MELT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Higher Degree by Research Candidate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Associate Head Learning & Teaching
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer / School of Education
Dr Eszter Szenes is a Lecturer at the School of Education, the University of Adelaide, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Resilience and Security, Norwich University, USA. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Sydney. She was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Research Fellow, co-hosted by the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University, Austria and the Peace and War Center, Norwich University, USA (2020-2023), and held a post-doctoral researcher position at the Research Collegium for Language in Changing Society (RECLAS), University of Jyväskylä, Finland (2019-2020). From 2013-2019 Eszter was based at the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) and Registrar Portfolio, The University of Sydney. Eszter incorporates her training in linguistics, education, and sociology into her interdisciplinary collaborations, research and teaching. She has taught in several different countries and contexts; she was a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) in The Hague, Netherlands. Her most recent research project, funded by the European Commission's Horizon2020 Framework, was focusing on the role of language and multimodal resources in emerging complex and interrelated societal threats, for example, disinformation, information warfare and the links between climate change and (violent) extremism. She is especially interested in preventing and countering the effect of disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining democracies from the perspective of computer-mediated communication and critical digital and media literacies.
Eszter is available to supervise Masters and doctoral projects in the areas of educational linguistics, disciplinary literacies and critical media literacy education, sociology of education, information disorder, and preventing and countering (violent) extremism (P/CVE).
2017 Szenes, E., Tilakaratna, N. & Maton, K. (2017). Knowledge practices of critical thinking in higher education: Understanding the disciplinary requirements of undergraduate reflective writing (ongoing project). LCT Centre Seed Grant: Research Assistant support. Funded by the LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building, School of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Job Titles:
- Associate Head International
Job Titles:
- Program Director ( Bachelor of Teaching, Secondary )
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean, Curriculum / School of Education
Working in a School of Education has meant that teaching is not only Linda's professional role, it is also her subject matter. A teacher for 35 years, Linda is a national Office of Learning and Teaching Citation winner in 2012, and a 2008 Winner of the Dean of Professions' Prize for Excellence in Postgraduate Teaching at the University of Adelaide. Linda's current teaching is in the areas of culture, diversity and inclusion, pedagogy and engagement, and student safety and well-being. From 2009 to the end of 2015, she coordinated the Fourth year of the School of Education's Teacher Education Programs. From 2018 until June 2020, she was the Associate Dead of Learning and Teaching for the School of Education, and then Deputy Dean, Learning and Teaching for the Faculty of Arts until the Faculty merger with Professions in March 2022. In July 2022, Linda accepted the role of Associate Dean, Curriculum for the new Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics (F-ABLE).
Linda has also served on the Executive Committee of the Adelaide Education Academy (2018 - 2021), and joined the Adelaide College of Reviewers in 2021. She looks forward to the challenge of new pathways in her teaching areas, such as innovation and online learning in the School of Education. She has also had a key role in conceiving and establishing the School's Masters of Teaching. After reading Paulo Freire's Teachers as Cultural Workers (2005) on a plane in 2018, Linda was intrigued by the idea of how the increasing focus on teacher accreditation is impacting on the profession, and how this might be at odds with teachers' Relational Agency and the demands of 21st century learning for futures that are largely undefined. She is now actively researching this area.
Teaching, Linda contends, is (still) the best, most interesting and rewarding job there is.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Senior Lecturer / School of Agriculture
Margaret Cargill is an applied linguist specialising in the development of research communication skills for scientists who use English either as a first or an additional language. She has 25 years' experience working intensively with international research students and their supervisors, including in the University's internationally recognised Integrated Bridging Program (1995-2008).Her current research and teaching interests lie in developing, evaluating and delivering appropriate collaborative pedagogies to enable scientists and language specialists together to assist inexperienced authors in getting their research published in the international refereed literature. She is co-author, with Dr Patrick O'Connor, of a successful teaching text on this topic entitled Writing scientific research articles: Strategy and steps (Wiley-Blackwell 2009, 2013, 2021).
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer / School of Education
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer / School of Education
Dr Robert Matthews is a senior lecturer in the School of Education, having joined the School in 2003. He teaches in both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, preparing beginning teachers for their classroom practice and guiding early researchers in their Masters dissertations respectively. Prior to this position, Robert was a post-doctoral research physicist at Flinders University doing theoretical calculations of electron scattering experiments in various materials. Although this work was of great interest, a desire to work with people took hold. This led to training to be a teacher, and consequently Robert wrote curriculum for the ASMS and taught as a secondary physics and mathematics teacher. Around this time, Robert also commenced training as a Jungian analyst in Switzerland. His earlier seeking to understand the depths of the physical world, were now accompanied by the same scrutiny of the inner world of the psyche. Something akin to following the (much larger) footsteps of the Nobel laureate Wolfgang Pauli, who, working with Carl Jung, attempted to bridge these two domains. This rich background offers many novel insights into the realm of education, creativity and learning which sit at the heart of Robert's research interests.
Job Titles:
- Program Director ( Master of Teaching )
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer / School of Education
Steven Stolz, PhD, is an academic from the University of Adelaide. Before he became an academic, Dr Stolz taught for 10 years as a secondary school teacher across a diverse array of curriculum areas in various jurisdictions in Australia. Currently, he is still a fully registered secondary school teacher (TRB registration # 618787 & VIT registration # 278062).
His scholarship is best described as being located at the intersection between philosophy and education. He is passionate about philosophy and education, and hence why he is interested in, and also an expert in the area of educational philosophy and theory. He has a particular interest in the works of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Nietzsche, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Ryle, Wittgenstein, Dreyfus, Nagel, Kaufmann, R. S. Peters, P. H. Hirst, MacIntyre, and other influential thinkers.
Dr Stolz is the former Convener (2013-2023) of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) "Educational Philosophy & Theory" special interest group, and currently associate staff member of the Philosophy Department at the University of Adelaide. In addition, he is a regular reviewer for a range of academic journals, and currently an editorial board member for the following academic journals: "Educational Philosophy and Theory", and "Educational Theory".
Job Titles:
- Lecturer / School of Education
- Professional Staff
Hey there, I'm Tom. I am an academic, educator, researcher, and author - I used to write these biographies in the third person, to serve the reader as being an observer of my life, however, I have abandoned this form in my bio.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer / School of Education
Job Titles:
- Higher Degree by Research Candidate / Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology
As a passionate and dedicated PhD candidate, Jaclyn Steffan's research focuses on the intersection of education, technology, and cognitive psychology.
Currently her research is investigating the impact of virtual reality on schema acquisition and cognitive load among STEM students, as she is committed to advancing our understanding of innovative teaching methodologies.
In addition to her doctoral studies, she actively contributes to the School of Education at The University of Adelaide as a research assistant. She is actively collaborating on multiple projects that explore modern and developing best practice pedagogies.
Her role as a researcher and educator allows her to translate research insights into practical, impactful classroom strategies, fostering a dynamic and engaging learning environment for students.
With a strong background in both research and teaching, she is enthusiastic about leveraging her skills to drive positive changes in STEM education
Kristy Davis is an academic researcher and secondary school teacher pursuing a PhD within the University of Adelaide's School of Education.
Her interdisciplinary subject specialisations of English and Science continue to nurture her interests to design and deliver innovative curriculum and assessment for secondary school contexts. She is passionate about connecting research with classroom application, to improve the educational experiences available to students.
Currently, Kristy's research strives to identify and model core components contributing to innovative approaches to education and inform the identification of strategies promoting widespread implementation of authentic and sustainable future curriculum.
Through engaging in volunteer work, Kristy has supported organisations that promote equitable access to quality education and mentoring for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Job Titles:
- Faculty Administration Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Principal, Adelaide Botanic High School
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Chief Executive, Tafe SA
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Acting Director of Education Services, SACE Board
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Principal, Reynella East College
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer / School of Education
Job Titles:
- Registrar, Teachers Registration Board of South Australia
Job Titles:
- Executive Officer
- Member of the Advisory Board
- School Business Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Deputy Head, Trinity College
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Principal, Glenunga International High School