Biography
As a senior lecturer in pedagogy and curriculum and ARC DECRA Fellow, Lucinda conducts award-winning research into curriculum design’s role in teacher identity, autonomy and professionalism, especially in English. She is interested in creative teacher and student agency, and in teacher recruitment and retention. She draws on poststructural, feminist and new materialist theory in her research into educational discourse, metaphor and practice. She teaches in both English and inclusive initial teacher education units, and has a particular interest in quality doctoral supervision, via her blog Becoming a PhD Supervisor; the blog has had thousands of visitors from over 70 countries, and has supported doctoral supervisor training across institutions.
Lucinda publishes in a range of world-leading international journals, including The International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education; Qualitative Inquiry; Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education; Gender and Education; Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy; Journal of Education for Teaching; Journal of Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education; Changing English; English in Australia and the Journal of Education Policy. She also serves as a reviewer for a number of these journals.
With roles on Deakin’s Faculty of Arts and Education’s ethics and academic progress committees, Lucinda is committed to the highest standards of integrity in both research and teaching. She is also a mentor in the Vice Chancellor’s Professional Excellence Mentor Scheme.
Lucinda brings to her role broad interdisciplinary experience in fine arts, film, literature, media, cultural and gender studies. In education, she has worked as: an English, History and Human Relations teacher; education manager for Museum Victoria and Anne Frank House; multimedia developer; curriculum writer and professional development leader.
Lucinda’s research is dedicated to promoting teacher professionalism, and challenging conservative neoliberal forces that seek to standardise and homogenise teachers’ creative practice; this is at times controversial and attracts both positive accolades and also right-wing commentary that misrepresents her stance.
She believes in valuing a broad range of evidence, including scientific evidence, in education, and is a passionate critic of policy pressure to produce “cookbook teachers” who must deliver scripted lessons; she believes teachers’ work is much more complex than following rules and templates, and that teachers need to be celebrated and appreciated rather than conscribed.
Read more on Lucinda's profileResearch interests
Higher degree by research supervision
This is a particular research interest and I am also available as a supervisor for potential student colleagues who are developing similar research interests.
English teaching
Curriculum design
Visual, creative and multimodal research
Gender
Affiliations
Australian Association for Research in Education
Gender and Education Association
Australian Association for the Teaching of English
Australian Literacy Educators' Association
Victorian Association for the Teaching of English
Teaching interests
English
Literacies
Digital and multimodal literacies
Curriculum and pedagogy
Inclusive education
Conferences
Selected Recent Presentations
2022: Developing evaluative judgement in student writers, invited workshop leader, Department of Education and Training, Victoria/Victorian Association for the Teaching of English Developing a School-wide Writing Culture Program Series.
Teaching digital writing in secondary English: DECRA presentation, invited guest speaker, Australian Conference on Lutheran Education 2022, Melbourne.
Litter matters: Worldmaking under leaf, twig and stone, seminar presentation as Visiting Fellow, Mem Fox/ALEA/University of South Australia Children’s Literature International Research Fellows Scheme.
Assessing writing, invited guest speaker/closing panel, Victorian Association for the Teaching of English Professional Learning Series.
Why teach creative writing? Invited panel member, opening forum, Victorian Association for the Teaching of English Professional Learning Series.
Why are we still doing the NAPLAN writing test? Invited guest speaker on national expert panel, Media Centre for Education Research Australia (MCERA).
Curriculum design in the Anthropocene: Challenges to human intentionality, invited guest speaker, Australian Association for Curriculum Studies Webinar.
2021: Dangerous books for boys: Methodological challenges of researching gendered curriculum with elite boys’ school alumni, paper presented in featured symposium, Australian Association for Research in Education Conference.
Re-imagining research into writing… with AI, chair/paper presented in forum, Australian Association for Research in Education Conference.
Writing as play: Designing a school-based creative curriculum for writing, participant chair and panel member of Victorian Association for the Teaching of English Curriculum Committee Forum.
Fresh text writing: Victorian Certificate of Education 2022, invited guest speaker, Fintona Girls’ School, Melbourne.
The posthuman and new materialism: Close but distinct, invited guest speaker, Research for Educational Impact Strategic Research Centre, Deakin University
Writing beyond the formula: Perspectives on writing, invited guest speaker for English Teachers’ Association of NSW international expert webinar series Perspectives on Writing with Professor Richard Andrews (University of Edinburgh) and Professor Debra Myhill (University of Exeter).
I Robot: The future of teaching writing with AI, invited keynote guest speaker, Victorian Association for the Teaching of English Annual State Conference.
Teaching writing, creativity and critical thinking in the age of AI, invited guest speaker, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment Faculty Lecture, Indiana University, Komoko, USA.
Radical Grammar, workshop leader, Victorian Association for the Teaching of English Annual State Conference.
2020: Evidence-based education: What writing teachers need to know, invited guest speaker, Monash University Writing Symposium.
The write to write: Creative writing in secondary English, participant chair of panel involving national industry and academic experts, Victorian Association for the Teaching of English Curriculum Forum.
Writing our way out of Victoria’s paragraph crisis, invited workshop leader, Victorian Association for the Teaching of English Annual State Conference.
Teacher agency, invited guest speaker expert on panel, International Federation for the Teaching of English Conference.
If only teachers were not “the bottom”, paper presented at International Federation for the Teaching of English Conference.
Awards
2022-24 Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)
2016 Australian Literacy Educators' Association Inaugural Award for an outstanding doctoral thesis with impact on English curriculum or Literacy teaching and learning
http://www.alea.edu.au/grantsawards/alea-awards-2/alea-award-recipients (link to citation)
2015 Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Early Career Researcher Award
2015 Deakin University School of Education nominee for AARE Ray Debus Award for an outstanding doctoral thesis
2014 Deakin University Naomi and Isi Leibler Award for best PhD thesis in the social sciences
2014 Deakin University Faculty of Arts and Education nominee for the Alfred Deakin Medal for best thesis across the university
2008 Winner Wimbledon Bookfest Enter Stage Write competition for best dramatic script for Mother Country, performed by Encore Youth Theatre, London, 11/10/2008
2005 ATOM (Australian Teachers of Media) finalist for Best Secondary Education Resource for Voices and Visions from India CD-ROM
2003 ATOM award for Best Secondary Education Resource for Voices and Visions from China CD-ROM
2003 Winner, Secondary Teacher Reference Category, Australian Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing, for Film Asia
2002 Technology Showcase Winner, Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing, for Voices and Visions from Indonesia CD-ROM
1999 Silver Award, Summit Creative Awards, for Giving Feedback CD-ROM
1997 ATOM finalist for Best Training Multimedia Production, for Giving Feedback CD-ROM
1997 Finalist, Best Educational Product, International Digital Media Awards, Canada, for Michio Teaches Japanese CD-ROM
Scholarships
Deakin University Postgraduate Research Scholarship 2011-2014
Publications
L McKnight, A Morgan
(2022), pp. 1-17, Australian Educational Researcher, Berlin, Germany, C1
The teacher as digital writer? Conflicting identities addressed in pre-service curriculum design
Lucinda McKnight
(2021), pp. 1-22, Theory into practice, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Since feeling is first: the art of teaching to write paragraphs
L McKnight
(2021), Vol. 55, pp. 37-52, English in Education, C1
Addressing pre-service teachers as digital writers: Conflicts and inconsistencies in practice
Lucinda McKnight
(2021), Vol. 60, pp. 202-214, Theory into Practice, Abingdon, Eng., C1
What if? Transforming English teaching in five dangerous words
Lucinda McKnight
(2021), Vol. 55, pp. 1-16, English in Australia, Australia, C1
Electric Sheep? Humans, Robots, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Writing
L McKnight
(2021), Vol. 28, pp. 442-455, Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, C1
Empowering english teachers: Teacher agency in australia
M Brown, L McKnight, K Yager, K O’sullivan
(2021), Vol. 56, pp. 26-33, English in Australia, Adelaide, S.A., C1
Tin shed science: girls, aesthetics and permeable learning
L McKnight
(2020), pp. 1681-1706, Research handbook on childhoodnature: assemblages of childhood and nature research, Cham, Switzerland, B1
Seven reasons to question the hegemony of visible learning
L McKnight, B Whitburn
(2020), Vol. 41, pp. 32-44, Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Meet the phallic lecturer: early career research in a neoliberal imaginary
L McKnight
(2020), Vol. 32, pp. 505-517, Gender and education, London, Eng., C1
A broken paradigm? What education needs to learn from evidence-based medicine
L McKnight, Andy Morgan
(2020), Vol. 35, pp. 648-664, Journal of education policy, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Why 'clinical teaching'? An interdisciplinary analysis of metaphor in initial teacher preparation
L McKnight, A Morgan
(2020), Vol. 46, pp. 87-98, Journal of Education for Teaching, C1
Quality and tyranny: competing discourses around a compulsory rubric
L McKnight, S Bennett, S Webster
(2020), Vol. 45, pp. 1192-1204, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, C1
Reading and responding to poetry: to know, to experience
Owen Bullock, Lucinda McKnight, Ruby Todd
(2020), Vol. 27, pp. 608-617, Qualitative inquiry, London, Eng., C1
Literature 2023: a speculative curriculum of possibility
L McKnight
(2020), Vol. 55, pp. 56-64, English in Australia, Melbourne, Vic., C1
Teaching writing by formula: empowerment or exclusion?
L McKnight
(2020), International Journal of Inclusive Education, C1
Anthropocentric poetry: arts-based research for a new era
L McKnight
(2019), pp. 234-258, Educational research in the age of the Anthropocene, Hershey, Pa., B1
Pathways and praxis: designing curriculum for aspirational programs
L McKnight, E Charlton
(2018), pp. 207-222, University pathway programs: local responses within a growing global trend, Cham, Switzerland, B1
L McKnight, L Graham
(2018), pp. 1-27, Education research and the media: challenges and possibilities, Abingdon, Eng., B1
A bit of a dirty word: 'feminism' and female teachers identifying as feminist
L McKnight
(2018), Vol. 27, pp. 220-230, Journal of Gender Studies, C1
L McKnight
(2018), Vol. 30, pp. 222-238, Gender and education, Abingdon, Eng., C1
L McKnight
(2018), Vol. 18, pp. 202-215, Cultural studies - critical methodologies, London, Eng., C1
Sponsors of Pleasure: Wide Reading Re-imagined Through Social Curation
L McKnight
(2018), Vol. 25, pp. 300-311, Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, C1
Feel the love: Moving beyond representation to a more inclusive english
L McKnight
(2018), Vol. 53, pp. 8-17, English in Australia, C1
Displaced metaphors: poetic engagements with language in a digitised world
R Todd, L McKnight, O Bullock
(2017), Vol. 21, pp. 1-1, TEXT: journal of writing and writing courses, Nathan, Qld., C1
The invisible hand: designing curriculum in the afterward
L McKnight, D Rousell, J Charteris, K Thomas, G Burke
(2017), Vol. 30, pp. 635-655, International journal of qualitative studies in education, Abingdon, Eng., C1
The fetish of the lens: persistent sexist and ableist metaphor in education research
L McKnight, B Whitburn
(2017), Vol. 30, pp. 821-831, International journal of qualitative studies in education, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Naughtiest girls, go girls, and glitterbombs: Exploding schoolgirl fictions
L McKnight
(2017), Vol. 10, pp. 7-22, Girlhood Studies, C1
Supervisory scratchings: Critical autoethnography complicating "process" in doctoral supervision
L McKnight, J O'Mara
(2017), Vol. 14, pp. 106-115, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, C1
Meet the phallic teacher: designing curriculum and identity in a neoliberal imaginary
L McKnight
(2016), Vol. 43, pp. 473-486, Australian educational researcher, Berlin, Germany, C1
L McKnight
(2016), Vol. 13, pp. 195-205, Journal of curriculum and pedagogy, Abingdon, Eng., C1
L McKnight
(2015), Vol. 27, pp. 909-927, Gender and Education, C1
Is the frame broken? Seeking new metaphors for textual study in English
L McKnight
(2015), Vol. 50, pp. 7-14, English in Australia, Sydney, N.S.W., C1
Meet the phallic teacher: curriculum design and identity in a neoliberal imaginary
L McKnight
(2015), pp. 24-24, AARE 2013: Proceedings of the Australian Association for Research in Education Annual International Conference, Fremantle, W.A., E1-1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
Teaching digital writing in secondary English
Dr Lucinda McKnight
ARC DECRA - Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
- 2022: $109,545
Other Public Sector Funding
VCE literature benchmarking research and report.
Dr Lucinda McKnight
VCAA Grant - Research - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
- 2019: $5,455
Industry and Other Funding
Teaching writing today: A collaborative study
Dr Lucinda McKnight, Timothy Mannix, Ms Mandy Goff, Ms Andrea Hayes, Ms Helen Billet, Ms Elisse Hay
Victorian Association for the Teaching of English Collaborative Research Grant
- 2020: $2,920
Supervisions
No completed student supervisions to report