Dr Deanna Meth
Academic Division,
Education Portfolio,
Curriculum Design Studios
Biography
Deanna is a Senior Lecturer, Curriculum & Learning Design in the Learning & Teaching Unit at QUT. While new to an academic role in 2019, she has over 20 years’ experience leading and supporting strategic developments related to learning, teaching and research at universities in Australia, U.K. and South Africa. This is evidenced through her recognition as Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2017. In this capacity, she has also acted as mentor and reviewer for applicants to the scheme, locally, nationally and internationally.Deanna’s experiences have translated into a wide range of research interests spanning higher education policy analysis, curriculum development and student engagement across institutional ecologies. This is exemplified in her 2016 doctoral thesis “Questioning the machine: academics’ perceptions of tensions and trade-offs in undergraduate education at one English university”.
Since joining QUT in 2018, Deanna has collaborated with Design academics to establish a program of research linked to the roll-out of the new Bachelor of Design degree (launched 2019). With a host of sub-projects, the research has yielded rich data on transdisciplinary design education, student partnerships, authentic learning, and exploring the digital-analogue divide in design visualisation and design graduate portfolios. Most notably, in-depth research on the global award-winning Impact Lab suite of transdisciplinary design units, People, Place, Planet and Purpose, has allowed for consideration and critique of notions of ‘impact’ in design education, and the critical role designers might play in collaborating to solve complex 21st century challenges concerning, for example, poverty, climate change and global health.
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Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Personal details
Positions
- Senior Lecturer, Curriculum & Learning Design
Academic Division,
Education Portfolio,
Curriculum Design Studios
Keywords
curriculum, higher education policy, discourse analysis, design education, transdisciplinary education, education for sustainability, digital learning, partnerships
Research field
Curriculum and Pedagogy, Other Built Environment and Design, Specialist Studies in Education
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- EdD (University of Sheffield)
- MSc(Geology) (University of Natal)
Professional memberships and associations
Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA)
Associate Fellow (Indigenous) of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA, Indigenous)
Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) member
Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) member
Publications
- Meth, D., (2022). Visualising tensions in undergraduate education: Clark's triangle revisited. Teaching in Higher Education. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/234940
- Meth, D., Brophy, C. & Thomson, S. (2023). A slippery cousin to ‘development'? The concept of 'impact' in teaching sustainability in design education. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(5), 1039–1056. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/241413
- Brophy, C., Meth, D., Finger, M. & Brough, D. (2023). Socially Responsive Design Education: Emerging Designers and Authentic Transdisciplinary Collaborations. In MJ. Lehtonen, T. Kauppinen & L. Sivula (Eds.), Design Education Across Disciplines: Transformative Learning Experiences for the 21st Century (pp. 33–53). Palgrave Macmillan. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/239263
- Lane, M. & Meth, D. (2021). Exploring impacts on students as givers of teaching feedback. Quality Assurance in Education, 29(2-3), 225–237. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/211738
- Meth, D., Thomson, S. & Brough, D. (2021). Design Curricula: Navigating Process and People. In A. Blackler & E. Miller (Eds.), How to be a Design Academic: From Learning to Leading (pp. 245–268). CRC Press. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/209974
- Fitzgerald, R., Huijser, H., Meth, D. & Neilan, K. (2020). Student-staff partnerships in academic development: the course design studio as a model for sustainable course-wide impact. International Journal for Academic Development, 25(2), 134–146. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/130901
- Meth, D., Finger, M. & Brough, D. (2020). The Graduate Professional Portfolio as 'synergy tool': navigating the complex role of portfolios in future-focused design education. Proceedings of DRS 2020 Synergy: Volume 4 Education, 4, 1803–1816. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/204733
- Meth, D., (2018). All-singing, all-dancing experiences? Interrogating the discourse of transformation in undergraduate education. Research and Development in Higher Education: (Re)Valuing Higher Education, 41, 151–161. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/120695
- Meth, D., Russell, H., Fitzgerald, R. & Huijser, H. (2020). Enabling Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Activities Across a Curriculum Design Framework: A Lever for Faculty Engagement. In RC. Plews & ML. Amos (Eds.), Evidence-Based Faculty Development Through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) (pp. 347–364). IGI Global. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/200803
- Meth, D., Thomson, S., Brophy, C., Finger, M., Mews, G. & Brough, D. (2022). Design for Impact: A model for embedding education for sustainability across an undergraduate design program. Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/235320
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Deanna, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2023
- Details
- Australian Awards for University Teaching: Award for Programs that Enhance Learning (Curriculum Transformation and Innovative Pedagogy) for Design Impact Labs.Four innovative, authentic and transdisciplinary ‘Impact Labs’ were introduced as a compulsory spine across the reimagined Queensland University of Technology (QUT)Bachelor of Design curriculum in 2019.In response to stakeholder feedback on shifting employer and global needs, the four units,‘Place’, ‘People’, ‘Planet’ and ‘Purpose’, aim to future-proof students’ design careers.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2021
- Details
- QS Reimagine Education Global Education Award 2021, US$25,000 prize moneyQUT Design for ImpactInnovative, complex and authentic transdisciplinary Impact Labs were introduced across the reimagined QUT Bachelor of Design curriculum in 2019. Drawing on stakeholder feedback reflecting shifting employer and global needs, the four units, 'Place', 'People', 'Planet' and 'Purpose' aim to future-proof design students' careers. Labs facilitate the gradual development of students' theoretical understandings of societal and global issues. Experiential, inquiry-led design challenges undertaken in the labs build students¿ core design skills and twenty-first century capabilities including transdisciplinary collaboration, reflection, networking and profile-building. The scalable model supports large cohorts and mutually-beneficial industry partnerships, while facilitating repeated intimate, transformative and ethically-grounded design experiences.