I can pinpoint the moment that made it clear to me what I want to do as the topic of my PhD. Last July, while visiting the NetSpot offices in Adelaide, Mark Drechsler, a dear friend, colleague, a maths whiz, tertiary-educated, edu and tech-savvy, prudent and very ‘with it’ (please, this is a ramble, not …
Category Archive: 7. PhD
Dec 10
What is it I do?
A number of people have asked me ‘what are you doing your PhD in?’ Sometimes, ‘education’ is enough but many who know me better or are a little more interested in what I do deserve a more thorough answer but without giving out my 12,000 word proposal to read – that may be unkind. You …
Jul 13
The beast of performativity
There is a very good chance that over the past decade or so you have experienced one or series of reviews, performance management meetings, appraisals, inspections, key performance indicators, benchmarks, bonus rewards and a myriad of similar management technologies that measured your ‘outputs’ and outputs of those in your care (eg. students). These would been compared, …
Jul 01
PhD – Planning Heroic Dreams
Sunday, 1 July 2012. It’s the eve of starting a life-changing journey. I am starting it voluntarily and happily. After over a decade of high-school classroom teaching I am starting my PhD at Murdoch University. Tomorrow. After telling a few people about my decision to do a PhD, some have already jokingly called me Dr …



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