Respect and consent are not new concepts in education, yet their meaning and practical application are often unevenly understood across school contexts. As educators navigate increasing reports of gendered disrespect, sexualised behaviour and the influence of digital misogyny on young people, many are seeking clearer guidance on how to respond through curriculum and pedagogy.
Teachers are noticing shifts in student language and behaviour shaped by online cultures that normalise sexism, rigid gender hierarchies and hostility toward gender equity. At the same time, staff frequently report uncertainty about how to address these behaviours in developmentally appropriate ways that align with syllabus requirements and whole-school expectations. Without coherent, research-informed approaches to consent education and gender equity, schools risk responding reactively rather than building sustained, preventative cultures of respect.
This course responds to growing demand for professional learning that strengthens teachers’ capacity to embed consent, gender equity and respectful relationships within everyday teaching practice. By developing a shared understanding of gender, power and digital influence, participants will be supported to build safer, more inclusive school communities through intentional curriculum and classroom strategies.
This course is designed for K–12 teachers who are interested in strengthening their curriculum and pedagogical approaches to consent, gender equity and fostering respectful and inclusive school cultures. Participants will examine how gender, power and digital influences shape behaviour in contemporary school contexts and consider how understandings of consent have evolved within education. Teachers will expand their strategies and skills in embedding consent education, addressing misogynistic and sexualised behaviours, and fostering respectful relationships across a range of classroom settings to support safer learning environments.
9am-3pm on Monday 24 August at NSW Teachers Federation, Surry Hills
This course is designed for teachers who are interested in building practical skills around learning and support process, structures and implementation across K-12 and all settings. Participants will break down the role of a learning and support teacher, build capacity to manage workload and look to create a context specific guide to assist them in their work.
9am-3pm on Thursday 12 November 2026 in Surry Hills
The CPL English conference team is back with a wealth of inspiring, resource-rich and evidence-based practical approaches to teaching reading and writing from Year 7 to Year 12.
Workshops will include:
EAL/D Principles & Effective Practices This session demonstrates how EAL/D pedagogy through multimodal scaffolding, explicit language teaching and purposeful talk supports students to engage with and analyse complex texts. Grounded in EAL/D principles and CESE Effective Practices, participants will explore how high challenge, high support learning can be designed through intentional planning and scaffolding. Teachers will leave with practical strategies to create inclusive, language-rich classrooms where all learners can access, participate and succeed. Presented by: Cindy Valdez
Integrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander texts This presentation supports NSW Stage 6 English teachers in effectively integrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander texts within the new text prescriptions. It provides practical planning tools, including programming frameworks and text selection strategies, to ensure meaningful and authentic inclusion. Teachers are guided through reflective activities to evaluate their current practice and identify areas for growth. Action-oriented tasks enable participants to apply learning directly to their programs. The session aims to build confidence, cultural responsiveness, and ensure Indigenous texts are taught with respect, depth, and integrity. Presented by Emma Chapman and Jackson Parkes
The texts and joy of Standard language, culture and identity This is an excellent focus study for Standard as it gives teachers and students the opportunity to explore the rich nature of culture and identity and specifically how the language of each text can affirm and indeed, challenges these concepts. Presenters will explore the six prescribed texts to help teachers make the best choices for their own students and help regain the joy of sharing powerful literature with your students. Presented by Jowen Hillyer and Rosemary Henzell
The texts and joy of Advanced Textual Conversations and Critical Study Choosing texts for Textual Conversations is always challenging as it invariably shapes the direction of other choices. In this text list there are several fabulous choices that will ensure joy and delight in your English classroom. There are also some exciting choices to be made for advanced Critical Study. Presenters will explore the 6 pairs for Textual Conversations and the 6 texts on Critical study to help clarify the choices to be made. Presented by Jowen Hillyer and Rosemary Henzell
7 – 10 Programming principles in practice: plan hard, teach easy In this interactive workshop, participants will be empowered to move from ‘surviving’ to thriving, allowing for a renewed focus on the joy of teaching. They will explore the core principles of conceptual frontloading, skill mapping and evidence-based teaching strategies that sit at the heart of quality programming and resource creation. As part of this workshop, participants will have access to a complete model program, accompanying resources and detailed support material to inform their own programming. Presented by Rebecca Stock and Carole Vela
Same Roads; Different Maps. English Stage 6. In this interactive workshop, participants will delve into the specifics of mapping the journey of teaching Stage 6 English. The emphasis will be on practical ideas and strategies that can be used to rediscover the joy of teaching English to senior students. Presented by Jowen Hillyer and Rosemary Henzell
$275 for the day
Friday, 5 June 2026 at Federation House, 23-33 Mary St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010
“Inspiring and realistic presenters with excellent text recommendations.”
“I love CPL conferences. They are so unpretentious and get straight to the heart/reality of teaching.”
“Just please keep doing these conferences; they are invaluable.”
“Always a great PL day – always leave with new ideas.”
“Engaging presenters and valuable, relevant content.”
“Sense of sharing, being amongst people with common goals.”
“Thank you so very much for imparting your knowledge, your expertise and love of everything English!”
“Thank you for continuing to bring us together at this conference.”
Australian education systems have long recognised that the most valuable outcomes of schooling extend well beyond narrow measures of achievement. The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Declaration reinforces this by emphasising the development of confident, creative, and actively engaged learners who can think critically, collaborate effectively, and contribute positively to their communities. Yet attributes such as reasoning, creativity, collaboration, conceptual understanding, engagement, are often the very ones teachers find hardest to assess, monitor, and communicate with confidence.
This professional learning course responds directly to that challenge. It supports teachers and leaders to foreground the attributes that matter most for students’ long‑term success and wellbeing, and to build assessment practices that honour the full breadth of the curriculum.
This course will deepen your understanding of the attributes emphasised in the Alice Springs Declaration; offering practical ways to capture growth in complex attributes without reducing them to simplistic checklists or proxies; strengthening task and rubric design, and considering how assessments can be used to reinforce the learning schools (and school communities) value. During this course you will reflect on curriculum intent, and provide students with clear pathways for improvement.
You will be empowered to take ownership of assessment, shifting the narrative from compliance to professional agency and build your confidence in communicating the importance of broader learning outcomes to colleagues, leaders, parents, students, and policymakers.
This course aims to promote values‑aligned assessment practices that reduce over‑reliance on narrow, high‑stakes measures and support fairer, more holistic judgments for all learners, and reinforces teacher professionalism, enhances school‑level decision‑making, and ensures that assessment serves as a tool for growth rather than a constraint on meaningful learning.
Prof Jim Tognolini
Professor Jim Tognolini is Director of The Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment (CEMA) which is situated within the University of Sydney School of Education and Social Work. The work of the Centre is focused on the broad areas of teaching, research, consulting and professional learning for teachers.
The Centre is currently providing consultancy support to a number of schools. These projects include developing a methodology for measuring creativity; measuring 21st Century Skills; developing school-wide practice in formative assessment. We have a number of experts in the field: most notably, Professor Jim Tognolini, who in addition to conducting research offers practical and school-focused support.
20 August 2026 at NSW Teachers Federation, Surry Hills
Professor Jacqueline Ullman discusses how teachers can support students who identify as gender and sexuality diverse and to assist them to improve their sense of belonging…
Many schools recognise that, as our society becomes more open to and supportive of gender and sexuality diversity, numbers of gender and sexuality diverse students (e.g. those who might identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender-diverse, or as another diverse gender or sexuality identity) have appeared to increase. The word ‘appeared’ is intentional, as experts in the field argue that the increase in young people identifying as gender and sexuality diverse (GSD) is attributable to the impact of rising social acceptance rather than an increase in actual numbers; in other words, GSD individuals have always existed in similar proportions, however – historically, and in some contexts still today – they have been compelled to hide their identities. In Australia in 2025, as parents/carers and peers are more accepting, more young people are able to be open about who they are.
It is part of the labour of teachers to ensure that all their students feel comfortable and supported to be their authentic selves and to be proud of their diverse identities. While this expectation of teachers is aligned with both federal[1] and state-based[2] guidance, at a more basic and relational level, this commitment to positive representation and inclusion of students’ diverse identities is typically aligned with teachers’ positive feelings towards the diverse range of students in their care. Put simply, most teachers like kids and want to support their self-acceptance and sense of belonging.
Talking about Gender and Sexuality Diversity
However, for a variety of reasons, including lack of relevant pre-service or in-service training, the curricular inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity can feel a bit more challenging than the inclusion of other diverse identities and backgrounds. Some teachers feel nervous about what they are and are not ‘allowed’ to say in the interests of inclusivity and – despite growing numbers of GSD students at all levels of education – teachers sometimes express concerns about whether or not gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive content is appropriate for the primary or secondary school classroom (van Leent, 2017). Even within the area of relationships and personal development education, which includes many suitable content areas where gender and sexuality diversity could easily be integrated, almost a third of Australian teachers do not include same-sex attraction or sexual orientation and a quarter do not include gender diversity (Ezer et al., 2018).
Recent survey research with Australian teachers shows that the large majority report positive feelings about gender and sexuality diverse people and a general sense of comfort engaging with related topics – answering questions, addressing name-calling, and providing a safe environment for GSD students (Burns et al., 2023). An important finding of this research is that, while participating teachers were almost uniformly supportive of inclusivity of gender and sexuality diversity at both the policy and curriculum levels, many reported that this was not enacted at their schools. Less than half reported having a gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive school enrolment policy and less than a third said that inclusive topics were featured in the curriculum in a positive way at their school (Burns et al., 2023).
NSW-Specific Supports for the Inclusion of Gender and Sexuality Diversity
As wise educator Emily Style penned back in 1988, the curriculum should function as “both window and as mirror” to validate students’ experiences of self within the public world of the school as a strong foundation for their lives as adults in broader society. For GSD young people, the majority of whom are raised by “straight”/heterosexual, cisgender[3] parents/carers, school-based validation is even more critical. The New South Wales (NSW) curriculum encourages inclusion of diverse identity characteristics both in the classroom and at the whole-school level and gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive content options exist within many curriculum areas, including PDHPE, English, History, Society and Culture, Community and Family Studies and Legal Studies. Further, the Department acknowledges that students who identify as LGBTQIA+ (or GSD) are at risk of experiencing lower levels of belonging and benefit from “targeted programs to boost their connectedness at school” via education/curriculum, inclusive language and through educators working to curate an inclusive physical environment[4]. Additional support is provided via the “Transgender students in schools” legal issues bulletin 55 (LIB55)[5] which reminds teachers to be “inclusive of all students’ individual learning identity” and acknowledges that gender identity can be discussed across many curriculum areas.
Parents’ Attitudes to the Inclusion of Gender and Sexuality Diversity
One of the most commonly reported reasons for teachers’ and school leaders’ lack of engagement with gender and sexuality diversity is their concern about parental opposition and subsequent complaint. Recent Australian survey research has addressed this point head-on, finding that 86.5% of public-school parents in NSW support the introduction of gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive topics during K-12 schooling, with most wanting these introduced by the end of Stages 3 or 4 (Ferfolja et al., 2021). Conversely, just 13.5% preferred total exclusion of gender and sexuality diversity from relationships and sexuality education. NSW parents were more supportive of the inclusion of these topics than the national average (see Ullman et al., 2021 for full, nationally representative survey results).
From: Gender and Sexuality Diversity in Schools: Parental Experiences and Schooling Responses, New South Wales Snapshot Report, available here.
Topics such as diverse romantic relationships and families; the negative impact of GSD bias-based discrimination; and understanding gender diversity were viewed by parents as necessary for creating a positive, safe and supportive school culture and preparing students for living well as adults in a diverse, socially cohesive society. Additionally, while media headlines might have us believe that gender diversity (or transgender identities) is a particularly divisive topic, 65% of public-school parents rated the “difference between biological sex and gender” as this relates to gender diversity and transgender individuals as of “moderate” or “high” importance, with just 19.5% viewing this as “not important” (Ullman et al., 2021).
Crucially, this research was nationally-representative, meaning that – rather than survey results being dismissible as the niche sentiments of those in particular locations or demographics – these findings are our closest reflection of the attitudes and preferences of the public-school parent population. While some communities might have an overrepresentation of vocal oppositional parents, most will have an abundance of supportive parents who may be far less likely to contact the school with positive feedback.
New Professional Learning Resource for Supporting GSD Students
Many teachers and school leaders want to support GSD students to feel visible and included within the school community and there are a plethora of easily-accessible online resources to support their efforts, including many offered by the NSW Teachers Federation. However, educators regularly ask for professional learning in this area, which is much more limited in availability and access.
To meet this need, Associate Professor Jacqueline Ullman and Professor Tania Ferfolja, both academic researchers in Western Sydney University’s School of Education, designed the “Teaching to Affirm Community Diversity” online short course (or ‘micro-credential’). This 10-hour short course is designed with the busy educator in mind – flexibly-available and self-paced, with asynchronous engagement with the academics, and able to be used to satisfy professional learning requirements in NSW and nationally.
The course draws from current Australian research and uses federal guidance and state-based education policy to support teachers seeking to create gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive environments in K-12 schools. Through five modules, each including interactive activities, teacher-learners explore legal and policy frameworks, best practice ideas, and strategies for fostering student belonging through a supportive, safe, and affirming school climate for GSD students.
The “Teaching to Affirm Community Diversity” micro-credential is available through Western Sydney University and can be accessed here.
Drawing from empirical research with parents and GSD students, this short course bridges the gap between legal obligations, known best practices, and real-world application, and aims to increase educators’ awareness about how a positive school climate is related to GSD students’ wellbeing, academic success and sense of belonging.
By the end of the 10-hour short course, teachers and school leaders will be able to:
Identify and understand the unique challenges and experiences faced by GSD learners in K-12 settings and their families;
Apply relevant state and federal departmental policies to confidently implement inclusive pedagogical strategies and administrative practices that support GSD learners;
Address and counteract gender-based violence and bullying, fostering a school environment that supports both GSD learners and educators;
Critically reflect on and improve their own practices to create more inclusive and supportive classroom environments; and,
Critically reflect on their school’s local-level policies and work with colleagues to reshape and enact these in line with their learnings.
Central to the micro-credential is a short film, shown in three parts, where learners are introduced to the real-life (word-for-word, verbatim) experiences of six public school mums, parenting GSD children attending primary and secondary schools. These parents’ experiences of working with public school teachers and school leaders to support their children, shared through short films using their spoken interview data as ‘performed’ by professional actors, expose what schools and educators are doing well and where practices could be improved. Their stories are at once emotional and inspirational and offer a unique backdrop for the ‘why’ of local school policy and pedagogical reform in this area.
The six parents, as professionally acted, in the “What Parents Want: Talking about Gender and Sexuality Diversity” short film, featured in the micro-credential.
As with other areas of diversity and inclusivity, best-practice models for inclusivity of gender and sexuality diversity in schools advocate for whole-school approaches, bringing together both macro-level policy guidance documents and interpersonal, relational considerations for school community. Targeted professional learning in this area is an important, foundational element of such a shift. Importantly, it is evident that the large majority of parents want to see schools working to include GSD students – not just for the benefit of those young people, but to enhance cohesion and reduce bullying for the whole school community.
Want to Know More?
The “Teaching to Affirm Community Diversity” micro-credential at Western Sydney University is available here (https://westernx.edu.au/courses/tacd/?cl=1) and open for rolling enrolment throughout the year. Participants receive a digital badge of recognition upon completion.
Training can also be arranged in-person at the whole-school/team levels. For more information or to register your interest, please reach out to Associate Professor Jacqueline Ullman via j.ullman@westernsydney.edu.au
References
Burns, S., Saltis, H., Hendriks, J., Abdolmanafi, A., Davis-McCabe, C., Tilley, P.J., & Winter, S. (2023). Australian teacher attitudes, beliefs and comfort towards sexuality and gender diverse students. Sex Education, 23(5), 540-555. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2022.2087177.
Ferfolja, T., Ullman, J., & Hobby, L. (2021). Gender and Sexuality Diversity in Schools: Parental Experiences and Schooling Responses. New South Wales – Snapshot Report. Western Sydney University. https://doi.org/10.26183/tmjr-zj59.
Ullman, J., Ferfolja, T., & Hobby, L. (2021). Parents’ perspectives on the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity in K-12 schooling: Results from an Australian national study. Sex Education, 22(4), 424–446. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2021.1949975.
van Leent, L. (2017). Supporting School Teachers: Primary Teachers’ Conceptions of Their Responses to Diverse Sexualities. Sex Education, 17(4), 440–453. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2017.1303369.
About the author
Professor Jacqueline Ullman has a Bachelor of Science (English Education, Secondary) from New York University; a Master of Arts (Sociology and Education) from Teachers College, Columbia University; and a Master of Education (Research Methods) and PhD (Educational Psychology) from the University of Sydney. She began her career as a public high school English teacher in NYC before deciding to upskill with the goal of informing educational policy reform in the interests of making schools more equitable and inclusive. Professor Ullman has published more than 80 journal articles, book chapters, research reports and resources for educators’ professional learning since 2012, is in the top 1% of published academics worldwide in the field of sex education (ScholarGPS), and is a featured author on UNESCO’s Health and Education Resource Centre. Her research-based resources for classroom teachers and school leaders are featured by Australia’s federal Student Wellbeing Hub and within guidance documents for educators distributed by several other state/territory Departments of Education. Her extensive track record of consultation and professional development with schools across Sydney further attests to her understanding of the complexities of diverse school communities and the sensitivity required to successfully work with teacher, parent and student cohorts to conduct research in the areas of sexualities, gender and gender diversity, relationships and health.
Professor Tony Moore (Monash University)) gives us an update on what is currently happening with the international digital history project ‘Conviction Politics’…
Conviction Politics is a digital history project funded by the Australian Research Council and industry partners as part of the Linkage scheme. The NSW Teachers Federation, through its Centre for Professional Learning, is a major Partner Organisation in this project joining with the ACTU’s Trade Union Education Foundation, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the UK Trades Union Congress.
Our project re-conceptualises convict transportation as one of the great forced global labour migrations of history, continuous with the slave trade, used to build settler capitalist colonies in Australia. It flips the narrative of a downtrodden criminal class by revealing the agency of the coerced workforce in collectively resisting this system. At the same time its focus on the transported political prisoners reveals Australian colonies vitally connected to the revolutions, ideas, movements and media innovations sweeping the Atlantic world. Harnessing the latest data mapping technologies, Conviction Politics, reveals how from the earliest days of settlement, Australia’s first work force resisted exploitation through inventive solidarity in the face of coercion, while a vanguard of transported rebels, liberal pamphleteers, industrial protesters, trade unionists, Chartists, Irish independence fighters, and radical agitators changed the political direction of the colonies.
New Book Unfree Workers reveals extent of convict resistance
Chief Investigators Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart (University of New England) and Emeritus Professor Michael Quinlan (University of NSW) researched and published a new book that engages a key focus of Conviction Politics: Unfree Workers: Insubordination and Resistance in Convict Australia 1788-1860 (Palgrave Macmillan, London):
It explores the role that penal transportation played in the development of capitalism in Australia as well as exploring the many ways in which the active resistance of convicts shaped both workplace relations and institutions. Drawing on two unique ‘big datasets’, the book provides both a quantitative and qualitative assessment of convict-worker resistance from the moment of their embarkation on ships bound for the Australian colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land to their arrival and deployment into various categories of state and private employment.
The book reveals the terrain and scale of resistance by convicts. Between 1788 and 1860 there is evidence of over 11,000 collective protests (including strikes, mass absconding, go-slows and riots). Michael and Hamish conservatively estimate that in excess of 43,000 convicts participated in these actions. Using data for the entire nineteenth-century, the book places the scale of dissent by convicts in the context of later non-union and union organised industrial action by free workers.
It demonstrates that convicts dominated workplace dissent prior to 1850. This included the 1804 Castle Hill rebellion in which nearly 10 percent of the transported workforce participated. The book also reveals a marked prolonged crisis of dissent that occurred between 1822 and 1834. This was a direct response to the abolition of convict wages and the introduction of more intense work regimes in road gangs and on rural estates. The book argues that this wave of resistance eroded the cost-savings that accrued to those who sought to hire unfree labour over free, contributing to the demise of convict transportation.
Michael and Hamish show the extent to which convict actions informed subsequent struggles over working hours and other conditions of employment by free workers. Nothing in Australian history comes close to matching this activism until the titanic maritime and pastoral strikes of the early 1890s.
British Irish/Documentary shoot 2022
The ending of Covid lockdowns allowed Roar Film’s Steve Thomas and Lead Chief Investigator Tony Moore, assisted by our man in London Paul Smith, to embark on an extensive interview, location and archive shoot of the UK and Ireland in 2022.
Interviews included Trade Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary Paul Nowak, in London; Secretary South West TUC Nigel Costley (head of the Friends of Thomas Muir) in Glasgow; Dr Tim Causer from the Bentham Centre at University College London; convict author Katharine Quarmby; and leading Irish, Scottish and English historians. With help of freelance documentary crews, we captured locations across the British Isles associated with convict transportation or where democratic and labour movement activism occurred, and digitally photographed the rare collections of the People’s History Museum in Manchester.
This overseas field trip climaxed in a special presentation on Conviction Politics led by Tony Moore at the Menzies Australia Institute, Kings College London chaired by its Director Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska, and smaller presentations on the project at University College Cork and sat the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival summer school.
Melbourne and Sydney Shoots 2021-23
The Conviction Politics team (Roar’s Steve Thomas and Aaron Wilson, Tony Moore, and Kyle Harvey) undertook extensive shoots in Melbourne and Sydney in 2023, making use of stunning locations provided by our collaborators, including Trades Hall in Melbourne, Unions NSW ‘banner’ museum in Sydney, the Hyde Park Barracks, and Cockatoo Island UNESCO convict heritage site on Sydney Harbour Sydney interviewees included Geoff Gallop, Tom Keneally, Noelene Timbery, Margaret Vosand John Dixon from the NSW Teachers Federation, Peter Lewis from Essential, John Jeremy (former CEO of Cockatoo Island dockyard), Libby Bennett (Sydney Harbour Trust), Warren Fahey from Larrikin Records, Neal Towert from Unions NSW and Prof. Nick Carter from Australian Catholic University.
Melbourne interviewees included economist Alison Pennington, Steve and Andrew Vizard, Research Fellow Dr Monika Schwarz, PhD student Daisy Bailey, and Profs. Gordon Pentland, Mark Andrejevic, Judith Brett and Andrew Reeves.
NSW Teachers Federation – Friday Forum and Other Presentations
The discoveries and media by the Conviction Politics project were unveiled on the evening of May 5, 2023 at the Federation’s Friday Forum, opened by the union’s General Secretary Maxine Sharkey, chaired by Margaret Vos with closing remarks by Kate Ambrose. This full house heard from Tony Moore, Steve Thomas, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Monika Schwarz, about the project’s reconceptualising of the convicts as an unfree workforce that collectively resisted exploitation and impacted both the development of Australian democracy and the early labour movement.
The audience was treated to a sample of the project’s short documentaries, its online Hub, and heard how these resources can be deployed in the classroom.
Tony’s opening speech on the project’s significance can be read here:
( See Appendix One – 2023 Friday Forum: Introductory remarks by Tony Moore)
Other Project presentations include
• The ACTU Congress Fringe Festival, June 2024
• Moreton Bay Bicentennial Symposium, Brisbane, September 2024
• at the official opening of IndustriALL, the international congress of 1,000 trade union leaders from around the world, held at Sydney’s Darling Harbour Convention Centre from 4 to 7 November 2025.
Canadian Research Trip 2023
The Conviction Politics team of Tony, Monika and Daisy presented papers and documentaries at the International Association for Media and History conference (20-22 June 2023), which was held at Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada.
The team hosted a panel discussion and screened microdocumentaries in a communal conference space. The panel demonstrated the transnational history of a shared struggle to advance democracy across various parts of the British Empire, and how the ambitious linking of digitised and analogue archives through international institutional partnerships has revealed the political agency of prisoners who had long been obscured as recidivists in individual records.
Tony then embarked on a road tour with Canadian-Australian filmmaker maker, Deke Richards, researching and photographing sites of the Canadian revolutions of 1837-38. Deke has made a major documentary Land of a Thousand Sorrows Revisited about the Québécoise rebels transported as political prisoners to Sydney, in the early 1840s.
They also met with museums in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto and the Australian High Commission to commence discussions about Canada potentially hosting a tour of the Conviction Politics exhibition.
In 2022 Tony had joined Deke and the Canadian Consul-General André François Giroux, and Marie-Anne Alepin, President of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society of Montréal, in the unveiling of a series of plaques to the Canadian prisoners at the burial sights of those who did not return to their homeland, including the Dapto grave of revolutionary Joseph Marceau, who married a local girl and became a farmer and grocer in the Illawarra.
Conviction Politics Hub – Check it out
With over 80 short documentaries, combined with long and short reads, original songs, timeline, podcasts, songs, data visualisations and rich image archive the Conviction Politics Hub is now live to the public and available for use in schools and by our Partner Organisations. Go to:
A trailer about the Conviction Politics documentaries can be viewed here:
The Hub was test driven with the help of the Centre for Professional Learning. Under the guidance of Margaret Vos, in 2024 teachers undertaking the CPL course Teaching Conviction Politics learned from Steve Thomas and Professors Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Tony Moore about the project’s academic discoveries. They also discovered how the Hub could be used in the classroom as a resource for parts of the NSW History syllabuses. During the course, in real time, Roar Film garnered valuable feedback from teachers that helped us tweak the Hub ahead of it doing public.
Please explore the Hub and provide any feedback directly to Margaret Vos at cpl@nswtf.org.au
Conviction Politics’ Unshackled Exhibition launches in Hobart
‘Unshackled: The True Convict Story’ is Conviction Politics’ culminating research
output, that launched on the 12th of March 2024 at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). It had over 40,000 visitors in its four month run. Unshackled is a ground-breaking, multimodal experience melding traditional museum presentation with engaging storytelling, short documentaries, data-visualisation, innovative technology, original music and soundscapes with traditional museum objects. The creative approach and visitor experience has been described as ‘surprising, immersive and moving’. Its video trailer can be viewed here:
It features curated collections of key objects and images including selections from the magnificent Dempsey portraits of British working-class women and men, a collection of radical tokens, reproductions of radical posters and cartoons from Britain, Ireland and Australia.
A highlight of the exhibition is a life size reproduction of the portable solitary ‘box’ used on the female convict transport ships. Interactive screen-based media, large projections and augmented reality lead the visitor through the exhibition themes: Repression, Exploitation, Resistance & Redemption. These media installations are complemented by real objects to provide a truly unique museum experience.
Please see here the professional photographs of the Unshackled exhibition and launch provided by Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery available at this URL:
Here’s link to the exhibition web app visitors use on their smart phones while at the exhibition that provides more information about the solid objects, accesses the short documentaries by theme that appear on screens in the exhibition, and provides images and information on characters and events, including AI generated talking portraits:
The exhibition shows how one of the nineteenth century’s largest forced migrations of unfree workers was preserved in time by a remarkable set of records and demonstrates that far from being a downtrodden, supplicant workforce, convict men and women fought back against tyranny and exploitation and changed Australia for the better.
Unshackled is designed, curated, and built by the project through its principal exhibiting Partner Organisation, Roar Film, working closely with TMAG. Thanks Steve Thomas, Matt Daniels Tony Moore, Daisy Bailey and Hamish Maxwell-Stewart. As well as the generous support to the project from NSW Teachers Federation and the ACTU, the exhibition has been made possible by generous sponsorship from the Mining and Energy Union, its Mineworkers Trust and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, with the later becoming a new partner of Conviction Politics.
A travelling ‘pop up’ version of Unshackled that can be assembled in a day has also been produced, and the plan is for it to be assembled at the NSW Teachers Federation building in tandem with a suitable conference event in 2026.
Unshackled will tour from 2025-2027 to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Queensland’s Bowen Basin, the Hunter, Illawarra, North Tasmanian and overseas to Dorchester, London and Cork.
A Stitch in Time
A different bespoke exhibition focused on resistance by Tasmanian female convicts called a ‘A Stitch in Time’, was ‘created by Conviction Politics research fellow Monika Schwarz and was launched at the Penitentiary Chapel in Hobart in June 2023. The exhibition features 18 ‘data embroideries’ created by Monika of 21 convict women chosen for their participation in protest and resistance, especially in the Female Factories.
This project uses data embroidery, a new form of data physicalisation, to display historical life courses of Australian female convicts. The source of the data includes the female convict records of Van Diemen’s Land kept by the British Bureaucracy, including their trial and voyage, their colonial offences and sentences, their marriages and births or their official status like receiving a Certificate of Freedom. These data titbits inspire the sketches for the data embroideries, focusing on acts of resilience or resourcefulness. The data is integrated in the form of a lifeline with the inspiring data points highlighted in colour. The embroideries try to capture moments where the women’s personality is shining through the records, showing that these women weren’t so different from us. Here are two examples.
Daisy Baily Awarded Doctorate
In early 2025 Conviction Politics’ Monash PhD student Daisy Bailey submitted her Thesis: Emotions of Activism and Exile: A study on Chartist and Young Ireland political prisonerstransported to the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century
The work was praised for its originality, discoveries and writing by the two examiners, and accordingly passed by Monash. The project congratulates Dr Baily and looks forward to the thesis being published as a book.
Unshackled: The Convict Memorial
In partnership with the National Trust of Tasmania, Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Steve Thomas and Roar Film’s creative technologist Matt Daniels installed the digital convict memorial in Hobart Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site in October last year. Sharing the brand name Unshackled, the memorial links to, and visualises, the UNESCO Heritage Listed Tasmanian convict records held by project partner Libraries Tasmania.
Powered by the Digital History Tasmania convict dataset, the digital memorial tells the stories of 75,000 convicts through a four-metre interactive obelisk that performs a role not unlike the honour wall of a war memorial. Hamish Maxwell-Stewart reports that “feedback from data visualisation, tourism and heritage experts has been overwhelmingly positive and the descendants of convicts report that the experience is respectful and deeply moving.”
New funded ARC Project: Making Crime Pay
Building on, and enhancing, the memorial this new 2023 project includes Monash academics Prof. Jon McCormack (SensiLab), Prof. Tony Moore and Research Fellow Dr Monika Schwarz who worked on Conviction Politics, as well as Dr Jenny Wise, Associate Prof. David Roberts and Prof. Martin Gibbs from the University of New England. The project aims to create digital tools to allow visitors to experience Australian convict sites and historical big data in new and novel ways. The successful grant awarded to Making Crime Pay enables further analysis and public engagement with convict records and colonial history, the longevity of Unshackled and the continued collaboration with Roar Film and National Trust Tasmania.
Appendix 1 – 2023 May 5 Friday Forum: Introductory remarks by Tony Moore
Thanks Margaret Vos, Kate Ambrose and Maxine Sharkey and the NSW Teachers Federation for inviting us.
The NSW Teachers Federation has been a generous and energetic partner in this project, and shares with our other union partners (the ACTU, TUC and the AMWU) a commitment to retrieving the contribution of the convicts to the early development of democracy and the labour movement in this country. Also Principals Conference.
What the project is
Conviction Politics is a digital history project funded by the Australian Research Council and industry partners as part of the Linkage scheme. It investigates how Britain’s Australian colonies – beginning as some of the most unfree and unequal jurisdictions on earth – became some of the first polities to give all working men the vote by the 1850s and in quick time earned a reputation as the social laboratory of the world.
The answer is to be found in newly digitised convict records, which reveal a very different story of the empire-wide struggle for political and human rights and the unlikely victory of Britain’s reformers and radicals in their place of exile. Harnessing the latest data mapping technologies, Conviction Politics, reveals how from the earliest days of settlement, Australia’s first work force resisted exploitation through inventive solidarity in the face of coercion, while a vanguard of transported rebels, liberal pamphleteers, industrial protesters, trade unionists, Chartists, Irish independence fighters, and radical agitators changed the political direction of the colonies.
Our project re-conceptualizes convict transportation as one of the great forced global labour migrations of history, continuous with the slave trade, used to build settler capitalist colonies in Australia. It flips the narrative of a down – trodden criminal class by revealing the agency of the coerced workforce in collectively resisting this system. At the same time its focus on the transported political prisoners reveals Australian colonies vitally connected to the revolutions, ideas, movements and media innovations sweeping the Atlantic world. To put it in Star Wars terms, there’s not just an evil empire, but a rebel alliance too, and its exiled leaders and foot soldiers make quite a mark in Australia and back in Britain and Ireland. The project reveals this new take on convict Australia through an array of media that we will sample tonight.
Indigenous People:
Notwithstanding the role of convicts in the seizure and occupation of the First Nations’ land in Australia, there is also a shared experience here, between Indigenous people and the transported convicts. Unrest in Britain, Ireland, and throughout the empire was triggered by capitalist commodification, land enclosure, colonialism within the British Isles and the destruction and disenchantment of traditional ways of life. The invasion of the Australian continent brought the same dislocating forces to bear on the Indigenous people of Australia, who fought against this dispossession, with many internally exiled into the convict system, from where they continued to resist. There was violence and death, with convicts used to dispossess. Indigenous land was stolen for the land hungry of Britain and Ireland, that helped the rulers avoid a revolution back home. However, our project reveals some remarkable acts of recognition and solidarity between Indigenous people and European convicts.
Developing the project’s application, we took heart from the Sally McManus’ comments in March 2017 that sometimes it is necessary to resist unfair and unjust laws. It is a key proposition of Conviction Politics that political and social democracy was not simply ceded to the Australian colonies by a caring mother country, but had to be fought for by brave, principled and persecuted people, first in their home countries and then again as convicts.
The project looks at 2 groups. At least 3600 protestors, reformers, radicals and revolutionaries sacrificed their own liberty, and sometimes their lives, for the freedoms and rights we take for granted. Meanwhile the 160,000 convicts who composed our first workforce undertook collective action to resist exploitation of its unfree labour through insubordination, absconding, uprisings, refusals to eat, strikes, and forming union -like combinations from at least the 1820s. Conviction Politics examines both these groups.
So often in the period we’re examining we find that it was new laws buttressing a new economic system that created the crimes. While many such as the United Irishmen took up arms in revolution against the Crown, both at home and then in Castle Hill, Sydney, others were transported simply for what they wrote, said or published. So many British workers, known to history by colourful names like Luddites, Swing Rioters, Tolpuddle Martyrs and Daughters of Rebecca, smashed the machines that were taking or automating their jobs, or demolished the tolls and turnpikes that heralded the privatization of the roads and commons they had travelled free for centuries. Still others were transported simply for coming together in a trade union.
Conviction Politics puts into practice the powerful injunction of media scholar Raymond Williams that drawing a new line with the past can inform contemporary social change. To that end, the scholars and partners in this project mobilise history to speak to our present moment. We consider the persistence from the colonial period of problems that drove our convicts to resist: precarious, insecure, and coerced work; decline in wages: our current cycle of automation: privatisation; our use surveillance and facial recognition; threats to freedoms in speech, media, and assembly; and the ease with which we incarcerate the marginalised. Most importantly we look at the unfinished work of decolonisation in Australia, not just for Indigenous people, but of us all.
We will now watch the first of our short documentaries about the Indigenous Convicts
About the author
Dr Tony Moore is Professor of Communications and Media Studies at Monash University and former Director of its National Centre for Australian Studies. Tony is author of the critically acclaimed Fringe to Famous: Cultural Production in Australia After the Creative Industries (Bloomsbury 2024) Dancing with Empty Pockets: Australia’s Bohemians since 1868 (2012), Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788 – 1868 (2010), adapted as an ABC TV documentary (2015) and The Barry McKenzie Movies (2005). Tony is lead investigator on the ARC the ARC Linkage Projects Conviction Politics: the convict routes of Australian democracy (2019-2025): https://www.convictionpolitics.net and Comedy Country: Australian Performance Comedy as an Agent of Change (2022 – 2027)
He is a former ABC TV documentary maker and commissioning editor at Pluto Press and Cambridge University Press and worked in youth policy and advocacy for the Education Commission of NSW, International Youth Year and Youth Affairs Council of NSW. His documentaries include Bohemian Rhapsody: Rebels of Australian Culture, TimeFrame history of ASIO, Lost in Space: Australians in their Cities and Nobody’s Children.
In this course you will develop a practical understanding of modern assessment theory and look at strategies for promoting and assessing higher order thinking skills in your students. We will focus on two assessment formats: multiple choice, and performance-based items, and consider the purpose and design of rubrics. We will look in depth at the advantages, disadvantages, tricks, and pitfalls of these different styles, emphasising the interrelationship between learning and assessment.
Professor Jim Tognolini and Dr Sofia Kesidou from the University of Sydney’s Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment lead an interactive and content-driven professional learning day. Completing this course will consolidate your expertise in helping your students develop analytical, evaluative, and creative skills.
Please note this course was formerly called Modern Assessment Theory and Assessment Strategies for Higher Order Thinking: K-12.
Tuesday 11 August 2026 at NSW Teachers Federation, Surry Hills
Wednesday 26 August 2026, online via Zoom
Wednesday 11 November 2026 at Blacktown
All CPL courses run from 9am to 3pm.
Prof Jim Tognolini
Professor Jim Tognolini is Director of The Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment (CEMA) which is situated within the University of Sydney School of Education and Social Work. The work of the Centre is focused on the broad areas of teaching, research, consulting and professional learning for teachers.
The Centre is currently providing consultancy support to a number of schools. These projects include developing a methodology for measuring creativity; measuring 21st Century Skills; developing school-wide practice in formative assessment. We have a number of experts in the field: most notably, Professor Jim Tognolini, who in addition to conducting research offers practical and school-focused support.
Dr Sofia Kesidou
Sofia Kesidou is an executive leader and academic researcher with close to 30-years’ experience in international educational assessment, curriculum and research.
Sofia has taught courses in assessment to undergraduate and graduate students, and has conducted numerous professional-development sessions related to standards-based curriculum and assessment as well as assessment and data literacy internationally.
Completing Modern Assessment Theory and Assessment Strategies for Higher Order Thinking: K-12 will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Delivery and Assessment of NSW Curriculum/EYLF addressing standard descriptors 5.1.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
K-12 teachers
$220
Please note, payment for courses is taken after the course takes place.
“Great learning to empower teachers to be better professionals and create better outcomes for students, strengthen the profession.”
“A very practical course to use for the planning and implementation of classes with the intention of improving assessments/evaluating/testing for the students.”
“Every aspect of this course was informative and useful. I’ve had an opportunity to think about what has been presented and engage in collegial discussion.”
This course is designed for teachers who are interested in building practical skills around differentiation and inclusive planning for a mainstream context K-TAFE. Participants will look at the timeline of disability within the school context and see how over time changes have taken place (or not). Teachers will expand their strategies and skills in meeting the needs of students with disabilities in various settings to support positive and successful learning and engagement.
K-TAFE teachers who are interested in unpacking their understanding of inclusion and increase their strategies and skills in supporting a wide range of students with disability in their classroom.
16 June 2026 at Broken Hill
28 July 2026 at Tamworth
6 August at Canberra
5 November 2026 at Newcastle
All CPL courses run from 9am to 3pm.
$220
Please note, payment for courses is taken after the course takes place.
John Skene was elected as the NSW Teachers Federation Disability Officer in November 2024. As part of this role, he is responsible for supporting students, staff and schools in disability. He is working closely with the other areas in Federation (Organisers, Professional Support, Trade Union Training) to support Federation members.
With over fifteen years of experience as a teacher in special education, John has worked at Schools for Specific Purposes (SSPs) and Support Units (SUs). He has held roles such as Federation Representative and Assistant Principal Special Education. John was a Councillor and the Special Education Contact of Sutherland and Inner-City Teachers Association (across his time in school).
Bianca Bertalli considers the ‘media minefield’ and the benefits of collaborative teaching to facilitate students’ media literacy. . .
The internet has revolutionised the way people seek and use information. It has enabled faster and easier communication, facilitated the global trading of goods and ideas, and integrated access to information with everyday life. These rapid changes are reflected in classroom practice, where technology has transformed the tools available to teachers and students (Haleem et al., 2022). However, as access to information has grown, so has the proportion of misinformation available to consumers. Fake news, algorithm powered bots and organised troll groups are some of the common channels of misinformation likely to be encountered by today’s students.
Classroom teachers and teacher librarians play a key role in teaching students how to critically evaluate information. By developing collaborative practices in inquiry learning, teacher librarians can align learning with this need and support colleagues through an unprecedented era of online content creation and consumption (Australian School Library Association [ASLA], 2019; NSW Department of Education, 2022).
Misinformation vs disinformation
The term ‘misinformation’ infers an overarching invalidity of information, however other fundamental components are also at play in online content. Misinformation can be shared or spread unwittingly, or it can be categorised as ‘disinformation’ and deliberately circulated for financial gain or political advantage (Australian Communications and Media Authority, 2023; Harrison and Leopold, 2021). Ranked by severity, in terms of the negative social, economic, and environmental impact, mis/disinformation ranked 16th out of 32 imminent global risks identified by the World Economic Forum (2023). Worryingly, when considered in a long-term 10-year projection, mis/disinformation advances to 11th position. While the impact on young people has not yet been widely examined, the prospect of mis/disinformation as a global threat is particularly concerning, given that it ranks well ahead of dangers such as terrorist attacks or the use of weapons of mass destruction (World Economic Forum, 2023, p 11).
The media: fusion of fact and opinion
The emergence of ‘alternative facts’ and the recurrent sharing of unchecked information throughout the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the prevalence of misinformation in the media. It also increased concern globally on the cause and effect this may have on young people (Howard, Neudert and Prakesh, 2021). False news and media bias have the potential to undermine confidence in political personalities and influence democratic processes (Hobbs and McKnight, 2014; Nettlefold and Williams, 2018). The way news media is framed can underrepresent, misrepresent or purposefully exclude specific groups of people (Meehan et al., 2015; Moyer, 2022).
Mis/disinformation can also ignite and spread polarising ideas and threaten ‘social cohesion’ (World Economic Forum, 2023, p 24). Harrison and Leopold (2021) acknowledge that while political agendas are often the driving force behind media, financially incentivised click-bait headlines also make it tempting for media to give precedence to content that will draw readers in, rather than present accuracy.
The often-imperceptible fusion of fact and opinion across news media, combined with the reach and saturation of a small number of news corporations, places Australian school students at risk of information overload without a way to critically evaluate their way out (Nettlefold and Williams, 2018).
In a study of 1,000 Australians aged 8-16 years, Notley and Dezuanni (2020) found that despite an 8% increase in news consumption since 2017, there was only a 2% increase in the number of students who felt they could distinguish fake news from real news. Even though the broad consensus of teachers agreed that engaging with news in a critical way is important for students, only 1 out of 5 Australian students said that they had been taught how to decide whether a news story was credible (Nettlefold and Williams, 2018; Notley and Dezuanni, 2020).
Beware the bots
Through carefully created algorithms, internet ‘bots’ (originating from the word ‘robot’) have changed the way information is curated for search engines and can deliberately alter the way in which information is prioritised for viewing (Head et al., 2020; Nettlefold and Williams, 2018; Rogers-Whitehead et al., 2022). Bots and algorithms are neither good nor evil, as their function and impact are determined by those who designed them (Head et al., 2020; Lutkevich and Gillis, 2022). They do, however, have the power to alter the flow of data and influence an internet user’s experience (Alemanno, 2018; Rogers-Whitehead et al., 2022).
It has been estimated that bots make up more than two-thirds of internet traffic (Barracuda, 2021; Rogers-Whitehead et al., 2022). For example, over a 6-month period in 2020, COVID-19 related tweets were collected and analysed. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers found that 82% of the 50 most influential retweeters were in fact bots (CMU, 2020). This inundation of mis/disinformation and polarising messaging spread by bots can have alarming consequences, including risks to public debate and democracy or increased hostility, violence or crime (CMU, 2020; Howard et al., 2021).
While students prefer search engines, such as Google, as their primary source of research information, they often have a misplaced trust in it, believing that search results are provided, or fact checked, by a human employee (Dring, 2014; Lane and Van Bergan, 2018; The Office of Communications [OFCOM], 2017). Instead, web-crawler bots provide a curated list of website suggestions in response to search queries and, although students may believe sources are listed in order of validity, bots order results based on other factors, such as the frequency of visits to a site or the quantity of pages that link to a site (Cloudflare, n.d.). Google also lists paid search results that can be difficult for students to distinguish (OFCOM, 2017).
Complex algorithms further construct an individual’s online experience from data harvested through each engagement. The way in which algorithms present increasingly extreme viewpoints through ‘Watch Next’ suggestions on YouTube (Moyer, 2022) or other algorithm-driven content, such as personalised news feeds, advertisements or friend suggestions, makes it difficult for students to separate fact and fiction online (UNICEF, 2021). Rogers-Whitehead et al. (2022) warn that, as children grow and more seamlessly engage with technology, they will become ‘even more accustomed to outsourcing their information seeking and “truth” to devices’ (p 7).
Crossing the troll bridge
The internet dominates the channels that humans use to communicate and share information, and while propaganda is not a new concept, content specifically created to propagate ideologically-driven conflict has grown exponentially. When a student views an idea or message frequently, they often misinterpret this as an indicator of truthfulness (Moyer, 2022; Howard et al., 2021). At times, these messages are created by trolls, people who intentionally initiate hostility and conflict, often using mis/disinformation as their chosen weapon (Bradshaw and Howard, 2017; Howard et al., 2012).
The efficacy of organised troll groups in gaining political influence was investigated in an Oxford University study by Bradshaw and Howard (2017), who coined the phrase ‘cyber troops’ to describe ‘government, military or political party teams committed to manipulating public opinion over social media’ (p 3). They found that, across at least 28 countries, coordinated efforts were made to engage in social media platforms to sway or stifle discussions or consciously spread disinformation.
Practical solutions: a collaborative approach
Inquiry learning, including media literacy, is fundamental to the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, n.d). The rationale in the Media Arts learning area, for example, states that: ‘students learn to be critically aware of ways that the media are culturally used and negotiated, and are dynamic and central to the way they make sense of the world and of themselves’ (para. 3). More specifically, subject content descriptions provide scaffolds to assist students’ deep learning. For example, the content for Year 4 HASS (Humanities and Social Sciences) is driven by a number of ‘inquiry questions’ and divided into two strands: ‘knowledge and understanding’, and ‘inquiry and skills’. In particular, the ‘researching’ and ‘analysing’ skills require students to ‘locate and collect information and data from different sources,’ and ‘identify different points of view and distinguish facts from opinions.’ In various iterations that differ in complexity, the same questions and skills drive student learning in HASS from Foundation to Year 7.
In NSW, across the range of syllabuses, and at all stages, students are required to independently research and analyse information in various online and offline contexts, making it crucial that they are given the opportunity to develop skills that enable them to critically engage with information. The Stage Statements for Geography K–10 (NESA, n.d.), for example, provide a continuum of learning focused on inquiry and students’ ability to effectively consume and produce information. Lane and Van Bergen (2018) note that, as students compare, contrast and critically evaluate sources through the inquiry process, they become more adept at identifying mis/disinformation.
Despite universal recognition of the importance of media literacy, the current combined responsive efforts of media policy, regulation and educational practices to facilitate media literacy are predicted to fall short in addressing the projected global threat of mis/disinformation (World Economic Forum, 2023). However, with information technology acting as the ‘primary driving force behind education reform’ (Haleem et al., 2022, p 1), the need to increasingly assess the validity of information presents teachers and teacher librarians with a powerful, collaborative opportunity.
Teacher librarians can support classroom teachers and help bridge the knowledge gap to teach students media literacy skills (Nettlefold and Williams, 2018) by providing both in-context instruction shaped around the Information Fluency Framework (NSW Department of Education, n.d., PDF 900 KB) and curriculum-aligned resources. Britannica Education (2024), for example, offers a freely available online Media Literacy Guide, which unpacks media literacy metalanguage and provides helpful activities to encourage students to develop their critical information literacy across various platforms. Similarly, the ABC Education’s (2024) Media Literacy online hub of videos and interactive activities covers a broad range of topics, including social media, news bias, media ethics and fact checking.
Misinformation presents a ubiquitous threat for our young people. It is essential that classrooms and school libraries operate as spaces where information, innovation, and inclusion are deeply valued and fabrications, alternative facts and fake news are widely challenged. Working together, teachers and teacher librarians have a responsibility to cultivate students’ media literacy skills, develop inquiry-based models of learning, and foster practices that continuously build the information fluency of students.
Abu Kausar, M., Dhaka, V. & Singh, S. (2013). Web crawler: a review. International Journal of Computer Applications, 63, 31–36. https://doi.org/10.5120/10440-5125
Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). Structure.
Alemanno, A. (2018). how to counter fake news? A taxonomy of anti-fake news approaches. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 9(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1017/err.2018.12
Australian Communications and Media Authority. (2023, March 29). Online misinformation.
Bauer, A. J., Nadler, A. & Nelson, J. L. (2022). What is Fox News? Partisan journalism, misinformation, and the problem of classification. Electronic News, 16(1), 18–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/19312431211060426
Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Qadri, M. A. & Suman, R. (2022). Understanding the role of digital technologies in education: a review. Sustainable Operations and Computers, 3, 275–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.susoc.2022.05.004
Hobbs, M. & Mcknight, D. (2014). “Kick this mob out”: the Murdoch media and the Australian Labor government (2007 to 2013). Global Media Journal: Australian Edition, 8, 1–13.
Kammer, J., Donahay, A., King, M. & Koeberl, H. (2021). Understanding what makes school librarian-teacher collaboration successful. Knowledge Quest, 50(1), 50-52.
Rogers-Whitehead, C., Milstead, A. O. & Farris-Hill, L. (2022). Advocating digital citizenship: resources for the library and classroom. Libraries Unlimited.
Bianca Bertalli is currently a NSW Department of Education Specialist Teacher Scholarship recipient, completing her post-graduate Masters of Education (Teacher Librarianship), and working as Teacher Librarian K-6, at Gol Gol Public School in the Rural Far West. Bianca began teaching in 2010, as a classroom teacher in the inner city of Sydney, where she previously served as an elected government school representative on the Quality Teaching Council. Bianca has presented at courses and conferences to support early career teachers to develop skills in classroom management, planning/ programming and the accreditation process. She has been an active member of the NSW Teachers Federation for the past 16 years.
Fiona Beasley shares her research into trauma informed practice…
More and more, schools are recognising the need to support both students who have experienced trauma as well as the teachers who work with them every day. Research shows that children who go through tough experiences like abuse, neglect, or family struggles often face challenges in learning, behaviour, and relationships. They may struggle with focus, managing emotions, or getting along with others, and some may develop anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns. Without the right support, these difficulties can lead to school suspensions or even expulsions.
Being trauma-informed means understanding how these experiences affect students and learning how to create a supportive, safe environment where they can thrive. This article covers ten important things teachers should know about trauma-informed practices to help every student feel understood, valued, and ready to learn.
1. What is trauma?
The most commonly used definition of trauma is that from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Trauma and Violence – What Is Trauma and Its Effects?, n.d.) SAMHSA recognises trauma as an event, or set of circumstances, that is experienced by an individual, resulting in physical, emotional and/or life-threatening harm. The event may be an accident, long term illness or natural disaster that results in someone feeling unsafe and unstable. It could be a one-time event, such as a car accident, on an ongoing event, such as prolonged neglect. Ongoing trauma, over a long period of time, creates toxic stress. Chronic or toxic stress, brought on by trauma, is the long term-activation of the body’s stress response.
2. How prevalent is trauma?
Australian Child Maltreatment Study (Haslam et al., 2023) found more than 2 in five Australians (39.4%) have experienced childhood maltreatment, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic and family violence. The NSW Governments DCJ Quarterly Statistical Report on Services for Children and Young People – July – September 2024 (NSW Department of Communities and Justice, n.d.) identified:
A total of 104 687 child and young person concern reports were received. Of these 58.1% met the risk of significant harm (ROSH) threshold.
A total of 527 children and young people entered Out of Home Care (OOHC). This is an increase of 8.2%.
As of 30 September 2024, a total of 13 889 children and young people were in OOHC in NSW.
There were 351 children and young people in High Cost Emergency Arrangements (HCEA) at the end of September 2024.
It is important to note that this data relates to circumstances of harm that have been reported. It does not take into account other events identified as contributing to trauma. We can also make assumptions that these statistics are lower than the real number of children who may be experiencing maltreatment or abuse as a result of under-reporting.
3. What does trauma look like in schools
Our brains are developed to help us respond to threat. Children who have experienced trauma, perceive the world as a dangerous place. Their brains are on high alert and may appear to overreact to what may seem to those around them, as unthreatening stimuli, resulting in behaviours that can be characterised as fight, flight, freeze or fawn. These automatic responses can be defined as reacting to a perceived threat through:
Fight – responding aggressively
Flight – trying to flee
Freeze – an inability to move or act
Fawn – trying to please in order to avoid the threat.
Children who have been exposed to traumatic events resulting in experiencing toxic stress are at far greater risk of difficulties in school. Notably, the impact that trauma can have on brain development, particularly that resulting in toxic stress, leads to cognitive and social-emotional difficulties.
Downey et al. (2013), in the resource developed for the Victorian Child Safety Commissioner identified the most recognisable impacts on education under two intertwining categories.
Impacts on academic performance
Impacts on social relationships
Reduced cognitive capacity
Need for control
Sleep disturbance
Attachment difficulties
Difficulties with memory
Poor peer relationships
Language delays
Unstable living situation
4. Self-regulation can be challenging for students who have experienced trauma
For students who have been through trauma, self-regulation can be especially tough. Their struggles with schoolwork and social interactions are often made worse by difficulties managing their emotions and deep feelings of shame.
Emotional Dysregulation: Hyperarousal vs. Dissociation
Kids dealing with trauma often show emotional dysregulation in one of two ways—hyperarousal or dissociation.
· Hyperarousal means being on high alert all the time. These kids may see neutral situations as dangerous, reacting with fear or defensiveness. Even though their bodies are geared up for danger, they’re not always good at recognizing real threats, which can lead to risky behaviours. Plus, being in this constant state of alertness makes it incredibly hard to focus or pay attention in class.
· Dissociation is the opposite—these kids may seem zoned out, distant, or emotionally unreachable. Sometimes, they might even appear defiant or oppositional when, in reality, they’re just mentally shutting down as a coping mechanism.
The Weight of Shame
For children who have experienced trauma, feelings of shame can be overwhelming. A small mistake or a simple disciplinary action can make them feel like failures or even like they’re inherently “bad.” This shame can fuel emotional outbursts and make it even harder for them to regulate their emotions, sometimes leading to aggression as a way to cope.
Understanding these challenges is key to helping trauma-affected students navigate school and social situations with the support they need.
5. Kids who have experienced trauma are not going out of their way to push your buttons.
Children who have experienced trauma can develop maladaptive strategies as a means of maintaining personal safety. Dr Ross Greene puts it very simply as, “Kids do well if they can.” (2008) He identifies that rather than taking the view that kids do well if they want to, suggesting a lack of motivation, we should take the view that if a kid could do well, they would. Kids who struggle, who are challenging, are lacking the skills required to do so. Dr Greene goes on to say that challenging behaviour is most likely to occur when the expectations being placed on them outweigh the skills they have to respond adaptively.
6. We don’t always know what is happening when kids are not at school.
We don’t always know what experiences children bring to school. A child who runs late to school may be met with a reprimand and questions for why they are late. What about the child who rarely seems organised and never has the right equipment or fails to bring back excursion notes on time. Consider the iceberg analogy. We can see the tip of the iceberg, but what is hiding beneath the surface? The child who is reprimanded for being late spent the morning getting siblings ready for school and trying to scrounge together food for their breakfasts and lunches while their parent remained in bed, unable to get up due to the debilitating depression they are experiencing. Rather than reprimanding the student for being late, consider responding with compassion and empathy. This child has managed to get themselves to school despite the challenges they may be facing.
7. Build relationships
Understanding the impact that traumatic events can have on the developing brain helps us to understand what children need to heal. Although negative early experiences such as poor attachment have a negative impact on the brain, conversely, relationships can have a protective and reparative impact. The importance of relationships in healing cannot be understated. Whilst therapeutic interventions may be essential, genuine relationships resulting in micro moments of positive regard can be transformational for a child’s healing. It is the countless relational experiences that kids experience at school on a daily basis, both intentional and unintentional that have the greatest impact. (Australian Childhood Foundation, 2018; Ludy-Dobson & Perry, 2010)
“The more healthy relationships a child has, the more likely he will be to recover from trauma and thrive. Relationships are the agents of change, and the most powerful therapy is human love.” (Perry, 2007)
8. Use restorative practices rather than punitive discipline
Punitive discipline results in kids feeling shame and isolation for making mistakes as well as perpetuating the idea that they are bad. For students who have experienced trauma this can be particularly damaging and potentially re-traumatising. This type of discipline relies on control over care with an over-reliance on compliance, rather than understanding.
Restorative practice promotes a safe school culture and environment by helping to build positive relationships. Restorative practices are not about giving kids a free pass. “It recognises that a variety of factors influence behaviour and seeks to address the underlying influences through empathy, relationship-building, communication, social and emotional learning and finding ways to respectfully hold one another accountable”. (NSW Department of Education Wellbeing, 2025)
A new professional learning course developed in collaboration with leading experts in the field is now available on-demand from the NSW Department of Education. (Wellbeing, 2024)
9. Take care of your own wellbeing first.
The most important point to remember when working with children who have experienced trauma is the demands of this work. This can take its toll on the wellbeing of teachers in the form of compassion fatigue as a result of working day after day with children who may be aggressive or withdrawn and do not respond as quickly to the usual positive regard shown by teachers. They cannot continue to support the wellbeing of others unless individually and collectively we consider the wellbeing of the teachers themselves.
Downey et al. (2013) suggests three strategies for self-care, being reminded by the three R’s: Reflection, Regulation and Relaxation
Reflection – be realistic about working with students who have experienced trauma as it can be very difficult to like and relate to them. Consider reflecting on their behaviour in light of what you know about trauma and try to understand the behaviour from the perspective of what has happened to them rather than what is wrong with them. Think about what you may need to continue to work and connect with the student. Ensure you have a trusted colleague you can debrief with.
Regulation – Be mindful of how this work may trigger your own dysregulation. Reflect on what it is you need to self-regulate. You cannot support the regulation of students if you are dysregulated. Be aware of your own triggers and the reactions and emotions they may invoke. You have probably heard the quote by L. R. Knost “When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, it’s our job to share our calm, not join their chaos.” We cannot help children learn to self-regulate if we add our emotions to the mix.” (Kansas, 2023).
It is important that there is a culture of safety within your school that means you can tap out when needed, no questions asked. You need to be able to ask for help without judgement. It is not a reflection on your abilities as a teacher, but more how hard this work really is.
Relaxation – just as important as reflection and regulation is being able to relax. Having the time and space to engage in activities or past times that refresh and renew your energy. Ensure that you are engaging with things that are of interest to you, the things that bring you joy. Engage in Yoga, mindfulness, read a book, go for a hike, binge watch a favourite show, get a massage. Whatever you do, it is what brings you peace and joy.
Most importantly, remember to be patient and forgiving of yourself. Children who have experienced trauma and have disrupted attachment require time to change and being kind to yourself is necessary within a culture of safety and social support in your school.
End note
This JPL article is based upon Fiona’s 2024 Eric Pearson report entitled Trauma Informed Practice: An Observation of the Elements Required to Sustain Practice.
Federation members can access this document through the Member Portal :
Greene, R. W. (2008). Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB18318146
Kansas, C. C. a. O. (2023, August 21). When Little People are Overwhelmed by Big Emotions. Child Care Aware. https://ks.childcareaware.org/when-little-people-are-overwhelmed-by-big-emotions/
Perry, B. D. (2007). The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook. https://openlibrary.org/books/OL17210964M/The_boy_who_was_raised_as_a_dog
Fiona Beasley began teaching as an Itinerant Support Teacher (Hearing) in 1996 in Mudgee. Since then, she has worked in both mainstream and special education settings in primary schools in rural and remote areas from Broken Hill to the far south coast as a teacher, Assistant Principal and relieving Principal.
She has also worked in and out of corporate roles as a Non-School Based Teacher since 2007. Prior to her current role, as Wellbeing Systems Support Advisor, she worked in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on Students with Disabilities in Schools (NCCD) team and substantively holds the position of Assistant Principal Learning and Support for the Batemans Bay Network of schools.
Fiona is an experienced presenter of the Department of Education’s Trauma Informed Practice for improved learning and wellbeing professional learning.
She completed an Eric Pearson Study Grant report on Trauma-Informed Practice: An Observation of the Elements Required to Sustain Practice in 2024.
In addition, she presented her work at the Trauma Aware Education Conference in Brisbane Queensland in 2024 and will undertake QUT’s new Microcredential in Trauma Aware Education as part of the first intake in July.
