Research expertise in education

There is a great depth and range of research expertise in the School of Education at AUT. Below you will find a short synopsis of the research interests and expertise that exists within our school.

Dr Nesta Devine

Professor  
Research expertise: Philosophy of education: policy studies; Pasifika studies in education; Foucault; Derrida; Public choice theory.

Dr Andrew Gibbons

Associate Professor

Research expertise: Philosophy, Technology, Education, Politics.

Dr Georgina Stewart

Associate Professor

Research expertise: Autoethnography, Critical discourse analysis (CDA), Kaupapa Māori research, Māori education, Narrative research, Philosophy of education, Science education.

Jennie Billot

Associate Professor

Research expertise: Higher Education; Educational Leadership; Academic Identity; Postgraduate Education and Supervision; Researcher Development; Interdisciplinary Research.

Dr Leon Benade

Director Research; Associate Professor

Philosophy and theory of education; policy studies and analysis (including curriculum policy and practice); teacher’s work; flexible and innovative learning environments; knowledge economy; ethics; organisation and educational leadership; research theory.

Dr Ross Bernay

Deputy Head of School; Senior Lecturer

Research expertise: Mindfulness for teachers, stress reduction. Career, career counselling, career assessment, professional standards, career theory.

Dr Sue Sutherland

Senior Lecturer; Associate Head of School (South Campus)

Research expertise: Mentoring, low SES schooling, initial teacher education, sociology of education, policy studies, the visual arts in education.

Dr Neil Boland

Senior Lecturer

Research expertise: education through the arts, first-person research, Steiner Waldorf education, spirituality in education.

Dr Carrie Swanson

Lecturer

Primary science, dramatic inquiry (or drama-based learning), Mantle of the Expert.

Dr Ruth Boyask

Senior Lecturer

Research expertise: Changing nature of public education, its policy and practice; systems of schooling; school governance; educational decision-making; knowledge mobilisation; and the utilisation of educational research. Theoretical frameworks include public sphere theory, critical theory, policy sociology and pragmatism. Methodologies include case study, global ethnography, policy analysis, survey and comparative methods

Dr Jyoti Jhagroo

Senior Lecturer

Research expertise: Phenomenological research of lived experiences, practice-based research, practitioner inquiry, mathematics education, and immigrant experiences.

Dr Megan Lourie

Senior Lecturer

Research expertise: Sociology of education; policy studies; political economy; bicultural education policy, Maori language learning in mainstream school settings.

Dr John Milne

Senior Lecturer

Metacognition in reading, Narrative understandings of good readers, Verbal protocol analysis

Dr Lynette Reid

Senior Lecturer

Indigenous models and practices within the career development and education field; Indigenous career practitioners; Organisational career management and the convergence with career counselling models and theories.

Dr Lisa Maurice-Takerei

Senior Lecturer

Research expertise: Adult education, vocational education and training, teachers’ work, practitioner based research, critical theory, ethnographies.

Dr Howard Youngs

Senior Lecturer

Research expertise: Post-heroic leadership (distributed, shared, collective), Leadership-as-Practice, Critical Leadership Studies, school leadership, higher education leadership, organisational and team development, teacher development, mixed methods research design, case study research, New Zealand and ASEAN contexts.

Dr Toni Ingram

Lecturer

Research expertise: Gender, sexualities and schooling; Femininities; New materialisms; Feminist post-structuralism; Posthumanist research practices.

Dr Adrian Schoone

Senior Lecturer

Research expertise: Phenomenological pedagogy, the arts in education, poetic inquiry, alternative and non-formal education, tutor pedagogy, youth studies, social pedagogy, education and development studies, and Pacific education.

Alison Smith

Lecturer

Research expertise: Educational Leadership; student voice and agency; appraisal; leadership development; school 'image'; coaching and mentoring.

Dr Chris Jenkin

Senior Lecturer

Research expertise: Early childhood: Bicultural Curriculum, Equity Culture and Diversity, Ethics, Gender, Appreciative Inquiry and Action Research.

Dr Tafili Utumapu-McBride

Senior Lecturer

Pacific Peoples’ Education, Early Childhood Education, Pasifika Pedagogy, Studies of Pacific Peoples’ Societies, Higher Education, Pasifika Research Methodologies

Dr Alastair Wells

Lecturer

Research expertise: Education, Technology, Pedagogy, Philosophy, Design Thinking, Educational Environments.

Dr Parisa Tadi

Lecturer

Research expertise: Parental involvement, Father participation, Super diversity in education, Immigrants and refugee studies, Initial Teacher Education, Practice-based and mixed methods research design.

Dr Hana Turner-Adams

Lecturer

Māori student success, teacher expectations, student-teacher relationships, and the disparities in educational achievement between Māori and non-Māori students.