Mr Nigel Howard
School of Education
College of Education, Behavioural and Social Science
Nigel Howard is a Lecturer for Education Futures at the University of South Australia.
He has worked as a teacher, education activist and school leader for the last thirty years and has been primarily concerned with students in poverty and on the edge of schooling and how school’s response to the issues students face can determine if they continue with education or are excluded.
His interest in retention and achievement of secondary students stems from his involvement as a member of the Senior Secondary (2S) Team. Where he was one of the major architects for a suite of subjects that became Community Studies.
His work as an innovative teacher and leader has been documented in an ACE publication Reforming Schools through Innovative Teaching and Making Justice Our Project and in sundry other publications and project reports. He was on the expert’s group for the research project that led to Listen to Me I am Leaving.
As a SSABSA(SACE) Board member he lobbied for the Students at Risk projects that were influential in ensuring the needs of students at risk were considered in the development of the SACE. He was elected to the Board of the Australian Teaching Council and was a long term a member of the AEU Curriculum and Professional Development Committee. He was invited to be part of the generative group for the initial design the SACSA and was a member of the equity working party for the Australian Curriculum. As a Project officer in the Senior Secondary Team for the Department of Education he undertook research and design work that informed the development of the Ministerial enquiry into Senior Secondary Education that led to the New SACE. He was invited as South Australian representative on the initial think tank that established the Big Picture Education Program in Australia and has visited Big Picture Schools in the USA.
He works with Dr. Andrew Bills from Flinders University on a range of research projects on "doing school differently"
Nigel Howard's research interests are around curriculum and school design to increase engagement, retention and achievement for young people on the edge of schooling.
Research Fellow
Project Title: Reimagining Education and Learning for Hope
In association with Flinders University and Youth Inc.The REAL Hope project commenced in March 2020, a 4 year policy-interested sociological research undertaking, funded by Catholic Education South Australia ($175000) and Flinders University ($25,000), to engender a 'doing schooling differently' agenda in the middle years of schooling across the northern suburbs of Adelaide. It sees the project of middle schooling as seriously unfinished business. The purpose of REAL Hope is to better address (1) languishing school retention rates, (2) lack of student interest in learning, and (3) better prepare students for the SACE. This social justice project has two components: (1). In depth interviews with a significant number of young people in the first year about their experiences of schooling and their hopes/aspirations for change (2). Conducting a three year 'augmented' action research study with middle school teachers and leaders across 4 CESA schools within a university-facilitated Professional Learning Community, that responds to the voices of young people, using a 'funds of identity' conceptual approach. The project positions teachers as co-researchers and ethnographers of student lives, to inform experiments for more personalised and engaging curriculum forms in communities struck hard by disadvantage. CI is Andrew Bills, Research Fellow is Nigel Howard and Co-Researcher is Ben Wadham. Emeritus Professor John Halsey is the strategic project advisor.
Project Title: Researching Enterprise and Learning.
This research study aims to examine how teachers working within a new school design can build their understanding of the life worlds of young people and utilise the learning space of the school, community and the virtual spaces that young people inhabit to engage them in planned, purposeful learning whilst examining the interventions that could bring this learning into the framework of senior school credentialing. CI is Andrew Bills, Co-Researcher Nigel Howard.
Courses I teach
- EDUC 1113 Introduction to Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment (2025)
- EDUC 4212 Critical Perspectives on Curriculum Pedagogy, and Assessment (2025)
- EDUC 5152 Curriculum, Pedagogy and Democracy (2025)
- SCEDC 90043 Understanding Generation Z SC (2025)
- EDUC 1113 Introduction to Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment (2024)
- EDUC 3079 Foundations in Learning and Teaching 3: Educating for Diversity and Inclusion (2024)
- EDUC 4212 Critical Perspectives on Curriculum Pedagogy, and Assessment (2024)
- EDUC 4239 Honours Research Methodology: Methods and Ethics (2024)
- EDUC 5249 Critical Perspectives of Education (2024)
Connect With Me
