Wendy Cumming-Potvin

Human participant recruitment is often a critical part of the research process. However, this aspect of research method is often glossed over in the literature, despite being common to all research approaches involving human participants. In this study, which explored how preservice teachers view the importance of media literacy pedagogy in teaching, we surveyed and interviewed a cohort of Gen Z BEd students drawn from across three public universities in WA. Recruiting from this mythical cohort of digital natives proved onerous, and we report on the pragmatics of implementing the research design and its data collection phases. Traditional participant recruitment methods, which have been systematically employed for decades in some cases, are often unquestioned. Similarly, problem-solving skills are key to developing a researcher's sense of self-efficacy to overcome unforeseen challenges to research design plans.


We report that in the postdigital era, conventional participant recruitment methods appear to have become less effective for some cohorts of participants. Because participant recruitment often occurs in crucial early stages of a project, challenges can affect the doctoral candidate's self-efficacy and resilience. However, positivity is key, bootstraps are pulled, and agile recruitment solutions can be found.

For more than a decade, Australia has faced intense teacher shortages. To address this issue, the Australian Government has proposed a strategy of expanding the number of migrant teachers. In the light of growing xenophobia and anti-immigration discourses, this study seeks to understand how the international teacher recruitment is received in Australia. Of equal concern, little is known about the lived experiences of migrant teachers as they navigate an Australian education system characterised by multilayered bureaucracy, complex pedagogical demands, increasing student violence and abuse, and limited resources.

This presentation is based on a qualitative study that showcases the narratives of secondary school migrant teachers. Building on themes of identity, belonging, power, networking and resilience, emergent interview data from Western Australia will provide insight into the experiences of migrant teachers.

There is an urgency in Australia around addressing the question as to why there is a lack of women in STEM leadership positions. Previous research has engaged with this concept, but statistics on women entering leadership have not dramatically shifted (Ladkin & Probert, 2019; Roberts, 2014; Rice, 2017; Still, 2006; White, 2015). This phenomenon aligns with Australia's national gender pay gap, which is currently at 13% (Australian Government, 2022), meaning women earn substantially less than men.

Based on a qualitative study, this presentation highlights gender (in)equity and women's experiences with STEM leadership in Western Australia's private sector. Showcasing emergent themes, and based on semi-structured interviews, the presentation reports on women's narratives about their opportunities and challenges in STEM. Findings will be particularly useful for educational stakeholders and decision makers in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

Drag story time, also known as drag story hour, has been a welcome addition to selected libraries and schools across Oceania, North America and the United Kingdom. What should be an open safe space for drag artists to read children's books that may involve LGBTQA+ characters or subject matters has instead seen a small but loud group protest and violent threats to performers and event organisers. Throughout this presentation we will emphasise the integral role drag story time has in enhancing children's literacy and social awareness around inclusivity and empathy. Using queer, transgender, and feminist theory, this presentation seeks to discuss the current affairs of drag story time as it relates to LGBTQA+ human rights. Exposing ourselves and our inner queerness through drag, this presentation will detail how we aimed to counter 'dragphobia' by shedding our daily lives and exploring our drag selves. We want to celebrate gender and sexual diversity in educational settings and 'spill the tea' on further exploration of queer inclusivity across social, cultural, and political intersections, with the intent to promote LGBTQA+ inclusive education practices.

Over the past twenty years, change in secondary education has been driven primarily by the relentless march of technology. More recently though, through the global disruption of the COVID 19 pandemic, a landscape of further learning opportunities has been unveiled. Based on a small-scale study, this presentation explores how teacher beliefs and perceptions, the online pandemic teaching response and other sociocultural factors influenced digital technology use in Western Australian secondary English classrooms. The study explored the space where technology-enhanced learning (TEL), multiliteracies and post-digital education intersect to both unsettle and stabilise. Findings suggest that during the COVID-19 emergency response, teacher agency may have increased and TEL may have accelerated. Further, English department cultures play a critical role for TEL in secondary English classrooms. While nuanced stakeholder discussions are recommended to leverage digital devices to support disengaged students, teaching healthy digital habits and self-regulation are necessary to combat habitual problematic use. This study strengthens the idea that technology profoundly changes society, individuals and the education of young people in the twenty-first century. Consequently, TEL provides an opportunity to reconceptualise education and curriculum in a relevant, safe, and positive way.

This presentation considers the fact that the globalised world of the 21st century is a synchronicity of events and experiences - post colonialism, increased immigration, the establishment of overseas conglomerates, expanding trade, climate change and the aftermath of a worldwide pandemic. All of these require intercultural exchange and cultural adaptability. As a result, many people find themselves living in what Bhabha (1994, 2012) labelled the third space, a convergence of two worlds. This space is often a cultural interface between Indigenous knowledge, values and differing worldviews, all of which are communicated via language (Nakata, 2002, 2007). The plethora of cultures and languages that share this space need a form of communication that bridges cultural gaps.

The imposition of anglicised systems of education has established English as the world lingua franca. But is English the answer to cultural communication? We ask, through this presentation, more pointedly:

How do educators and researchers navigate this complex multilingual/ multicultural world?
How do educators and researchers enable those living in the third space to have a voice and to share their knowledge?
Regardless of language, the establishment of relationship is paramount. In this sense, yarning and circular talk enable exchange, regardless of language preference.

Australian universities, and their students, continue to navigate shifts to online teaching and learning, accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic. This presentation explores the importance of questioning and disrupting assumptions about this shifting landscape, from the perspective of diverse students. To gain access to these perspectives, the present study facilitated a focus group with a small number of students from different study areas in one metropolitan Australian university. Framed through Lefebvre's heuristic describing inter-related spaces within a given social context, the study highlights how students construed their lived space of online teaching and learning, as well as how they perceived the practices and resourcing of their educators, and arrangements at an institutional level. Interpretive analysis through the lenses of Lefebvre's spatial frame and Gee's critical discourse analysis, suggests that students foregrounded their own diversities and learning needs, and attributed impacts in regard to time and flexibility for study, teaching and learning communications, the quality of online formats, availability of opportunities to participate in different ways of knowing, and educator workload. With the caveat that the study comprised a small pilot, early findings appear to disrupt the accepted premise that students prioritise socio-relational aspects of teaching and learning, with implications for future designs.