Dr Heather Sharp

Dr Heather Sharp is currently working on a research project funded by the Swedish Research Council that investigates intersections of historical consciousness and moral consciousness. The focus of this history didaktik project is History teaching in secondary schools. She is working will colleagues in Sweden and Finland for this four year funded project (2018-2021).

In 2016, Heather was awarded a competitive residency Fellowship to the prestigious Georg Eckert Institute in Germany. During this Fellowship, Heather researched ways educational media is used in History classrooms, innovative ways to teach history using ICT, and engaged in an analyse of national identity representations in History textbooks.

Heather Sharp is a Senior Lecturer and First Year Support Convenor at the School of Education, convenor of the History Network for Teachers and Researchers (HNTR); and a Special Issues Editor of Historical Encounters. Her current research investigates the teaching of difficult and controversial pasts, the influence of public history in teaching, historical representations in school curriculum, particularly textbooks and also examines the written and visual texts in picture books that deal with conflict.

Heather’s research has also included analysis of the representations of Indigenous Australians and British heritages in History textbooks across selected time periods of the Twentieth Century; and more recently, the exploration of competing representations of Gallipoli in Australian and Turkish history textbooks. Heather’s scholarship has adopted a bricolage approach that encompasses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), historical methodologies, and visual analysis techniques, framed within a Gramscian and Althusserian understanding of hegemony.

After working as a secondary school teacher (English and History) for a number of years, Heather began herUniversity career in January 2006. She has taught and coordinated Education courses in the areas of: transformative pedagogies, philosophies of education, History curriculum and pedagogies, literacies, education as a professional career, assessment, and professional experience.

Research Expertise
Dr Sharp's PhD is titled: Constructing history: Selective representations of Indigenous Australians and British heritages in Queensland History curriculum. The research was conducted through a bricolage approach, encompassing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), historical methodologies, visual analysis techniques and framed within an understanding of hegemony as espoused by Gramsci and Althusser. The thesis analysed representations of Indigenous Australians and British heritages in History textbooks across selected time periods of the twentieth century.

I also conduct research on academic and undergraduate student research partnerships. This explores the power relationships, cognitive benefits and socialising impacts that occur when academics and students work together, outside of official university courses. Beginning teacher induction is an area I have researched, specifically investigating the connection between expectations of professional support and the realities beginning teachers experience in a school setting. 

Teaching Expertise
Heather has the following university teaching expertise: supervisor of PhD, Honours and Masters students; course coordination of undergraduate and post-graduate courses; lecturing and tutoring of courses across secondary, primary and middle school degree programs. I have also coordinated programs for Research Higher Degree students who wish to embark on an academic career. I am currently the First Year Experiences Convenor for the School of Education.