Adjunct Professor
Helen Nixon
This person does not currently hold a position at QUT.
Biography
Helen Nixon joined the Faculty of Education at QUT in 2011 after many years at the University of South Australia. Since 1986 she has taught and coordinated units in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in English Studies, English Curriculum Studies, Australian Film, Literacy Studies and Education Policy. She supervises doctoral students in the areas of teachers’ work, English curriculum, literacy education and policy studies.Her academic work has addressed literacy and social justice, youth and popular culture, ICT and new media, critical literacy and literacy and place-based education. Her research strengths are in text and discourse analysis and school-based teacher-research in literacy education. She has co-edited 2 books for the English and Literacy subject teachers’ associations on English teachers’ work and place-based approaches to literacy education. She has also published many chapters and papers in the fields of English and literacy education, and cultural studies and education.
Nixon has a successful track record in competitive grant funding. She has been Chief Investigator (with colleagues) on 7 ARC Projects (3 Discovery and 4 Linkage projects), a large Education Department of SA grant, a Myer Foundation grant, 8 university grants and was co-holder of 2 nationally competitive teaching grants. She has received several awards and commendations for her research:
- Runner-up in the 2000 Australian Association for Educational Research Doctoral Thesis Award
- Mid-Career Researcher Award for the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of South Australia in 2007
- Shortlisted for the 2009 UKLA/ Wiley-Blackwell Research in Literacy Education Award for Nichols, S., Nixon, H. & Rowsell, J. (2009). The “good” parent in relation to early childhood literacy: symbolic terrain and lived practice. Literacy (UK) 43(2): 65-74.
Nixon has been an Editorial Board Member for Australian Educational Researcher (2001-2004) and on the Editorial Review Boards of Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (USA) (2001-2003) and English Teaching: Practice and Critique (New Zealand) (2003-2005). She is currently an editorial board member of the following journals:
- Literacy (UK)
- International Journal of Learning and New Media (USA)
- Digital Culture and Education (Aust)
Personal details
Keywords
Literacy And New Media, Literacy And Place, Literacy Studies, New Literacies, Place-Based Pedagogy, Teacher Research
Discipline
Specialist Studies in Education, Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD (University of Queensland)
- MEdStudies (University of Adelaide)
Professional memberships and associations
- Member: Australian Association for Research in Education
- Member: British Educational Research Association
- Member: Australian Association for the Teaching of English
- Member: Australia Literacy Educators’ Association
- Member: The United Kingdom Literacy Association
Teaching
I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Literacy Education and EdD Coursework in Reading Educational Policy.
Recent examples include online Masters courses in:
I have supervised 6 doctoral students to completion and currently co-supervise 2 PhD and 3 EdD students.
Recent examples include online Masters courses in:
- Language and Multiliteracies
- Critical Literacy
- Literacies and New Technologies.
I have supervised 6 doctoral students to completion and currently co-supervise 2 PhD and 3 EdD students.
Selected publications
- Comber B, Nixon H, (2011) Critical reading comprehension in an era of accountability, Australian Educational Researcher, 38 (2), pp. 167-179.
- Nixon H, (2011) 'From bricks to clicks': Hybrid commercial spaces in the landscape of early literacy and learning, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 11 (2), pp. 114-140.
- Beavis C, Nixon H, Atkinson S, (2005) LAN cafes: cafes, places of gathering or sites of informal teaching and learning?, Learning, Media and Technology, 5 (1), pp. 41-60.
- Nixon H, (2007) Expanding the semiotic repertoire: Environmental communications in the primary school, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 30 (2), pp. 102-117.
- Nichols S, Nixon H, Rowsell J, (2009) The 'good' parent in relation to early childhood literacy: symbolic terrain and lived practice, Literacy, 43 (2), pp. 65-74.
- Prosser B, McCallum F, Milroy P, Comber B, Nixon H, (2008) 'I am smart and I am not joking': Aiming high in the middle years of schooling, Australian Educational Researcher, 35 (2), pp. 15-35.
- Comber B, Nixon H, Reid J, (2007) Literacies in place : teaching environmental communications, Primary English Teaching Association.
- Comber B, Nixon H, (2009) Teachers' work and pedagogy in an era of accountability, Discourse, 30 (3), pp. 333-345.
- Comber B, Nixon H, Ashmore L, Loo S, Cook J, (2006) Urban renewal from the inside out: Spatial and critical literacies in a low socioeconomic school community, Mind, Culture, and Activity, 13 (3), pp. 228-246.
- Nixon H, Comber B, (2006) Differential recognition of children's cultural practices in middle primary literacy classrooms, Literacy, 40 (3), pp. 127-136.
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Helen, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Reviewer for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2011
- Details
- Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. Editorial Review Board.
- Type
- Reviewer for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2011
- Details
- Digital Culture and Education. Editorial Review Board.
- Type
- Reviewer for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2011
- Details
- International Journal of Learning and New Media. Editorial Review Board.
- Type
- Reviewer for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2011
- Details
- Literacy. Editorial Review Board.
Research projects
- Title
- New Literacy Demands in the Middle Years: Learning from Design Experiments
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP0990692
- Start year
- 2009
- Keywords
- Curriculum Literacies; Design Experiment; Digital Literacies; Middle Years; Place Based Pedagogy; Teachers Work
- Title
- Mandated Literacy Assessment and the Reorganisation of Teachers' Work
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP0986449
- Start year
- 2009
- Keywords
- Literacy; Curriculum; Teachers Work; Institutional Ethnography; Schooling; Policy