From the Director of the Pymble Institute

With the 2025 school year underway, I am sure you are also in the throes of new projects and initiatives. It’s made me think about the role of researchers in schools and how we know what to research and how to do it.

For colleagues embarking on action research in 2025 you will draw from a question of practice, and for those in the midst of formal research you’ll know that the process of developing a research question is an ongoing conversation between student and supervisor. But what of the school-based researcher investigating school-based initiatives? How do we research new initiatives in schools?

I’d like to share a few tips which I’ve learnt from some of the Pymble Institute’s very own projects. These are based on trial and error because there have been times we haven’t got it right and we’ve learnt so much! We’d love to share these with colleagues who find themselves in the same position so you can have a head start.

Tip #1: Welcome the unknown

One of the most challenging, and beautiful, aspects of educational research is the act of stepping into a project with an open mind. This is where the educator in you must genuinely admit to literally not knowing what to do and not knowing what will be found. It is often an uncomfortable place for educators who are used to problem-solving at speed. Questions you may have include:

What is the question? What do we want to achieve? How long will it take? What will the research be used for?

These are all great questions but cannot always be answered as both the initiative and the research plan get underway. You may be working in the team responsible for the project, and you for the research as well, and some separation may help. Embracing the uncertainty can feel disconcerting when everyone in the team wants the project to succeed, but you-as-researcher will bring so much more by remaining objective and curious, as well.

Tip #2: Being present at the start

Researchers in schools are in an enviable position to hear about projects from their earliest stages. This may be via staff briefings, calls for volunteers or announcements in school newsletters. Periodic meetings with key senior staff can also surface projects they are working on before official announcements are made. If your spidey senses are tingling, you can always ask whether there is interest in exploring whether the project would benefit from being researched from ground level.

The Pymble Wise Phone project was one example of this (you can find more information here). Walking alongside colleagues initiating the project saw us brainstorming the pros and cons, attending staff meetings where information was shared, collecting parent communications and helping out at the events where parents were given the phones and their daughters handed their old phones to their parents to collect the Wise Phone. By joining planning sessions and offering an extra hand, trust-based relationships are built between researchers and colleagues. This insider view is invaluable for understanding how and why plans may change at the last moment and why ‘it depends’ is often a very truthful answer to the researcher’s question. Researchers gain a more holistic understanding and can, therefore, help build momentum for the best possible outcomes.

Tip #3 Look in other places for insights

The implementation team will be focused on making progress towards their goal and, while they will have explored many inputs at the beginning, once their course is set they probably won’t have time to keep exploring alternative approaches. This happened recently with Pymble’s Wise Phone project which was scoped out and confirmed at the most senior levels. The question of what other schools were doing with their phone policies and practices was highly relevant in the early stages, but the time came when the implementation team needed to focus on the confirmed path.

Researchers, however, can continue exploring the territory and investigating what other schools are doing to respond to the same challenge –  even though our own school’s response was well underway. We recently attended an excellent online conference with The Heads Conference, United Kingdom, where speakers brought fresh eyes to the question of, ‘What is the place of smartphones in schools?’ Although we had our own ‘answer’, as expressed in our Wise Phone initiative, it was invaluable to listen to academics and educators discussing the topic. This brought new resources to our awareness and helped spotlight factors in our school’s response which we had taken for granted due to familiarity.

The journey of researching new initiatives is both exciting and humbling. We don’t know exactly how Wise Phones – or any other project – will pan out, but that’s what makes research so vital. By honouring the ‘not knowing’, embedding ourselves early in the life cycle of new ideas and seeking knowledge beyond our own context, we’re committed to playing a part in contributing to learning initiatives that can make a difference in education.

Understanding metacognition to enhance student and teacher learning

Helping teachers see behind the scenes of research is made possible when they participate in research. A great example of this occurred recently when a group of Pymble Ladies’ College Junior School teachers volunteered to take part in a metacognition study with PhD student Stanley Yip.

As well as meeting Yip and having the opportunity to talk about his project, staff also met his supervisor, Associate Professor Minkang Kim, from the University of Sydney School of Education. Yip, who is also the manager of the Learning Design Hub and Head of AI at the Association of Independent Schools NSW, is investigating teachers’ perceptions of metacognition and aims to examine what is currently known about the efficacy of metacognition in enhancing learning, both generally and as it applies in teachers’ professional learning. Kim shared her expertise about incorporating brain science into the primary Science classroom to help young students understand how brains work and form our identity.

What is the study about?

Metacognition is commonly defined as ‘thinking about thinking’. However, it is much more than that. It is a thinking process that involves planning, monitoring, regulation and evaluation. Our human brains are beautifully complex with their thinking powers and functions. As teachers, we know we need our students to be adaptive and critical thinkers using their human metacognition, especially in a world of increasing uncertainty, volatility and the rise of artificial intelligence.

What did participation involve?

Our teachers participated in both parts of the study; an online survey to probe their understandings of metacognition and whether, and in what ways, these understandings inform their current classroom practice. Then, sitting down with a pile of marking, they put on an EEG, or electroencephalogram, cap to track their brain signals which examined how neural activity contributes to the metacognitive process underway during marking.

Teachers Jo Avraam and Sarah McGeoch were motivated to participate in the study because they were interested in learning about how their brains worked.

“It was a study that made sense to me. I’ve often wondered why as teachers we have never been expected to learn about the human brain and how this connects with learning,” said Avraam.

“Yet, here we are applying all kinds of methods in our teaching practice without really having a solid grasp on how the brain actually works and which parts of the brain are active when we learn different things. It also raises questions as to how we can best accommodate children with specific learning needs.”

Yip’s data collection is ongoing and he hopes to involve more teachers across Australia in the study. We look forward to catching up again with him and Professor Kim when findings are presented to Pymble Junior School staff later in the year.

Being a researching teacher-librarian

Libraries are invaluable when building a research culture in your school, but it is the experienced and passionate people within them who are the most important assets.

We welcome Pooja Mathur to the Pymble Institute team in 2025 as one of the Inquiry Learning Leaders in the Year 7 to 12 Conde Library. Pooja is an active researcher and brings skills in writing and publishing which we look forward to leaning upon. To help us get to know Pooja and understand how teacher-librarians can support the research projects of students and staff, we asked her a few questions.

Tell us about your role as an Inquiry Learning Leader in Conde Library. 

As part of the Conde Library team, my aim is to ensure that the library is a dynamic environment where each individual student and staff member finds inspiration, support, motivation and encouragement. I strive to transform students into readers, conscientious researchers, critical thinkers, independent problem-solvers, and to assist them maximise their potential.   

I look forward to wide reading lessons across Years 7 to 10 to encourage and nourish a love for reading and to assist students and staff to grow as readers and forge their reader-identity. 

I am delighted to commence research lessons on inquiry skills and referencing along with collaborative teaching with colleagues from across the curricular areas.  

As the school library is a wellbeing hub, I assist the library team in ensuring it is a welcoming, safe, equitable and comfortable space for all students and staff members, and I get involved with setting up exciting, inspiring library displays. I also participate in collection development and management; and supervision around the library. 

What sorts of research projects have you been involved in?

I have been involved with various mini research projects for several years, however, formally, I was a part of International Boys’ School Coalition (IBSC) Action Research (AR) cohort for 2022-23 and our theme was ‘Shattering stereotypes: Helping boys cultivate healthy masculinity’. I focused on masculinities through literature and my research question was, ‘How can participation in literature circles in a Year 8 English class evolve boys’ perception of masculinity?’ For those interested, my research report is available as an academic article in SCAN journal: Mathur, P. (2024). From boys to men: using literature circles to explore year 8 boys’ perceptions of masculinity. Scan 43(2), 40-50. 

Over 2023-24, I also worked collaboratively on a mini AR with a global team of school library professionals under the umbrella of IBSC ‘Reading Culture’ Special Interest Group (SIG). I led the team focusing on ‘social aspects of reading’ through administering school-wide surveys about students and their families’ reading habits. Results were compiled, studied and presented by team members at the IBSC Annual Conference 2024 at Harrow School, London. 

Currently, at Pymble, I am involved with Year 12 History Extension and Year 11 Ancient History research projects and look forward to many more. 

Are you undertaking formal studies at the moment? What motivated you to do this course? 

Yes, I have completed two out of three subjects of a Graduate Certificate in Arts and Social Science Research at my alma mater, Charles Sturt University.   

My research focuses on contemporary, award-winning, multicultural Australian young adult novels written by self-identified Asian-Australian authors. I aim to investigate family dynamics and inter-personal relationships, especially the effects of acculturative gaps, and parental expectations encountered by the protagonists portrayed in a few carefully curated novels.

Most multicultural authors write diverse, coming-of-age stories to represent their own adolescence that was spent straddling diverse cultures and juggling parental expectations, while attempting to define their identity as a young Australian.    

As a first-generation immigrant, a mother to Australian-born, now adolescent children, living in a multi-generational family, including elderly parents, I have experienced an acculturative gap first-hand over the last two decades. Additionally, as a high school teacher-librarian catering to a wide multicultural student and staff demographic, there is direct professional relevance and connection with this research topic. 

As a successful Future Fellowship applicant, I was invited to share my research plan at 2024 Higher Degree Research (HDR) Colloquium held online on 28 and 29 October 2024. For those interested, recordings of all presentations are freely available at the Colloquium webpage.  

What interests you about research? Why do you think teachers and teacher-librarians should consider research as part of their professional learning? 

Participating in formal and/or informal research is a creative way to learn and expand our understanding in the field we are interested in and passionate about. Research provides us with an opportunity to investigate, observe and understand different perspectives, explore possibilities and satisfy our own curiosities and thirst for knowledge.

As a beginner researcher, it is prudent to start small and investigate a topic of your choice and interest giving yourself flexibility to formulate research questions and explore various methodologies and methods. For example, out of personal interest, I started investigating ways teacher-librarians and school library collection and programs could promote sustainability and counter eco-anxiety. My research culminated in an academic article published in SCAN and available for perusal here: Mathur, P. (2022). Curate, advocate, collaborate: Updating a school library collection to promote sustainability and counter ecoanxiety. Scan, 41(2).  

What advice can you offer people interested in starting their research journey?

I encourage you to ask for help at your school library; the library staff will assist you at every stage of your research journey, from narrowing down your topic, to formulating a research question/s, suggesting relevant methodologies, resources and assisting with academic writing and referencing. Like me, you may wish to share the results of your research by means of publications and presentations at professional learning events. Moreover, such endeavours assist you in enhancing your professional profile and building and growing a professional learning network. Finally, like me, you might feel motivated to enrol for formal research-based university courses.  

You’re also dabbling in the exciting field of children’s literature. Can you tell us about this? 

Multi award-winning Australian author, Susanne Gervay OAM, also an amazing, inspiring human being, approached me (at a professional learning summit) to collaborate with her as a cultural sensitivity consultant for her upcoming younger reader chapter book Parrot Palace. It is a delightful story of three youngsters from varied multicultural backgrounds, living in an apartment complex called Parrot Palace. Together the three friends have a lot of fun, learn about each other’s culture, solve problems and support each other when faced with adversities. Parrot Palace celebrates friendship, embraces cultural diversity and promotes inclusivity. Susanne’s beautiful story has been brought to life by Sarah Tabassum’s brilliant illustrations.  

Parrot Palace will be officially launched on Sunday 2 March 2025, and I can’t wait to see this delightful book in the hands of children, and on bookshelves (school and public libraries, and homes) across Australia.

Welcome to Pymble Ladies’ College, Pooja! We look forward to learning and researching with you in the years ahead.

Researcher Spotlight: Dr Fiona Radford

We are proud to introduce Dr Fiona Radford. Fiona is one of the Pymble Ladies’ College team who uses her PhD in her daily work, outside the bounds of academia. Fiona is the Acting Head of Learning Area – History, Society and Ethics, and a dynamic history teacher. Fiona’s academic pursuits – including her podcast – indicate some of the many ways a PhD can be put to good use to promote enjoyment of learning in the wider community.

Tell us about your career journey and your role at Pymble?

For as long as I can remember, I was absolutely certain that I was going to be an actress and would have won my first Oscar by the age of 30. Clearly, my confidence wasn’t a problem! However, I had an amazing history teacher when I was in Year 11 and 12. She made me fall in love with ancient Rome and so I decided to enter teaching as a ‘back-up career’. I hated teaching when I first started but I really enjoyed the history, so I just kept studying. By the time I had been at university for ten years, I tried teaching again, and I loved it. Turns out, I just needed a decade or so for it to grow on me.

In what field was your PhD and what did you learn most from that process?

I did my PhD in reception studies, which is a fancy way of saying that I studied history on film. My thesis focused on the production of the 1960 classic Spartacus and how the production impacted the construction of the history. I learnt how important it is to be able to access archival material, as I needed to travel and visit several archives to find the primary material that became crucial to my research. Without this source material, I would not have been able to fully understand the history or find new insights into the film.

How do you apply your PhD skills in your current role?

I enjoy analysing historical films with my classes waaaay too much! But, students are generally interested in looking at different forms of history these days, such as video games, apps, social media and film. Reception studies works well for all of those! I find that it is also most useful in courses like Extension History, which is one of my favourite things to teach.

Do you have a commitment to bringing history into the public sphere? How would you describe the process of ‘making history visible’?

My friend from university and I knew that it was unlikely that we would become academics, but we didn’t want to lose touch with Ancient Rome. We decided to start our podcast, The Partial Historians. We named it after Jane Austen’s quote from History of England, which she says was written by a “partial, prejudiced and ignorant historian”.

Podcasting was still fairly new back then, and we would just sit down and record our conversations. Since then, podcasting has exploded, so we have had to learn how to edit, how best to record, how to promote ourselves, source guests – all sorts of things! It took us a little while as it’s hard to balance with work sometimes, but I think we do a pretty good job for a totally independent podcast. We are committed to open access, so whilst people can donate to our show for early release episodes, everyone will eventually be able to listen to all of our shows.

The Partial Historians blends academia and popular history. It is academic because we look at things in close detail (we are currently moving through the history of Rome a year at a time) and we research each episode using academic material and primary sources. However, we then try to translate that to our audience in a light-hearted and relatable way, without too much jargon. Just as well, as I am a pop culture junkie, so I find it hard not to work in references to The Godfather or RuPaul’s Drag Race in any conversation that I have.

We find the Romans pretty hilarious most of the time, because they are relentlessly serious in their histories, and we aim to make that clear to our audience. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see our audience grow and realise what an appetite there is for history, which is a hobby for most people (crazy). Doing the podcast has allowed us to present at conferences and write two books together, both of which also are written for a general audience, but based on academic sources. So far, the most popular part of our recent book is the section we called, ‘We Built This City on Rock and Roads’, which is all about the walls, roads and aqueducts of Rome. We had no idea people liked aqueducts so much, but it turns out there is a real thirst for that knowledge 😉

If you would like to find out more about The Partial Historians, follow Fiona and her colleague, Dr Peta Greenfield, on their website or wherever you listen to fantastic podcasts!

Using a social labs methodology to research Wise Phones

We are finding more and more opportunities to engage students in research projects, and seeing students in the roles of instigators and investigators, not just as participants. This approach brings to life the commonly heard phrase, ‘nothing about me, without me’. But more than simply having presence in decision making in a school, assuming a social labs methodology brings voice and power to some of the most complex problems facing society today.

In our case, we’re preparing to invite students to lead their own research into the Pymble Wise Phones project, which is now underway. In November 2024, Pymble Ladies’ College gave a Wise Phone – being a non-smartphone, non-brickphone – to every student in Year 4 to 8 whose parents wanted them to have one. We had the following levels of uptake:

Year 4 and 5 – 70 per cent

Year 6 and 7 – 98 per cent

Year 8 – 40 per cent

As the project was initially only for Year 5 to 7, the interest from parents with daughters in other grades was of great interest to us, and we expanded the program to meet this need. However, as the majority of Year 8s had been using smartphones for some time, we expected this number to be low and the smartphone-to-Wise Phone group will be an important one to research.

The first phase of data collection in the Pymble Wise Phone Research Project has opened with an online questionnaire inviting all parents and students of Years 4 to 8 to share their feedback. We look forward to taking readers on the research journey with us in future newsletters.

Will survey data be sufficient to hear the complexity of students’ views and, more importantly, how can we transform student feedback into sustainable action and change?

We will shortly be working through a large set of survey data, but we need to be honest and ask – what will this achieve? Even through publishing and presentations, which we look forward to doing, our core goal of helping our students to reclaim their childhoods will go unfulfilled if sustainable change is not achieved.

How can research contribute to this important goal?

To achieve a deeper and richer understanding of what students feel about the change from smartphone to Wise Phone, we’re using a Social Labs methodology. Social labs focus squarely on, ‘seeking solutions to today’s societal challenges’ (Marschalek et al., 2023, p. 147). Think science laboratories where problems are experimented upon, but think about how this occurs with people and their communities, behaviours and understanding. In a social labs methodology, the lab takes place in real-time with the people whom the issue is affecting and it asks these same people to do the experimenting in their own lives. Social labs also encourage networking and communication strategies which let many more people whom the issue is affecting know about the experiences of others and what can be done. Through a social labs methodology, we hope to learn much more about the lived realities of the phone and social media worlds of our student cohort than might otherwise be revealed.

How does a social lab work?

Social labs are based on three core principles explained by Hassan and Ito (2014); social – they are about people and their communities; experimental – they involve the iteration of a number of innovations; and, systemic – they address large scale processes that go beyond the individual.

The key ingredients of a social lab is thinking and working strategically about real-life challenges (whole picture), rather than tactically (in parts), and that they create space for complex societal issues to be explored (Hassan & Ito, 2014). They are diverse in makeup and use their members to prototype solutions which can further affect whole systems. Marschalek and colleagues (2022, p. 421) explain, ‘a social lab approach brings together intentionally diverse teams of stakeholders and gives them time to experiment and to iterate solutions. The teams do not meet around a project but a shared problem … [and] provide participants with a specific setting and formats to experiment with developing and discussing solutions to complex technological, societal and ecological challenges’.

How will we use social labs for the Pymble Wise Phone Research Project?

The following steps explain the process.

1. Bring together a range of students interested in this topic to form a social lab
2. Research and discuss the issues students are experiencing
3. Clarify the goal of our social lab project
4. Share the message behind the social lab and its project with other students – what are we concerned about? What do we want to do about it? What actions will we take?
5. Ask students and teachers to network so that more people hear about what the lab is aiming to do and spread awareness of our project
6. Involve more willing students in the intervention or initiative
7. Plan the initiative: What input do we need? What learning will we do? What experimentation will we conduct?
8. Put the initiative into action
9. Research the initiative
10. Repeat, as needed.

Conclusion

We do not know what our student researchers will opt to research, let alone discuss and initiate in the area of phone usage, social media and technology, but their exploration in this area will be invaluable for building understanding between teachers and students, and parents and children. The students’ research has the potential to influence policy decisions in our school and information and guidance we can share with students and parents alike. It is our hope that informed decision making in this important area of life can make a difference in the experiences of our children and young people and we are looking forward to hearing what our students want to bring to our attention.

References

Hassan, Z., & Ito, J. (2014). The social labs revolution: A new approach to solving our most complex challenges. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Marschalek, I., Blok, V., Bernstein, M., Braun, R., Cohen, J., Hofer, M., … Kumar Thapa, R. (2022). The social lab as a method for experimental engagement in participatory research. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 9(3), 419–442. https://doi.org/10.1080/23299460.2022.2119003

Marschalek, I. Seebacher, L.M., Unterfrauner, E., Handler, K., & Hofer, M. (2023). Social labs in public engagement processes for RRI. In V. Blok (Ed.), Putting responsible research and innovation into practice: A multistakeholder approach (pp. 147-170). Springer.

What happens when we read? Join Sophie Gee in conversation

Save the date for a friendly afternoon of Research Conversations on Thursday 15 May from 4.30pm to 6.00pm!

We’re eagerly looking forward to welcoming Associate Professor Sophie Gee to the Pymble Institute in May 2025. Sophie is a professor, writer, mentor, educator and public humanities spokesperson currently teaching in the Princeton University English Faculty and at the University of Sydney, where she is the Vice Chancellor’s Fellow. She is also a highly engaging and erudite communicator and “humanities entrepreneur” who is the founding co-host of the fantastic, new, Australian podcast The Secret Life of Books. Joining us at Pymble Ladies’ College for this special event, Sophie will host a Research Conversations afternoon to share insights into her career, the importance of studying the humanities and ways to celebrate the humanities in the public sphere.

Diving into her academic specialisation in English, Sophie will discuss research into the neurological dimensions of reading and explore what happens when readers engage with characters, plots and settings beyond their lifeworlds. Understanding the science behind reading connects us to empathy and diversity, as well as with histories and geographies we can never experience in our own lifetimes. This topic will be relevant for school students studying English, teachers undertaking postgraduate studies, teachers of all learning areas and parents. Sophie will also share an insight into the world of the Ivy League academic community of Princeton which will be of interest to students considering this future direction.

The Pymble Institute is delighted Sophie can join us in 2025 to discuss the importance of researching humanities subjects in contexts of increasing complexity and diversity. 

Tickets are $15 and will be available soon. To pre-register for this event, please click here.