Associate Professor Geoff Munns
Geoff Munns has worked extensively with case study and action research methodologies. His research and publications have been in the areas of:
- student engagement
- student aspirations
- student retention
- teachers’ work
- literacy
- classroom pedagogy and classroom curriculum.
Dr Munns' research focuses on ways to improve social and academic outcomes for educationally disadvantaged students, including those from Indigenous backgrounds. He has a strong research record in ARC funded projects, and is currently Chief Investigator for 2 projects under the Discovery Indigenous Researcher Development Scheme, as well as Chief Investigator for 2 ARC Linkages Project. As leader of the Fair Go Project, Geoff Munns has developed the most significant and productive research activity around engagement for students in poverty in Australia. It is the major research project for the NSW DET’s Priority Schools Programs, has had active research and professional development involvement in 10 educationally disadvantaged schools over an 8 year period and has a national and international publication reputation.
Before working at UWS, Geoff Munns had 25 years experience in schools serving poor communities as a classroom teacher, school executive and Principal. His doctoral studies (case study methodology) were undertaken while he was Assistant Principal and then Principal of one of the most disadvantaged schools in NSW. It brought new and important insights into the nature of classroom relationships between the students and their teachers. As a university researcher his research has continued this strongly focused commitment to making schools and classrooms more productive for poor students.
Geoff Munns has co-developed a framework on student engagement and motivation that has been employed on a major report to DEST on how to improve the motivation, engagement and academic outcomes of boys from rural, remote, poor and Indigenous communities. As a researcher, Geoff Munns has a valuable and rare combination of classroom experiences as a teacher of students in poverty, long standing relationships with, and commitment to, poor Australian communities, and these have formed the focus of his academic pursuits.
Qualifications
BA (UNE), MLitt (UNE), MEd Hons (UNE), PhD (UNE)
Grants and Current Projects
Teachers for a fair go: A study of teachers who ‘make a difference’ to students in poverty (ARC, 2008)
Conditions for Success to Enhance Aboriginal Education (ARC, 2008)
Documentation and Multi-method Critical Analysis of Ngarabal and Biripi Elders’ Perspectives and Experiences of Australian History (ARC, 2007)
Selected Publications
Books
Groundwater-Smith, S, Brennan, M, Mitchell, J, McFadden, M. & Munns, G. (2008) Secondary Schooling in a Changing World, Melbourne: Cengage.
Chapters
Munns, G., Lawson, J., O’Brien, M. & Johnson, K. (2006) Student Engagement and the Fair Go Project, in Fair Go Team, School Is For Me: Pathways to Student Engagement, Sydney: Priority Schools Programs, NSW Department of Education and Training.
Munns, G., Woodward, H. & Koletti, J. (2006) Engagement and Student Self Assessment, in Fair Go Team, School Is For Me: Pathways to Student Engagement, Sydney: Priority Schools Programs, NSW Department of Education and Training.
Simpson, L., McFadden, M.G. & Munns, G. (2001) Someone has to go through: Indigenous boys, staying on at school and negotiating masculinities, in Martino, W. & Meyenn, B. (eds) What About the Boys? Issues of Masculinity in Schools, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Munns, G. (1998) They Just Can’t Hack That: Aboriginal Students, Their Teachers and Responses to Schools and Classrooms, in Partington, G. (ed), Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education, Wentworth Falls: Social Science Press.
Journal Articles
Munns, G., Zammit, K. & Woodward, H. (2008) Reflections from the riot zone: The Fair Go Project and student engagement in a besieged community, Journal of Children and Poverty, 14 (2) 157-171.
Munns, G., Martin, A. & Craven, R. (2008) To Free the Spirit? Motivation and Engagement of Indigenous Students, Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37, 98-107.
Munns, G. (2007) A sense of wonder: pedagogies to engage students who live in poverty, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 11 (3), 301-315.
Munns, G. & Woodward, H. (2006) The REAL Framework: Student Engagement and Student Self-Assessment, Primary English Notes, 155, Primary English Teachers Association.
Munns, G. & Woodward, H. (2006) Student Engagement and Student Self-assessment: The REAL Framework, Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 13 (2), 193-213.
Munns, G. (2005) School as a Cubbyhouse: Tensions Between Intent and Practice in Classroom Curriculum, Curriculum Perspectives, 25 (1), 1-12.
Munns, G., Lawson, J. & Mootz, D. (2003) Aboriginal students and new literacies, Journal of the Aboriginal Studies Association, 145-153.
Parente, A., Craven, R. & Munns, G. (2003) What do Indigenous students say about their aspirations? Journal of the Aboriginal Studies Association, 11-22.
McFadden, M. & Munns, G. (2002) Student engagement and the social relations of pedagogy, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23 (3), 357-366.
Munns, G. & McFadden, M. G. (2000) First Chance, Second Chance or Last Chance? Resistance and Response to Education, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 21, 59-76.
Munns, G., Simpson, L., Connelly, J. & Townsend, T. (1999) Baiyai – meeting place of two parties: the pedagogical literacy relationship, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 22 (2), 147-164.
Simpson, L., Munns, G. & Clancy, S. (1999) Language Tracks: Aboriginal English and the Classroom, Primary English Notes, Primary English Teachers Association.
Reports
Munns, G., Lawson, J. & Mootz, D. (2003) Aboriginal Literacy Research Project, report to the NSW Board of Studies.
Craven, R., Tucker, A., Munns, G., Hinkley, J., Marsh, H.W., & Simpson, K. (2003) Indigenous Students’ Aspirations: Dreams, Perceptions and Realities, DEST Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Munns, G., Arthur, L., Downes, T., Gregson, R., Power, A., Sawyer, W., Singh, M., Thistleton-Martin, J. & Steele, F. (2006) Motivation and Engagement of Boys: Evidence-based Teaching Practices, Report to the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Contact
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