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Associate Professor Deb Hayes

BSc(Sydney), DipEd(UoN), MA(Macquarie), PhD(UoN)

Associate Professor, School Leadership, Management and School Partnership

Director, Education I-IV Program

Email:

Phone: +61 2 9351 6389

Fax: +61 2 9351 4580

Building.Room: A35.916

Research interests

Educational systems: administration, management and leadership

  • Preschool, primary and secondary

Research on teaching and learning

  • Teacher education and professional learning

Social structures, inequalities and social justice

  • Social change

Professional biography

Deb’s main area of research is equity in education, especially as it is influenced by pedagogical and leadership practices.

Detailed longitudinal studies of schools in disadvantaged communities are typical of the types of reseach in which Deb specialises. Her aim is to shed light on how to initiate and sustain change that leads to improvement.

Since completing her doctorate in 1999, Deb has pursued research opportunities that investigate the seemingly intractable link between students from low-income families and their greatly reduced educational outcomes compared to their more affluent peers. Because of this, her research has been located in schools characterised by high levels of poverty and difference, and she has worked closely with relevant industry and community partners, including NSW DET Equity Programs.

Deb has undertaken qualitative studies in an attempt to better understand the fundamental impact of socio-economic status, which is often set aside as a variable that can be controlled for, but not influenced.

Deb’s research has attempted to re-theorise this relationship in an effort to disrupt its predictable effects on young people who are not well served by schooling. She was member of the core team of researchers who conducted the Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study 1998--2000.

In two completed ARC Linkage projects, Debra has investigated how to improve pedagogical and leadership practice. Her investigation of this field continues through a current ARC Discovery project conducted in collaboration with Professor Jill Blackmore from Deakin University.

Deb's personal homepage contains additional information about these and other investigations.


Professional and community roles


Current projects

  • School retention through alternative schooling: towards a socially just approach to education (DP120100620). Prof Martin Mills (UQ), Dr Glenda McGregor (Griffith), A/Prof Debra Hayes & A/Prof Kitty Te Riele (VU). This ARC funded Discovery project is concerned with how mainstream schools may become more socially just and inclusive of all young people through an analysis of alternative schools specifically designed for this purpose. Such a concern is critical for lifting school retention rates of marginalised young people and improving practices in all schools.
  • Educational leadership and turnaround literacy pedagogy (LP120100714). A/Prof Robert Hattam (University of South Australia Project), Professor Barbara Comber (QUT) and A/Prof Debra Hayes, in partnership with SA Department of Education and Children's Services. This ARC funded Linkage project will provide new ways of thinking about school reform for improving literacy achievement in high poverty contexts. The project will examine the ways in which new forms of educational leadership are developing in South Australian public schools and its effects on school culture, pedagogy and student literacy learning.
  • Big Picture Education Australia. With the support of the Origin Foundation, Big Picture Education Australia is conducting research into the implementation of its curriculum design in a number of schools. This three-year research project is being conducted in collaboration with Prof Barry Down (Murdoch) and Neil Day (Centre for Program Evaluation Melbourne Graduate School of Education University of Melbourne).

Current research students

Project title Degree Research student
Early career teachers in the new NSWIT regime (Associate Supervisor). PhD Kate (Catherine) Keeley
Perceptions of body weight, shape, obesity and body image among generations of Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women.(Associate supervisor) PhD Renata Cinelli
A study of strategic leadership and planning in Australian universities: Dawkins to Bradley EdD Therese (Tess) Howes
Making methodology work: an examination of the use of professional development in implementing and establishing change in schools. PhD Jennifer Petschler
Gender regulation and social realities in contemporary high schools. (Associate supervisor) PhD Victoria Rawlings
21st century learning: not just for students, for teachers too! PhD Debra Talbot
Student voice and school reform: Transformation or trouble? PhD Eve Mayes

Selected publications

Books

  • Connell, R., Campbell, C., Vickers, M. Welch, A., Foley, D., Bagnall, N. & Hayes, D. . (2010). Young People and School, Education Change and Society. (2nd ed.), Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press.
  • Hayes, D., Mills, M., Christie, P. and Lingard, B. (2006). Teachers and schooling making a difference: Productive Pedagogies, Assessment and Performance. Sydney: Allen & Unwin Publishers.
  • Lingard, B., Hayes, D., Mills, M. and Christie, P. (2003). Leading Learning: Making hope practical in schools. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Book chapters

  • Hayes, D. (2011). Reconnecting marginalised youth to learning: reassembling local discourses of schooling and community engagement. In D. Bottrell & S. Goodwin (Ed.), Schools, Communities and Social Inclusion (pp. 242–253), South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Hayes, D. . (2011). Ways of knowing and teaching - How teachers create valuable learning opportunities (pedagogical capital) by making knowledge the means and not just the ends in classrooms. In J. Sefton Gree, L. Bresler, K. Jones, P. Thomson (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning (pp. 200–210), Routledge.
  • Hayes, D. . (2010). Negotiated ethnography: the possibilities for practice . In L. Markauskaite, P. Freebody & J. Irwin (Ed.), Methodological choice and design: scholarship, policy and practice in social and educational research (pp. 101–110), Dordrecht: Springer.
  • Hayes, D. . (2009). Pedagogies of place and possibility. In M. Sommerville, K. Power, P. de Carteret (Ed.), Landscapes and Learning: Place Studies in a Global World (pp. 101–117), Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Journal articles

  • Hayes, D. . (2012). Re-engaging marginalised young people in learning: the contribution of informal learning and community-based collaborations. Journal of Education Policy , 27(5), 641–653. DOI:DOI:10.1080/02680939.2012.710018
  • Hayes, D. (2011). Redesigning pedagogical practices: New designs for new landscapes. Pedagogies: an international journal, 6(4), 347–358. DOI:10.1080/1554480X.2011.604905
  • Mitchell, M., Hayes, D., & Mills, M. (2010). Crossing school and university boundaries to reshape professional learning and research practices. Professional Development in Education, 36(3), 491–509.
  • Hayes, D., Johnston, K., Morris, K., Power, K., Roberts, D. (2009). Difficult dialogue: Conversations with Aboriginal parents and caregivers. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 38, 55–64.
  • Hayes, D. . (2009). Co-opting the market in support of young people who are not well served by school: Service-based innovation in high poverty and high difference contexts. Curriculum Perspectives, 29(1), 69–75.
  • Hayes, D., Johnston, K., & King, A. (2009). Creating enabling classroom practices in high poverty contexts: the disruptive possibilities of looking in classrooms. Pedagogy Culture and Society, 17(3), 251–264.
  • Johnston, K, Hayes, D. (2008). 'This is as good as it gets': classroom lessons and learning in challenging circumstances. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 31(2), 109–127.
  • Hayes, D. (2007). Social background and academic achievement. Principal Matters, 71, 12–14.
  • Johnston, K, Hayes, D. (2007). Supporting student success at school through teacher professional learning:the pedagogy of disrupting the default modes of schooling. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 11(3), 371–381.
  • Hayes, D. (2006). Telling stories: Sustaining improvement in schools operating under adverse conditions. Improving Schools, 9(3), 203–213.
  • Lingard, B., Mills, M., and Hayes, D. . (2006). Enabling and aligning assessment for learning: some research and policy lessons from Queensland. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 16(2), 83–103.
  • Hayes, D. . (2005). Amplifying learning through sites of pedagogical practice: a possible effect of working with disciplinary technologies in schools operating under adverse conditions. Journal of In-service Education, 31(4), 683–696.
  • Hayes, D., Christie, P., Mills, M., and Lingard, B. (2004). Productive Leaders and Productive Leadership: Schools as Learning Organisations. Journal of Educational Administration, November, 42(5), 520–538.
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