Tess Boyle

Biography

Dr Tess Boyle is an Adjunct Associate Researcher in the Centre for Children and Young People at Southern Cross University. Before commencing work in the tertiary sector, Tess was a primary school teacher and author of classroom texts and resources. The highly successful Science and Technology Today series, co-authored by Tess, has sold over 180,000 copies in Australia and overseas.

Research

Tess’s research interests include educational transitions; middle leading; ethical practices; cross-sectorial continuity and alignment. Tess has considerable expertise in children’s learning and the pedagogies that support this. She has engaged in research projects with government and non-government education authorities in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Recent collaborations with industry partners include; Continuity and alignment in the early years; Ethical practices involving children; Middle leading practices; Developing early years resources (videos); Policy development; Cross-sectorial perspectives of transitions to school. Tess’s doctoral thesis (by publication) titled Reframing transitions to school as continuity practices was awarded 2019 Thesis of the Year by Early Childhood Australia (Victoria) and nominated for the 2019 Vice Chancellors Commendation for Thesis Excellence (Monash University). In 2019 Tess was successful in applying for an SCU internal grant and two category 2.3 external grants.

Community engagement

Tess has been a member of the Pedagogy Education and Praxis (PEP) network since 2014. Established by Professor Stephen Kemmis (2008), the network includes scholarly communities across Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Columbia. Tess has contributed to the community engagement actions of the group at a local, national and international level. Collaborating with Professor Peter Grootenboer (Griffith University), Tess co-founded the Gold Coast practice theory reading group - a communicative space for scholars (including doctoral students) to engage in dialogue about practice theory. Initially comprised of scholars from Southern Cross and Griffith universities, broader interest in the group has seen it grow into an international, inter-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration with over 20 members from six universities across Australia and New Zealand. Tess has also contributed to other PEP community events including hosting the PEP Australia symposium at SCU’s Gold Coast campus in 2017, presenting at PEP’s international conference (2018) and doctoral workshops (2019, 2020).

Supervision

Tess is currently co-supervising the following Higher Degree Research project.

• A teaching/learning wellbeing divide? An exploration of the role of pastoral care practices in whole-school approaches to wellbeing. Doctor of Philosophy with Professor Anne Graham

Teaching

• Tess has more than forty years of experience as a teacher and teacher educator. Working in primary schools, Tess taught across all year levels and held leadership roles. In the tertiary sector, Tess teaches in several initial teacher education units and programs. She has coordinated the professional experience (practicum) program, bachelor of primary education degree, and first-year experience. In 2017 Tess was awarded a Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Students) Commendation for Teaching Excellence.

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