2025 Postgraduate Research Conference

Open

Wednesday 6 August 2025

Close

Friday 15 September 2025

Qualtrics Submission Link 

Details

We are delighted to invite Southeast Queensland postgraduate students in the field of education to The University of Queensland for the 2025 School of Education Postgraduate Research Conference on Saturday 1 November 2025. This conference is an opportunity for Southeast Queensland postgraduate students to showcase their research through presentations or posters and network with peers and experts. The conference will occur in person at UQ, St Lucia and virtually.   

This year’s theme “Education for Human Flourishing: Bridging Local Realities with Global Challenges” emphasises our collective responsibility to design educational experiences that empower individuals and communities to thrive while remaining attuned to the complex forces shaping our shared future. Human flourishing spans emotional, social, intellectual, ethical, cultural, and ecological dimensions, demanding that we weave local knowledge and practice into broader global concerns. 

We invite you to consider how your research engages with human flourishing wherever you are in your scholarly journey: curriculum and pedagogy, educational policy, philosophy of education, language and literacy, technology and innovation, community partnerships, leadership and teacher professional development, student voice and agency, or other areas that illuminate the connections between local realities and global challenges.  

For further information on the abstract requirements, please consult the submission form. If you have any queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at pg.ed.conference@uq.edu.au

School of Education Postgraduate Research Conference 2025 Organising Committee

MD Rabiul Alam, Noor Mohammad Masum, Ann Nguyen

Conference Registrations Open

Registrations will remain open till 20 October 2025

 Register here

Conference Organising Committee

MD Rabiul Alam

Md Rabiul Alam is a PhD candidate in TESOL Education at the University of Queensland, where he also works as a casual academic. He tutors postgraduate courses including Critical Perspectives on TESOL, Language in Education Planning, and TESOL Curriculum and Pedagogy. With over ten years of experience in tertiary-level English language teaching, his research explores the intersections of language management, sustainability, and multilingual practices within spiritual tourism contexts. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, including a recent chapter with Routledge on the interrelationship between language, tourism, and environmental sustainability in Bangladesh.

Noor Mohammad Masum

Noor Mohammad Masum is a PhD researcher at The University of Queensland’s School of Education, investigating public perceptions of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Bangladesh. His study employs a holistic multi-theoretical framework, integrating Amartya Sen’s capability approach, Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction, historical institutionalism, Appadurai’s concepts of scapes and aspiration, and the integrated behavioural model. By focusing on the perspectives of TVET non-users—a critically underexplored group—his research addresses a significant gap in both developed and developing contexts. His work aims to transform TVET systems to promote human flourishing, wellbeing, and enhanced social recognition

Ann Nguyen

Thuy-Anh (Ann) Nguyen is a PhD candidate at the School of Education, The University of Queensland. Her research focuses on the social and emotional development of teachers and students in Vietnam. She is passionate about promoting teacher and student wellbeing in an ever-increasing stressful world, especially those working in disadvantaged contexts. Ann also loves teaching and exploring new ways (often through technology) to engage her students.

Conference Organising Sub-Committee

Tarissa J. Hidajat 

Tarissa Hidajat is a PhD candidate, currently researching family–school–community partnerships to promote school attendance in Australian high schools. Her research interests include families' roles in children’s development, wellbeing in educational settings, diverse learning needs, and student motivation and engagement in learning. She is particularly interested in how the relationships students form with peers and adults, together with the connections among families, schools, and communities, can foster supportive environments that promote student learning, wellbeing, and development

Ting Zhou 

Ting Zhou is a PhD candidate at the School of Education, The University of Queensland. Her research explores the interplay between emotional development, executive function, and academic performance in school-aged children. In addition to her doctoral studies, she works as a casual academic, tutoring courses in global education and career counselling. Ting is particularly interested in how cognitive and emotional processes shape learning outcomes and support student wellbeing. 

Dedi Febrianto 

Dedi Febrianto is a PhD Candidate at the School of Education, The University of Queensland. His research focuses on Medium of Instruction policy in Indonesian Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), with broader interests in language policy, and stakeholder perspectives in multilingual education. He investigates how internal and external stakeholders perceive the use of Indonesian and English in TVET, uncovering tensions and expectations to help shape more context-sensitive and locally relevant language policies in the sector.

Nofrina Eka Putri 

Nofrina Eka Putri is currently pursuing her PhD at the School of Education, University of Queensland. She is interested in exploring teachers, teaching, and the questions around what education is for—especially how we might think about education differently, beyond the pressures of neoliberalism. She is keen to collaborate with other teacher educators to imagine more meaningful ways of doing education and to open up space for genuine and critical conversations about it. 

Amalia N. Sari  

Amalia N. Sari is a PhD student at the School of Education, The University of Queensland. Her research examines global language assessment as a social field, drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice and Sara Ahmed’s affect theory to explore test‑takers’ struggles, desires, and investments in IELTS as a pathway to mobility. She is particularly interested in how power, identity, and aspiration intersect in high‑stakes testing, and how lived experiences of assessment reflect broader sociocultural and economic forces. Her work aims to foreground test‑takers’ voices and contribute to more equitable understandings of global language education. 

Solomon Mangai 

Mangai is a PhD candidate in the School of Education, The University of Queensland. His research focuses on exploring how undergraduate students think creatively by applying knowledge of chemistry concepts in real-world context through dialogic context. Mangai has interests in innovative pedagogies, formative assessment, STEM education, and critical creative thinking for meaningful learning and problem solving in chemistry. He also has interests in promoting teacher education through reflexivity and content, pedagogical and learning engagement practices. 

Keynote Speaker

Professor Michael Dezuanni

Professor Michael Dezuanni undertakes research about digital media, literacies and learning in home, school and community contexts. He is the Program Leader for ‘Creating Better Digital Futures’ for Queensland University of Technology’s Digital Media Research Centre which produces world-leading research for a creative, inclusive and fair digital media environment. He is also a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. Michael has been a chief investigator on eight ARC Linkage projects with a focus on digital literacy and learning at school, the use of digital games in the classroom, digital inclusion in regional and rural Australia and in low-income families, and the use of screen content in formal and informal learning. He is the author of 'Peer Pedagogies on Digital Platforms - Learning with Minecraft Let's Play videos' (MIT Press, 2020), and co-author of ‘Social Reading Cultures on BookTube, Bookstagram and Booktube’ (Routledge, 2024).
 
Abstract: Towards flourishing digital futures – creating a better children’s internet
 
In this talk, Professor Dezuanni outlines a project undertaken in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child called ’The Children’s Internet’, which uses a political economy approach to frame children’s interactions with digital media, as an alternative to ’screen time’, and health-related approaches.  He discusses how the ‘Children’s Internet’ may be conceived and how it was developed following desk research, social media analysis and industry interviews. He argues that the approach provides a useful contribution to discussions about policy and regulation for young people’s uses of digital and social media, particular in the context of the impending social media ban for under 16s. 

Panellists

Aaron Teo

Dr Aaron Teo is a Singaporean Chinese first generation migrant settler living on unceded Jagera and Turrbal lands. He is a Sociologist of Education working as a Lecturer in Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of Southern Queensland's School of Education. Aaron is Convenor for the Australian Association for Research in Education Social Justice Special Interest Group, Queensland Convenor for the Asian Australian Alliance, and member of the Advisory Committee for the Australian Human Rights Commission's landmark Racism@Uni study. He was the State Library of Queensland's 2024 John Oxley Honorary Fellow, and winner of the 2023 Carolyn Baker Memorial Prize and 2024 Special Commendation for the Ray Debus Award for Doctoral Research in Education. Aaron's research focuses on the raced and gendered subjectivities of migrant teachers and students from 'Asian' backgrounds in the Australian context, as well as critical pedagogies in white Australian (university and school) classroom spaces. He interrogates experiences at the nexus of migration, racism, sexism, and multiculturalism in the Australian education context, and is looking forward to sharing four forthcoming books in this space - two solo-authored works titled: Storying migrant Asian teacher racialisation in Australian schools: A critical autoethnographic re-membering (Springer), and Asian Australian Student Teacher Mobility and the Overwhelming Whiteness of Australian Education (Routledge) respectively; one co-authored collaboration titled: Asian Australian Racialisation and Approaches to Anti-Racism: Traces, Tropes, and Trajectories (Palgrave); and a co-edited project with Tisha Dejmanee and Ien Ang titled: Asian Australian Cultural Politics in Education: Local and global perspectives on Asian racialisation and anti-Asian racism (Routledge).

Ngoc Hoang 

Ngoc Hoang earned her PhD in Education from The University of Queensland in 2018. Following a period of continued engagement in teaching and research, she pivoted to data analytics through online training and a postgraduate qualification at the Australian National University. Her data career in the Australian public service began in a fast-paced team at the Australian Bureau of Statistics that transformed raw ATO payroll data into high-quality and timely jobs and wages statistics to inform quick responses to Covid-19. She then joined the Australian Government Department of Education, where she is now an Assistant Director, delivering and leading the analysis, quality assurance and publication of national higher education statistics. Though her path might appear to be a major career shift, the transferable skills honed during her doctoral studies—communication, problem-solving, and conceptual and critical thinking—have been instrumental at every step.

Kimkong Heng 

Kimkong Heng has a PhD in Education from the University of Queensland, Australia. He is currently a Casual Academic in the School of Education, the University of Queensland. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia. In addition, he is a Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Cambodian Journal of Educational Research. He previously served as a Technical Advisor on Research and Development at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in Cambodia. He was a recipient of the Australia Awards Scholarship and was awarded a Community Leadership Award of the Year 2023 by the Australian Alumni Association of Cambodia for his significant contributions to promoting research and publication in Cambodia. He was also conferred the title of Associate Professor by His Majesty the King of Cambodia in 2023. His research interests include TESOL, teacher education, higher education, and research engagement and productivity. 

Ren Perkins 

Ren Perkins is a proud Quandamooka man and Senior Project Manager (Indigenous Engagement) at the University of Queensland with the Health, Medicine & Behavioural Sciences Faculty. He leads strategic initiatives to support Indigenous student success and embed Indigenous perspectives across teaching and learning. Ren previously held a lecturing role at Griffith University, where he contributed to the School of Education and Professional Studies, Indigenous education strategy and deepened community engagement. With a strong background in educational equity, Ren brings a strengths-based approach to his work, grounded in cultural knowledge and a commitment to systemic change. He is passionate about supporting the next generation of Indigenous educators and researchers.

School of Education Postgraduate Research Conference 2025 Program (PDF, 1.3 MB)