Aspa Baroutsis

Biography

Aspa Baroutsis is an Associate Professor and researcher at the Faculty of Education. She was awarded the Vice Chancellor's Award for Research Excellence (mid-career researcher) in 2023. Aspa currently holds an Australian Research Council Linkage grant, investigating ways to support teachers and teaching in flexible and non-traditional schools. She is the Chair of Discipline (Primary) at the Faculty of Education, and the Academic Integrity Officer.

Research

Aspa's background is in the sociology of education, digital technology, and media and cultural studies. Her program of research is interconnected through the concept of educational identity, and driven by social justice and educational equity. Aspa's research explores the tensions between the policies and practices that govern education systems, the public perceptions and practices of schooling, and how these perceptions, policies and practices shape, and are reshaped, by the people and organisations inside and outside of education. Her recent research includes the portrayals of teachers, teaching, and schools across traditional print and social media; learning engagement and student voice across mainstream and alternative school settings; and digital pedagogies and school learning spaces that support student belonging and participation.

Aspa has published widely in the field, having authored over 36 research publications in scholarly journals and with notable book publishers, co-authoring a number of these publications with other leading scholars in the field. Her most recent book is titled Exploring education policy through newspapers and social media: The politics of mediatisation, published by Routledge. In addition to her scholarly research publications, she continues to publish in professional teacher journals, often with teachers, thereby making her research relevant and accessible to a wider public audience. 

Teaching

Aspa is the Chair of Discipline (Primary) at the Faculty of Education. Aspa's teaching philosophy is based on social justice and the transformational potential of education. Aspa adopts a relational approach to her teaching. She aims to create authentic, relational, and meaningful learning environments to develop capable, and passionate educators who can change the lives of those they teach. 

As change is constant, this provides the impetus for life-long learning. Her approach to teaching encourages students to think critically and reflectively about issues, to make informed choices, to speak up, to be kind and inclusive, to have respect for life and the environment. Through her teaching, Aspa encourages her students to become part of a positive change process, instigated by and through knowledge gained from their education.  As such, Aspa's teaching approach focuses on the connections between things and ideas, as she believes this promotes understanding. 

Service

Aspa was elected as the communications co-ordinator for the Australian Association for Research in Education (2018-2020), the peak body for education research, and had led their social media marketing.

Aspa serves of the SCU Human Research Ethics Committee and is the Academic Integrity Officer for the Faculty of Education.