Staff profile

Dr Dorothy Smith

Senior Lecturer

Faculty of Education

Faculty of Education - Melbourne (Bundoora)

Room/Location EDU1 : 335, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

B.Sc(Hons), Dip Ed. Ed.D.

Brief profile

Dorothy Smith (formerly Dorothy Kearney) does research into a range of aspects of science education. Her chief research interest is the contemporary relationship between science and society: she is especially interested in the ways in which school science education frames this relationship and what such framing means for science curriculum in schools and tertiary education. 

Dorothy also has research interests in leadership and gender. Her interest in these fields began when she was a school leader and teacher of mathematics and science in secondary schools. She has substantial experience in curriculum innovation in primary and secondary school and university level: much of this work was done in her previous name of Dorothy Kearney. From 2012 she will be doing research on the Australian Research Council funded project 'Articulate Science: rethinking the school education of prospective scientists'.

 

Teaching units

EDU5STC Science and Technology in Contemporary Society

EDU5LTB Leadership and Teams

EDU5GE Gender in Education

EDU4PHA and EDU4PHB Physics Method

EDU2TPA and EDU3TPB Teaching Practicum

EDU5RME Research Methods in Education

Recent publications

Refereed Journal Articles

Smith, D. V. (2012). Gender, Science and Essentialism: the use of science to support single-sex schooling. International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, 4(3)

Smith, D. V. (2012). Becoming a scientist means becoming a citizen. In C. Bruguiere, A. Tiberghien, & P. Clement (Eds.), The ESERA 2011 Conference, Lyon, France, 6 September 2011 (Vol. 9): European Science Education Research Association

Smith, D.V. (2011). Neo-liberal individualism and a new essentialism: comparison of two Australian curriculum documents. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 43(1), 25-42.

Smith, D.V. (2011). One brief shining moment? The impact of neo-liberalism on science curriculum in the compulsory years of schooling. International Journal of Science Education, 33(9), 1273-1288.

Smith D.V., & Gunstone, R.F. (2009). Science Curriculum in the market liberal society of the 21st Century: 'Re-visioning' the idea of Science for All. Research in Science Education, 39, 1-16.

 

Refereed Conference Proceedings

Smith, D. V. (2011, 6 September). Becoming a scientist means becoming a citizen. Paper presented at the The ESERA 2011 Conference, Lyon, France.

Smith, D.V. (2007). Reframing priorities in Australian science education for a new century. Paper presented at the Sustainable, Responsible, Global: CONASTA 56 and ICASE 2007 World Conference on Science and Technology Education, The Sheraton Hotel and Mercedes College, Perth, Western Australia.

 

Articles in Professional Journals

Smith, D.V. (2012). Educating for competent outsiders to science. LabTalk 56(2), 13-16.

 

Older publications

Kearney, D.V. (1993). A decade of debate on the schooling of girls in physics: Where are we now? Research in Science Education, 23, 146-155.

Kearney, D., & Ormiston-Smith, H (1993). LIghtning: teaching physics in context. The Australian Science Teachers' Journal, 39 (4), 16-20.

Kearney, D., & Ormiston-Smith, H (1991). The Graduate Diploma in Physics and Education: a teacher training initiative. Research in Science Education, 21, 217-223.

Kearney, D., & Macdonald, J. (1987). Don't Step on my Dream. Melbourne: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board.

 

 

 

Research projects

2012 - 2014 Articulate Science: rethinking the school education of prospective scientists. ARC DP 120102714 (Dorothy Smith and Richard Gunstone).

2012 Can emerging technologies support the development of reflection in pre-service science teachers?. (Dorothy Smith and Ian Bentley)

1986 The Girls and Physics Project. Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board. (Dorothy Kearney and Judith Macdonald)