Leigh Burrows

My education interests are broadly focused around wellbeing. I work  as a Project Officer, Wellbeing,  based centrally  in the Department of Education and Children's Services  and as a lecturer and researcher in the School of Education at Flinders University. I am currently seconded to Flinders University to work on  an  ARC -linkage  (DECS and Flinders University) research project that is exploring how school communities can build their capacity for wellbeing.

I teach and coordinate topics  in the School of Education at Flinders University  in the areas of developmental psychology, inclusive education, social and cultural worlds of learning  and approaches to behaviour and classroom management.

I have a passion for supporting teachers and other professionals to work with vulnerable children and young people who challenge the system to provide for their needs in creative and strengths-based ways. I am interested in developing interventive approaches to support such children and also in using research methodologies that can  foreground the voices of all research participants including the researcher, and can  communicate the results of a collaborative and co-constructed learning journey.

My PhD  thesis is entitled 'Accessing the Inaccessible - an exploration of the ways the spiritual and emotional dimensions of wellbeing and education can be included in a holistic approach to supporting children at risk and their families and how other educators and professionals can also be assisted to work with this dimension'.

My principal supervisor is Dr Tom Stehlik.

Burrows, L. (2008).‘The knight with the magic sword: how a therapeutic story provided a connection point for child, family, school, human service agencies and community’. Chapter in refereed proceedings of Communities and Change conference Sydney University September, 2007

Burrows, L. (2008). Invited speaker for  Healthy Development Adelaide (HDA) thematic evening Children's Wellbeing, are we doing enough? on 'Wellbeing in DECS, policy to practice'. Adelaide University, April

Burrows, L. (2007). ‘I feel good, happy, nice’. Enhancing wellbeing for a child on the autism spectrum Paper presented at the Envisaging Educational Futures Conference, Flinders University November, 22.

Burrows, L. (2007). Recreating the Circle of Wellbeing- A professional development resource to support learners with learning and emotional difficulties . South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services. Hindmarsh.

Burrows, L. (2007). Does spiritual wellbeing have a place in public education? Paper presented at AARE conference Adelaide, December 2006 and published on line at http://www.aare.edu.au/06pap/bur06182.pdf

Burrows, L. (2005). ‘Crossing the bridge – emerging understandings of ‘self’ in special school teachers in Macau: an Australian perspective in theory and practice.’ International Journal of Diversity in Organisations and Communities vol .5. Paper also presented at International Conference for Diversity in Organisations and Communities in Beijng, China July 5-7, 2005

Burrows, L. (2004). ‘Communication with parents of children and young people with learning disabilities.’ Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities .vol. 9, Issue 4.

Burrows, L (2004). Invited speaker for the International SPELD conference : 'Compassionate communication with parents of children and young people with learning disabilties.' Adelaide, 20-22 June

Horrocks, L & Burrows, L (2002) .’An innovative approach to personalised planning and self determination for students with special needs’. Paper presented at the Second International Forum for Educational Reform conference, Bangkok, Thailand 2-5 September.

Registered Teacher (SA). 1995-current

Member of ARC-Linkage research project; 'Building capacity for wellbeing in school communities FUSA & DECS. 2007- current

Member of Research in Special Education (RISE) work group FUSA  2007-current

Member of Wellbeing Matrix Team, DECS  2004-current

Member of Trinity Gardens Primary School Steiner Stream Coordination group, 2006-7