About this Resource
The website has been developed as part of an Australian Research Council funded projects titled: Towards an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Culturally Responsive Schooling.
Toward an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Professor of Education
UniSA Education Futures
Magill Campus (C1-75)
T +61 8 830 24529
E Lester.Rigney@unisa.edu.au
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney AM
Lead Investigator: Towards an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Lead Investigator: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney AM, B.Ed, M.Ed, PhD, FAAH, MAIATSIS, is an Aboriginal citizen of the Narungga Nation, Yorke Peninsula South Australia. He is esteemed Professor of Education and Co-Chair of the Pedagogies for Justice Research group in the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion, based in the Education Futures, Academic Unit at the University of South Australia. He has a long and distinguished record of researching with public schools for systemic, policy and pedagogical reform toward equality, social justice and democratic inclusion. As a researcher of school leadership and epistemology he is best known for theory of Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogies and Indigenist Epistemologies. He was inducted as Fellow of Australian Academy of Humanities in 2023. He is Distinguished Fellow at Deakin University and previous Distinguished Fellow at Kings College, London. In 2021 Professor Rigney was appointed member in the General Division (AM) for significant service to Indigenous Education and to social inclusion research. He is a member of the Centro Loris Malaguzzi Scientific Committee, for the Foundation Reggio Emilia Children. One of Australia’s most respected Aboriginal educationalists, he is well published and has led several research teams funded by the Australian Research Council and other competitive grants including: Indigenist Research Epistemologies; Addressing the Gap between Policy and Implementation: Strategies for Improving Educational Outcomes of Indigenous Students; and Towards an Australian culturally responsive pedagogy.
Professor of Education Justice
UniSA Education Futures
Mawson Lakes Campus (G2-28)
T +61 8 830 24226
E Robert.Hattam@unisa.edu.au
Emeritus Professor Robert Hattam
Chief Investigator: Towards an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Chief Investigator: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Robert Hattam is a Professor in the School of Education, and leader of the Pedagogies for Justice research group. His research focuses on teachers’ work, educational leadership, critical and reconciliation pedagogies, refugees, and school reform. His research program includes: (i) school based studies that engage with teachers as they attempt to redesign pedagogical practices in response to their own existential classroom challenges and provocations for more justice; (ii) cultural studies in hopeful sites of public pedagogy of new social movements and especially socially-engaged Buddhism and ‘reconciliation’ broadly defined; and (iii) philosophical investigations into friendship, forgiveness, hospitality and conviviality. He has published in a range of international journals including Sociology, Pedagogy, Culture and Society, British Journal of Sociology of Education, British Educational Research Journal, Social Identities, Critical Studies in Education, and Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education. He has been involved in book projects with others that include: Schooling for a Fair Go, Teachers’ Work in a Globalising Economy, Dropping Out, Drifting Off, Being Excluded: Becoming Somebody Without School, Connecting Lives and Learning, Pedagogies for Reconciliation, Leading Literacy Learning: Beyond Pedagogies of Poverty, and Awakening-Struggle: Towards a Buddhist Critical Theory.
Research Assistant
Chancellery and Council Services
Magill Campus (C1-59)
T +61 8 830 24145
E Anne.Morrison@unisa.edu.au
Dr Anne Morrison
Research Assistant: Towards an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Anne Morrison’s doctoral research bridged the themes of linguistics, language learning and professional writing and communication. Since receiving her PhD in 2008 she has worked as a research assistant, primarily at the University of South Australia, on a range of projects. In recent years, the focus of her research has been culturally responsive pedagogies. She is currently part of a team researching culturally responsive pedagogies in early childhood education.
Research Assistant & Sessional Academic
Education Futures
Magill Campus
T +61 8 830 24145
E Abigail.Diplock@unisa.edu.au
Dr Abigail Diplock
PhD candidate: Towards an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Research Assistant: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Dr Abigail Diplock (she/her) completed her PhD at the end of 2022, with supervisors Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney and Professor Robert Hattam. Her research drew on affect theory to explore how the teachers’ involvement in the project affected their professional subjectivities. She is a co-investigator on a similar CRP action research project with the University of Canberra involving 10 teachers in the ACT, co-ordinates a professional experience program in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands for pre-service teachers, and she teachers into the Master of Education program. Before coming to Uni SA, Abigail taught at Flinders University for six years, and was previously a primary school teacher in England, Portugal, Uganda and Australia. She grew up and trained as a teacher in England, is of English/Irish descent, and currently lives and works on unceded Kaurna and Paramangk Country.
Culturally Responsive Schooling
Professor of Education
UniSA Education Futures
Magill Campus (C1-75)
T +61 8 830 24529
E Lester.Rigney@unisa.edu.au
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney AM
Lead Investigator: Towards an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Lead Investigator: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney AM, B.Ed, M.Ed, PhD, FAAH, MAIATSIS, is an Aboriginal citizen of the Narungga Nation, Yorke Peninsula South Australia. He is esteemed Professor of Education and Co-Chair of the Pedagogies for Justice Research group in the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion, based in the Education Futures, Academic Unit at the University of South Australia. He has a long and distinguished record of researching with public schools for systemic, policy and pedagogical reform toward equality, social justice and democratic inclusion. As a researcher of school leadership and epistemology he is best known for theory of Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogies and Indigenist Epistemologies. He was inducted as Fellow of Australian Academy of Humanities in 2023. He is Distinguished Fellow at Deakin University and previous Distinguished Fellow at Kings College, London. In 2021 Professor Rigney was appointed member in the General Division (AM) for significant service to Indigenous Education and to social inclusion research. He is a member of the Centro Loris Malaguzzi Scientific Committee, for the Foundation Reggio Emilia Children. One of Australia’s most respected Aboriginal educationalists, he is well published and has led several research teams funded by the Australian Research Council and other competitive grants including: Indigenist Research Epistemologies; Addressing the Gap between Policy and Implementation: Strategies for Improving Educational Outcomes of Indigenous Students; and Towards an Australian culturally responsive pedagogy.
Professor of Education Justice
UniSA Education Futures
Mawson Lakes Campus (G2-28)
T +61 8 830 24226
E Robert.Hattam@unisa.edu.au
Emeritus Professor Robert Hattam
Chief Investigator: Towards an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Chief Investigator: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Robert Hattam is a Professor in the School of Education, and leader of the Pedagogies for Justice research group. His research focuses on teachers’ work, educational leadership, critical and reconciliation pedagogies, refugees, and school reform. His research program includes: (i) school based studies that engage with teachers as they attempt to redesign pedagogical practices in response to their own existential classroom challenges and provocations for more justice; (ii) cultural studies in hopeful sites of public pedagogy of new social movements and especially socially-engaged Buddhism and ‘reconciliation’ broadly defined; and (iii) philosophical investigations into friendship, forgiveness, hospitality and conviviality. He has published in a range of international journals including Sociology, Pedagogy, Culture and Society, British Journal of Sociology of Education, British Educational Research Journal, Social Identities, Critical Studies in Education, and Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education. He has been involved in book projects with others that include: Schooling for a Fair Go, Teachers’ Work in a Globalising Economy, Dropping Out, Drifting Off, Being Excluded: Becoming Somebody Without School, Connecting Lives and Learning, Pedagogies for Reconciliation, Leading Literacy Learning: Beyond Pedagogies of Poverty, and Awakening-Struggle: Towards a Buddhist Critical Theory.
Research Assistant & Sessional Academic
Education Futures
Magill Campus
T +61 8 830 24145
E Abigail.Diplock@unisa.edu.au
Dr Abigail Diplock
PhD candidate: Towards an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Research Assistant: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Dr Abigail Diplock (she/her) completed her PhD at the end of 2022, with supervisors Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney and Professor Robert Hattam. Her research drew on affect theory to explore how the teachers’ involvement in the project affected their professional subjectivities. She is a co-investigator on a similar CRP action research project with the University of Canberra involving 10 teachers in the ACT, co-ordinates a professional experience program in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands for pre-service teachers, and she teachers into the Master of Education program. Before coming to Uni SA, Abigail taught at Flinders University for six years, and was previously a primary school teacher in England, Portugal, Uganda and Australia. She grew up and trained as a teacher in England, is of English/Irish descent, and currently lives and works on unceded Kaurna and Paramangk Country.
Associate Professor Samantha (Sam) Schulz
Chief Investigator: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Dr Samantha (Sam) Schulz (she/her) is a senior sociologist of education and Program Director for the Master of Teaching in the School of Education, The University of Adelaide. Sam has expertise in race critical theorising, First Nations Education, culturally responsive schooling, gender equity, and decoloniality, areas in which she has published widely. In addition to being co-chief investigator on the ARC Discovery Project Culturally Responsive Schooling (DP220100651, 2022-24), Sam has led major research-consultancy work for Catholic Education South Australia, culminating in the development of their 10-year Aboriginal Education Strategy (2024-2034). Sam is a skilful tertiary educator with research and teaching experience across a diversity of social contexts, including Kenya, India, China, and the Australian Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands – Sam’s doctoral studies investigated race relations and schooling in the APY region. Her commitment to investigating relations between societies and schooling through genuine engagement at local levels has consolidated in academic contributions and achievements across the key areas of First Nations Education, gendered-based violence in schooling, and Social Justice Education. She is co-chair of the Pedagogies for Justice Research Group, member of the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender, and of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion.
Associate Professor Nadeem Memon
Chief Investigator: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Dr Nadeem Memon is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education (CITE) at the University of South Australia (UniSA). At CITE/UniSA, Nadeem serves as a Course Coordinator for the Graduate Certificate in Education (Islamic Education), the first online graduate education program for educators in Islamic schools globally. His research focuses on teacher education with particular emphasis on Islamic Pedagogy, comparative faith-based schooling, philosophy of religious education, and culturally responsive pedagogy. In his research program, Nadeem is a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant (2022-2025) on Culturally Responsive Schooling. Nadeem holds a PhD in Theory and Policy Studies in Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, Canada. He currently lives in Adelaide, Australia with his wife and son.
Dr Stephen Kelly
Chief Investigator: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Dr Stephen Kelly has recently retired and holds the title of Adjunct Scholar at The University of Adelaide. Dr Kelly’s research is influenced by post-structuralist/post humanist approaches to education and has drawn on Foucault studies to pursue interests in the politics, policies, history and philosophy of education and the connection of these domains of thought to contemporary educational practice. He is interested in applying these sociological and philosophical approaches to research curriculum and its connection to the ontologies of diverse cultures, the subjectivities of educators and children, the work of leaders in cultivating school cultures, and arts and literacy education.
Professor Michalinos Zembylas
Partner Investigator: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Professor Michalinos Zembylas is Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus, Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia, and Research Faculty at Lebanese American University. He holds a Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Chair for 2023-2026. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in education, particularly in relation to social justice, decolonization and politics. His latest books are: Responsibility, Privileged Irresponsibility and Response-ability in Contemporary Times: Higher Education, Coloniality and Ecological Damage (co-authored with Vivienne Bozalek), and Working with Theories of Refusal and Decolonization in Higher Education (co-edited with Petra Mikulan). In 2016, he received the Distinguished Researcher Award in “Social Sciences and Humanities” from the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.
Mikayla King
PhD candidate: Culturally Responsive Schooling
Mikayla King is a Kalkadoon and Dutch woman whose experience in education spans over a decade in various roles including Aboriginal Islander Education Officer, Classroom Teacher and Acting Deputy Principal in Metropolitan Teaching Program schools. She is currently working as a lecturer and is a current PhD Candidate within the Culturally Responsive Schooling project. Mikayla’s PhD involves working alongside teachers through a process of pedagogical redesign led by Culturally Responsive Pedagogical provocations. The aim of the project is to understand the delicate work involved in affectively (and effectively) working relationally and responsively during emotionally charged pedagogical encounters with super-diverse student cohorts. She has been recognised nationally for her work within education through the following awards: Edith Cowan University Young Alumni Commendation, Early Childhood Australia Barbara Creaser Early Career Teacher of the Year and Midland NAIDOC Educations & Arts Person of the Year.