Conjoint Professor Gregory Leigh

Since leaving Deakin University in 1993 as a junior academic I have been actively engaged in the development of new services and centres for professional education and research in the fields of education of children with sensory disabilities. From 1993 until 1999, I was Head of Renwick College, a centre for professional Education and research which was administered by the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC) in affiliation with the University of Newcastle. During that period, the Centre grew from its origins to accommodate graduate level educational programs (of the University of Newcastle) for more than 80 students (now more than 120 students, approximately 50 EFTSU). That period of growth and development in academic programs was accompanied by a heavy commitment to teaching in postgraduate coursework Throughout that period, however, I managed a modest commitment to research activity and a heavy commitment to professional consultancy and scholarship through engagement with the professional field, including four years on the organising committee (ultimately as Chair) for the International Congress on Education of the Deaf and the Asia Pacific Congress on Deafness which was held in Sydney in 2000. During that same period I was a joint principal investigator on two ARC linkage (in one case SPIRT) grants including one very successful program evaluating and seeking developmental guidelines for bilingual educational programs for deaf children. The outcomes of that work are still being experienced as new programs have been significantly influenced by those findings. For the six years form 1999 until 2005, I was Assistant Chief Executive of the Royal Institute for deaf and Blind Children. During that period of intensive engagement in high level administration I have managed to maintain a continuing engagement in research having been a joint chief investigator on another ARC linkage grant and as a partner investigator on a current Linkage Grant application seeking to develop a program to examine and describe infant language development of deaf Mandarin speakers, in collaboration with researchers form Beijing. And the MARCS Auditory Research Centre. During this same period of time I have been on the editorial Board of the most influential an respected scientific journal in the field of education of deaf children (The Oxford Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education), having acted as joint guest editor for one special series inclusion. I am also on the Editorial Board of the British journal Deafness and Education International. So, during a period of having been being the most senior administrator of Australias largest independent educational service system for deaf children, with more than 220 staff, I have maintained a modest but constant publication stream in the research literature ad a constant presence in the development of the broader field in regard to academic and research discourse. The relative size of the corpus of both my grant activity and publication output should be judged relative to the industry-based administrative engagement that I have had as well as the significant ongoing commitment to teaching and administration and consultancy in the broader field. During the last 6 years I have supervised three PHD students to completion and have two current PhD/MPhil students and a third in prospect. In the context of such active involvement in industry-based activity, I submit that the research output has been extensive and forms the basis for important outcomes in the context of a small but extremely important area of academic and research endeavour. Indeed, the formation of Renwick College (now the Renwick Centre) over the period of my involvement has created a centre which has reversed a trend of diminishing provision of research and professional training in the small but highly specialised field of education for children with sensory disabilities.

Research Expertise
My research has focused on issues in classroom interaction and communication between teachers and their deaf studentsparticularly with regard to the form and function of their signed language communication. Career research funding stands at $373,000; including $354,000 in national competitive research grants and $19,000 in university-administered competitive research grants. I am currently listed as a co-investigator on an application by researchers at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) in regard to a national study of outcomes for children with impaired hearing that has reached the final 5% of applications being considered for funding in 2007. In 1991, I was a visiting research associate in the Centre for Deafness Studies and Research at Griffith University, Queensland. In 2003, I was invited to be Visiting International Scholar at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, USA. I am a member, of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Oxford University Press, and Deafness and Education International, Wiley Publishing.

Teaching Expertise
I have coordinated 23 different courses in five different Australian Universities or Colleges as either a full-time or part-time member of academic staff. These courses have all focused on aspects of the education of deaf and hard of hearing children with a particular emphasis in the areas of language and literacy development. The vast majority of teaching experience has been at a postgraduate level. As the foundation Head of the innovative Renwick College Program (a joint initiative of the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind children and the University of Newcastle), I was responsible for the development of the curriculum for all courses in the Master of Special Education (Sensory disability) program at the University of Newcastle. The RIDBC/university collaboration with the University of Newcastle Renwick College Program was recognised with the award of the Business Higher Education Roundtable Award for Outstanding Achievement in Collaboration in Education & Training. My personal teaching evaluations within that program have always been of the highest order. The institutions where I have coordinated or lectured within courses include (The University if Newcastle, Deakin University, The University of Melbourne, Victoria College and Brisbane C.A.E., and Rochester Institute of Technology, USA). Across 20 years as a university academic I have held the position of Course (Program) director for the Master of Special Education (Sensory Disability) program at the University of Newcastle and for the Graduate Diploma in Special Education (Hearing Impairment) at both Deakin University and Victoria College (Burwood). During this same period I have successfully supervised 7 higher degree students and currently have two RHD students.

Administrative Expertise
As a member of the senior executive of the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC) I have held the position of Assistant Chief Executive, and Chair of the Renwick Centre (the senior most executive responsible for research and professional education within the organisation). During my 14 years at RIDBC I have overseen the development of research and professional Education programs in affiliation with the University of Newcastle. During this same period I have assumed national and international roles in the administration of committees and professional bodies as follows: Chair, National Newborn Hearing Screening Committee; Chair, International Steering Committee, Asia Pacific Congress on Deafness; Chair, International Committee, International Congress on Education of the Deaf; Appointed Member, Ministerial Standing Committee on Hearing, New South Wales Department of Health, Government of New South Wales; Member, Advisory Board, MARCS Auditory Research Centre, University of Western Sydney; Congress Chairman, 19th International Congress on Education of the Deaf and 7th Asia Pacific Congress on Deafness, Sydney, 2000; Chair, Academic Board, Renwick College, Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children / University of Newcastle, New South Wales; National President of Education Commission, XIII World Congress, World Federation of the Deaf (an international non-government organisation in affiliation with ECOSOC, UNESCO, ILO and WHO).