Peer Reviewed Publications by Mary Ryan
Learning and Instruction, 2024
Background: Recent research indicates a rise in classroom diversity and declines in students' psy... more Background: Recent research indicates a rise in classroom diversity and declines in students' psychosocial outcomes, particularly for those from diverse backgrounds. These trends necessitate a concerted effort by schools to uphold social cohesion and ensure the wellbeing of all students. Aims: We examine the associations of intercultural education practices and teachers' intercultural attitudes with students' psychosocial outcomes (eudaimonia, life satisfaction, positive affect, school belonging, and victimization). Sample: We use data from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 (N = 451,846 students, 58 countries). Methods: We utilize a series of multilevel linear regressions (L1 = students, L2 = schools, L3 = countries) to examine associations between intercultural factors and students' psychosocial outcomes. Results: Student-reported intercultural education practies positively predicted their eudaimonia, life satisfaction, positive affect, and school belonging. Student-reported teacher intercultural attitudes positively predicted students' belonging and negatively predicted their frequency of victimization. Principal-and teacher-reported predictors showed negligible effects. Results were largely similar across student immigrant status and generalized across the countries examined. Conclusions: Our findings emphasize students' subjective experiences of intercultural factors at school, which may benefit students' psychosocial outcomes regardless of their cultural backgrounds.
Papers by Mary Ryan
Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 2007
Curriculum and policy documents in many states and countries around the world, but more specifica... more Curriculum and policy documents in many states and countries around the world, but more specifically in Queensland, Australia are underpinned by an emancipatory agenda, in particular the principles of social justice. Educators are called upon to achieve this through a pedagogy which is immersed in the language of critical theory. This article explores the notion that students may achieve the syllabus outcomes related to the critical agenda however it questions whether contemporary youth are making choices that further the critical transformative cause. Key foci are the discourses of youth, the intentional discourses of schooling and the discourses of society, that are legitimated through the accounts of young people for whom emancipation is not a key issue. These discourses have been interpreted within a critical poststructuralist framework, using critical discourse analysis (CDA) to explore the macro and micro elements of the data. The article illuminates the complex negotiations of these youth as they traverse the contradictory terrain of their worlds, and argues for the continued importance of a critical agenda in schools.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2014
Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formattin... more Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formatting may not be reflected in this document.
Teaching in Higher Education, 2011
Reflective skills are widely regarded as a means of improving students' lifelong learning and pro... more Reflective skills are widely regarded as a means of improving students' lifelong learning and professional practice in higher education (Rogers 2001). While the value of reflective practice is widely accepted in educational circles, a critical issue is that reflective writing is complex, and has high rhetorical demands, making it difficult to master unless it is taught in an explicit and systematic way. This paper argues that a functional-semantic approach to language (Eggins 2004), based on Halliday's (1978) systemic functional linguistics can be used to develop a shared language to explicitly teach and assess reflective writing in higher education courses. The paper outlines key theories and scales of reflection, and then uses systemic functional linguistics to develop a social semiotic model for reflective writing. Examples of reflective writing are analysed to show how such a model can be used explicitly to improve the reflective writing skills of higher education students.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 2009
Studies in Continuing Education, 2012
Ryan, M. (in press). Conceptualising and teaching discursive and performative reflection in highe... more Ryan, M. (in press). Conceptualising and teaching discursive and performative reflection in higher education. Studies in Continuing Education.
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 2013
The teacher as reflexive professional: making visible the excluded discourse in teacher standards... more The teacher as reflexive professional: making visible the excluded discourse in teacher standards. Discourse, 34(3), pp. 411-423.
Critical Discourse Studies, 2008
The influences of family, religion, social, cultural, and economic discourses are deeply inscribe... more The influences of family, religion, social, cultural, and economic discourses are deeply inscribed in the practices of young people. This article argues that by tracing 'small stories' through their accounts, we can make visible 'big issues' in their world views, and come to a better understanding of the complexities of their subjectification processes. Poststructural inquiry and critical discourse analysis (CDA) are used to frame and analyse the positionings of a small group of 16 year-olds to show how they use 'small stories' to mount arguments and counter-arguments, introduce 'theories' and gain support for their views. Their interactions provide as much insight into their identities as what they actually say; therefore both content and interaction are key analytical foci. These findings have implications for how we choose sections of interviews for fine-grained textual analysis.
Australian Journal of Language and …, 2003
Globalisation and societal change suggest the language and literacy skills needed to make meaning... more Globalisation and societal change suggest the language and literacy skills needed to make meaning in our lives are increasing and changing radically. Multiliteracies are influencing the future of literacy teaching. One aspect of the pedagogy of multiliteracies is recruiting learners' previous and current experiences as an integral part of the learning experience. This paper examines the implications of results from a project that examined student responses to a postmodern picture book, in particular, ways teachers might develop students' self-knowledge about reading. It draws on Freebody and Luke's Four Resources Model of Reading and recently developed models for teaching multiliteracies. 'If we weren't doing any sessions, I probably wouldn't have thought much about the book being about Europeans and Aboriginals. I probably just thought it was like … It probably just meant to be like one of the others; that they just have no meaning to it. They're just basically there, like Spot or something.' Susan (pseudonym) age 11 This quote from Susan was from the last of four sessions in which a small group of Year Six students read and discussed The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan. The lessons formed part of a small case study, originally conceptualised to explore the notion that students from different backgrounds, cultures and countries might interpret the book differently. The study was conducted in parallel with a similar group of students in the UK and findings were to be compared. However, when the sessions were complete it became apparent that there were implications beyond simply ascertaining that students drew on different socio-cultural resources in order to make meaning. As Susan herself said if there 'hadn't been any sessions' then she would never have accessed other possible meanings in this text. It was this comment that led us to reexamine the transcripts of the sessions with other questions in mind. The re-examination of the transcripts focused on the role 'knowledge about reading' plays in assisting students to make meaning, This time we considered students' identity in terms of both their socio-cultural characteristics and their knowledge and experiences 9
British Journal of Sociology of Education, 2011
British Educational Research Journal, 2011
Educational reform both nationally and internationally is underpinned by an emancipatory agenda, ... more Educational reform both nationally and internationally is underpinned by an emancipatory agenda, in particular the principles of social justice. Educators are called upon to achieve this through a pedagogy which is immersed in the language of critical theory. Whilst syllabus documents and curriculum policies reflect such an agenda, it begs the question of whether such policies and pedagogical practices are influencing the everyday social lives and practices of youth, particularly in cases where emancipation is not a key issue. Are contemporary youth making choices that further the critical transformative cause, or are our critical pedagogies simply serving to perpetuate dominant understandings? Within a critical poststructuralist framework, this paper explores and interprets accounts of youth enactment of the tenets of critical pedagogy within their multiliterate lives.
Reflective Practice, 2016
Creative and arts-based facilitators who work in the area of supporting others, such as youth wor... more Creative and arts-based facilitators who work in the area of supporting others, such as youth workers, educators, counsellors and therapists, often do not prioritise their own wellbeing and self-care. This paper explores a study that focused on the utility of multimodal reflection for sustainable as well as satisfying practice for creative facilitators. Participants in the study were involved in a trial 10-week reflective program called Stepping Outside the Circle. This program was part of a larger research project that sought to understand the professional and reflective practices of creative facilitators, a term used within the study to encompass practitioners who use arts (both performative and visual) interventions to work within a variety of therapeutic and educational settings. During the program, participants drew on their own personal knowledge of the disciplines in which they worked and reflected in and on this practice both professionally and personally. They also collaboratively supported each other through the process. We argue that engagement in multimodal reflection shared with others, particularly for creative facilitators, is integral for purposeful and effective self-care practice.
This paper discusses the teaching of writing within the competing and often contradictory spaces ... more This paper discusses the teaching of writing within the competing and often contradictory spaces of high-stakes testing and the practices and priorities around writing pedagogy in diverse school communities. It uses sociospatial theory to examine the "real-and-imagined" spaces (Soja, 1996) that influence and are influenced by teachers' pedagogical priorities for writing in two linguistically diverse elementary school case studies. Methods of critical discourse analysis are used to examine rich data sets to make visible the discourses and power relations at play in the case schools. Findings show that when teachers' practices focus on the teaching of structure and skills alongside identity building and voice, students with diverse linguistic backgrounds can produce dramatic, authoritative, and resonant texts. The paper argues that "thirdspaces" (Soja, 1996)can be forged that both attend to accountability requirements and also give the necessary attention to more complex aspects of writing necessary for students from diverse and multilingual backgrounds to invest in writing as a creative and critical form of communication for participation in society and the knowledge economy. Currently in many countries around the world, the teaching of writing is beset by converging and at times contradictory spaces for enacting pedagogical priorities. These spaces can include daily practices, locations, infrastructure, relationships, and representations of power and ideology. In Australia, the increased focus on standardization within the new national curriculum, 1 along with the regulatory and contracted spaces of testing regimes, sits uneasily beside the protracted and individualized processes that teachers have traditionally maintained for quality writing outcomes. Understanding the ways in which teachers mediate these "realand-imagined" spaces (Soja, 1996) around writing is crucial to make sense of the kinds of writing practices that ensue in specific classrooms (Ryan & Kettle, 2012) and their effects on student writing. This paper explores the writing practices in two linguistically diverse-but quite socioeconomically different-Australian elementary schools, taking into account the spaces in which these practices are
Higher education communities are not immune from the demands of the knowledge age. New technologi... more Higher education communities are not immune from the demands of the knowledge age. New technologies, rapidly evolving knowledge and policies promoting standards, outcomes and graduate attributes exhort pedagogical revision and renewal. Faculties are pressured by downsizing, global market competition and increased accountability to the public (Pierce, 1998). Consumer demands exhort educational institutions to renew their programs and processes to develop unique identities and approaches to educational provision.
Teacher educators have a responsibility not only to ensure that teachers are responsive to the ch... more Teacher educators have a responsibility not only to ensure that teachers are responsive to the changing face of schooling, but also to model these new constructions of pedagogy within their Faculty. In order to do this there is a need for teacher educators to reexamine their own pedagogical and organizational structures. In the Faculty of Education under study, this need was conceptualised as a 'Faculty Pedagogical Framework', which emerged from an extensive research based review. This paper describes and analyses initiatives that have facilitated the implementation of the collaborative teaching and learning element of the Pedagogical Framework.
Higher Education Research & Development, 2013
Multimodal approaches to reflective teaching and assessment in higher education. Higher Education... more Multimodal approaches to reflective teaching and assessment in higher education. Higher Education Research and Development, 33(3), pp. 409-424.
Higher Education Research & Development, 2013
Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education. Higher Edu... more Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education. Higher Education Research and Development, 32(2), pp. 244-257.
Curriculum and policy documents in Australia, and specifically Queensland, are underpinned by a s... more Curriculum and policy documents in Australia, and specifically Queensland, are underpinned by a socially critical agenda which foregrounds the principles of active participation and social justice. The implementation of these curricula requires teachers to employ the methods and approaches of critical pedagogy. What is in question is the capacity of such pedagogical and curriculum approaches to be genuinely transformative such that young people lead lives where social justice and social betterment are paramount. This study seeks to understand the extent to which young people are prepared to invest in such principles when they are part of a choice generation, with its focus on lifestyle and consumerism. The study focuses on the accounts of a group of high school students for whom emancipation is not a key issue. These accounts are contextualised within the broader social discourses that influence the choices made by these young people. The discourse worlds that are evident in their a...
Critical Studies in Education, 2009
This article examines interview talk of three students in an Australian high school to show how t... more This article examines interview talk of three students in an Australian high school to show how they negotiate their young adult identities between school and the outside world. It draws on Bakhtin's concepts of dialogism and heteroglossia to argue that identities are linguistically and corporeally constituted. A critical discourse analysis of segments of transcribed interviews and student-related public documents finds a mismatch between a social justice curriculum at school and its transfer into students' accounts of outside school lived realities. The article concludes that a productive social justice pedagogy must use its key principles of (con)textual interrogation to engage students in reflexive practice about their positioning within and against discourses of social justice in their student and civic lives. An impending national curriculum must decide whether or not it negotiates the discursive divide any better.
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Peer Reviewed Publications by Mary Ryan
Papers by Mary Ryan