Professor Jenna Gillett-Swan

Biography

Dr Jenna Gillett-Swan is a Professor and researcher in the Faculty of CI, Education, and Social Justice at QUT. Her research focuses on wellbeing, rights, voice, inclusion, and participation. She also specialises in qualitative child-centred participatory research methodologies. Jenna is the co-leader for the Health and Wellbeing Research Program within the Centre for Inclusive Education (C4IE), and was the Child Rights Research Strand Leader for the Student Engagement, Learning and Behaviour Research Group (prior to its development into C4IE). She is an active member of the Research in Children’s Rights and Education Network of the European Educational Research Association and is Co-Convenor for this Network. Jenna has two edited book collections, and guest edited the Global Studies of Childhood Journal Special Issue on ‘Children’s Rights in a 21st Century Digital World’ (2016), the Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Special Issue on ‘Exploring the diversity of pre-service and beginning teachers’ experiences through multiple lenses’ (2017), and 'Children's Rights from a Sustainability Perspective: The UNCRC in Dialogue with Agenda 2030'  in Social Sciences (2021). Jenna is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and an Associate Fellow (Indigenous Knowledges) of the Higher Education Academy. She was a member of the QUT Higher Education Research Network Executive Committee, Master of Education (Inclusive Education) Study Area Coordinator (2015-2016), school representative on the Faculty of Education Equity Committee (2016-2019), Chair of the Faculty of Education Equity Committee (2020) and is current Chair of the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education, and Social Justice Equity Committee. She was also the Unit Coordinator for a large Professional Experience Unit in the Bachelor of Education program. Currently, she teaches into the Bachelor of Education and Master of Education degree programs. Jenna was awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Performance Award in 2015, the Executive Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 2016, and the Australian Teacher Education Association [ATEA] Early Career Research Recognition Award (2016). She has also been awarded an Australian Award for University Teaching [AAUT] Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2019), and nominated for a Wharton Reimagining Education Award in 2020. Jenna’s research focuses on a social justice orientation that seeks to build and enable individual capacity and wellbeing. Jenna has been successful in securing external funding including a Brisbane Catholic Education Research Grant (Lead Investigator - 2016), a National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education grant (Co-Lead Investigator - 2016), an Advance Queensland Grant (2017), three Education Horizon Competitive Grants (CI2 - 2017; Lead Investigator - 2018; CI3 - 2024), a Women in Research Grant (2020), an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (CI3 - 2021), and a Swedish Research Council Grant. Recent funded research projects include:

• Wellbeing matters: a collaborative approach to harnessing student voice to develop a Wellbeing Framework for Action in the middle years
• Voice Inclusive Practice: Engaging Children’s Perspectives in Wellbeing Pedagogy
• Investigating why school 'works' for some students, and not others
• Thriving in Vertical schools
• Empowering learners: Using student voice, video recorded classroom interactions and teacher feedback
• Kids Rights in Schools Project [KRISP]
• Equity considerations in pre-service teacher education
• Investigating the Impact of Youth Groups on the Community