Professor Susan Groundwater-Smith AM

Primary Teachers Cert., Cert.Comp(Special Ed), BA(Hons. lst Class), MA(Hons. lst Class), PhD
Honorary Professor
Phone
+61 2 9351 6327
Fax
+61 2 9559 7174
Building/Room
A35 / 443
The University of Sydney
Susan Groundwater-Smith is the convenor of the Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools, whose purpose is to engage in ongoing, systematic practitioner inquiry. She has supported a large number of schools as an academic partner, introducing them to innovative methods of inquiry with a particular emphasis upon student voice and the use of images in capturing young people's perspectives on their learning experiences. Susan collaborates with the Audience Research Unit at the Australian Museum, assisting in consultation with students and teachers regarding actual and planned exhibitions. She works with a range of universities in Australia, UK and Netherlands.
Life Member, Australian Association for Research in Education
Life Member, Practical Experience in Professional Education Inc.
Member of the Order of Australia, Australian Government
Lifetime Achievement Award, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney
Books (2015–2020)

Book chapters (2015–2022)
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. (2023). Why Listen? Student Voice Work Defended: Students as ‘Expert Witnesses’ to Their Experiences in Schools and Other Sites of Learning. In K. E. Reimer, M. Kaukko, S. Windsor, K. Mahon & S. Kemmis (Eds.), Living well in a world worth living in for all (Volume 1: Current practices of social justice, sustainability and wellbeing). Singapore: Springer. [More Information]
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. (2022).Foreword to M. Brasof and J. Levitan (eds.) Student voice research: Theory, methods and innovations from the field. New York: Teachers College Press, pp. vii - ix
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. & Mockler, N. (2022). Researching education. In A. Welch et al (Eds.) Education, change and Society. Fifth Edition, Oxford University Press, pp. 392 – 427
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. (2022). "Conversations and the reflexive turn in social practice". In Ewing, R., Waugh, F. & Smith, D. L. (Eds.), Reflective practice in education and social work:
    Interdisciplinary explorations    , London: Routledge.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S., & Mockler, N. (2019). "Student voice work as educative practice". In I. Berson, M. Berson & C. Gray (Ed.), Participatory methodologies to elevate children's voice and agency (pp. 25–46), Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. (2019). "Inquiry-based learning and its enhancement of the practice of teaching". In G. W. Noblit (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Education Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. (2017). "Moving to praxis: reading the readings". In , From practice to praxis: A reflexive turn: The selected works of Susan Groundwater-Smith (pp. 1–29), Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Mockler, N. & Groundwater-Smith, S. (2017). "Teacher research: A knowledge-producing profession?". In P. Grootenboer, C. Edwards-Groves & S. Choy (Ed.), Practice theory perspectives on pedagogy and education: Praxis, diversity and contestation (pp. 215–230), Singapore: Springer.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. (2017). "Partnerships, networks and learning in educational research: Contested practices". In R. McNae & B. Cowie (Ed.), Realising innovative partnerships in educational research: Theories and methods for collaboration (pp. xvii–xxi), Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S., & Mockler, N. (2017). "The study of education in Australia: Shifting knowledge interests". In G. Whitty & J. Furlong (Ed.), Knowledge and the study of education: An international exploration (pp. 123–144), Oxford: Symposium Books.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. & Mockler, N. (2015). "Practice architecture in the middle years of schooling: Understanding difference and diversity". In A. Macfarlane, S. Macfarlane & M. Webber (Ed.), Sociocultural realities: Exploring new horizons (pp. 117–134), Christchurch: Canterbury University Press.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. (2015). "A fair go and student agency in the middle years classroom". In S. Groundwater-Smith & N. Mockler (Ed.), Big Fish, Little Fish: Teaching and learning in the middle years (pp. 63–76), Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. & Mockler, N. (2015). "Challenges for teaching and learning in the middle years". In S. Groundwater-Smith & N. Mockler (Ed.), Big Fish, Little Fish: Teaching and learning in the middle years (pp. 3–14), Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. & Mockler, N. (2015). "Why global policies fail disengaged young people at the local level". In H. Proctor, P. Brownlee & P. Freebody (Ed.), Controversies in education: Orthodoxy and heresy in policy and practice (pp. 139–148), Cham: Springer.

Journal articles
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. (2016). Why student voice matters: The reinvention of power in a participative democracy, Education Canada, 56(4).
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. & Mockler, N. (2016). "From data source to co-researchers? Tracing the shift from 'student voice' to student–teacher partnerships in Educational Action Research". Educational Action Research, 24(2), 159–176. DOI:10.1080/09650792.2015.1053507
  • Groundwater-Smith, S., Mitchell, J. & Mockler, N. (2016). "Praxis and the language of improvement: Inquiry-based approaches to authentic improvement in Australasian schools". School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 27(1), 80–90. DOI:10.1080/09243453.2014.975137
  • Mockler, N. & Groundwater-Smith, S. (2015). "Seeking for the unwelcome truths: Beyond celebration in inquiry-based teacher professional learning". Teachers and Teaching, 21(5), 603–614. DOI:10.1080/13540602.2014.995480
  • Groundwater-Smith, S., Mayes, E. & Arya-Pinatyh, K. (2014). "A bridge over troubling waters in education: The complexity of a "students as co-researchers" project". Curriculum Matters, 10, 213–231.
  • Groundwater-Smith, S. (2011). "Concerning equity: The voice of young people". Leading & Managing, 17(2), 52–65.
Back