Dr Daniella Forster

Biography

Daniella completed first class Honours in the School of Philosophy and Bioethics in 2002 at Monash University and a Diploma of Education at the University of Melbourne the following year. She was awarded her PhD in 2011.

Qualifications

• PhD (Teacher Education), Monash University, 2011
• Graduate Diploma in Education, University of Melbourne, 2002
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Monash University, 2002
• Bachelor of Arts, Monash University, 2001

Research

Research keywords

• Philosophy of education
• Professional ethics
• Teacher education
• Values education

Research expertise

My research interests include professional/applied ethics, educational philosophy and community of inquiry pedagogy for teacher education. My research often draws from theories of virtue, care and authenticity and explores the implications of moral particularism for professional ethics in pluralist contexts but also draws on the analysis of empirical data around pre-service teachers' experiences of ethical tensions.

My current work crosses into comparative research of codes of ethics in Australian education and I am particularly interested in the intersection of policy around teacher ethics, models of teacher professionalism and moral agency, the ways these are discursively constructed and their implications for teacher education in ethics and the autonomy of the profession.

I am part of CIEGUN (Comparative and International Education Group University of Newcastle) research reading group and am an associate member of the Adaptive Knowledge Production team.

Fields of Research

Centres and Groups

Centre

• Centre for the Study of Research Training and Impact (SORTI)

Administrative

Administrative expertise

I coordinated the Centre of Public Philosophy in the School of Philosophy and Bioethics (2004-2008) at Monash University, Clayton campus. My brief at The Centre for Public Philosophy was to connect the community, particularly school and professional communities, with dimensions of philosophy and philosophical thinking. In this role I provided community and media liaison with academic philosophers; lead and developed school programs for students and teachers in ethics and critical thinking. This work was based on the premiss that philosophy and philosophical thinking can help teachers and young people engage with the complexity of ethical, meaning-centred education and promote critical dialogue in society.

I am currently the coordinator of Teach Outreach in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, since 2012. This role promotes community-university connectivity by providing opportunities for a wide range of community partners to engage volunteering pre-service teachers in supportive, structured and supervised learning and teaching activities. Activities include, for example, volunteering experiences in special needs, disadvantaged groups, refugee groups, reading, writing and maths tutoring, Indigenous literacy initiatives, sports carnivals, music tutoring, excursions and school celebrations.

Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Educational philosophy
• Foundations
• Professional ethics
• Professional practice
• Values education

Teaching expertise

As a secondary school teacher at Lauriston Girls’ School in Armadale, Victoria (2005-2008) I taught into the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) through Unit 1 Philosophy and the International Baccalaureate (I.B.) through the Theory of Knowledge. I gained interdisciplinary tertiary teaching experience in the School of Philosophy and Bioethics and the Faculty of Education across undergraduate programs at Monash University between 2002 and 2008, including courses in Professional Ethics, Critical Thinking, Adolescent Psychology and Curriculum Studies.

I took up a lecturing position at the School of Education at the University of Newcastle in 2009 and teach into foundations, professional practice and ethics courses in secondary and early childhood education programs. I coordinated the development of a suite of courses for a specialisation in Philosophy of Education in the Master of Educational Studies program. I coordinate, lecture and tutor in various final year professional practice and ethics courses which have included courses in various programs such as Early Childhood, Secondary undergraduate internship and Masters of Teaching (Secondary).