About the Contributors
Professor Tom Calma AO is an Aboriginal Elder from the Kungarakan (Koong ara kan) tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja (Ee wad ja) tribal group whose traditional lands are south-west of Darwin and on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory of Australia, respectively. He has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local, community, state, national and international level and worked in the public sector for over 50 years and is currently on a number of boards, committees and interests focusing on rural and remote Australia, health, mental health, suicide prevention, all levels of education, ageing and aged care, culture and language, justice reinvestment, research, reconciliation and economic development. In 2010, after a distinguished 38-year career in the Australian Public Service, Professor Calma retired and currently works as a consultant, volunteer and academic.
Dr David R. Cole is an academic at Western Sydney University working as an Associate Professor in the philosophy of education and cultural analysis. He runs a research program called ‘Education in the Anthropocene’ at Western Sydney and is a coordinator of the “Education in the Anthropocene” network of the World Education Research Association. Cole has been working on funded international research projects since 1996 and has contributed 18 books and 130+ other significant publications to the field. His latest book is called Educational Research and the Question(s) of Time, and he is currently putting together a collection about creative philosophy in the Anthropocene. Visit the website Institute for Interdisciplinary Research into the Anthropocene and the WSU website Education in the Anthropocene. Email: David.Cole@westernsydney.edu.au.
Dr Philippa (Pip) Collin is Professorial Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, where she co-directs the Young and Resilient Research Centre. Pip is an interdisciplinary social scientist who works at the intersections of political sociology, youth studies, digital cultures and health and wellbeing. She mainly investigates young people’s relationship to democracy; the role of the digital for youth citizenship, health and wellbeing ; and methodological innovations in transdisciplinary, youth-centred and intergenerational research. She has published widely in these areas, including the monographs Young people and political participation in digital society (2015), Young people in digital society (2019) and as co-editor of the Research Handbook of the Sociology of Youth (2023). Since 2010, Philippa has been researching the youth climate movement. Her purpose is to catalyse research that contributes meaningfully to positive social change and planetary justice.
Dr Jenna Condie is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Society at Western Sydney University and a community organiser in the Blue Mountains. Working alongside parents, students, and grassroots groups, she helps build caring communities, from childcare collectives to swap-and-reuse initiatives, as pathways towards social and climate justice. At the heart of Jenna’s work is a commitment to exploring what it means to organise well amid intersecting crises and deepening inequalities. Her practice blurs the boundaries between research, organising and teaching, drawing on her expertise in social media research and digital community engagement to support collective action and care. Jenna co-founded the Festival of Action, an events-based campus initiative that brings together coalitions of students, staff, and local partners to cultivate climate justice practices through collaborative learning and doing. She also co-founded and co-leads Bub Hub Blue Mountains Inc., a community-led co-working with onsite childcare service that supports gentle transitions to care and nurtures solidarity and collective resilience within, against, and beyond the uncaring systems that continue to erode them.
Professor Claudio Díaz is an academic at the University of Concepción in Chile, where he teaches English, ESL/EFL methodology and language assessment courses in teacher education and master’s programs. Professor Díaz holds a PhD in Education and a Master of Arts in Linguistics. He has served as head of the PhD in Education and Master in English teaching, learning and assessment programs at the University of Concepción, and has supervised more than 50 undergraduate and postgraduate theses. He also works as coordinator of the Language Committee at the National Accreditation Office in Chile. Professor Díaz’s research interests are EFL preservice teachers’ construction of professional knowledge and cognition. He is particularly interested in providing future teachers of English with the teaching and assessment strategies required to work in the complex and diverse educational system in Chile. His latest research grant explored preservice teachers’ cognitive and affective dimensions when designing language assessment tools. In 2025, Professor Díaz was a Visiting Scholar at Western Sydney University, where he explored new ways to approach the complexity of teacher education with colleagues and students at WSU. Some of his publications can be found at ResearchGate.
Katia Macías Díaz was born and raised in Punta Arenas, Chile, a gateway city to the Antarctic continent. Since 2020, she has been actively promoting Antarctic gateway engagement and youth leadership. An English teacher with 6 years of experience working with secondary students in Chile, Katia has consistently integrated education with environmental awareness and youth empowerment. In 2020, she was selected as the Youth Ambassador of Punta Arenas for the Antarctic Cities Youth Expedition, an experience that inspired her to co-found the Antarctic Youth Coalition (AYC). She later served as AYC Director in Punta Arenas from 2020 to 2023, working to build a network of young people interested in Antarctica and its protection. In 2025, Katia relocated to Hobart, Australia, where she now leads the establishment of the AYC Hobart chapter. This work is part of a collaborative project funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Council on Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR), in partnership with the University of Tasmania, the City of Hobart and AYC Punta Arenas. Alongside her role with AYC, she works as Development and Operations Coordinator at the Mawson’s Huts Foundation, contributing to Antarctic heritage preservation and fostering public engagement and outreach.
Naomi Filmore is an applied linguist, education specialist and PhD candidate in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland. Her research critically examines the intersections of language with education policy, pedagogy and assessment in multilingual contexts. Her current projects investigate culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies, Indigenous education policy, language ideologies in media and policy, language teacher preparation, and digital technologies for language teaching and revitalisation. Naomi brings to her scholarship over 15 years of experience in education policy and programming in Australia and internationally, including work with government, non-government, and community organisations. She holds qualifications in linguistics, education, and international development, and is a member of the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) editorial board. Naomi is committed to co-designing contextualised educational programs, policies, and research that promote culturally and linguistically sustaining learning experiences for all children.
Dr Michael Finneran is Associate Professor and the founding Head of the Department of Drama and Theatre Studies at Mary Immaculate College (University of Limerick), Ireland, where he leads undergraduate and research programs in drama and theatre. Michael’s research interests are in applied theatre, drama education, arts practice, creativity, cultural policy and social justice in the arts. He is co-author (with Kelly Freebody) of Critical Themes in Drama: Social-Cultural and Political Analysis in Drama Education & Applied Theatre (Routledge, 2021) and co-editor of several volumes, including Drama and Social Justice: Theory, research and practice in international contexts (Routledge, 2016), Applied Theatre: Understanding Change (Springer, 2018) and Education and Theatres (Springer, 2019). Michael is an active theatre artist working as a director, producer and designer in professional and community theatre. He led the establishment of the Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick and is currently chair of the boards of Branar Téatar and Dance Limerick. Michael was a Gilbert Visiting Fellow to the University of Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Institute in 2022 and was named a Dublin City University Distinguished Alumni in 2020. He recently chaired the national group that designed the first high school drama and film curriculum in Ireland.
Dr Thais Gava holds a PhD in Education from the University of São Paulo (2023) and is a Researcher at the Fundação Carlos Chagas (FCC), focusing on gender, sexuality, sexual and reproductive rights and their intersections with education. She is a member of the research group Education and Work: Gender, Race and Disability from a Human Rights Perspective (FCC), and Editor of the Journal Caderno de Pesquisa and Educ@ – a Platform for the Education of Brazilians.
Dr Susanne Gannon is a professor in the School of Education at Western Sydney University. Her research encompasses equity issues in education, particularly gender, poverty and diversity; curriculum; educational policy and pandemic impacts on students, families and teachers. Her recent Australian Research Council Discovery grant, Gender Matters: Changing Gender Equity Policies and Practices in Australian Secondary Schooling (with Distinguished Professor Kerry Robinson), mapped how gender currently shapes young people’s educational experiences. Co-edited books include Resisting Educational Inequality: Reframing Policy and Practice in Schools Serving Vulnerable Communities (2018, Routledge) and Gender Un/Bound: Traversing Educational Possibilities (2025, Routledge). Susanne’s latest co-authored book is Student and Teacher Experiences of Gender Equity in Australian Secondary Schools: Gender Matters (Gannon, Robinson, Adams, & Smith, 2026, Palgrave MacMillan).
Dr Rachael Jacobs lectures in arts education at Western Sydney University. Her research areas include racial justice education and language development through the arts. She is a community activist, aerial artist, South Asian choreographer, and she runs an intercultural dance company. As a community artist, Rachael facilitates projects in community settings, mostly working with migrant and refugee communities.
Dr Criss Jones Díaz is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Western Sydney University. Her professional background is grounded in education and community contexts where she has collaborated with educators providing professional development on early literacies, multilingualism, languages learning and diversity issues. Her research and publications focus on multilingualism, languages learning, diverse literacies, diaspora, identity negotiation and inequality in contexts of diversity and difference in educational settings. Recent prominent co-authored and co-edited texts include Understanding sociological theory and pedagogical practices (2015, 2018, 2024, 3rd Ed) and Diversity and Difference in Childhoods: Issues for Theory and Practice (2016, 2nd Ed). She has authored and co-authored numerous journal articles and book chapters pertaining to her area of expertise. With national and international colleagues, she is currently investigating issues of early languages education, diversity, difference and equity, in early childhood education and community-based settings.
Dr Jorge Knijnik is a Brazilian-Australian academic currently working as an Associate Professor at Western Sydney University, where he lectures in Education at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts, Business, Education, and Law. Jorge holds a PhD in Social Psychology from Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil). Jorge works at the intersection of curriculum, democratic schooling, and youth political education in the Global South. His teaching and research achievements were recognised by an OLT “Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning” presented by the Australian Government and the “Building the Gender Equity” award presented by UN/Women, UNESCO, and the Brazilian Research Council. Jorge’s latest books include Letters to Paulo Freire: Radical Dialogues in Democratic Education and Courage (Springer); A Critical History of Health, Sport, and Physical Education: The Three-legged Curriculum in Australia (with Michelle Gorzanelli, Springer), Tales of South American Football: Passion, Revolution and Glory (Fair Play Publishing), Women’s Football in South America: Social Challenges and Historical Perspectives (vol 1, Brazil with Ana Costa and vol 2 Spanish Countries with Gabriela Garton, Palgrave McMillan), Historias Australianas: Cultura, Educação e Esporte do Outro Lado do Mundo (Fontoura) and The World Cup Chronicles: 31 Days that Rocked Brazil (Fair Play Publishing).
Dr Verónica López studied Psychology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and has a PhD in Psychology from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She is professor at the School of Psychology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, where she is also Director of the Centre for Research in Inclusive Education, funded by the Chilean Agency for Research and Development (SCIA ANID CIE160009). Dr López’s research specialises in the areas of inclusive education, understood amply as guaranteeing all students’ rights to education and well-being. She also performs research in school climate and is currently Co-President of the International Observatory for School Climate and Violence Prevention. Dr López has held multiple research grants funded by the Chilean National Research and Development Agency (ANID) investigating the multiple facets of inclusion and exclusion through school discipline, school climate and its intersections with class, gender, and disabilities.
Professor Loshini Naidoo is a member of the Sur-Sur: Southern Dialogues initiative, having given the first keynote in 2018 and co-convened the successful Sur-Sur Southern Knowledges: Education, Sustainability, Transformation and Social Change Conference in Sydney in 2024. She is a professor in the sociology of education at Western Sydney University whose research focuses on social justice, human rights education, and equity in schooling. Her work examines the educational transitions and aspirations of refugee and migrant learners, culturally and linguistically diverse students, and young people from low-socioeconomic communities. Professor Naidoo has also advanced research on school–university–community partnerships and language and literacy development. She has received numerous national and international teaching awards and has led several externally funded competitive grants. Widely recognised for her pioneering research on forced migration, she has published extensively in books, edited volumes, and leading journals. Her scholarship combines rigorous academic inquiry with practical impact through initiatives such as the Refugee Action Support program, which has since been adapted for Chilean schools and the Exceptional Teaching for Exceptional Schools project. Her current research explores digital inclusion in refugee and migrant communities, trauma-informed pedagogy and emerging challenges in higher education.
Professor Finex Ndhlovu is South African by heritage, Zimbabwean by birth and Australian by choice. He is a Professor of Language in Society in the School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences at the University of New England, Australia. His research interests sit at the cutting edge of contemporary linguistic and socio-cultural theories around language, identity, and sociality in relation to transnational migrant and diaspora communities. Professor Ndhlovu’s latest major publications include Language and Decolonisation: An Interdisciplinary Approach (2024, Routledge) and Pan-African Integration from Below: Language, Publics, Culture (2025, Mandela University Press). He is passionate about nurturing the next generation of educators and research leaders through higher degree research student supervision and mentoring early-career colleagues.
Dr Genaro Oliveira has over two decades of experience teaching and researching across many continents. He currently works as a lecturer in the School of Education at Charles Sturt University, NSW. Prior to his tenure in Australia, Genaro held positions at Massey University (NZ), the University of Auckland (NZ), Fiji National University (Fiji Islands), and the Faculty of Technology (Brazil). Genaro’s fields of research are teaching HSIE/social sciences, history of education, and digital pedagogies. Genaro’s works have been published both in English and Portuguese across the US, Europe, Australasia and Brazil, in various formats, from academic books to peer-reviewed journals, encyclopedias to national newspapers.
Dr María-José Opazo is a social anthropologist and holds a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from Universidad de Chile, and a PhD in Education from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education (IE) and a researcher at the Center for Advanced Research in Education (CIAE) at the University of Chile. Her research focuses on leadership in early childhood education, the professional identity of ECE teachers, and the schoolification of early childhood education, approached through qualitative and critical perspectives on educational policy. She has served as principal and co-investigator on projects funded by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) and has led studies commissioned by public institutions and foundations to strengthen the early childhood education system in Chile. In teaching, she lectures in postgraduate courses on qualitative methodologies, leadership in early childhood education, and teacher professionalism. She actively participates in international research networks on early childhood education and educational leadership, fostering dialogue between academic research, teacher education and policy. Her work seeks to enhance the social recognition of early childhood education and to make visible the role of ECE teachers as pedagogical leaders and agents of educational change.
Dr Roberto H. Parada is a registered psychologist, Associate Professor in Adolescent Development Behaviour and Wellbeing, and Associate Dean Higher Degree by Research (ADHDR) in the School of Education, Western Sydney University. Over the past 3 decades, he has worked in both government and non-government sectors in child and adolescent mental health. Roberto has published research in the areas of school bullying: measurement and intervention, and youth mental health, and was most recently part of an expert panel for UNESCO in their current review looking at the relevance and contributions of education for health and well-being to the advancement of human rights, sustainable development, and peace. In his role of ADHDR, he became interested in the role of HDR structures in the promotion of inter-institutional and transnational collaboration and the possibilities that HDR education can bring to the democratisation of research knowledge.
Dr Marcela Pardo is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Education and a Researcher at the Center for Advanced Research in Education at the University of Chile. She has focused her research on early childhood teachers’ professionalism and the schoolification of early childhood education. She has worked as a consultant for UNICEF-Chile, OREALC-UNESCO, Inter-American Dialogue, and the Lego Foundation. Pardo has a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Chile, a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology-Early Childhood from Boston College, and a PhD in Humanities from the University of Leiden. She also serves as an Editor for Early Years: An International Research Journal.
Dr Sarah Powell is Senior Lecturer in Creative Arts, Director of Professional Experience in the School of Education, and Assistant Director of the Macquarie University Centre for Research in Early Childhood Education. Sarah studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Western Sydney University and has taught for over 20 years across education levels. Her areas of research include singing, movement, and music with children; developing teachers’ and preservice teachers’ skills and confidence in music and movement pedagogy; and arts-based sustainability research with children. Sarah has presented at conferences and professional development events locally, nationally, and internationally, and has published in international and national academic and practitioner journals.
Dr Vandana Prasad (MBBS, MRCP-Pediatrics, MPH), Founder Secretary and Technical Advisor for Public Health Resource Society (PHRS), is a senior community paediatrician and public health professional engaged in social action for over 30 years. She has been leading PHRS’ model of Early Childhood Care & Development (ECCD) in tribal and rural areas of India, especially among Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) of the tribal state of Odisha. With a focus on community management of malnutrition and child health, the program is comprehensive, encompassing all elements of ECCD, including early stimulation. It also links closely with issues of gender, women’s labour, sibling care, education for older girl children, child marriage, maternity entitlements and agricultural practices. The process is participatory and community-managed, and immense learnings have been gleaned from this program, given the complex interface between culture, modern science and power among the various players involved. Dr Prasad has served the Government of India as Member for Child Health at the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), as well as served on various committees related to ECCD. She is a Deputy Editor of BMJ Pediatrics Open and has several books, chapters and publications to her credit, available at ResearchGate.
Dr Shanti Raman is a Consultant Paediatrician with training in epidemiology and public health. As the Director of Community Paediatrics for South Western Sydney, she is responsible for clinical services in Child Development and Child Protection across the region, providing leadership and directing research and training. In her role as Senior Clinical Advisor-Child & Family Health, NSW Ministry of Health, she supports the quality, safety, and integration of child and family health services through the development of statewide healthcare policy. As Conjoint Professor, University of New South Wales, School of Women’s & Children’s Health, Dr Raman’s research and teaching interests include health of migrants and refugees, Indigenous child health, child rights and child maltreatment, quality and safety in health, maternal, newborn and child health. She is involved with policy development at the state, national and international levels, promoting a rights-based perspective to child health and child rights. She is the Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Paediatrics Open. On the community engagement front, Dr Raman has been involved with a range of civil society organisations, responding to social justice, human rights and support to refugee and migrant groups.
Professor Juan Francisco Salazar was born in Santiago, Chile, and migrated to Sydney in 1998. He is an interdisciplinary researcher, author and documentary filmmaker whose academic and creative work explores the coupled dynamics of social-ecological change and is underpinned by a collaborative ethos across the arts, science and activism. He is currently the Director of the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University.
Professor Jacqueline Ullman is a Professor in the School of Education at Western Sydney University. She is co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Gender and Education and has published widely in the areas of classroom and workplace diversity and inclusion. Professor Ullman has held multiple Australian Research Council (ARC) federally funded research grants investigating gender and sexual diversity inclusivity in education and workplaces. She is a recipient of the Australian Association for Research in Education’s Raewyn Connell Award in recognition of her significant leadership and field-building in sexuality, gender and queer research in education and has experience advising state/federal government agencies on policy reform.
Dr Christine Woodrow is a foundation member of the Sur Sur: Southern Dialogues initiative, a member of the School of Education and co-convened the highly successful conference SUR SUR Southern Knowledges: Education, Sustainability, Transformation and Social Change in Sydney 2024. Chris has led and participated in many collaborations in Chile for more than a decade. She was project leader of the innovative 6-year transnational program, Futuro Infantil Hoy (Northern Chile), in a collaboration involving the Chilean Government, public institutions and a private foundation and has led other innovative collaborations and research with key institutions in Chile; many focusing on developing pedagogical and leadership capabilities in the early childhood workforce. Other international projects include a cross-national study of early childhood professional identity, family participation in children’s literacy learning, a seven-country international study of conceptualisations of professionalism in early childhood contexts, school readiness and the role and effectiveness of the supported playgroup model in effective transitions to school. She is an expert in participative research methodologies and has led numerous programs of participative action research in a variety of national and international contexts. Chris brings to this work a deep understanding of the early childhood policy context, nationally and internationally.
Associate Professor Katina Zammit is passionate about improving literacy outcomes for students from socio-economically disadvantaged and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She collaborates closely with teachers in schools, undertaking projects to improve students’ engagement and outcomes, focusing on making connections between changes in teachers’ practices and students’ outcomes, and developing students’ multiple literacies. Her research on student engagement, writing, multiliteracies, translanguaging and pedagogy has been widely published. Katina is currently leading the Fair Go Program – Chile Pilot Project with colleagues at the University of Concepción and CIAE, University of Chile. She is President of the Australian Literacy Educators Association (ALEA), which supports teachers, parents and teacher educators with professional learning and access to evidence-based practices, a board member of the International Literacy Association (ILA) and also chair of the International Development of Oceania Committee (IDOC), which supports literacy projects in countries such as Papua New Guinea.