In this episode hosts Jette Oksis and Dr Paul Gardner continue the insightful conversation with inspiring fellow WAIER member, Dr Cindy Smith.

This podcast follows on from Episode 1, talking about Cindy's extensive experience and ongoing research, theory and prevalence of Autism today. In this podcast we discuss the importance of early intervention and ensuring carers and educators are adequately equipped and supported to ensure students with autism can thrive.

Further insights can be found in this Education Today article.

Education Today

This is the first of a 3 part series in which we explore the many labels of Autism and increasing prevalence in today's society.

We are delighted to converse with WAIER committee member, Dr Cindy Smith who brings a wealth of wisdom and experience working with neurodiverse students and supporting those who teach and care for students with Autism.

Cindy shares her lifelong disposition of curiousity, to inquire and seek to develop practical strategies to better support students demonstrating challenging behaviours.

As well as ongoing educational research, developing undergraduate and professional teacher learning and development, Cindy also founded and supports a not-for-profit organisation, FACES.

HOME | FACES (faceswa.com)

Hosted by WAIER members Dr Paul Gardner and Jette Oksis we hear from educational researchers Dr Tetiana Bogachenko and Dr Rachel Burke as they explore insights from their recently published research.

Tetiana and Rachel discuss Education—both formal and informal—as a fundamental human right and share the investigation required in the value of education as capital and the complexities of converting this capital in emergency international displacement.

They shared insights about their pilot study with displaced people from Ukraine who arrived in Australia after February 2022 to explore the uptake and use of both formal and informal learning resources and opportunities.

Their research is available through Open Access:

Educational ‘exchange rates’ in (re)settlement: The use of formal and informal learning resources by displaced people from Ukraine in Australia - ScienceDirect

Join our esteemed WAIER Committee Member, Richard Gordon.

Richard Gordon BA (English), Grad. Dip. Ed. (Tertiary and Workplace), Master of Educational Technology (Research).

Fulltime Scholarship PhD Candidate at Murdoch University

Research Title: Critical Media Literacy: Generation Z, meaning making and knowledge in initial teacher education.

Following a distinguished career in broadcasting, Richard Gordon contemplates the importance of Critical Media Literacy and discusses his ongoing research endeavors.

Building on from the previous episode, Dr Sian Chapman shares the intersection between Complexity Theory and Creative practice. This conversation with Jette Oksis, Dr Paul Gardner and Sian considers the transactions, developmental practice and organisational systems that enable creative practice in education.

Dr Chapmam's work is now published and is shared below:

Chapman, S., & Wright, P. R. (2024). Creative practice, entanglements and complex emergence: Teaching in the arts. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 52, 101544. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2024.101544

In this series we chat to Dr Sian Chapman, a Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean (Post-Graduate Studies) at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Worked across the range of education settings from K-12 (for over 30years) and in higher education for over 10 years.

Her research interests include creative practice, education policy and practice, teacher agency and change, and understanding systemic difference through complexity theory. These concepts are explored across a range of topics including arts education, teacher education and school diversity.

What is complexity theory?

• Theory of change, evolution and adaptation that may be used to describe the systemic nature of education

• Demonstrated patterns of behaviour are the result of interactions between different elements of the system
• Elements of the system move at different speeds – change for a teacher happens quicker than change for a class or change across a school or change across a jurisdiction

So how is this useful for schools and classrooms?

WAIER on the Wire hosts Jette Oksis and Dr Paul Gardner, had the opportunity to hear from Dr Saul Karnovsky, and gain powerful insights into Western Australian teacher voice. We value all educators and this episode is a BIG conversation about a BIG issue.

In this episode Saul shares his research and we discuss the challenges in preparing, supporting and retaining educators who face numerous challenges in and outside the classroom. We hope this episode sheds some light into the need for all of us to be able to be authentic professionals with a sense of agency and support, to better enhance our collective professional wellbeing.

Dr Saul Karnovsky and Dr Brad Gobby's research is available via Open Access.

Karnovsky, S., & Gobby, B. (2024). How teacher wellbeing can be cruel: refusing discourses of wellbeing in an online Reddit forum. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2024.2312805

If you get to the end and would like to attend the WAIER forum, we shared an incorrect date. Please join us at University of Notre Dame on 17 August 2024. Head to the WAIER website for Forum and Membership details.

In this final episode of the first series we look at historical use of science used badly. It creates a case for us as educators to pause and ask questions to identify the credibility, validity and reliability of the findings and how we might be able to better discern research and scientific claims before accepting and adpating.