Delivering high quality research on all matters related to education, to drive access, engagement, equity, and excellence in learning across the lifespan.
Understanding education and learning from multidisciplinary perspectives including the academic, the caring, and the creative, is critical to human flourishing. Learning is a universal daily experience for humans of all ages and stages, occurring in a wide range of home, community, and environmental contexts.
Education systems and policy play a key role in the way societies structure resources to support human connection and development. However, education and learning are never only about formal academic achievement and productivity. Learning about ourselves, those around us, and our environments is at the crux of what it is to be human, and nurtures meaning in life.
We conduct research on all aspects of education and learning using a wide range of methodologies and multi-disciplinary perspectives. Our research encompasses the lifespan from very early childhood, through to older adulthood, and across sectors including education, health, community and social services, and the creative industries.
Primary areas of focus
Our research themes represent our areas of strength and focus and include:
- Social justice, equity, and educational policy
- Teacher Professionalism and Practice
- Art and wonder in Education
- STEM education
- Assessment, testing, and evaluation
- Tertiary access and alternative education pathways
- Education for environmental connection and action, including outdoor environmental education
- Early childhood
Key achievements and impact
We bring together early and mid career researchers, with senior researchers and international colleagues to build high quality education research.
Cluster members have established, and continue to establish, a strong reputation in educational research. Across three years 2022 to 2024, cluster members have published 145 research papers and yielded over A$234K in research income. Examples of key projects and publications for each theme of the cluster are provided below
Over the next decade we expect to become an international leader in educational research in our areas of focus.
Themes
Assessment testing and evaluation
Assessment, testing and evaluation is critical for fostering coherence and collaboration in the education sector. These areas are essential to understanding and improving learning outcomes, yet they are often explored in fragmented ways across disciplines and contexts.
Teacher professionalism and practice
Understanding the role and professional development of educators, and factors impacting teaching and learning, to improve access, equity, innovation and quality in education.
Social justice, equity, and policy research in education
Educational policies and practices must be made more fair through the questioning of dominant ideas, and advocating for, and highlighting the experiences of underrepresented groups. Our collaborative research approach, grounded in care, supports social justice in education to inform better policies and practices.
Art and wonder in education (AWE)
Research that values and promotes aesthetic and multisensory dimensions and ways of knowing in education and research.
STEM in education
Our research focuses on strengthening integrated STEM education and advancing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines more broadly by connecting with teacher educators and practicing teachers, in Australia and internationally.
Alternative and innovative education
Our research explores educational approaches, settings and systems that challenge conventional models of teaching and learning. We examine how alternative and innovative forms of education can create more responsive, inclusive and meaningful opportunities for learners across their education journey.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - Education and learning futures
We advance the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research theme through evidence-informed, innovative, ethical and reflective approaches to curriculum design, teaching, learning and assessment.
Partnership and collaboration
The Education and Learning Futures cluster partners with:
- Government Departments of Education
- Local state, catholic, and independent schools
- The early childhood education and care sector
- Queensland philanthropies
- Professional education bodies
- Policy makers
- International scholars
- Practicing teachers and educators
- Community members
News
Learning lessons from the environment
Brendon Munge has dedicated his life to outdoor environmental studies. But there was a time when he wasn't sure what path his life should take.
Adolescence is a technical masterpiece that exposes the darkest corners of incel culture and male rage
Drawing inspiration from the United Kingdom’s knife crime epidemic, the rise of incel culture and the brutality of online bullying – Adolescence is being hailed as a technical masterpiece for it's continuous filming style, along with it's brutal portrayal of the widening chasm between parents and their teenage children.
Teachers need more support to deliver key health lessons to kids
Graduate teachers need more information to promote physical activity, sun safety and sleep health to school children across Australia and New Zealand, according to new research.
Interested in research or collaboration?
Contact the Education and Learning Futures cluster lead, Professor Kate Williams