Professor Allyson Holbrook

Professor Holbrook has a research background in Educational Assessment and Evaluation, the History and Futures of Education, the History of Youth Transition and Workplace Education and Studies in Higher Education. She has a long record of teaching research methods, with a particular emphasis on qualitative methods, and of supervising research students and mentoring research staff.

In recent years she co-edited the book Supervision of Postgraduate Research in Education (1999) with Professor Sue Johnston, and with Associate Professor Bob Bessant co-authored Reflections on Educational Research in Australia: A History of the Australian Association for Research in Education (1995). She is currently leading a team of researchers in an ARC Discovery Grant project that focuses on PhD assessment.

Professor Holbrook has served on the executive of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) as research training coordinator, and as President of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES). Until recently she was a member of the Council of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and continues her association with the ACER as a member of the Standing Committee in 1999 for Educational Research.

Working with a consortium of researchers from the University of Newcastle, University of Melbourne and the ACER, she recently engaged in a study of the Impact of Educational Research in Australia (DETYA 2000). The report, "Mapping Educational Research and its Impact on Australian Schools" provided the most comprehensive mapping yet undertaken of educational research in Australia, and surveyed a large number of stakeholders nationally. The study used a mixed method approach to address questions such as: What is being done in educational research, in what concentrations and for what reasons. How is the knowledge created by research obtained, translated, dispersed and applied? Is such research addressing identified areas of need and making a difference with respect to what goes on in schools and at the level of policy making? The report has been used widely by other systems and and the method has been replicated

Professor Holbrook has a research background in Educational Assessment and Evaluation, the History and Futures of Education, the History of Youth Transition and Workplace Education and Studies in Higher Education. She has a long record of teaching research methods, with a particular emphasis on qualitative methods, and of supervising research students and mentoring research staff.

In recent years she co-edited the book Supervision of Postgraduate Research in Education (1999) with Professor Sue Johnston, and with Associate Professor Bob Bessant co-authored Reflections on Educational Research in Australia: A History of the Australian Association for Research in Education (1995). She is currently leading a team of researchers in an ARC Discovery Grant project that focuses on PhD assessment.

Professor Holbrook has served on the executive of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) as research training coordinator, and as President of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES). Until recently she was a member of the Council of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and continues her association with the ACER as a member of the Standing Committee in 1999 for Educational Research.

Working with a consortium of researchers from the University of Newcastle, University of Melbourne and the ACER, she recently engaged in a study of the Impact of Educational Research in Australia (DETYA 2000). The report, "Mapping Educational Research and its Impact on Australian Schools" provided the most comprehensive mapping yet undertaken of educational research in Australia, and surveyed a large number of stakeholders nationally. The study used a mixed method approach to address questions such as: What is being done in educational research, in what concentrations and for what reasons. How is the knowledge created by research obtained, translated, dispersed and applied? Is such research addressing identified areas of need and making a difference with respect to what goes on in schools and at the level of policy making? The report has been used widely by other systems and and the method has been replicated.

Contact:
Phone: +61 2 4968 6710/+61 2 4921 5945
Email: Allyson.Holbrook @newcastle.edu.au

Click here to view Professor Holbrook's Staff Researcher Profile

For Professor Holbrook's SORTI related publications, see the SORTI Publications  pages