Forced migration, requires international assistance, and draws upon national, international and regional legal systems to provide protection for displaced people against persecution, armed conflict, large-scale development, natural and environmental disasters and social group destruction/punishment . The UN, Economic and Social Council (1997/8) emphasises that “every human being shall have the right to be protected against being arbitrarily displaced from his or her home or place of habitual residence” (Principle 6). ‘Forced migration’ journeys may be irregular but are considered ‘legitimate’ if fitting within the various political and legal categories, including (but not limited to) refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and more problematically “illegal-arrivals” (Harvey, 2015, p. 44). The researchers in this group work with refugee communities and forced migrants in Greater Western Sydney and have strong academic and research partnerships in the refugee sector.
Associate Professor Jacqueline D’warte
Dr Jacqueline D’warte is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Western Sydney University and a Senior Researcher in the Centre for Educational Research. Jacqueline has been a teacher in Australia, India and the United Kingdom and a teacher educator and lecturer in New York City and at the University of California Irvine and Los Angeles. Jacqueline’s research interests include language and literacy teaching and learning and the connections between language, identity, equity and learning in culturally and linguistically diverse educational settings. Jacqueline’s recent research includes engaging teachers and students as co-researchers and ethnographers of students’ language and literacy practices, this research is underpinned by a sustained research partnership with the NSW Department of Education and involves teachers as co-researchers. Most recent research includes, studies of multilingual pre-service teachers and professional learning for teaching and leadership in low SES schools.
Dr Rachael Jacobs
Dr Rachael Jacobs (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Arts Education at Western Sydney University and a former secondary teacher (Dance, Drama and Music). Her research interests include assessment in the arts, language acquisition through the arts and decolonised approaches to embodied learning. In 2014 she completed her PhD on assessment in the arts, which she subsequently turned into a piece of performed research presented to an audience of teachers and policy makers. She has since authored over 20 peer-reviewed research papers and academic book chapters on arts education, creativity and teacher education, and edited two textbooks on arts and creativity in schools.
Rachael’s research has attracted funding for research projects that partner with arts companies and Education departments all over Australia. In 2016 she contributed to the arts education component of the OECD report on the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and she is currently assisting in the analysis for UNESCO’s International Commission on Futures of Learning. She has received finding to conduct research projects from the Tasmanian Department of Education, the NSW Department of Education, Asylum Seekers Centre, ITAC (the International Teaching Artists Collaborative), and other bodies.
Rachael’s educational and community work extends well beyond universities and schools. She is a community activist, a freelance writer, aerial artist, South Asian dancer and choreographer. She is a founding member of the community activism group Teachers for Refugees, is a board director of children’s arts organisation Wide Eyed Wonder and climate activism organisation, Sweltering Cities. She also runs her own intercultural dance company specialising in Indian dance forms.
Associate Professor Loshini Naidoo
Dr Loshini Naidoo is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Western Sydney University and a Senior Researcher in the Centre for Educational Research. She has taught in Australia and South Africa and was a lecturer at the University of Durban-Westville and University of Natal, South Africa. Her research interests include: inter-relationship of race, ethnicity, class, gender and citizenship in identity/identification constructions; educational and occupational access and equity for marginalized youth; transition and aspirations of refugee, migrant, Aboriginal and low SES students in Australia, school-university-community partnerships and language and literacy development. She was the recipient of numerous national (ALTC 2009, 2010; 2011) and international (2012- Duke University) teaching awards for her outstanding contribution to student learning. Loshini Naidoo has an established reputation in the area of refugee education having also studied forced migration at Oxford University, UK. She continues her social justice work in teacher education by preparing pre-service teachers to teach in challenging contexts and conducts educational research on significant social and educational questions of our time.
Dr Katina Zammit
Katina Zammit is Deputy Dean and Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at Western Sydney University, and member of the Centre for Educational Research. Katina is also President, Australian Literacy Educators Association (ALEA). As well as her involvement in ESJI, Katina has also been a member of the Fair Go Program team since its inception in 2000 working with colleagues on: School is for Me, Engaging Middle Years Boys in Rural Educational Settings, Teachers for a Fair Go funded through the Department of Education and Schooling for a Fair Go funded through HEPP. She has been co-lead investigator onTeaching and leading for Australian schools: A review of the literature project funded by Teaching Australia, and an Office of Teaching and Learning (OLT) grant Defying the odds: Establishing support systems to maximise the success of young people with refugee backgrounds. She has also contributed to the writing of the national Literacy Progressions (ACARA) and revised the recent Guidelines for Accreditation of Initial Teacher Education Programs in Australia (Australian Institute for Teaching & School Leadership (AITSL)), and subsequent workshops on the revised document. Her recent work focuses on the literacy practices of adults in the Zine communities, teacher and student engagement in learning in low socio-economic, culturally and linguistically diverse contexts and classroom discourse. Katina is a qualitative researcher.
ESJI Research Group 