Lexi Lasczik - Southern Cross University

Words: Jason Purdie
Published: 29 November 2024

Early in her career, in secondary schools in a rough part of Sydney, Professor Lexi Lasczik would keep a canvas at the back of the classroom. She did this because she thought it was important for her students to see her as an artist as well as their teacher.

“During a break, or if the students were occupied, I would go and work on my canvas,” she says.

“Students would see me struggle. They would see me vulnerable. Sometimes they would ask how I’d done a specific technique and I would show them, directly on my canvas. Sometimes I’d be stuck on something and would ask for ideas.

“It put me at the same level as them. In my classroom they are not just my students – they are artists.”

This passion for the arts and for engaging with students has defined Professor Lasczik’s career.

She is an educator, respected researcher, artist and co-lead at Southern Cross University’s Sustainability, Environment and the Arts in Education (SEAE) Research Centre. She is also Southern Cross University's Associate Dean Education Partnerships.

Professor Lasczik is resolute about the role of the arts in education; especially its power to connect with children who are disengaged, vulnerable or living with trauma.

Her deep values around inclusion were set in her formative years as a child of migrants in Newcastle, where her surname and hand-sewn, European-styled clothes made her a target for the locals.

“It was a blue-collar town and we were part of a tiny, but strong Hungarian community,” she said.

“We copped quite a bit – there was a lot of bullying and discrimination. We were very isolated.”

She was however surrounded by loving family with broad interests in philosophy, classical music, the arts and history. These experiences gave rise to her award-winning arts-based PhD thesis that explored the Hungarian diaspora, displacements, identities and belonging.

In time, in adolescence, Professor Lasczik would come to find broader acceptance and approval for two talents.

One was her capacity for the arts and the other was on the sporting field and in the pool. It set up an interesting crossroads.

“I was going to be a PE teacher,” she says with a laugh. “At the last minute I changed and decided I was going to be an art teacher instead. Thank goodness I did!”

Professor Lexi Lasczik in the art classroom

It is characteristic for Professor Lasczik to project passion and energy.

“It is magical when a good teacher can open the entire world to a young person through art,” she said.

“Art-making is a human behaviour. Look back through the ages and art is in all places and all times.

“Literacy and numeracy are important, but I can teach literacy and numeracy in my art class in ways that will really stick.”

Professor Lasczik says an industrial approach to education does a disservice to students.

“We have our kids batched by age and we push them through an assembly line,” she said.

“Look at NAPLAN and look at how much pressure that puts on our principals and teachers.

“A ranking table is the function of a factory model – a model that does not achieve what we need our education system to achieve.

“Engaging in art practice is a way to make sense of things, to speculate and experience. It’s a language that can say things that you can’t say in words. It is enriching and satisfying – two things that education ought to be.”

Professor Lasczik’s outstanding contribution has been recognised with a Faculty of Education Researcher of the Year Award – twice – and Faculty of Education HDR Supervisor of the Year Award.

Her contribution as an educator has earned an OLT Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning and a Vice-Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.

SEAE is one of three research entities in the Faculty of Education, along with TeachLab and the Early Years Research Lab.

Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education Professor Amy-Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles – herself a nationally regarded researcher – leads SEAE with Professor Lasczik.

“I believe what we do at Southern Cross is making an important contribution to addressing the issues unpacked by the Teacher Education Expert Panel,” Professor Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles said. “Both in terms of the high quality of our graduates and in understanding the challenges that are facing the system.

“Many of our leading researchers have deep experience in the classroom, with a passion for teaching that led them to an academic career. Now as researchers, they are breaking new ground in our understanding.

“We then use that to inform how we prepare our students for the classroom, ensuring they are well-equipped for the important role they have to play when they graduate.”

Education and Teaching