The Cairns Institute, Australia

March 2016 - Present

Playing a leadership role in assisting communities to respond to social and environmental change and increase social inclusion through projects committed to social justice, health and wellbeing. Reporting to Professor and Director Stuart Lockie.

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In conjunction with the Director of the Cairns Institute and the other 4 Theme leaders, I provide:

1. Constructively and proactively service as a member the Institute’s leadership group;

2. Promote a collaborative research culture;

3. Contribute to a positive learning environment for Higher Degree by Research candidates and other students;

4. Encourage the sharing of ideas and knowledge between JCU researchers and external stakeholders including communities, governments and industry

James Cook University Australia

March 2016 - Present

Playing a key role within the College for Education academics, to provide academic leadership, direction and management and to represent the interests of the Group at College, Division and University level. Reporting to Nola Alloway.

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In conjunction with the College Dean, Associate Deans, Learning and Teaching, Research, Research Education and Course Coordinators the Head of Academic Group provides:

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1. Leadership within the academic group, principally regarding learning and teaching, with a specific focus on research and engagement activities.

2. Management of the ongoing professional development and the Performance Management Program (including workload agreements) and Sessional Staff with in the Academic Group.

3. Management of student misconduct, allegations of plagiarism and other student matters as determined by the Dean.

4. Input into the development of high quality, innovative curricula consistent with the University’s Strategic Intent and Grand Challenges framework.

5. Intellectual leadership through the promotion and support of research and ensure robust research outcomes and high quality research education for the academic group.

6. Leadership in accreditation processes and engagement with relevant peak bodies.

7. Oversight with regard to course structure and work with discipline experts and course coordinators and committees to manage teaching overlaps between disciplines and promote optimal integration and collaboration between academic groups.

8. Monitoring the performance of HDR supervisors and candidates working within the academic group or discipline.

9. Chair all formal HDR Candidature Committees (including candidature milestones: Mid-Candidature Review and Pre-Completion Evaluation).

10. Input into strategic planning and the achievement of priorities established in consultation with the College Dean.

11. Support to act upon all academic delegations, integrated academic policies and procedures in the Academic Group (enrolment, progression, inherent requirements, assessment and finalisation of grades).

Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA)

July 2016 - Present

Co-creative and collaborative national leadership in literacy and English language teaching and learning from early childhood through all stages of schooling and tertiary education contexts through:

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1. using strategic foresight and futures thinking to lead ALEA's vibrant professional learning community

2. networking to connect literacy and language educators locally, nationally and internationally

3. providing informed contributions to public debate.

Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia Community Legal Education Initiative (BABSEACLE)

2009 - 2016

BABSEACLE collaborates globally in the development of justice education and access to justice initiatives while simultaneously fostering generations of pro bono minded champions. In this role Chris:

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1. Co-governs the organisation 

2. Promote the vision, mission and values

3. Co-creates strategy and structure

4. Leads on monitoring and evaluating

5. Co-leads implementation of policies, strategies and business plans

6. Exercises accountability and responsiblity to relevant stakeholders

Digital Culture & Education (DCE)

Deep knowledge of research-based strategies to improve educational outcomes for all students, in every classroom, in every school, and across all communities through:

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1. co-creative industry engagement

2. harnessing technological change

3. being anticipatory to avoid disruption

4. mentoring junior colleagues for greater academic and research impact

Torrens University Australia

2014-2016

Providing academic leadership for the design, delivery and convening of the university’s postgraduate programs in Education across online, flexible and on-campus settings. Reporting to Hurriyet Babacan.

Achievements include successfully:

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1. leading on the development of supported and flexible study tailored to individual student needs through a responsive mixture of study options;

2. leading on the design, delivery and convening of courses primarily at the postgraduate level;

3. leading on the development of a Graduate Diploma of Early Childhood Education and a Certificate of Tertiary Teaching with a focus on flexible, online and supported teaching;

4. leading on the scholarship of teaching and research across areas of Education;

5. leading to develop and nurture links and partnerships with external stakeholders and partners;

6. successful delivery of the Education programs to meet agreed business performance targets;

7. providing primary supervision of higher degree research students (HDR), ensuring successful, high quality and timely completions;

8. recruiting and line manage university and sessional staff teaching education units in both the MEd (Reading and Literacy) and MEd (Early Childhood) ;

9. promoting the mission of the university to provide working adults with supported and flexible access to high quality, innovative and technology-enhanced learning experiences;

10. assisting the professional team responsible for marketing and recruitment, including leading on student recruitment strategies; and

11. participating actively in the academic governance of the university including membership on Academic Council, The Ethics Review Board and The Learning and Teaching Committee.

Torrens University Australia

2014-2016

Providing independent authoritative advice to the Governing Board and the Vice-Chancellor on all matters relating to and affecting the University‘s teaching, research and educational programs.

Achievements include successfully:

1. encouraging the maintenance and development of high standards of teaching and research;

2. maintaining an effective overview of the academic activities of the University and advise and assist in their coordination;

3. advising on the academic aspects and content of the University’s Strategic Plan;

4. determining all matters concerning the general conduct of programs of study and assessment within the University;

5. exercising delegated authority in approving the content of new academic programs and changes to existing programs;

6. formulating and review policies, guidelines and procedures and make recommendations to the Governing Board in relation to academic and educational issues;

7. dealing with academic matters relating to students, including admission policies, disciplinary issues and the award of scholarships, fellowships and prizes;

8. providing a forum to facilitate information flow and debate within the University and between the senior executive officers of the University and the wider academic community; and providing advice on matters referred to it by the Governing Board or the Vice-Chancellor.

University of Vienna

2014-2016

Achievements include teaching flexible face-to-face seminars supported by online teaching and student participation (using Moodle) in the Department of Education in the Faculty of Philosophy and Education (Fakultät für Philosophie und Bildungswissenschaft).

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1. Guest Professor, Wise, Humanising Creativity (WHC) and Creative Emotional Reasoning (CER)/ Humanisierende Kreativität und Kreatives Emotionales Schlussfolgern (Designed Course).

2. Guest Professor, Education, technology and social change/ Bildung, Technologie und Sozialer Wandel (Designed Course).

3. Guest Professor, Digital games, simulation and virtual worlds for teaching and learning/ Digitale Spiele, Simulation und virtuelle Welten für das Lehren und Lernen (Co-Designed Course).

The Open University, United Kingdom

2010-2014

Convenor. Pedagogy, Learning and Curriculum Research Group (PLAC) within the Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology (CREET) (2009-2013) and Research Group on International Development in Teacher Education across Societies and Cultures (RITES) 2013-2014). Reporting to Teresa Cremin.  Achievements include:

1. Strategic planning for research excellence by supporting the completion PLAC members’ Scholarship and Research Development Plans (SRDPs) and the CREET annual research reports;

2. Assisting CREET to continue to achieve coordination of research activity and impact, as well as helping each member of PLAC to focus our research by making their SRDPs specific in the way they lay out their individual’s plans for the new academic year; and

3. Conducted a writing group from 2011-2014 for PLAC members with the aim of producing articles that meet REF qualifications through peer reading, editing and feedback. The group met 4 times a year and participants successfully submitted papers for peer review to ranked academic journals.

The Open University, United Kingdom

2010-2014

Achievements include:

1. Various activities from mentoring conversations around the individual SRDP to running conversations around readings at cluster days to making decisions on funding to attend conferences; and

2. Co-developed & delivered an EdD Proposal Writing workshops resulting in a number of students being accepted into the EdD programme.

The Open University, United Kingdom

2012

Mock Research Exercise Framework (REF) Process and Calibration Exercise. 

Reading and rating published outputs from the Faculty of Education in regards to the Research Exercise Framework (REF) according to the REF criteria. This was done first for the calibration exercise and then the Mock REF itself.

Tess India, £10 million funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), India

2013

Head (UK). Research, Monitoring & Evaluation (RM&E) of Team providing liaison/ support/ research to build capacity in India with in-country M&E team members on Pilot, Baseline, Target and Outcome Studies. Achievements include:

1. collaborating on the successful grant application.

2. leading on liaison between the OU and in country project team on the planning and design of the project’s Pilot Study (June-August 2013) and Baseline Study (September-October 2013).

3. leading on the in-country data analysis of pilot findings and redesign of data collection instruments (11 in total for multiple stakeholders) for the project’s Baseline Study.

4. providing assistance in the Pilot and Baseline sampling approaches.  The Pilot Study trained 72 teams to collect data from 56 Teacher Educators, 360 head teachers, 720 teachers, 400 Trainee Teachers 3600 students and completed approximately 720 classroom observations across three states.

5. collaborating on the authoring of the Pilot Workshop Evaluation Report (120 pages) and the TESS-India Baseline Report.

UDBHAV Programme, £1 million funded by the Kusuma Trust, India

2011-12

Reporting to the Director of International Development Office (IDO), Danni Nti. Achievements successfully include:

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1. leading liaison between the Open University and in country project partner (IGNUS-erg) to lead on all aspects of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (RM&E).

2. leading on the design of the following baseline studies, data collection instruments, analysis and write up as indicated below:

a.      School Environment Baseline Study;

b.      Technology Environment Baseline Study;

c.      English Language Baseline Report; and

d.      Classroom Practices Baseline Report.

ENGLISH IN ACTION (EIA), £15 million funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), Bangladesh

2010-2012

Reporting to the EIA Programme Director, Tom Power. Achievements include successfully:

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1. Authoring Output to Purpose Review (OPR) for DfID, Chapter, ‘EIA’s Technology Strategy’.

2. Team Member (Research, Monitoring & Evaluation).

3. Authoring EIA report entitled, ‘EIA, Digital Learning Projects Partner Scoping Report’.

4. Lead Researcher on ‘Teacher Video Case Study (3B2)’

5. Central Investigator on field-testing, RM&E of the new technology KIT for Phase II (Sept-Dec 2011) using mobile phones, portable speakers and micro SD cards.

6. Lead Author on ‘Field Test Report for Mobile Phone-based Technology Kit’ (Dec 2011) that led to the project’s current technology kit that is being used with 65,000 teachers through 2017. This is making audio-visual classroom resources available to just under 10 million students.

Vital Professional Development, £4.9 million funded by the Government of England

2011-12

Reporting to the Director of Vital, P. Twinning. Framework for ICT Technical Support (FITS). FITS spearheads the professionalisation of the ICT workforce in the Education marketplace to improve the quality  of ICT technical support services through the use of a structured  service delivery framework to have a positive impact on teaching and  learning experiences and outcomes.

The Open University, United Kingdom

2009-13

Postgraduate:

Critical issues in equity, diversity and educational practice (60 points, Masters). E805 explores theories, policy developments and practices relating to equity, diversity and inclusion.

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Undergraduate:

Equality, participation and inclusion: learning from each other (60 points, Undergraduate). E214 explores issues of access for children and young people in diverse social and educational contexts. It supports pre-service teachers in engaging with differing perspectives on equality, participation and inclusion.

Deakin University, Australia

2007-09

Working across three teacher colleges in Butterworth, Penang and Sarawak to design courses and accompanying teaching materials (course outlines, readings, daily class agendas, assignments and lesson plans) as well as the Profession Experience Courses (Internships). Reporting to the Head of School.

1. EMP 401: Internship A, 6 Weeks Education Studies.

2. EMP 402: Internship B, 12 Weeks Education Studies.

3. EME 201: Creating Effective Learning Environments.

Lecturer (Undergraduate)

1. ECJ 413: Visual Arts, Language, Humanities.

2. ECL 210: Teaching Literacy in the Early Years.

3. ECL 310: Teaching Literacy in the Middle Years.

4. Course Team Chair, ECL 410: The Literacy Teacher, the Profession and the Community (Designed Unit in 2007).

Lecturer (Postgraduate)

1. EST 704: Games, New Media and Education (Distance).

2. Course Team Co-Chair/Lecturer, ECL 727: Literacy Teaching in Learning Practice (Distance).

3. Course Team Chair, EST 705: Learning in Playful Environments (Distance).

4. Course Team Co-Chair/Lecturer, EEL 700: New Literacies in the Media Age (Distance) (Co-Designed Unit in 2007).

5. EXR 796/797: Research Paper/Minor Thesis (Advisor).

6. EXR 790: Research Design and Development (Advisor).

7. EXE 201: Creating Effective Learning Environments.

2007-09 

Member of Faculty Board (Elected) School of Education

2007-09

Member of the Institutional Review Board Human Research Ethics Committee

Teachers College, Columbia University

2002-04

1. A&HE 4152: Teaching Literacies and Technologies in Secondary English (Designed Course).

2. A&HE 4150: Teaching Literacies in Maths, Sciences and the Humanities (Co-Designed Course)

3. C&T 4835: Improving Reading Instruction: Curricular Websites for New Times (Designed Course).

UNICEF, Afghanistan

2003-04

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The Teaching University of Kabul, Afghanistan.

2004

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Upper Primary and Middle Years, New York City Board of Education, New York, NY, USA.

1994-03

Humanities, TESOL, Spanish & English