A/Prof. Trace Ollis

My career in education spans 27 years. I began my teaching career as a TAFE teacher in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, teaching community development and welfare studies. My work as a researcher and teacher educator at Deakin has been focussed on the discipline areas of adult, vocational, professional and applied learning. I have held several leadership positions at Deakin such as course director, discipline leader and am currently on the School of Education Executive as the higher degree by research Co-ordinator (HDR). This position oversees 170 PhD and Masters by research students.

• Vice President, Board of Directors Adult Learning Australia 2013 –2020
• Editor in Chief of the Australian Journal of Adult Learning the leading journal in Australia and the Asia Pacific on adult community education

Invited Keynote addresses

• 25/11/2020 ‘60 years of the Australian Journal of Adult Learning, research and scholarship in adult learning in Australia and the Asian Pacific, challenges and opportunities’ at Looking Back - Casting Forward 60 years of Adult Learning Australia.

• Learner experiences of Neighbourhood Houses, practice, habitus and adult learning, ‘Adult learners state of play conference’, Brimbank Learning Futures. 6/9/19 https://www.adultlearnersweek.org/events/understand-our-discouraged-adult-learners-state-of-play-in-the-west-forum/

• Practice, habitus and Adult Learning in Neighbourhood Houses in Australia ACRE, 2019, Beyond the Neoliberal University 24-26th of July, Edgehill University, Ormskirk, United Kingdom. https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/education/research/acre-2019/keynote-speakers/keynote-tracey-ollis/

• Every day you learn something, learning for life: Neighborhood houses, adult learning and transitions to higher education. Adult Learning Australia conference, Hobart, 2017

• Adult, Community Education - Connecting health, wellbeing and lifelong learning. Keynote Mental health and Adult Learning Symposium 14/10/16

• Adult Education, Community Development and Social Change Barwon Neighbourhood House Network Annual General Meeting on 29/10/2016, Invited keynote

• Public Pedagogies, Activism, Social Movements and Social Justice Education - an Embodied Practice’, keynote presentation, Public Pedagogies Conference, 7/11/14, Victoria University

My research focusses on adult learners and learning. I am recognised as an expert in adult learning, in Australian and internationally. My research and scholarship is immersed in adult learning communities, in non-government organisations, and in communities of learners, this has enabled me to build and sustain long term partnerships with leading organisations in Adult Learning such as Adult Learning Victoria and Neighbourhood Houses Victoria. I employ epistemological, ontological and ethical theoretical frames of ‘practice’ and interpretative methodologies using single and multiple case studies with adults in a range of vocational learning and community-based settings. My published works, in national and international journals concern second chance learners, disengaged learners, adult community education, professional learning and learning occurring in social movements. My book titled “A Critical Pedagogy of Embodied Education, Learning to Become an Activist” is a tier one publication with Palgrave, has been widely cited by leading national and international scholars in adult education. My research on embodied adult learning and circumstantial activism has been influential and impactful in the scholarship of adult learning. My research on informal and incidental learning in Neighbourhood Houses has secured three significant research grants and has been influential in documenting and shaping an understanding of practice and practices in sites of adult community education. This research focusses on lifelong learning in Neighbourhood Houses and transition pathways to Vocational and Higher Education.

My research draws on a broad critical theory, key theorists I draw on:

Paulo Freire, Piere Bourdieu, post humanism, critical pedagogy

Completed HDR supervision theses.

Employer-supported Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities

Deconstructing pedagogies of professional practice and learning for police officers

Neighbourhood Houses as sites of women's empowerment

Australian Principals' Experiences in Implementing Instructional leadership in Regional Victoria

 Interrogating the Paradox: Distributed Leadership and 'Sheikhocracy' in Jordanian Schools Leadership

Innovative Applied Learning for School Completion: An Activity Theory Perspective

Current HDR supervision theses.

Critical Engagement in Australian Outdoor and Environmental Education Curriculum and Youth Climate Change Activism

Discursive practices shaping girls' physics identity

Canadian Educators' Perspectives on the Future of Occupational Therapy Teaching

Career Aspirations and Trajectories: An Exploratory Case Study of the Influence of the Ready to Teach Teaching Practicum

Cultural Capital facilitated through the International Baccalaureate in a local setting

Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory to investigate associate degree students' experiences of learning

Adult Learning Australia

Australian Journal of Adult Learning

Neighbourhood Houses Victoria

The Australian Association on Environmental Education;

Friends of the Earth;

National Tertiary Education Union;

 

 

Tracey's teaching interests are focused on critical pedagogy and teaching and learning for social justice. My teaching philosophy stems from adult learning and critical pedagogy. I am a research-informed and also research- informing educator building capacity in students to respond to the complexities and uncertainties of the future. I am interested in how students develop their knowledge and expertise. I draw on Jarvis (2010) theory of learning and the whole person in the critical pedagogy tradition of adult learning. I acknowledge that students are cognitive, emotional and physical beings and that learning should not just engage the cognitive aspects of ourselves but the whole person, mind, body and emotions in learning. I am also particularly interested in how we engage students to change their learner biographies, particularly students who are struggling academically and may have a chequered history of learning in formal schooling. Differentiated and applied learning pedagogies linked to real world contexts are used in my teaching. I view students as co-creators of the curriculum and have them engage in worthwhile knowledge by leading the development of the necessary capabilities which they need to flourish as adult learners. My teaching is focussed on research training of postgraduate students in the SOE research pathways, mentoring and supervision of my own PhD students and providing professional learning for HDR students in the Faculty of Arts and Education.

Unit Chair:

EDX707 Independent Reseach Project for Professional Practice

Dr Trace Ollis is recognised as leading researcher in adult education and has published widely in Australia and Internationally. She has conducted research projects on Adult Education in human rights, VET, and ACE with a focus on lifelong learning. Her  research explores adult learning in formal, nonformal and informal settings. The purpose of this research is to improve understandings of what motivates and engages adult learners and how this is influenced by context, such as Adult Education workplace settings and more informal Adult & Community Education (ACE) and community
environments.

Adult learning Adult education learning Adult community education Informal, incidental and non formal learning Second chance learning Adult learning practice and practices

• Education

Refereed Conference Papers

Ollis, T, Harrison, U & Ryan, C. (2021) Every day you learn something: Adult learning, discovery and transformation in Australian Neighbourhood Houses. Adult Education in Global Times. 6-9 June,  University of British Columbia. Vancouver.

Ollis, T, Harrison, U & Ryan, C (2019) Social spaces, relationships and shared learning in neighbourhood houses: ‘keep learning and move with the world’. 4thInternational ProPEL Conference2019:Provocations and Possibilities9 –11 December 2019:: Sydney, Australia Program, University of Technology.

Ryan, C  & Ollis T (2019) Police, their professional practice and learning: ‘telling and doing it like it was and still is’ 4th International PROPEL  Conference2019:Provocations and Possibilities 9 –11 December 2019:: Sydney, Australia Program, University of Technology.

Ollis, T (2019). Practice, habitus, incidental and informal adult learning in the Coal Seam Gas protests in Australia. International conference on Researching Work and Learning 11 (RW11) Giessen, Germany, 23-26th of July.

Ollis, T & Ryan, C (2019) Skilling a workforce - community development practices in Neighborhood Houses in Australia, International conference on Researching Work and Learning 11 (RW11), Germany, 23-26th of July.

Ursula Harrison, Dr Cheryl Ryan  Dr Jennifer Angwin, Dr Tracey Ollis, Professor Karen Starr (2017). Neighbourhood Houses: lifelong learning, community, connections and later life learners Paper presentation to Getting of wisdom, learning in later life’ conference, 16th February 2017, Wellington, NZ

Ollis (2015). Public Pedagogies, activism, social movements and social justice education: an embodied practice. Public Pedagogies conference, Victoria University

Ollis, Tracey & Hamel-Green, M (2014). Practical Knowledge, Social Justice Education and Adult Learning in the Coal Seam Gas Protests in Victoria, Australia. ACE 2014, Asia Conference on Education, Rhiga Royal Hotel, Osaka, Japan, October 28 – November 2, 2014.

Ollis, T. (2012 ). Paulo Freire, Pedagogy, Reflection and action, ‘Paulo Freire – The Global Legacy’, A major international conference, Hamilton, New Zealand, November 26-28, 2012.

Ollis, T., Williams, J., Townsend, R., Harris, A. & Jorquera, J. (2014,). Reflections on building a popular education network in Australia. Paulo Freire – The Global Legacy’, A major international conference, Hamilton, New Zealand, November 26-28, 2012.

Ollis, T (2011). Social learning and the emotion of protest: embodiment, emotions and activism. Researching Learning and Work, 7th International conference,  4-7th of December, China Normal University, Shanghai.

Ollis, T (2010). The Pedagogy of Activism, learning to change the world, Learnings Conference, 6-9th of July. University of Technology Hong Kong, published as journal article.

Ollis, T (2008). The ‘circumstantial’ activist: holistic practice, learning and social activism. SCUTREA, Edinburgh, 38th Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, published in proceedings.

Ollis, T (2008). The ‘Accidental’ Activist: Activism, Community and Social change. Community Development and Ecology: Engaging ecological sustainability through community development, Conference Proceedings, Deakin University, 2008, published in proceedings.

Ollis, T. (2004). ‘The Power of Discourse on Community’, 2004, paper presented to the Community Development, Human Rights and the Grassroots Conference, Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights, Deakin University: Hotel Y, 14-18 April, 2004, Melbourne.

Vice President: Adult Learning Australia

NTEU, Deakin Branch Executive

ABC, afternoon program, Second chance Learning, I was invited onto the ABC afternoon program with Richelle Hunt to discuss lifelong and adult learning programs with a student Hayden who left school at the beginning of Year 10. This 20 minute program was broadcast nationally and can be accessed here http://www.abc.net.au/.../afternoons/afternoons/10175812.

• Deakin University, Faculty of Arts and Education, Excellence in Teaching Award 2018

• Deakin Univesity Vice Chancellor’s Award for Partnerships 2015

• Victoria University, Faculty of Arts and Education Dean’s Award, Outstanding PhD Research.

• Victoria University, Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Student Leadership 2008.

• Kangan Institute, School of Health and Community Services, Excellence in Teaching AWARD 2006.

• Nominated for the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll for teaching work in migrant and refugee communities in the northern region of Melbourne, 2006

 

VET Employment-based pathways into teaching program for qualified educators student cohorts, Prof Damian Blake, A/Prof Amanda Mooney, Dr Trace Ollis, Dr Adam Usher, Dr Cheryl Ryan, Ms Kellie Tobin, Ms Juliet Austin 2021: $583,500, 2022: $316,500.

Adult Community and Further Education Board (ACFE)-PQF Review: A contemporary pre-accredited framework. DET, Cat 2 Dr Trace Ollis; Associate Professor Annette Foley & Ms Tamsin Rossiter. 2021: $96,076.20

Neighbourhood Houses Victoria: Social Outcomes Focused Learning and Development Evaluation, Dr Trace Ollis, Dr Cheryl Ryan Dr Ursula Harrison2018- current $36,000

 Lifelong learning in Neighbourhood Houses and transition pathways to higher education. Higher Education Participation & Partnerships Program (HEPPP) grants for research into Professor Karen Starr, Dr Trace Ollis, Dr Cheryl Ryan & Dr Ursula Harrison, 2016 - $25,000, 2017, $29,000

 Literacy and Numeracy Strategy - Literature Review. A/Prof Colleen Vale, Prof Damian Blake, Dr Glenn Auld, Dr Leicha Bragg, A/Prof Louise Paatsch, Dr Trace Ollis, A/Prof Joanne O'Mara, Dr Sarah Ohi, Dr Gaye Williams, 2013 - $54,420

.Commonwealth Attorney General’s department Human Rights Education Division, Grant to conduct two literature reviews into human rights education. Dr Trace Ollis & Dr Diane Sisely -2012, $32,000