Bio

Ange Fitzgerald is an Associate Professor in the School of Teacher Education and Early Childhood at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ).

Ange’s desire to want to know more about learning and teaching took her to the west coast of Australia where she used video-based research to explore effective teaching practices in primary science education. She is passionate about classroom-based research and school-based teacher education.

Following this, Ange had the opportunity to move to the Middle East for two years to build capacity in a Jordanian non-governmental organisation through Australian Volunteers International.  She supported a small team of local staff in the role of education advisor to develop curricula to explore themes connected to Petra.  

Angela returned to Monash University in the role of liaison for the International Professional Experience program and then as Director of Professional Experience before starting at USQ at the beginning of this year.

Project

My time at Faber will be spent tying together the seemingly disparate threads of my research interests – primary science education, classroom practice and early career experiences – to create a new direction for my work. I would like to embark on a longitudinal study examining the lived experiences of graduate primary teachers (within their first five years in the profession), particularly in the area of science learning and teaching, through using documentary making practices. The intention is to start to conceptualise what this proposed work might look like to inform the development of a proposal for a large-scale grant.