Here is the third of the occasional Q&A posts where a member of staff answers some questions about their teaching and research habits and interests. Associate Professor Geoff Shacklock is Director of Learning and Teaching within the School of Education.
What are your teaching/research interests?
I am not one to separate teaching and research interests. My interests include teachers’ work, applied learning, early school leaving, youth transitions, post-compulsory education, education policy, popular culture/s and student identities, and life history research. With colleagues, I have recently completed a case study of teaching and learning for pregnant and parenting secondary school students. A future direction for me concerns the reappearance of the notion of applied learning in post-compulsory education – e.g. the VCAL – and what this means for teaching and learning more widely. Is this back to the future or something else?
Website/online resource you regard as indispensable?
I don’t have any that I find indispensable as I am eclectic in how I approach online resources. Two that I enjoy are the Theory.org site and the Informal Education [INFED] site.
A favourite educationalist/author/theorist and why.
How long is a piece of string? Which hat am I wearing today? I come from a critical theory (Frankfurt School) background. As a result, in education I have long been, and continue to be, influenced by Paulo Freire and Henry Giroux… and the like. The sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman amazes me with his metaphorical logics about social life now and into the future. In education, it is in the writings and influences of John Dewey, Bill Ayers, Maxine Greene, Tom Barone, Ivor Goodson where I feel amongst like minds with the richness of educational lives and the histories of learners and teachers. For sheer beauty, where the words sing from the page, and where I am left in awe, the works of anthropologist Ruth Behar and sociologist Laurel Richardson, never fail to inspire. And, this only scratches the surface…..
Where do you do most of your teaching preparation/research?
I do this mostly at the office and also at home – sometimes elsewhere. A laptop and wireless connection are wonderful, wonderful things in our line of work.
How do you find out about newly published research?
I receive email alerts for many, many journals. So many, that I often cannot keep up. I also cruise bookshops and publishers websites from time to time. Over the top of this, I share and receive news with/from my collegiate networks.
Are professional networks important to your research/teaching? How?
Yes, up to a point. I am a member of a range of networks and associations, but personal networks that criss-cross the professional boundaries are very important to me in sustaining research and teaching. Also, I like to attend and present at a ‘different’ conference – in a professional space – that is not a part of my usual network each year or two. Last year, I did two of these. I find them challenging and invigorating. To me, this is about shifting my professional and theoretical centres of gravity and avoiding the intellectual quicksands of the comfortable and the familiar. You meet new people and who knows where this leads to in your work.
Describe your personal library.
It is my treasure chest. I know what is there and I love finding and adding another gem to to what I have. And, this does not always mean something new and just published. My library lives on shelves at the office and at home… and on the floor in each case too. I have long operated on a personal library mantra of… when you see it (what you want), buy it!
Wikipedia or Encyclopedia Britannica?
Gary, this is your trick question – isn’t it? You see, I find wikipedia great for pop culture research and often use it as a starting point for information about TV shows and movies and so on that I might need for my pop culture teaching/research. I don’t rely on it for academic/scholarly research but that doesn’t mean I won’t check it from time to time to find a shortcut or a lead for a different line of investigation. I cannot say that Encyclopedia Britannica is my first port of call very often.
Something you’d like your students to know and understand about the Library?
It is cliched, but it is the door to the world of knowledge and ideas. The wealth of access to online journals and other sources is just amazing. Take the time to learn how to use it well. It may seem like a chore, but that investment will return it self to you many, many times over in ways you cannot even imagine right now.
Favourite journal?
Once more, how long is a piece of string and which hat am I wearing today? A few…. Qualitative Inquiry; Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies*; Journal of Contemporary Ethnography; Discourse; Theory, Culture & Society (TCS)….
Something you’d like to change about the Library?
The Bundoora libary has a nice feel to it. Though, personally, I am not a fan of the steep stairs to the book collection. Digressing, I am old enough to remember what it meant, and how it felt, to go to the library to find a back issue or to see the latest issue of a favourite journal. Believe it, or not, this was a buzz. We don’t do that anymore because of our online access and the demise of print copies. Sadly, I do not physically visit the library as often as I once did. This seems a loss, but nostalgia is a tricky companion. Can/do we recreate that kind of experience? Maybe it is not so much about the information anymore, but about the context and the aesthetics of the information and our experience of it. How………..?
*We have recently gained online access to the online journal Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies via Sage Journals Online; a catalogue record will be created soon — Gary.
Posted by Gary 
Posted by Gary 
Posted by Gary 
