Methods
Narrative Inquiry
Collective Biography/ memory work
Autoethnography
Arts-based methods
Evaluation
Critical policy analysis
Action research
Research Focus
Gender and Education
English curriculum
Writing pedagogy
Secondary schooling
Educational trajectories / aspirations
Place pedagogies
Concepts/Focus
Gender
Intersectionality
Affect
New materialisms
Feminist poststructuralism
Place and space
Susanne Gannon is Professor in the School of Education at Western Sydney University and a Senior Researcher in the Centre for Educational Research. As well as her involvement in ESJI, Susanne is a member of the Planetary Wellbeing and Human Learning group and the Sexualities and Gender Research group.
Susanne is a prolific publisher with interests in diverse fields of educational research including gender equity and diversity, educational trajectories, teacher subjectivities, writing pedagogies in secondary schools, media and cultural studies in education, environmental education and educational policy. She has pioneered the innovative qualitative methodologies of collective biography and autoethnography. She uses a wide range of interpretivist methodologies drawing on narrative, visual and discourse analysis, and has led and designed mixed method research. She has undertaken funded research projects, consultancies and competitive tendered research for education authorities at regional, state, and federal levels. She leads the ARC Discovery grant entitled Gender Matters: Changing Policy and Practices in Australian secondary schools and has been a CI on two completed ARC grants investigating place pedagogies in rural and urban Australia and gender and ICT. She collaborates internationally with researchers in Canada, UK, Europe and Latin America. She is co-editor of the of the international journal Gender and Education (with Carol Taylor, Jayne Osgood and Kate Scantlebury) and regional editor for the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
Prior to arriving at Western Sydney University in 2003, Susanne worked in state education as a secondary teacher, Curriculum Advisor, and Equity Programs Officer working predominantly in English curriculum and pedagogy, and gender equity.
Recent Projects
Teaching Writing in the NAPLAN era
Susanne Gannon
Writing in secondary schools has plateaued since the introduction of NAPLAN testing and new English national curriculum. Little is known about English teachers’ values, beliefs and current practices with regard to the teaching of writing, or about the impacts of policy changes in English classrooms. This study comprised two phases – an online survey and case studies of classroom practice in two states. Survey findings suggested that while teachers continue, as far as they can, to incorporate good practice in writing as they understand it and to exercise professional judgment in pedagogical design, English teachers have been working hard to simultaneously meet the demands of NAPLAN. These are sometimes seen to be at odds with good pedagogy in writing. In schools, English teachers are often charged with the responsibility for improving NAPLAN results and they have risen to the occasion, despite lingering concerns about NAPLAN effects and uneven implications for English teachers (Gannon, 2018). The study also pioneered an innovative artefact-led case study at a distance method for investigating teachers’ writing pedagogy (Gannon and Dove, 2021).
Understanding the experience and perceived impact of RAW – Ready Arrive Work
Susanne Gannon, Rachael Jacobs and Danielle Tracey
The Department of Education’s Ready Arrive Work (RAW) program assists high school students from refugee backgrounds to explore vocational learning pathways in a supportive and positive environment. It aims to equip them with a better understanding of employment, workplaces, career planning and the pathways which can lead to a successful career after completing school. For students from refugee backgrounds, careers advice has been consistently identified in policy and research as a point of vulnerability and as an ideal opportunity for intervention. This research engaged students and key stakeholders to provide a rich account of the impact of RAW on schools, students, industry, and civic organisations. Central to this was the identification of enablers and barriers to participation in, and success of, RAW. With an emphasis on qualitative data, interviews and focus groups were the primary source of data for this open inquiry investigation. A ‘vertical slice’ involving stakeholders from all layers of participation in RAW provided insights from those closest to and furthest from the delivery of RAW. This enabled a triangulation of perspectives to create a comprehensive understanding of RAW. Findings indicated that the program was beneficial for students, schools, industry and civic partner organisations (Gannon, Jacobs and Tracey, 2021).
Evaluation of the Widening Participation Student Ambassadors Initiative
Susanne Gannon, Danielle Tracey and Jacqueline Ullmann
Western Sydney University delivers more than 50 WP programs in schools around the university that aim to increase young people’s educational engagement and aspirations for higher study. These programs are particularly focused on students and schools from low SES backgrounds, and equity groups identified by the Bradley Review (2008) into higher education. These are supported by WSU students who have received training as Student Ambassadors. The Student Ambassadors deliver programs to ensure that educational and life pathways are open to young people of all backgrounds and circumstances; however Student Ambassadors’ own experiences within these programs and the impact of program participation on their own academic, social and civic outcomes have been overlooked. Many of the Student Ambassadors themselves have experienced challenges to participation in higher education that parallel those of the school students with whom they work. This mixed method multi-cohort study evaluated the impact of Western Sydney University students’ participation in the WP Student Ambassadors program in terms of their self-efficacy beliefs, academic and professional resilience, professional skill development, civic and social awareness, connectedness to community and academic outcomes. Findings indicated that the Student Ambassador program was highly beneficial for ambassadors’ personal and professional growth. Working with young people was personally rewarding and they could see visible changes in those young people which, in turn, impacted on their own efficacy beliefs, resilience and academic retention. While students identified the pragmatic benefits of gaining professional experience and earning money, the majority of students prioritised altruistic benefits such as helping young people and making a difference in their lives, engaging with and giving back to the Western Sydney community. This was stronger for Western Sydney University students than in previously reported research on such programs overseas (Gannon, Tracey, Ullman, 2018)
Current Projects
Gender Matters: Changing Gender Equity Policies and Practices in Australian Secondary Schooling (Australian Research Council Discovery)
Susanne Gannon, Kerry Robinson and Prue Adams (PhD)
Gender-related issues are significant in the lives of young people. In many Australian secondary schools, however, there may be no safe space to explore them. Despite widespread concerns about gender-related issues in schools and society, system-wide policies on gender equity have almost disappeared. This three-year research study, Gender Matters: Changing Gender Equity Policies and Practices in Australian Secondary Schooling, examines the contemporary policy and practice gap in gender equity in schooling, in relation to earlier approaches. It aims to examine and refresh gendered explanations of inequity and design new approaches for an era of rapid social, cultural and technological change and competing policy agendas.
https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/gender-matters
Understanding experiences, perceptions and impacts of Poetry in Action in secondary schools
Susanne Gannon, Eva Vass, and Mary Mooney
Poetry in Action (PIA) delivers curriculum-aligned performances in schools around Australia, complemented by classroom teaching resources to extend the learning. Despite PIA’s commitments to access and equity, it is unclear whether there are gaps in provision, whether all participating schools ensure high quality impact and equitable access, or how PIA fits with existing opportunities. This is more urgent with COVID-19 induced disruption of arts and cultural sectors and uneven effects on schools around Australia. This study focuses on schools with sustained engagements with PIA to investigate how PIA adds value to teachers and students and complements classroom practice. The research will add to broader knowledge base about creative learning. The impacts and experiences of artists involved in PIA will be evaluated to understand the extent to which Poetry in Action has developed performance skills, facilitated employment opportunities in a volatile market and shaped career trajectories for young artists.
Youth in the Time of Coronavirus
Susanne Gannon, Jacqueline D’warte, Rachael Jacobs and Loshini Naidoo
This program of research involves an ongoing examination of the feelings, thoughts and experiences of young people aged 15-19 through periods of online learning in Australian schools during 2020, and 2021. The move to online learning challenged educators, families and students in a myriad of ways and privileging the voices and perspectives of young people seemed particularly important. As researchers concerned about educational justice and inclusion, we were inspired and guided by research led by Professor Dorte Marie Sondergaard Aarhus University Denmark. As our Danish colleagues noted, beyond conventional learning outcomes, the sociality and relationality of schooling are central to young people’s lives and their sense of belonging and becoming (Hansen, Knage, Rasmussen and Søndergaard, 2020). In this challenging time we were interested in considering how young people experience the shutting down of these domains of social life? What other modes of sociality have opened for them? What were their perspectives on online learning, on themselves as learners?
Current Australian data comprises anonymous online surveys responses (or ‘written interview’) of open-ended questions from 2020 and 2021. 2020 interviews by Zoom with 8 individual students aged 14-15 and a collection of creative and reflective artefacts (31 writing, tasks) produced by young people under the guidance of their teachers within curriculum contexts. Analysis of this data and the collection of a further round of 2021 data is ongoing. We are currently undertaking a program of comparative analysis of all current data with our Danish colleagues and planning to co-author a series of publications. Current outputs from existing 2020 data include 2 manuscripts. And ‘But w’rry not we shall banquet again someday: Creativity and socially distanced, forthcoming in English in Australia and Sociality, resilience and agency: How did young Australians experience online learning during Covid-19? Currently under review
Writing in Secondary
Susanne Gannon, Kay Carroll, Christina Curry, Erin McKenzie, and Rachael Jacobs
The NSW Department of Education’s Writing in Secondary initiative aims to improve writing outcomes in secondary schools, with focus on writing in selected disciplines. Western Sydney University academic partners supports the work of identifying, developing and testing robust evidence-based resources, professional learning and pedagogical tools in four KLAs in Stages 4 and 5 in NSW secondary schools.
HSC Quality Teaching Strategy
Katherine Holmes, Wayne Sawyer, Susanne Gannon, and Nathan Berger
The NSW Department of Education’s HSC Quality Teaching Strategy (HSC QTS) aims to increase the number of students accessing the higher bands in the HSC. This will be achieved initially by improved teaching quality through a sustained and scaled approach to high quality professional learning. The evaluation team from Western Sydney University will support the initiative by evaluating aspects of the initiative.
Recent Publications
Books
Gannon, S., Hattam, R. & Sawyer, W. (Eds.) (2018). Resisting educational inequality: Reframing policy and practice in schools serving vulnerable communities. London & New York: Routledge.
Gannon, S., & Sawyer, W. (Eds). (2014). Contemporary Issues of Equity in Education. Newcastle-on-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Gonick, M., & Gannon, S. (2014). Becoming Girl: Collective Biography and the Production of Girlhood. Toronto: The Women’s Press. [Awarded Honorable Mention Women’s and Gender Studies Association (WGSRF) May, 2016, Canada]
Book Chapters
Gannon, S. (2021). Sketching subjectivities. In T. Adams, S. Holman-Jones & C. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of autoethnography 2nd edn. (pp. 41-52). Routledge.
Taylor, C., Gannon, S., Osgood, J. & Scantlebury, K. (2022) Toxic Times for Feminist Academic Freedom? In R. Watermeyer, R. Raaper & M. Olssen (Eds.), Handbook on Academic Freedom, Edward Elgar Publishing.
Gannon, S. & Robinson, K. (2021). Unboxing and unravelling in the archive of gender equity policy.In C. Addey & N. Piattoeva (Eds.) Intimate Accounts of Education Policy Research: The Practice of Methods. Routledge.
Taylor, C. & Gannon, S. (2021). Hailing love back into view: Working towards a feminist materialist theory-practice of entangled aimance in pandemic times. In A. Peterson, P. Gibbs & V. de Rijke (eds), Higher Education and Love: Institutional, pedagogical and personal trajectories. Palgrave.
Gannon, S. (2020) Autoethnography in Education. In S. Delamont & M. Ward (Eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education. Elgar.
Gannon, S. (2019).Temporalities, Pedagogies and Gender-Based Violence Education in Australian Schools. In C. Taylor, C. Amade-Escot & A. Abbas (eds). Gender in Learning and Teaching: Feminist Dialogues Across International Boundaries. Routledge
Gannon, S. & Gonick, M. (2019). Collective Biography as a feminist methodology. In G. Crimmins (Ed.). Strategies for Resisting Sexism in the Academy (pp. 207-224).Springer.
Alexander, D., Bradford, J., Gannon, S., Murray, F., Partridge, N., Simopoulou, Z., … Williams, L. (2018). An experiment in writing that flows : citationality and collaborative writing. In S. Riddle, D. Bright, & E. Honan (Eds.), Writing with Deleuze in the Academy: Creating Monsters (pp. 107-117). Springer.
Gannon, S. (2018) Beginning teacher subjectivity and pedagogical encounters in low-SES schools. In S. Gannon, R. Hattam & W. Sawyer (Eds.) Resisting educational inequality: Reframing policy and practice in schools serving vulnerable communities. London & New York: Routledge.
Gannon, S. (2018) For the birds: Autoethnographic entanglements. In T. Adams, A. Grant, N. Short & L. Turner (Eds.) International perspectives on autoethnographic research and practice. London & New York: Routledge.
Gannon, S. (2018). On being and becoming the monstrous subject of measurement. In D. Bright, E. Honan & S. Riddle (Eds.) Writing with Deleuze in the Academy: Creating Monsters. Springer.
Gannon, S. (2018). Beyond the young pioneers: Memory work with Post-socialist childhoods. In I. Silova, N. Piattoeva, & Z. Millei. (Eds.) Childhood and Schooling in (Post) Socialist Societies (pp. 279-284). Palgrave MacMillan.
Gannon, S. (2018). Troubling autoethnography: Critical, creative, and deconstructive approaches to writing. In S. Holman Jones & M. Pruyn (Eds.) Creative Selves/Creative Cultures: Critical Autoethnography, Performance, and Pedagogy (pp. 21-35). Palgrave MacMillan.
Gannon, S., Powell, S. & Power, C. (2018). On the thresholds of legitimacy: A collaborative exploration of being and becoming academic. In Y. Taylor & K. Lahad (Eds.) Feeling academic in the neoliberal University: Feminist flights, fights and failures. Palgrave MacMillan.
Gannon, S. Hattam, R. & Sawyer, W. (2018). Researching educational sites serving ‘disadvantaged’ (sub)urban communities: Reframing policy and practice. In S. Gannon, R. Hattam & W. Sawyer (Eds.) Resisting educational inequality: Reframing policy and practice in schools serving vulnerable communities. London & New York: Routledge
Gannon, S., Moustakim, M, Stoilescu, D. & Wright, D. (2018). Mapping possible futures: Funds of aspiration and educational desire. In S. Gannon, R. Hattam & W. Sawyer (Eds.) Resisting educational inequality: Reframing policy and practice in schools serving vulnerable communities. London & New York: Routledge.
Hattam, R., Sawyer, W. & Gannon, S. (2018). Reclaiming educational equality: Towards a manifesto. In S. Gannon, R. Hattam & W. Sawyer (Eds.) Resisting educational inequality: Reframing policy and practice in schools serving vulnerable communities. London & New York: Routledge.
Wyatt, J., Davies, B., Gale, K., and Gannon, S. (2018). Creating a space in between: collaborative research inquiries. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds) Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. 5th edn. Sage.
Gannon, S. (2017). Watery configurations of animals, children, pedagogies and politics in a suburban wetland. In K. Malone, S. Truong & T. Gray (Eds). Reimagining Sustainability in precarious times (pp. 253-267). Dordrecht: Springer.
Gannon, S. (2017). Writing the girl: narratives of place, matter, relations, and memory. In I. Goodson, A. Antikainen, P. Sikes & M. Andrews. (Eds), The Routledge International Handbook of Narrative and Life History (pp. 518-530). London: Routledge.
Gannon, S. & Lampert, J. (2017). Parasitic pleasures: Academic writing and the salvaging of joy. In S. Riddle, M. Harmes & P.A.Danaher (Eds.) Producing pleasure within the contemporary university (pp. 201-212). Sense Publishers.
Gannon, S. (2016). ‘Local girl befriends vicious bear’: Unleashing educational aspiration through a pedagogy of material-semiotic entanglement. In C. Hughes & C. Taylor (Eds), Posthuman Research Practices in Education (pp. 128-148). Palgrave MacMillan.
Gannon, S., Gray, T., & Naidoo, L. (2016). Educational aspirations, ethnicity, and mobility in western Sydney high schools. In D. Cole & C. Woodrow (Eds). Super Dimensions in Globalisation and Education (pp. 225-240). Springer.
Gannon, S. & Sawyer, W. (2015). Literacy, literature and moral panic in Australia.In M. Eryaman & B. Bruce (Eds), International Handbook of Progressive Education (pp. 309-324). New York: Peter Lang.
Gannon, S. (2014). ‘No-one does it for these kids’: Trajectories into the profession for early career teachers. In S. Gannon & W. Sawyer (Eds). Contemporary Issues of Equity in Education. (pp. 132-147). Newcastle-on-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Gannon, S. (2014). Something mysterious that we don’t understand…the beat of the human heart, the rhythm of language’: Creative writing and imaginative response in English. In B. Doecke, G. Parr & W. Sawyer (Eds), Language and creativity in contemporary English classrooms (pp. 131-140). Putney: Phoenix Education.
Journal Articles
Gannon, S., Jacobs, R., Tracey, D. (accepted). Reducing vocational education inequality for students from refugee backgrounds. International Journal of Inclusive Education.
Gannon, S., Jacobs, R., D’warte, J., & Naidoo, L. (2021) ‘But w’rry not we shall banquet again someday’: Creativity and socially distanced English. English in Australia. 56(2).
Gannon, S & Dove, J. (2021). Artefacts, practices, pedagogies. Teaching writing in English in the NAPLAN era. The Australian Educational Researcher. 48, 657-679.
Gannon, S. & Taylor, C.A. (2021). Academic temporalities: apprehending micro-worlds of academic work through a photo-serial methodology, Higher Education Research & Development, 40(6), 1161-1175. DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2020.1809998
Taylor, C., Gannon, S., Adams, G., Donaghue, H., Hannam-Swain, S., Harris-Evans, J., Healey, J., & Moore, P. (2020). Grim tales: Meetings, matterings and moments of silencing and frustration in everyday academic life. International Journal of Educational Research, 99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2019.101513.
Gannon, S. & Naidoo, L. (2020). Thinking- feeling- imagining futures through creative arts-based participatory research. Australian Educational Researcher. 47, 113-128
Millei, Z., Silova, I., & Gannon, S. (2019). Thinking Through Memories of Childhood in (Post)Socialist Spaces: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times. Children’s Geographies. DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2019.1648759
Gannon, S., Taylor, C., Adams, G., Donoghue, H., Harris-Evans, J., Healey, J., Hannam-Swain, S., Moore, P. (2019). ‘Working on a rocky shore’: Micro-moments of positive affect in academic work. Emotion, Space and Society, 31, 48-55.
Gannon, S. (2019). Teaching Writing in the NAPLAN era: The experiences of secondary English Teachers. English in Australia. 54(2), 43-56.
Taylor, C. & Gannon, S. (2018). Doing time and motion diffractively: Academic life everywhere and all the time. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. 31, 6, 465-486. DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2017.1422286
Gannon, S., Tracey, D., & Ullman, J. (2018). Bolstering graduates’ success through working as student ambassadors in university widening participation programs. Higher Education Research and Development. 37(4), 715-729.
Wright, D., Gannon, S., Moustakim, M. & Stoilescu, D. (2018, accepted January). Encounters of life and scholarship: Opening to transformations, inquiries and vulnerabilities. Educational Journal of Living Theories.
Dove, J. & Gannon, S. (2017) Writing and teaching: Teaching for writing. Metaphor. 3, 12-23
Cole, D & Gannon, S. (2017). Teacher-education-desiring-machines. Issues in Teacher Education. 26(3), 78- 95.
Gannon, S. (2017). ‘After the humidity and stillness of yesterday…’: Drifting, reading, writing self and others, Travelling in otherwhens and otherwheres. Qualitative Inquiry. 23(4), 252-256.
Gannon, S. (2017). Saving Squawk? Animal and human entanglement at the edge of the lagoon. Environmental Education Research. 23(1), 91-110.
Charteris, J., Gannon, S., Mayes, E., Nye, A. & Stephenson, L. (2016). The emotional knots of academicity: A collective biography of academic subjectivities and spaces. Higher Education Research and Development. 35(1), 31-44.
Gannon, S., Kligte, G., McLean, J., Perrier, M., Swan, E. & Vanni, I. (2015). Uneven Relationalities, Collective Biography and Sisterly Affect in Neoliberal Universities. Feminist Formations. 27(3), 189-216.
Gannon, S. (2016). Ordinary atmospheres and minor weather events. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research. 5(4), 79-90.
Gannon, S. (2016). Kairos and the time of gender equity policy in Australian schooling. Gender and Education. 28(3), 330-342.
Gannon, S. (2016). Schoolgirls at truck stops: Tracing place, things, bodies, and fictions. Transformations. 27.
Cole D., Ullman J., Gannon S., & Rooney P. (2015). Critical thinking skills in the International Baccalaureate’s ‘Theory of Knowledge’ subject: findings from an Australian study. Australian Journal of Education. 59(3). 247-264.
Gannon, S. (2015). Collective biography and memory work: Girls reading fiction. English in Australia. 50(3), 61-68.
Wyatt, J., Gale, K., Gannon, S., Davies, B., Denzin, N., & St Pierre, E. (2014). Deleuze and collaborative writing: Responding to/with JKSB. Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies, 14(4), 407-416.
OTHER PUBLICATION OUTPUTS
Research Reports
Gannon, S. (2020). Teaching Writing in Secondary English in the NAPLAN Era: Final Report. https://doi.org/10.26183/bbnn-hz47
Gannon, S., Tracey, D. K., & Jacobs, R. (2019). Understanding the Experience and Perceived Impact of the Ready Arrive Work Program. https://doi.org/10.26183/5dafde3e35264
Gannon, S., Tracey, D. K., & Ullman, J. (2017). Evaluation of the Widening Participation Student Ambassadors Initiative: Project Report for Office of Widening Participation, Western Sydney University. https://doi.org/10.4225/35/5a3995f1df9d3
Somerville, M., Power, K., Dollin, J., Gray, T., Gannon, S., Birrell, C. L., & Brown, L. (2015). Love Your Lagoons: Place-based Learning and Environmental Action in South Western Sydney. Retrieved from http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/884559/LOVE_YOUR_LAGOONS-Place-based_learning_and_environmental_action_in_south_western_Sydney_FINAL_REPORT.pdf
Cole, D. R., Gannon, S., Ullman, J., & Rooney, P. K. (2014). IB Programme: Theory of Knowledge (TOK): Exploring Learning Outcomes, Benefits, and Perceptions. Retrieved from http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/713649/IB_Programme_Report_copy.pdf
ESJI Research Group 