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Mr Matt Lumb

Praxis Fellow

Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Ed.

Career Summary

Biography

My commitment to the field of access to education developed through experiences as a community development professional working on projects in Australia and in parts of Asia and Africa, and as a classroom teacher in Australian high schools.

A formative time in my professional life was working for UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) where I undertook a dual role in Australia as Education for Development Coordinator and as International Projects Officer (Monitoring and Evaluation). As Education for Development Coordinator, my role was to manage school and community-focused fundraising and advocacy initiatives; e.g. pioneering and managing relationships with NSW DET and NSW Teachers Federation around a new statewide initiative called UNICEF Day for Change.

As International Projects Officer (Monitoring and Evaluation) I worked in Australia and overseas to liaise between local stakeholders of development practice, representatives of UNICEF and other UN agencies in overseas development contexts, and the Australian Government - to monitor program processes, identify future funding needs, and produce nuanced reporting and evaluation products. This role involved numerous visits to development contexts including Zambia (HIV/AIDS orphans & prevention of transmission between mother and child), Laos (Child Protection against UXO or Unexploded Ordinance), Indonesia (Polio Vaccination), Vietnam (Iodine Deficiency) and Fiji (Health Technologies).

As a teacher in NSW public schools in the central west of the state, I gained renewed appreciation of the role education plays in relational processes underlying the possibility of community development. It was in this context I acquired a deeper understanding of the ways that pedagogy, curricular and assessment structures impact on subjectivity, identity and life trajectory.

Working for Australian Red Cross as firstly Refugee Support Coordinator and then as manager of a community service called Tenant Connect, I experienced the tensions and contradictions of community based and not-for-profit organisations in terms of the spectrum from service to development. I was privileged to work with a diversity of experienced practitioners across this spectrum and to learn about the ways processes of evaluation can themselves be programs of practice.

Since 2011, I have worked at the University of Newcastle as an outreach practitioner and is currently enrolled in a PhD with the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education, investigating the concealed impacts of outreach connections. I have an interest in the ways sophisticated participatory methodologies have the potential to make evaluative processes more productive, and to deliver nuanced and contextualised understandings of the underlying dynamics that produce program impact.

Keywords

  • community development
  • critical pedagogy
  • educational access
  • educational participation
  • equity
  • evaluation
  • international development
  • social inequalities
  • social justice
  • sociology of education
  • widening participation

Fields of Research

Code Description Percentage
160801 Applied Sociology, Program Evaluation and Social Impact Assessment 25
160809 Sociology of Education 50
130103 Higher Education 25

Professional Experience

Professional appointment

Dates Title Organisation / Department
1/10/2009 - 1/12/2010 Tenant Connect Manager

Responsibilities:
  • Developing and monitoring an implementation plan for the establishment of the Housing NSW Tenant Connect service in Newcastle and Parramatta
  • Leading the development of solutions to technical problems
  • Coordinating a risk analysis and manage identified risks
  • Coordinating the development of policies and procedures
  • Coordinating the development and implementation of a marketing strategy
  • Monitoring the budget and financial aspects of the program
  • Ensure a monitoring and evaluation framework is developed and implemented consistent with and supportive of requirements of Housing NSW
  • Effectively liaise with the Regional Managers to embed Tenant Connect into operations in these regions and to transfer management to regional structures
  • Consolidating and extending the relationship with Housing NSW
  • Effective liaison with other functional areas within Red Cross including IT, marketing, finance and HR
  • Maintaining effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders in the program, including senior management

 Australian Red Cross
Australia
1/07/2008 - 1/10/2009 High School English Teacher

Responsibilities:
  • Classroom teacher of English and Computing Studies (7-12)
  • Assisting Aboriginal Education Officers with NAIDOC Day celebrations
  • Managing redevelopment of school website
  • Helping to coordinate school electronic reporting system

 NSW Department of Education
1/02/2007 - 1/06/2008 Refugee Support Coordinator

Responsibilities:

  • planning, developing, monitoring and evaluating the Harmony in Living project
  • monitoring and evaluating program using quantitative and qualitative data
  • managing two casual staff members (Sudanese and Congolese men) as part of evaluation phase of program
  • analysing program impact using social capital theory
  • building relationships with CALD network in Newcastle
  • building relationships with African refugee program participants
  • using innovative media to share refugee stories with large audiences
  • monitoring program budget

 Australian Red Cross
Australia
1/08/2004 - 1/02/2007 Education for Development Coordinator & International Project Officer (Monitoring and Evaluation)

Responsibilities:

  • Monitoring and evaluation trips to UNICEF health, education and child protection projects in Zambia, Vietnam, Laos, Fiji and Indonesia
  • Coordinating program direction and donor support for HIV and Reproductive Health projects guided by UNICEF counterparts in Zambia
  • Liaising with Global Task Force on Education for Development with members from various countries; including attending 2006 Education, Advocacy and Communications consultations in Senegal (Dakar) and Morocco (Rabat)
  • Presentations at UNICEF Australia board meetings on project initiatives
  • Leveraging global partnerships to build on domestic sporting partnerships (e.g. ATP - Association of Tennis Professionals)
  • Pioneering and managing relationships with NSW DET and NSW Teachers Federation around a new statewide initiative called UNICEF Day for Change
  • Managing various schools-focused fundraising/advocacy campaigns
  • Media and public speaking engagements on child rights to corporations, schools and general public around Australia - NSW, VIC, QLD, WA
  • Building online strategy for the Education for Development program

 UNICEF Australia

Invitations

Committee Member

Year Title / Rationale
2006 Global Committee - Education for Development

Contributor

Year Title / Rationale
2014 What We Recommend
2006 Global Task Force on Education for Development

Keynote Speaker

Year Title / Rationale
2012 Hunter TAFE Community Services Graduation

Speaker

Year Title / Rationale
2017 The inedito viavel (untested feasibility) of practitioner imaginations: reflections on the challenges and possibilities of dialogic praxis for equity and widening participation
2015 Practical Positive Education Partnerships
2015 Widening participation by narrowing digital divides
2014 European Access Network
2006 UNICEF Global Education, Advocacy and Communications consultation
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Publications

For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.

Journal article (1 outputs)

Year Citation Altmetrics Link
2017 Lumb M, Roberts S, 'The inedito viavel (untested feasibility) of practitioner imaginations: Reflections on the challenges and possibilities of dialogic praxis for equity and widening participation', International Studies in Widening Participation, 4 18-33 (2017)

Creative Work (1 outputs)

Year Citation Altmetrics Link
2013 Lumb M, Hope, Newcastle (2013)
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Grants and Funding

Summary

Number of grants 1
Total funding $8,480

Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.

20171 grants / $8,480

Educational futures: exploring emerging educational models in regional NSW and their impact upon student engagement and access to higher education$8,480

Funding body: University of Newcastle

Funding body University of Newcastle
Project Team Professor Penny Jane Burke, Professor John Fischetti, Doctor Matthew Bunn, Mr Matt Lumb
Scheme Linkage Pilot Research Grant
Role Investigator
Funding Start 2017
Funding Finish 2017
GNo G1701351
Type Of Funding Internal
Category INTE
UON Y
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News

John McIntyre Conference Centre University of Edinburgh

European Access Network

May 16, 2014

Staff from the University of Newcastle will attend the 23rd annual European Access Network being held at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland from June 2-4, 2014.

Mr Matt Lumb

Position

Praxis Fellow
Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education
Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Ed.
Academic Division

Contact Details

Email matt.lumb@newcastle.edu.au
Phone (02) 4921 7912
Fax (02) 4921 5613
Links Twitter
Personal webpage
Personal webpage

Office

Room IDC211
Building IDC
Location Callaghan
University Drive
Callaghan, NSW 2308
Australia
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University of Newcastle

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