Associate Professor Helen Nixon

Curriculum Vitae

Helen Nixon is a Key Researcher in the Hawke Research Institute (HRI) and Deputy Director of the Centre for Studies in Literacy, Policy and Learning Cultures within the HRI. Her recent and current research projects are:

ARC DISCOVERY GRANT 2007-2009 Chief investigators: Sue Nichols, Helen Nixon (UniSA) and Partner Investigator Dr Jennifer Rowsell (Rutgers University, USA). RA Sophia Rainbird. Parents' networks: the circulation of knowledge about children's literacy learning. This international and longitudinal study will investigate the networks accessed by parents in different socio-cultural locations searching for knowledge and resources about children’s literacy learning, the roles of organisations in these networks, and the ideas about literacy, pedagogy and parents’ roles circulating through these networks. It is significant in using an innovative methodology to study texts, images, objects, accounts and practices as they flow through family, community and broader national and global networks. It will inform policy and practice in public community service provision and family literacy, enabling social programs to engage all parents more effectively.

INVESTIGATING LITERACY YEARS 4-9: A PILOT STUDY. 2009 Chief Investigators: Helen Nixon, Barbara Comber and Rosie Kerin. Funded by DECS SA. This project pilots ways to comprehensively investigate the literacy requirements and opportunities, and aligned explicit teaching strategies, that are embedded across the learning areas in the middle primary years and first years of secondary schooling. The project aims to assist teachers in the Year 4 to 9 range to investigate and address a number of literacy ‘points of possible disconnection’, e.g. increasing complexity of texts, increasing differentiation of disciplinary knowledge, gaps between traditional ‘schooled’ literacies and the expanded repertoires of literacy required for effective participation in 21st century contexts outside schools. The focusis on teachers’ documenting explicit teaching strategies to effectively support students not demonstrating appropriate learning outcomes because of the increasing complexity of literacy beyond the early years.

DIVISIONAL RESEARCH PERFORMANCE GRANT 2004 Chief Investigator: H. Nixon Teenagers online: the world wide web as a medium for inquiry, communication, construction and expression. This project theorises that the web constructs opportunities for young people to participate in emergent literacy practices that may not be fully intelligible according to categories and typographies familiar from print literacy such as narrative and genre. The project aims to: 1. explore theoretical and practical issues associated with undertaking an ‘ethnography’ of young people’s engagement with the web 2. explore what the analysis of web sites can tell us about a) the kinds of writing/production and interactivity/communication the web makes available for 11-16 year-olds and b) the opportunities this age group takes up. 3. connect the research with emerging international research into ‘online writing’ and literacy and the new media.

ARC LINKAGE GRANT JULY 2004-JULY 2007 Chief Investigators R. Hattam, M. Brennan, B. Comber, P. Cormack, H. Nixon, D. Lloyd, J. Barnett, A. Reid, L. Zipin (UniSA) with Industry Partners, DECS SA Secondary School Principals in the Northern Area of SA, Australian Education Union, Social Inclusion Unit. Reinvigorating middle years pedagogy in 'rustbelt' secondary schools. Internationally, the middle years of schooling are increasingly problematic for students and teachers, and thus a crucial site for pedagogical reform. The last decade of research and development is nearly exhausted. There is a need for a new generation of pedagogical innovation that recognises shifts in demography, identities and socio-economic conditions. The project aims to build curriculum and pedagogical practice that engage young people’s lifeworlds and the concerns of their communities. It will develop a university-school professional learning community that supports educational action research, and that informs pedagogical practices through ethnographies of the everyday lives of diverse young people.

HRISS SEED FUNDING GRANT 2006-2007 Chief Investigators: Helen Nixon, Barbara Comber, Julia de Roeper, Stephen Atkinson, Rosie Kerin. New spaces for learning and research: the social and cultural construction of the Northern Sound System. This project will track the development of the Northern Sound System (NSS), a regional community music centre being established by the City of Playford to support the growth of a resilient community and sustainable region. Through interviews, focus group discussions and a multimedia blog, this collaborative project will document the construction and reception of the NSS by the community, including its target group of school students and youth who want to gain experience in music performance and the digital arts. Participants’ expressions of their emerging identities as musicians and community members in talk and multimedia forms will be explored.

ARC LINKAGE GRANT JULY 2004-JULY 2007 Chief Investigators B. Comber, P. Cormack and H. Nixon (UniSA) and B. Green and J. Reid (Charles Sturt University, Bathurst) with Industry Partner, the Primary English Teaching Association. Literacy and the environment: A situated study of multimediated literacy, sustainability, local knowledges and educational change. The Murray-Darling Basin represents one of the major ecosocial challenges facing Australia. Finding long-term sustainable solutions requires a knowledgeable and literate citizenry and due educational investment now. This study seeks to extend ‘Special Forever’, an innovative environmental communications project, involving the Primary English Teaching Association and The Murray-Darling Basin Commission, designed to enhance primary school children’s knowledge and literacy regarding the Murray-Darling Basin. This research will analyse the Special Forever archive, develop ecosocial cartographies, and document school-based environmental projects through writing, the arts and contemporary multi-media. In doing so, it will extend current understandings of literacy education and the environment.

ARC DISCOVERY NEAR MISS GRANT 2005. Chief investigators: S. Nichols & H. Nixon. Parents information networks. This study investigates the circulation of knowledge about children’s learning and development through parents’ networks, particularly focusing on the role of community services and information workers. Site visits and interviews at three libraries and a community centre, parent surveys, home visits, aretefact collection, digital photography and web-site analysis were used to build a rich picture of information flows, kinds and usage.

MYER FOUNDATION GRANT 2004 Chief Investigators: B. Comber, H. Nixon, J. Cook and S. Loo (UniSA) in partnership with Ridley Grove R-7 School, SA. Urban renewal from the inside-out: Students and community involvement in re-designing and re-constructing school spaces in a poor neighbourhood. This project brings together educators from Ridley Grove R-7 School and the University of South Australia to support teachers to consult with school students and community members to: • Design a garden and structure which connects the school with the pre-school on the same grounds • Involve school students and community members in the design process • Involve UniSA architecture students in the process • Involve UniSA education students in designing curriculum and researching children’s learning • Involve UniSA communication and journalism students in assisting the children and the community to document the project across all phases In the medium term this project will: • Promote the project through the media and seek ongoing support from local businesses and social groups • Construct a garden and structure as designed and negotiated by the children and the community. In the long-term this project will: • Provide a model of community involvement and cross-disciplinary social justice activism which the academic participants will develop and disseminate in collaboration with the school community. • Equip student participants and their families with repertoires of powerful social practices (e.g. negotiation, design, consultation).

Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies

Centre for Studies in Literacy, Policy and Learning Cultures

• Graduate Certificate of Education (New literacies and new technologies in classrooms)
• Master of Education (Language and Literacy Education)
• EdD - Professional Doctorate. Literacy/English education.
• PhD - Literacy/English and media/ICTs