Doctor Alison Black Education / School of Education and the Arts

Dr Ali Black is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and the Arts at CQUniversity Australia. An educator for more than twenty years, her experience spans contexts from early childhood to tertiary. Ali's areas of research expertise include education research, curriculum theorising, arts-based and narrative inquiry, and early childhood education. Ali has published for a variety of national and international audiences and has been involved in a number of research projects that inquire into teachers work and what it means to teach; that explore ways of knowing and identities; and that promote understanding of self and context. Lately, her work seeks to foster connectedness through the building of reflective, aesthetic and creative lives, and exploring the conditions that enhance meaning making, wellbeing, and community.

Dr Ali Black has more than twenty years experience in education. Higher education interests include curriculum theorising, engaged teaching and learning, aesthetic ways of knowing, and narrative and arts-based inquiry.

Ali has a background in early childhood education and was an early childhood teacher (childcare, P-3) for 8 years prior to 1995.  During 2008 she contributed to supply teaching work in early childhood and primary classes in regional Queensland.

Ali's research has been described as ‘ground breaking' and ‘at the forefront of educational research' and she has published for a variety of national and international audiences.

• Early childhood workshops. These workshops can be tailored to meet the needs of the early childhood profession.
  

• Recovering a sense of purpose and Recovering a sense of creativity workshops.  These are full day workshops aimed at supporting educators, general public, creatives in reflection about wellbeing and connections between life purpose, personal strengths and creativity.  They are currently being offered through the Centre for Professional Development and the EIDOS Institute.

• Recovering a sense of meaning workshops - these workshops offered through the Queensland Centre for Professional Development are short 2 1/2 hour sessions for supporting educators. A context and space for contemplation around 'what it means to teach' is offered as well as a range of inquiry strategies for self-study into reconnecting with visions, hopes and dreams for education. Renewal strategies and support for personal wellbeing and mindful living are practiced and identified. 

For copies of Dr Ali Black's manuscripts see:  http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Black,_Alison.html

and also http://acquire.cqu.edu.au:8080/vital/access/BibliographyStatistics/Black,%20Alison.?term=black

PhD: Who am I as teacher? Promoting the active positioning of self within teaching realities

• This doctoral thesis generates theory grounded in empirical evidence of how teachers make sense of what it means to teach, themselves as teachers, and their teaching context. It presents four principles to support the professional development of early childhood teachers working in contemporary workplaces:1. An orientation to teaching that includes understanding of self and context will support teachers' efforts to act intentionally within the intensity and ambiguity of contemporary workplaces; 2. Teachers' sense-making efforts are supported by opportunities to (re)discover voice through collaborative inquiry; 3. Teachers' sense-making efforts are supported as they examine the everyday experiences and tensions of educational life; 4. Teachers' sense-making efforts are supported as they engage in (re)constructing practical knowledge. A methodological emphasis on examining practical knowledge and work dilemmas using teaching images and multiple forms of data representation are important features of the thesis and these representational tools are offered as resources for teachers to deal more intentionally with dilemmas and demands and actively position self as teacher.

Masters Thesis: Preschool Teachers' Experience of Stress

• This thesis used a qualitative mode to examine the experiences of preschool teachers as they grappled with organisation change. At the time this was a sparsely researched area and this thesis opened up a valuable and fresh perspective on what it means to teach and the lives of teachers.

• (2006) Black, A., Jetnikoff, A., Campbell, M., Nykvist, S., Morgan, W. Small Teaching & Learning Grant (2006-2008), Education Faculty submission: Work Integrated Learning: Four approaches across education. Successful Application $39,997. (Black A., Case study A: ‘The uncertain journey of teaching' - development of a media enriched, interactive, reusable, learning resource/website online interactive space for communities of learners to engage in shared conversations and meaning making about teaching, $8,521.00.)

• (2005) Black, A. Case Study Leader, in Large Teaching & Learning Grant (2005-2008) ‘Transitions to Professional Practice (Millwater, J,. Nash, R., Taylor, P.)': Case Study - Staying Alive to Teaching DVD-Rom. Developing a multi-media resource aimed at engaging learners in real world reflection about the nature of teaching and what it means to teach. Successful application $6,000.00.

• (2005) Black, A. Case Study Team Member, (Leader Dr Ann Heirdsfield), in Large Teaching & Learning Grant (2005-2008) ‘Transitions to Professional Practice (Millwater, J,. Nash, R., Taylor, P.)': Case Study - Early Childhood Teachers Transitions to Professional Practice. Enhancing learning experiences for final year Early Childhood education students so that they are better prepared for transition to work as professionals in a diverse and dynamic field. Successful application $6,000.00.

• (2005) Taylor, C., McArdle, F., Dunn, J., Black, A. QUT ARC Linkage - Projects Incentive Scheme: Building Children In - An Investigation of a Community Arts Festival and Partnership for Young Children's Development through the Arts. Successful application $2000.00.

• (2002) Black, A. QUT Faculty of Education, Internal Research Grants: Contextual challenges confronting early childhood education: Examining the impact on teacher knowledge and practice. Successful application for $3 800.00.

Dr Ali Black is interested in "Improving quality of life" in Australia by promoting connectedness, valuing aesthetics and building reflective and creative lives.

Broadly, research interests value promoting human capacity and understanding, promoting sustainable communities, improving the quality of life in regional communities, promoting understanding about the experiences of others.

Ali's research is interested in who people are and how people experience and make sense of their world (who am I / what do I feel / what do I think / what do I know / what is it like / what does it mean/feel like to be who I am?) (Identity / knowledge / experience / contexts / relationships). Research that is interested in the conditions that enhance meaning. Research that acknowledges the contribution of art and aesthetics to quality of life and to emotional/spiritual/cognitive lives.

Ali's research seeks to understand the lived experiences of others - their stories, feelings, thinking, ways of knowing and being. She is interested in learning and experience as holistic processes that engage body, mind, emotions, spirit - and the power of the arts to represent and make sense of personal and professional meanings.  Using research to address and explore real world problems and experiences as part of a commitment to personal, professional and community renewal and sustainability is a priority.

Her research with the teaching profession has focused on supporting the continuing professional development of teachers, valuing teacher voice and teachers' work and everyday experiences. Understanding the many dimensions and unique characteristics of educational worlds has been a key focus. Her research to date has focused on  understanding of self, identities, ways of knowing, sense-making, and the relationship of these to particular professional and community contexts.

Narrative and arts-based methodologies are key to this research. Artistic and aesthetic ways of knowing are of central interest in terms of understanding learning processes and representing tacit understandings. Ali believes that artistic forms of representation are important tools in the creation, application and redevelopment of knowledge, and creativity is essential to personal and professional education into the future.

Ali is also interested in the development and application of the scholarship of teaching, and research activity in higher education learning - research that will enhance her own teaching and learning practices and offer suggestions for supporting the university's commitment to higher education learning. Futures education will require of educators an ability to be responsive to children and learners in a range of ways and this will require of teachers a capacity to re-develop their knowledge, dispositions and skills many times over the course of a long and diverse career.  Translating teaching and learning innovations into scholarly projects and publications is therefore also of great interest.