entails evidence-informed, purposeful pedagogic approaches and practices. It needs, like all other aspects of reading instruction, to be well taught. Notably, teachers who have enacted a reading-for-pleasure pedagogy have found that reading for enjoyment actually enhances reading comprehension.

The “Martha Effect” in Practice

The recently released parliamentary report on The state education system in Victoria is a prime example of the Martha Effect in action. Across 330 pages, it references NAPLAN 110 times, phonics 96 times, and comprehension just six times. Its first recommendation sets a benchmark of 90% of students achieving strong or exceeding NAPLAN results. Not once does it reference the really important matter, which is consistently evidenced in global research, of reading for enjoyment.

Similarly, the recent Queensland Department of Education Reading position statement that commits the state to every student realising their reading potential, makes zero commitment to student engagement in reading for enjoyment. That is despite a restricted mention of a “love of reading”.

The recent Grattan Institute Reading guarantee also sets its first of many recommendations around 90% of students achieving strong or exceeding NAPLAN results. It also includes a limited acknowledgment of reading enjoyment related to the books Jane Eyre (Bell/Bronte, 1847) and A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens, 1859) as books carefully selected to be enjoyable to read. It fails, however, to make any specific recommendations around student engagement in reading for enjoyment as intentional pedagogic practice. 

Martha, Martha…

Addressing the “Martha Effect”

The educative and transformative potential of reading for enjoyment needs to be prioritised. This involves embracing the “Super Seven” aspects of reading instruction, rather than the Big Six:

  1. Comprehension
  2. Fluency
  3. Oral language
  4. Phonic knowledge
  5. Phonological awareness 
  6. Vocabulary
  7. Reading for enjoyment – Literary appreciation/aesthetic engagement

A call to action: the super seven aspects of reading instruction

To combat the Martha Effect, all education stakeholders must act:

  • Members of parliament should safeguard policy and practice recommendations addressing all seven aspects of reading instruction and development.
  • School system directors should oversee implementation of policy and practice recommendations that address the super seven.
  • School principals and leadership teams should resource, implement and monitor enactment of the super seven.
  • Classroom teachers should ensure that students learn the super seven aspects of reading, and get adequate time to actually read and practice these.

Children need to learn to enjoy reading and, consequently, read more.

Perhaps then, reading test results will finally improve.

Mellie Green is a lecturer in English curriculum and pedagogy at Southern Cross University. She has been a primary school teacher for nearly 30 years, with most of those in the classroom and teacher-librarianship, and some in curriculum leadership. She completed her PhD in 2022. Her doctoral research explored student engagement in reading for enjoyment in the upper primary years. Her areas of research passion are: use of children’s literature in the primary classroom, reading instruction, English curriculum and pedagogy. Mellie is also an active member of the Departing Radically in Academic Writing (DRAW) group.

risk taking

Risk-taking is good for us. How education can help

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In a viral ABC interview, Gina Chick, winner of Alone Australia 2023, echoed what research is increasingly telling us. Risk-taking is good for us, but Australian society is risk averse.

“We live in a culture that pathologises discomfort…whereas, we only grow when we’re uncomfortable…and so being able to have tools to be in that discomfort…that’s when we start to metabolise the edges of that fear…and then our world gets bigger…and we can find what the discomfort is teaching us” 

Risk is often associated with negativity, such as impulsive behaviours that lead to harm and danger. Yet deliberate and considered engagement with risk-taking, discomfort and uncertainty can contribute toward a healthy and fulfilled life.

Despite an increasing discussion on the benefits of risk-taking in recent years, research from Deakin University indicates that Australians are among the most risk averse in the developed world, surpassing New Zealand, the UK and Canada. 

This research also identified a disconnect between what teachers and parents believe about risk-taking and what they allow to take place.

The restrictions placed on children and young people because of risk aversion may be contributing to an increase in childhood and teen anxiety. As Gina Chick suggests, risk aversion may be holding us back from growth and opportunity, both individually and as a society.

What can families and teachers do to help promote resilience and courage?

Understanding risk-taking

Risk is an inherent and unavoidable part of life. It is also complex and linked to a range of meanings. A simple way of understanding the complexity of risk is through the following phrases:

At risk – refers to the involuntary position of being ‘at risk of harm’. This phrase is used to describe when people are in vulnerable situations, usually outside of their control, that expose them to severe or long-lasting harm or danger.

Risk-taking – is a voluntary action where people choose to engage with elements or actions that involve the possibility of negative outcomes. 

Many people think about risk-taking as purely negative, associated with reckless and impulsive behaviours. But risk-taking can also be positive. Terms used to describe positive forms of risk-taking include healthy, beneficial and beautiful risk-taking – or a term specifically for education settings: pedagogical risk-taking.

How do we define pedagogical risk-taking?

Deliberately courageous practices with uncertain and possibly negative outcomes, intended to achieve benefit(s) for an individual, group, or the environment.

Pedagogical risk-taking can be physical, social, emotional and/or cognitive. Pedagogical risk-taking is undertaken in educational contexts, with consideration given to possible benefits and negative outcomes. Possible benefits usually outweigh negative consequences and the possibility of severe or long-lasting negative effects is avoided. Benefits may be achieved through success, or through learnings associated with mistakes or failure. 

Pedagogical risk-taking is something children, teachers and parents can do. It involves having the courage to step out of one’s comfort zone, embrace uncertainty, stand up for what one believes in, and learn through mistakes and failure – all of which contribute toward personal growth, learning, innovation, creativity, resilience and social justice.

By having a shared understanding of pedagogical risk-taking, families and teachers can promote a culture of risk-taking in education settings.

The current place of risk-taking in education settings

Although research supports the value of risk-taking in education for children, young people and teachers, there is currently limited inclusion of risk-taking in formal Australian education documents. The Early Years Learning Framework promotes risk-taking for young children, but the Victorian F-12 Curriculum is yet to include it. The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers refer to practices that can require teachers to take risk, but are also yet to explicitly articulate the place of risk-taking in professional practice.

Despite this, early learning centres and schools are beginning to recognise the importance of explicitly articulating the value of risk-taking by including terms such as risk-taking, brave and courage in their values or philosophy. Teachers in these schools increasingly plan deliberate opportunities for children to engage with risk-taking, and engage in risk-taking themselves in their professional practice.

Promoting risk-taking 

Whether risk-taking is explicitly included in formal or centre documentation, teachers and families can promote risk-taking by talking about it and modelling it. By using the term risk-taking in a positive way and talking about risks taken, we explicitly acknowledge its place and value in educational settings. It is important to acknowledge and respect individual approaches to taking risks and encourage people to be both honest about how they feel and open to growth.

Children’s risk-taking can be promoted in a range of experiences, including physical outdoor play, interpersonal interactions and when learning something new. Children can take risks by testing their physical and academic capabilities, taking up opportunities to participate in unfamiliar activities and standing up for issues of injustice.

Teachers can promote risk-taking by modelling in their own professional practice. Teacher risk-taking can take a range of forms. It may be associated with new curriculum choices or innovations, interpersonal risk-taking by sharing ideas and beliefs or advocating for children and education in the wider community, or through the act of providing opportunities for children take risks, which can feel risky for teachers. Of course, these actions are not always risky, but they can put teachers outside of their comfort zone and require courage.  

When teachers, families and children collaborate to promote and engage in pedagogical risk-taking, this can result in pedagogies of courage.

Pedagogies of courage

A pedagogy of courage recognises that risk-taking is inseparable from education and life and that explicitly acknowledging, enabling and celebrating risk-taking in education settings is good for individuals and society.

Pedagogies of courage use a variety of strategies to promote and support courageous actions, such as a shared understanding and language around risk-taking, open and honest communication, documents and resources to encourage risk-taking, a variety of ways to assess and negotiate risk-taking, and non-judgmental support to reflect on and navigate the positive and negative outcomes of risk-taking.

Courageous communities work together to promote learning, opportunity and a fulfilling life for all. 

Mandy Cooke is a senior lecturer in Early Childhood Education at Deakin University. She has over 20 years’ experience as a practicing early childhood and primary teacher. In her academic work, Mandy focuses on positive transformation of educational practices for the benefit of individuals, communities, and a sustainable and socially just planet. Mandy does this by working with preservice teachers in their development as critically reflective practitioners and by engaging in research focused on initial teacher education and pedagogical practices. Her main research focus is risk-taking for both children and educators.

Turning points playlist

Your hottest 100: I’m so excited. And so much more

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Mark Selkrig, Nicky Dulfer, Ron ‘Kim’ Keamy, Troy Heffernan and Kristiina Brunila announce the “Academic Turning Points” Playlist Collection: Academics’ Journeys Expressed Through Music 

Many readers of this blog would know that higher education continues to be an ever-shifting landscape where constant change prevails. Academics worldwide who work inside higher education are navigating a myriad of profound changes and complexities. At the same time, they are grappling with increasing accountability measures and compliance requirements. The professional and personal pressures academics face can be immense. The impact is evident, with academics being overworked, exhausted, and on the verge of burnout. Alarmingly, many of these behaviours have become normalized. 

To better understand how academics are adapting to these evolving environments, our research team launched an innovative global study: “Turning Points: Changes Academics Make to Shape Their Working Lives.” The key research question driving this project was: How do academics articulate and represent the turning points that caused them to change course professionally, as well as the enduring impacts of those shifts?  Using multi-modal, arts-based methods, we invited participants to not only share written experiences about a pivotal moment where they elected to ‘do something different in their work practices’, but also describe an image and select a piece of music representing their evolved professional approaches. 

Your turning point playlist

Based on responses from over 120 participants in this study, some of whom may be readers of this blog, our findings reveal powerful windows into the nuanced realities of academic life. Drawing from the academics’ insightful musical selections, we’ve curated the “Academic Turning Points” Playlist Collection – a series of thoughtfully crafted playlists that audibly capture professional journeys across the globe. 

We are launching the first instalment: “Academic Turning Points 1: Reframing Perspectives on Work-Life Balance.” This resonant playlist explores the profound need for balance, perspective and self-compassion amid academia’s relentless demands. Tracks like “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin and “Sunrise” by Norah Jones reflect participants’ experiences re-evaluating unsustainable work practices and realigning priorities, with lyrics urging listeners to slow down, be kinder to themselves, and gain clarity on what’s important.  As one participant shared, a particular track helped them “realise that the way I was working was not sustainable, and I needed to make some changes to find more balance”.

From identity shift to finding purpose

We invite you to immerse yourself in this playlist and reflect on your own experiences. You may even want to consider the song you would choose to represent your own journey towards better work-life balance and sustainable practices. This is just the beginning. In the coming months, we’ll unveil additional playlists, each offering a unique perspective through the powerful lens of music. From grappling with identity shifts to finding purpose, these collections will resonate with anyone impacted by academia’s demands. By centring multi-modal expression, our research aims to foster deeper understanding of academic life’s nuances. In this era of constant change, listening to academics’ voices is crucial. 

The “Academic Turning Points” playlist collection invites you to embark on an auditory exploration of professional journeys, struggles, triumphs and pivotal moments. To access the first playlist on in the collection on Spotify click on the QR code or follow the hyperlinked text to experience “Academic Turning Points 1: Reframing Perspectives on Work-Life Balance” .

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Remember to stay tuned for more releases in this powerful series. For academics worldwide, may these playlists remind you that you’re not alone, and that the path to balance and fulfillment is one we navigate together, one note at a time.

The evocative AI-generated playlist image (shown in the top image for this blog and also right) is based on descriptions of images that represented their academic turning point are also striking visual representations of the complex emotional terrain academics navigate daily. 

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If you would like to  know a little bit more about the project, or access a catalogue of whole collection of playlists as they are released, be sure to look at our Turning Points project website

Meet the Turning Points Team

Mark Selkrig is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. His research and scholarly work focus on the changing nature of educators’ work, their identities and lived experiences of these events. He has been the recipient of awards for publications in this field and acknowledged for his leadership, outstanding work and advocacy for arts development and education. Mark is on Linkedin.

Nicky Dulfer is a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Nicky’s research agenda is driven by a social justice imperative and seeks to make a significant change to the ways in which marginalised students experience education. Her research explores educational curriculums and institutions and the ways they both shape, and are shaped by, those who work and study in them.

Ron “Kim” Keamy is an associate professor and a teacher education researcher in the Assessment & Evaluation Research Centre, Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. Kim’s research and scholarly work traverses educational and academic leadership, initial teacher education and teachers’ professional learning.

Troy Heffernan is a Fulbright Scholar and currently a visiting fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford. As a sociologist of higher education administration and equity, his work examines issues such as those related to precarious employment, the implication of academic networks, and the factors involved in hiring and promotional decisions. He also examines ways to enhance student equity and experience. 

Kristiina Brunila works as professor in the University of Helsinki where she directs the research centre of AGORA for the study of social justice and equality in education. With her AGORA research community she has studied educational transformations in global and glocal contexts including reforms in universities as well as questions related to inequalities and education.

Gen AI

Can we preserve human agency in a world of AI?

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That’s a question we can all ask ourselves as we interrogate the UN International Day of Education. This year’s theme is AI and education. What does the teaching profession gain and lose with Gen AI?

Two hundred million people use ChatGPT each month, with growth doubling in one year. A recent article from Harvard Business Review correctly identifies that generative AI (Gen AI) is a prediction machine that can summarise, synthesise, code, and draw based on its training with the corpus of knowledge from the internet and custom data sets.  The article points out that: “The efficacy of predictions is contingent on the underlying data. The quality and quantity of data significantly impact the accuracy of AI predictions…. (T)he successful implementation of AI requires good judgment…  It involves knowing which predictions to make, the costs associated with different types of mistakes, and what to do with the AI’s outcome… Judgment over what matters in a particular situation is fundamental to the successful use of generative AI.”

Time to ask those questions about AI again

Anecdote and research suggest that students in schools and universities increasingly use Gen AI tools in various ways to undertake learning and assessment.  There has been a flurry of activity by government, state departments and regulators in providing policy, guidelines and resources for educators and students on the technology. Discourse has seemed to turn a corner from using Gen AI as “cheating” to either adjusting assessment by having students apply or adapt AI text to the real world or embracing AI outputs by critiquing or improving on them.

Two years after the widespread uptake of ChatGPT, the most popular Gen AI tool, I think it is time to pause and re-ask ourselves as educators what exactly do my students need to know and be able to do to demonstrate competency in learning. This question is the true core of curriculum. And it goes directly to thinking creatively or innovatively in education.

There is a lot of talk about Gen AI augmenting human intelligence with its efficient summary outputs. As the Harvard Business review article points out, such outputs require “good judgment” in order to assess the quality for a “particular situation”.

Still a place for old-fashioned exams

Educators can certainly set tasks where students generate such outputs and develop skills to assess output quality. Of course this means explicitly teaching those quality assessment skills (research, information literacy, critical thinking) and then having some way of knowing if students are using/developing the skills without using Gen AI to produce a fake trail of skill development. This might involve seeing drafts of work with commentary on how the skills were used with real time presentations on this coupled with teacher and peer questions. There is still a place for old fashioned exams too as one way to assess knowledge acquisition and transfer, as unpopular as this may be in some AI evangelical circles.

If we want students to be more than adept prompt jockeys, then we have to really think about how we want them to demonstrate learning.

Software that purports to provide AI generator matches are pretty hopeless and give warning about this, so teachers shouldn’t rely on these but on carefully developed dialogue and iterative processes with students. In other words, carefully crafted learning and assessment activities and knowing their students well. This is easier in schools than in universities where large cohorts, online learning, intensified academic workloads and a highly casualised workforce act as barriers to developing genuine, long term educator-student connections.

On standards

Now, let me unpack the issue from my context as a teacher educator. Australian teachers have a set of standards they need to meet at various career stages. The curriculum of teacher education needs to directly respond to these standards and teacher education is commonly structured according to : (1) content (discipline) knowledge, (2) method which is curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, (3) understanding learning and the learning context of students (educational psychology and sociology), and (4) how 1-3 translate into practice  through professional experience known as practicums and internships. Summarising and synthesising from the corpus of the internet, Gen AI can easily produce outputs for assessment related to areas 1- 3.

Teachers are great sharers. It is a human-centred, collaborative profession after all. For a long time teachers everywhere have shared curriculum scope and sequence documents, unit and lesson plans, assessments, teaching resources, and student work samples online. Student teachers, usually referred to as pre-service teachers, have a vast repository of exemplars and resources to draw on, modify and use for assessment at university and at practicum. Plagiarism checkers could and can still identify if a student has directly copied something from the internet and not cited the source or tried to pass it off as their own.

Questioning the quality of the AI output

Gen AI, drawing on all the teaching curriculum resources available online, can almost instantly produce scope and sequence, units of work, lesson plans and resources such as work sheets, by predicting what the user wants according to the prompt and synthesising or summarising what is available online. It is then up to the pre-service teacher or teacher to make judgements about the quality of the AI output in relation to the task or the appropriateness for the learning context.

Teachers who have gone through traditional method courses at university – learning to first read a syllabus for structure and meaning, and then translating this into a lesson plan, a unit of work and a scope and sequence through a carefully scaffolded developmental arrangement of courses across a degree  – are mostly well equipped to make professional judgements about automated outputs from gen AI. However, we are entering a new era where it may be possible to produce work for discipline, method and learning courses without having to think critically or authentically about what is submitted for assessment.

There will be a sizeable proportion of students graduating from universities who would have relied on Gen AI outputs in an expedient or shallow way to get through their degree having been exposed to limited opportunities that “test” depth of understanding, application and transfer and creative or innovative thinking. Universities won’t want to talk about this for a long time – just as they were slow to address the impact of essay mills. But it will be a phenomenon which will shape trust in higher education institutions and ultimately professions.

In teacher education this could mean a heavier burden for teachers supervising students on practicum. In the world of Gen AI these supervising teachers are well placed to evaluate whether a student has developed competency through their application of discipline, curriculum and pedagogy, and learner knowledge.

There are many, many teachers using Gen AI to generate curriculum material, school reports, newsletters and other artefacts considered ripe for an efficiency overall in their time-poor day. If Gen AI were to cease tomorrow, I would hazard a guess that the vast majority could still create these texts as they have gone through the sequenced training prior to and in-service, and have experience to draw on, including the experiences of other teachers.

However, we may be entering an era where there will be the first cohorts of teachers who have come to rely on Gen AI to a point that they did not develop these skills or the necessary judgement vital in designing curriculum to suit context. Gen AI raises a lot of questions related to professional knowledge and standards.

Will pre-service and practising teachers develop AI dependency? Will this erode the unique combination of professional skills teachers have? Does this matter? Should we augment our competencies and intelligence and redefine the fundamentals of professional knowledge?

AI: it’s about what exists, not what’s possible

Finally, what will happen to innovation in curriculum design if pre-service and in-service teachers slowly stop drawing on their vast cognitive resources to create and share new unit plans or teaching resources, instead relying on the quick Gen AI fix? We need to remember that Gen AI is a summarising and synthesising tool, predicting a response from a prompt to communicate what already exists not what is possible.

Let’s start having a more serious and sustained conversation in teacher education and the teaching profession about what we gain as educators in using Gen AI and what we potentially erode, lose or irrevocably change, and will it matter for our students?

To return to my original question but orienting it towards the training of pre-service teachers – what exactly do pre-service teachers need to know and be able to do to demonstrate competency with and without Gen AI? This question surely goes to the heart of teaching standards.

Erica Southgate is an associate professor in the School of Education, University of Newcastle. She makes computer games for literacy and is an education technology ethicist and an immersive learning researcher. 

Focus

Your focus isn’t broken, it just needs time

Educational research, PhD education, PhD work, , , , ,

My recent book, Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond  includes a chapter on thinking towards writing which includes a focus practice using a rubber duck, a walking practice, and more information about focussed and diffuse thinking modes; and another chapter on recharging that gives advice on what to do when your brain gets tired after practising some deep thinking. For years, I advised students and researchers who were convinced their brains were broken because they couldn’t do eight hours of deep work every day, five days a week. I’ve never been able to focus like that, and my research suggests that’s normal and fine–which might be reassuring for you too!

We all know that it’s a challenge to focus, to go deep and still and clear and to stay there, to think hard thoughts or read long books or write longform. Many books, podcasts, news articles and research careers tackle this issue, from classics like Cal Newport’s Deep Work, or Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow, to recent work like Gloria Mark’s Attention Span. 

A number of recent panicked bestsellers claim our focus has been stolen, our children’s brains rewired, and that our ability to concentrate is deeply broken. Most prominently among these are  Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation and Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus. They argue modern inventions like our phones and the internet and traffic are why it’s hard to concentrate. 

But fear we have lost the ability to focus is as old as civilisation. 

So what can do to help ourselves focus?

Anyone who has ever worked in a bustling office, or cared for children, or taught in a classroom knows interruptions come from other humans. That’s why, across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, societies keep inventing hacks to help us focus, whether that’s hermitages, meditation, pilgrimages or libraries. 

HERE’S how you can use each one of those techniques to help you and your students relearn to focus in everyday life. 

1. Become a hermit

Hermits withdraw from society, they give up power and responsibility, and the pursuit of a comfort, profit, or prestige. Some hermits live on their own, and others with a small group of like-minded people. They live in country huts, caves, or up on pillars. You can be a hermit for a shorter period of retreat. Cal Newport famously tells the story in Deep Work (2016) of the person who bought a first class round trip plane ticket to Japan. And then there’sSarah McLachlan who spent months in a cabin before she was ready to write the songs for Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Pitchfork 2017). 

Writing retreats and writing groups give us examples of how we can do this in our everyday life. We set aside a time and a place to focus, we remove distractions of the the day-to-day demands of life, and we wait. Being a hermit is supposed to be uncomfortable, restrictive and ascetic – so if it feels difficult or itchy, we are doing it right. If we persist, eventually the hermitage becomes a place where we can find focus. 

2. Learn to meditate

Meditation is a practice of focus. Itt is different from  mindfulness, which can be more of aboutawareness and intention. When you learn to meditate, you have to learn how to hold a thought, image or phrase in your mind. And then how to bring yourself back to the thought every time your brain wanders. And it will wander. This is why most traditions use all of the senses to help hold and return to focus: songs, breath, bells, candles, incense, intricate images or patterns, beads on strings. 

We don’t do a lot of just sitting and thinking in every day life, so it helps to start short and slow and build up to more challenging practices. In this case, we are learning to focus to have our own thoughts and insights, so classes or a guided meditation recording may not  be so useful.

If we are practising on our own, then, it helps to surround ourselves with as many focus tools as we need. Have the right chair, the right fidget toy, a picture of the thing we want to think about, thinking music, a colouring in book or some knitting. Set a timer for 2 minutes. I find the first 30 seconds are always a mess, and you may too. Keep breathing and wait. After 2 minutes, get up and stretch. Come back tomorrow. Start being small but consistent, and then once you can do that, start extending the time. You’ll be fine. 

3. Walk it out

Going on a journey, preferably on foot, changes us. Whether we take our horses to Canterbury as Chaucer’s characters did in medieval England, or we walk the Narrow Road to the Deep North as Bashō did in Edo Japan, we not only leave our everyday lives behind, but we have the repetitive rhythm of steps and the physical experience of progress to get our thinking moving. There’s a reason that traditional universities have gardens, courts, avenues, and other walkable spaces: places for people to pace and stride and wander, as they talked it out with a colleague or worked it out in their head. 

I find the pilgrimage is a useful model for focus because it reminds me that focus is hard work and I can’t do it indefinitely. By the time my legs are tired, my brain will also be tired. So then I am reminded to stop focussing and recharge instead. 

We do not need to walk to go on a pilgrimage, but we do have to get up from our desk and move elsewhere. Some people find that they think well in the car or on trains. Or we might replicate the enclosed centrifugal journey of university courtyards in laps of a pool or velodrome. But this is not merely moving for exercise. It is important to start your journey with a clear intention: a problem to solve, an idea to generate, words to find. At the going out and at the coming home, return to your intention and check that you have made progress, even if you have not fully arrived. 

4. Go to the library

Obviously we go to the library for a whole range of activities and services: we borrow books, consult archives, attend story-times, use the computers, consult librarians etc.  But we can learn from the many students who pack into libraries just before their final exams to study, because libraries are a fantastic place to focus. Libraries are thinking infrastructure. Need a quiet place to put your head down? Need a place where other people are also putting their heads down? Need something to put into your brain first so it has something to chew on? Need a reminder that thousands of other people have also had ideas and the persistence and focus to think them and then write them down? Libraries have you covered.

Favourite way to focus

My favourite way to focus in a library is to use a book to think with/against/alongside. As a writer and an academic, I’m often reading and reacting to other people’s ideas. It’s easy enough to read in snippets, or to let myself get sucked into a fascinating fictional world when I’m on holiday, but if I’m tired and busy and bored, I find my brain keeps sliding off a difficult text I need to read.

I deal with that problem, by going to a library with the book and a notebook. I take notes about what the book says, but also about my feelings, my reactions, my original thoughts sparked by the book. I have pages of notes with marginalia expressing how annoying someone’s writing style is, how shoddy their research is, or how wrong their conclusions. The library helps me focus long enough to clarify and explain what I don’t like about the book, which is important as when I need to explain why I think a book is great. 

Each of these ‘tricks’ makes focus easier, but none of them make it effortless. Focus takes time, there’s friction in the process. It can’t be sustained indefinitely, because focus is hard work, 

It’s not magic

Focus is not a magic trick. And not everything is worthy of the magic of focus. Keeping a vague eye on the pot of soup bubbling on the stove and the songs on the radio and the chatty Teams messages from your colleagues does not need deep thinking. Save your brain for the hard, serious, chewy stuff.  

When you need to go deep, you don’t need to wait for the lightning of inspiration to strike you, or the panicked hyperfocus of a looming deadline. You can detach yourself briefly from the world, set up your environment to support your focus, and practise learning how to pay attention. 

In this post, I’m arguing that there’s nothing wrong with our ability to focus, but we can take some sensible steps to support deep focus, including (re-)learning how to do it. Focus feels hard and messy because it is hard work, and it’s where we address the hard problems. As we practise it more often, we’ll build up our focus muscles and increase our focus tools, but we will always have to practise falling in and out of focus. What matters is not our diamond mind, but our commitment to returning to try again. 

Katherine Firth is the inaugural Head of Lisa Bellear House, a residential hall at the University of Melbourne, and a senior lecturer in research education and development at La Trobe University.

blog of the year

Blogs of the year – thanks contributors, commenters and readers

AARE blog

We’ve had a wonderful year here at EduResearch Matters, the blog of the Australian Association for Research in Education, thanks to our contributors, commenters and readers. This is our last post for 2024 and will recommence on January 21, 2025.

In 2024, we’ve published well over 100 posts (that doesn’t include the many posts over the course of the annual conference, this year held at Macquarie University). Contributors have come from across Australia, from PhD students to professors.

Want to contribute? Read our notes for contributors. And read Marg Rogers‘ peer-reviewed journal article and presentation. She gives a step-by-step guide on how to write effectively for these research news sites to create impact and accelerate knowledge translation (also called research translation).

Now, our list of ten best read blogs of 2024 begins with our blog of the year.

Blog post of the year was Escape Oppression Now: Disrupt the Dominance of Evidence-Based Practice by Nicole Brunker, University of Sydney. Read the citation here.

Escape Oppression Now: Disrupt the Dominance of Evidence-Based Practice

Phillip Poulton – Are we now gaslighting teacher expertise?

Are we now gaslighting teacher expertise?

Russell Tytler – Science and writing: Why AERO’s narrow views are a big mistake

Science and writing: Why AERO’s narrow views are a big mistake

Simon Crook – No honour in the honour roll 

No honour in the honour roll

Jill Brown – Explicit teaching mandate – a pushback is now critical

Explicit teaching mandate – a pushback now is critical

Linda Graham and Melissa Close – Australia doesn’t need a ‘Behaviour Curriculum’. We need to implement Social and Emotional Learning now

Australia doesn’t need a ‘Behaviour Curriculum’. We need to implement Social and Emotional Learning now

Matthew Harper and David Roy – Dramatic setback: Why the newly drafted senior drama syllabus falls short of a quality creative arts education

Dramatic setback: Why the newly drafted senior drama syllabus falls short of a quality creative arts education

Michael Anderson – NESA: If we let the rot continue, the ultimate losers will be our students

NESA: If we let the rot continue, the ultimate losers will be our students

James Humberstone and Jennifer Carter – Our nationally-leading music courses are now under threat

Our nationally-leading music courses are now under threat

Katie Maher and Jane Maher – Are student encampments sites of pedagogy and learning?

Are student encampments sites of pedagogy and learning?

AARE conference

What I learned from my first AARE conference

AARE blog, AARE conference, , ,

Just days after the week-long AARE 2024 conference, I’ve had time to reflect on the experience. A walk through Lane Cove National Park helped me process the insights and challenges discussed during the Conference.

Attending back-to-back sessions was intellectually exhausting, especially when focusing on my research interests of teacher shortages and working conditions. The persistent challenges facing Australian educators prompted some critical questions:

  • How can we translate conference discussions into meaningful progress?
  • Are we more focused on researching problems or solving them?
  • How innovative and uncertain of their outcomes are our research approaches?

Despite the draining content, the conference was ultimately uplifting. I felt the AARE community demonstrated a shared commitment to collaborative problem-solving. It was a valuable opportunity to connect with teachers, school leaders, union leaders, researchers, and even colleagues from my own university whom I’d never previously met.

As an early career researcher, meeting renowned ‘rock star’ researchers I’d extensively cited in my thesis and teacher education assignments was both intimidating and inspiring —they too wrestle with the complexities and struggles of teaching and research.

I felt prepared for the conference. I read The Thesis Whisperer‘s books. I also attended the AARE PGS & ECR Online Event: Making the Most of Your Conference Experience. And I have some insights for fellow researchers, especially ECRs, based on my enjoyable experience.

AARE Conference Tips for Early Career Researchers

1. Attend Diverse Sessions, and as many as possible

Even if a session doesn’t directly align with your research, you’ll gain insights into presentation styles, methodological approaches, and potential interdisciplinary connections. It is also a great opportunity to meet other attendees.  I research the teacher shortage and teachers’ work, so Monday and Tuesday’s program was packed with relevant sessions.

The following days offered fresh perspectives on concepts familiar to most teachers. I was already aware of concepts like ‘time poverty’, ‘toxic leadership’ and the treatment of teaching as ‘women’s work’ but hearing from academics specialising in these areas provided deeper insights.

2. Attend Graduate Researcher and ECR Sessions

Just like large music festivals, you can be torn between a headline act on the main stage or the potential of discovering the next big thing “before it is cool”! I found ECR sessions offered some raw, engaging discussions. Craig Skerritt’s presentation provoked discussion about whether toxic leaders knowingly and intentionally harm organisational culture. Similarly Matthew Brown’s innovative study on principal decision-making also raised questions about whether ‘rational’ decisions are inherently better to ‘emotional’ ones.

3. Don’t Underestimate Poster Presentations

I don’t know whether everyone attending viewed the AARE conference posters when they were up some steep stairs and all the food was on the ground floor, but I did see a few researchers have a near-continuous stream of visitors during the designated poster time. 

I really enjoyed making my poster. The people who did stop by during the poster time gave me some great ideas and feedback I am going to act on. I recommend anyone with a new project make a poster. The format encourages discussion and can potentially have more impressions than a short concurrent talk. It would signal respect and commitment from senior researchers to submit posters too and stand by them as a medium, literally!

The posters that really stood out to me were the ones that did not try to cram a whole paper into a poster format. Instead they used plenty of space and graphics to lead the viewer’s gaze through the different sections. 

Khalifah Aldughaysh’s poster on barriers to implementing practices for students with autism and Tamitha Hammond’s study on Pasifika students, stood out with striking graphic and vibrant colours. Jeroen Koekoek and Wytse Walinga used a creative analogy of a professional coloured lighting setup in their study of decision-making in Dutch physical education. Though unrelated to my research, their compelling designs drew me in. 

4. Be Early, and Stay Until the End

I recommend being early to sessions, partly to get a good seat. But I also found that there was a better chance to chat with the presenters and other audience members before the session than afterwards. 

Not everyone can attend the entire conference. But people presenting on the last day are very grateful for patronage. There are strong opportunities for new insights, especially if conference organisers place hard to categorise presentations then. They can have the most unique methodological and topical insights.

5. Act on the ideas and connections

This reflection emerged from me transcribing my copious handwritten notes to a word document. When we spend so  much time doing busy work with emails or at screens, taking a whole week out to connect with people in the flesh and to get some perspective before the new year really helped me work out some new projects.

It was a great week, and I look forward to next year’s conference in Newcastle already. Fingers crossed it is as warm as last week in Ryde so we can hit the beach!

Hugh Gundlach is a lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne. He teaches in the Master of Teaching (Secondary) and is the Commerce Coordinator. He is one of the ABC Top 5 Media Residents (Humanities) for 2024. There are intakes for the ABC Top 5 in the Arts, Humanities and Sciences. Early career researchers are encouraged to apply in 2025.

Image in header is Dr Mitchell Rom and Dr Hayley Williams (both pictured in the middle), together with graduating students at The University of Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sashing Ceremony. The author has been given permission to use this image.

Completion: Deadly tips for students who have just finished a PhD

higher education, Indigenous education, , , , ,

This is the third and final article in the series. In the first article, I discussed tips for students who are considering undertaking a PhD in Education. Following this, I outlined some potentially useful tips for students who are currently navigating the program. This final article offers some advice for students who have just finished a PhD. 

First, I offer my congratulations to you on submitting your thesis, completing your oral component (if required) and receiving conferral of the degree. You have achieved a significant milestone and you should be proud of this achievement. As an Indigenous PhD graduate, you are not only shifting historical, racialised discourse, but also challenging coloniality in education. While you are among a growing number of Indigenous PhD graduates in Australia, there is still more progress to be made given there were only 52 Indigenous PhD graduates in 2021 (Universities Australia, 2023). This equates to there being fewer than two Indigenous PhD graduates per university within Australia (Universities Australia, 2023).

This number has been fairly consistent since 2016. Prior to this, there were only 25 Indigenous PhD graduates in Australia in 2015 – or less than one graduate per university (Universities Australia, 2023). Within a postgraduate research context, to reach population parity of 3.2 per cent, the university sector would have needed to graduate an additional 115 Indigenous postgraduate research students in 2021 (Universities Australia, 2023).

Academia in Australia is a Westernised space where Indigenous knowledges, theories, methodologies and methods sit on the margins of the university. If you have contributed to either the Indigenous education or studies space, thank you for your contribution. You may now be wondering “what do I do with a PhD?” Below are some potentially useful tips that may help with your transition into the next phase of your career.

Celebrate this milestone with those who celebrate you

Before we explore potential employment opportunities, I encourage you to attend your graduation ceremonies. More specifically, I encourage you to attend your Indigenous graduation ceremony, your School’s event, as well as your broader university graduation ceremony. These graduation events not only provide you the opportunity to recognise and celebrate your achievement, but they also provide those who have supported you with the opportunity to celebrate this milestone with you. One of the highlights of my PhD program was attending the UQ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sashing Ceremony and being invited to deliver the graduation address. This was a special event as it was attended by my mum and aunty (two proud Quandamooka women), together with my then-fiancé and one of my supervisors. The message here is simple – capture and celebrate these special moments with your loved ones and your advisory team. You deserve this moment!

Publish your research findings (if you haven’t already done so)  

It is a good idea to think about publishing your main research findings or various chapters of your thesis if you have not already commenced this writing and publishing process. Although you may be fed up with writing at this point, publishing your work in peer-reviewed journals will strengthen your employment opportunities. I recommended that you discuss the journal selection process with your supervisors, ideally before you graduate. Your work in education deserves to be read and engaged with in quality journals (Q1/Q2). I also recommended using the useful online tool, ScImago Journal & Country Rank, to search for potential journals in Education and to view their details and ranking.

Explore your work opportunities: You have more agency than you may think

Your expertise has value across society and many fields so I encourage you to broaden your horizon and search for potential work in various areas of employment. You have more agency and choice than you may think and you can make a positive contribution to your space outside of academia. With a PhD in Education, you have the privilege and opportunity to consider employment in schools, academia, industry/organisations or government. Consultancy work might also be a viable option. There are many organisations outside of academia who value Indigenous education such as the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership or the Stronger Smarter Institute. You could search for potential employment opportunities with The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. You may also want to become involved with a national charity, such as the Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation, if you are interested or trained in these areas.

If you are interested in transitioning into academia and research (for example a Postdoctoral Research Fellow), I recommended you discuss potential opportunities with your advisory team and School. Furthermore, reconnect with those academics who have supported you during your candidature to discuss potential employment opportunities. I encourage you to search for work opportunities and workplaces that suit you and align with your career interests. Applications, especially in an academic context, are also usually lengthy so remember to prioritise your wellbeing throughout the employment process.

Extra tip for Schools and Universities:

Consider offering PhD graduates the opportunity to provide feedback (preferably formal) on the program

I find it interesting that there is not an option for recent PhD graduates to provide feedback on the program – despite all other university students being asked to provide course feedback upon course completion. In my view, allowing recent graduates with an opportunity to provide formal feedback with regards to different aspects of the PhD program (for example in relation to candidature, milestones, postgraduate conferences, events, supervision, submission, the Graduate School, examination, graduation), may be beneficial to Schools. It could seek to further strengthen the existing PhD program by embedding evidence-based changes that aim to support future, as well as current, Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, thereby working to improve overall completion numbers.

Dr Mitchell Rom is a Lecturer with the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at Australian Catholic University. Mitchell initially trained as a secondary teacher in the disciplines of English and History and holds a PhD in Indigenous education. His research interests include Education, Equity and Decoloniality. His research has attracted national awards including the Australian Association for Research in Education Betty Watts Indigenous Researcher Award. As a Nunukul/Ngugi researcher, Mitchell has also taught in initial teacher education and has worked across various levels of education. Contact him on LinkedIn.

Image in header are students at the Weemala Indigenous Student Success Unit at Australian Catholic University, Brisbane campus. The author has been given permission to use this image.

Progress and Persistence: Deadly tips for students who are navigating a PhD

higher education, Indigenous education, , , , ,

This is the second article in the series.  In the first article, I discussed tips for students who are considering undertaking a PhD in Education. This second article discusses some useful tips for Indigenous students who are currently navigating the program. The issue of Indigenous student retention in PhD programs is important because while Universities Australia (2023) report a steady growth in Indigenous postgraduate research enrolments from 2005 to 2021, Indigenous student award completions still remain relatively low (Universities Australia, 2023).

This article unpacks a number of tips for those students who are currently navigating the PhD program and working towards confirmation of candidature, mid-candidature review or final thesis review. Some of these tips may also be beneficial to supervisors and may seek to support student retention.

Be open to shifts in your initial research topic or research questions

As you continue to engage with contemporary literature and yarn with your supervisors and experts in your field, you may notice that your initial research topic, scope of your study or research questions begin to shift. From my experience, this is a fairly natural progression of research. These sorts of research developments are sometimes necessary and can ultimately improve your thesis. Try not to be discouraged if this is the case for you in the early stages of your candidature. Embrace these research shifts as these developments may actually strengthen your research study.

Participate in campus events/activities and engage with groups

Feeling both academically and culturally supported is key with regards to candidature, particularly during the early stages. To feel a sense of support, I recommend participating in various campus events and activities. Within the early stages of my research, I was invited by my supervisor to share my PhD idea to fellow Indigenous academics and PhD students during a 3-minute thesis competition that was based on campus. These events are a great opportunity to gain experience with regards to public speaking, which will also assist you in your preparation for confirmation of candidature. They are also an opportunity to network with fellow students and researchers. Reach out to your advisory team to find out if there are any upcoming campus events or activities that may be of interest to you.

Additionally, I encourage you to consider potentially joining a reading group at university. This group might be based either within or outside of your School. Joining a reading group is a deadly way to familiarise yourself with current literature in Education/Indigenous education or within Indigenous studies. During my candidature, I was involved in two reading and yarning groups with fellow Indigenous students and academics and I felt supported and valued in both of these groups. There may also be opportunities to collaborate and publish within these groups which will also benefit your future employment opportunities.

Navigate problematic research data with support from trusted people

If you are undertaking research in the political space of Indigenous education, there is a possibility that you may need to engage with problematic research data. Essentially, I am referring to racist or resistant educational data that you may have gathered during data collection. This type of data has the potential to be triggering. If this is the case, then you may want to consider having a yarn in relation to this matter with trusted people including your family members, trusted colleagues/critical friends or your advisory team. An additional option may be to explore counselling services at university (or outside of university) for your wellbeing.  

With my research, I had to engage with colonising data and racist language on a regular basis for a lengthy period of time. I had to navigate explicitly and implicitly resistant research data by a number of non-Indigenous students in relation to studying compulsory Indigenous education at university. While I acknowledge and understand that this data was mostly by non-Indigenous pre-service teachers who were inexperienced, as an Indigenous researcher, I was still subjected to this data. I attempted to balance out this experience with reading positive student data and remembering that one of the goals of my research was to disrupt coloniality. Upon reflection, this issue was perhaps one of my most difficult challenges in the program. I note that my wife was my main support during data collection and analysis and it is important for you to have similar support to navigate these types of challenges.

Be open to feedback on your research (but perhaps not too open)

I encourage you to enjoy this learning journey and to listen to those scholars who are experts in your field. In my experience,  academia is grounded in informal and formal feedback. Try to be open to feedback on your research from your advisory team and from trusted colleagues/critical friends and students. While this tip may sound simple, it is often more challenging in practice. However, I do believe that receiving rational and appropriate feedback and recommendations regarding your research will only further strengthen your work. 

For those students who are embedding Indigenised or decolonial theoretical frameworks, methodologies or methods in your research study, this issue is more nuanced. University is a particular type of interface where Indigenous knowledges can struggle to obtain legitimacy. Or as my former supervisor states, “the Australian university is grounded in imperial-capitalist-neo-liberal-colonial-patriarchy”. The implications of these structures have impacted the ways in which research has historically been and continues to be undertaken. Sharing particular aspects of your research to those who may not be as familiar with Indigenous research, may result in some awkward conversations (or potential tension) and may invite unhelpful feedback. However, it could also result in new learning experiences. Remember to trust your instinct!

See yourself as gradually becoming the expert

Towards the latter stages of the program, try to see yourself as becoming the expert in your chosen field. As your PhD research is specific and designed to contribute to new knowledge, there is probably no-one who knows more about your precise research topic than you. I have struggled with this piece of advice (mainly due to outdated Westernised discourse such as deficit discourse) but it is important to be confident in your growing skills as a researcher. The reality is that you are developing expertise and skills and are actually becoming an expert in your field. A deadly advisory team will help foster your development and growth as a researcher.

Take regular breaks and take leave if necessary

Our society values “doing more is better” and this can have implications. Your value or worth is not determined by how many hours you spend at your desk or words you write in a single day while on your third caffeinated beverage. So, remember to take breaks.

The PhD program can be a demanding program full of commitments, milestones and chapter deadlines. The workload can be intense at times, especially if you have family commitments and responsibilities. Sometimes, you need to take leave from the program. At the end of the day, the PhD program does not define you and your mental and emotional health is more important than a chapter deadline. If this is the case, I recommend that you discuss leave options with your advisory team. Your supervisors are there to support you. Deadly supervision includes supervisors realising the importance of these matters, checking in with you and supporting your wellbeing.

Extra tips:

Schedule regular meetings with your supervisors and eventually discuss potential thesis examiners with your advisory team

It is important to schedule regular meetings with your supervisors to discuss your research (fortnightly etc.). It is a deadly idea to discuss possible international and national examiners who work in your field of study with your advisory team before you reach your final thesis milestone. This process takes time. It is better to get a head start so your thesis can be marked as soon as possible after it is submitted.

Consider allocated research funds from your School

You may have some allocated research funds to assist with your candidature. I recommend using these research funds on particular experiences such as education conferences (Australian Association for Research in Education etc.) so that you can explore new educational research as well as network. Alternatively, you could use these research funds for professional editing services.

Be friendly to the Graduate School

If you have submitted your final thesis and have been waiting for updates, you may have considered contacting the Graduate School. Personally speaking, it took approximately six months for my thesis examination (during Covid) and I was not the only candidate in the School who experienced these lengthy delays. Waiting for your examination outcome can be quite a frustrating experience, especially if you have employment commitments, but remember to be kind to those in the Graduate School. You will eventually receive the outcome of your thesis. Remember that it is common for candidates to pass the final examination with amendments. A deadly advisory team will guide and support you during this time so that you can effectively make the revisions required by the examiners. 

Dr Mitchell Rom is a Lecturer with the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at Australian Catholic University. Mitchell initially trained as a secondary teacher in the disciplines of English and History and holds a PhD in Indigenous education. His research interests include Education, Equity and Decoloniality. His research has attracted national awards including the Australian Association for Research in Education Betty Watts Indigenous Researcher Award. As a Nunukul/Ngugi researcher, Mitchell has also taught in initial teacher education and has worked across various levels of education. Contact him on LinkedIn.