Sam Sellar

Prof Sam Sellar

Dean Research, EBSS

School of Education

College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Sam Sellar is Dean of Research (Education Futures) and Professor of Education Policy at the University of South Australia.
Sam’s research focuses on education policy, large-scale assessments and the datafication of education. He is currently co-investigator for an ESRC project investigating digital platforms in higher education (led by Janja Komljenovic, Lancaster University).
Sam has published more than 70 books, book chapters and journal articles, and he is Lead Editor of Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. His forthcoming book is Algorithms of Education: How datafication and artificial intelligence shape policy, co-authored with Kalervo N. Gulson and P. Taylor Webb.

Year Citation
2025 Komljenovic, J., Birch, K., & Sellar, S. (2025). Mapping rentiership and assetisation in the digitalisation of education. Learning, Media and Technology, 50(1), 1-14.
DOI
2025 Komljenovic, J., Sellar, S., & Birch, K. (2025). Turning universities into data-driven organisations: seven dimensions of change. Higher Education, 89(5), 1369-1386.
DOI
2025 Kean, B., Komljenovic, J., Sellar, S., & Hansen, M. (2025). Data as asset, data as rent? Rentiership practices in EdTech startups. Learning, Media and Technology, 50(1), 15-28.
DOI
2025 Komljenovic, J., Birch, K., Sellar, S., Bergviken Rensfeldt, A., Deville, J., Eaton, C., . . . Williamson, B. (2025). Digitalised higher education: key developments, questions, and concerns. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 46(2), 276-292.
DOI
2025 Birch, K., Komljenovic, J., & Sellar, S. (2025). Architectures of assetization: Legacy infrastructures and the configuration of datafication in UK higher education. New Media and Society, 27(4), 1868-1887.
DOI
2024 Komljenovic, J., Birch, K., & Sellar, S. (2024). Monetising digital data in higher education: analysing the strategies and struggles of EdTech startups. Postdigital Science and Education, 6(4), 1196-1215.
DOI
2024 Gulson, K. N., & Sellar, S. (2024). Anticipating disruption: artificial intelligence and minor experiments in education policy. Journal of Education Policy, 39(5), 702-717.
DOI
2023 Li, Y. C., Lingard, B., Reyes, V., & Sellar, S. (2023). Performative bilingual policy: an analysis of two Taiwanese White Papers on international education. Compare, 53(2), 253-268.
DOI
2022 Shardlow, M., Sellar, S., & Rousell, D. (2022). Collaborative augmentation and simplification of text (CoAST): pedagogical applications of natural language processing in digital learning environments. Learning Environments Research, 25(2), 399-421.
DOI
2022 Thompson, G., Sellar, S., & Buchanan, I. (2022). 1996: the OECD policy-making assemblage. Journal of Education Policy, 37(5), 685-704.
DOI
2021 Sellar, S., & Gulson, K. N. (2021). Becoming information centric: the emergence of new cognitive infrastructures in education policy. Journal of Education Policy, 36(3), 309-326.
DOI
2021 Lingard, B., Baroutsis, A., & Sellar, S. (2021). Enriching educational accountabilities through collaborative public conversations: conceptual and methodological insights from the Learning Commission approach. Journal of Educational Change, 22(4), 565-587.
DOI
2021 Zipin, L., Brennan, M., & Sellar, S. (2021). Young people pursuing futures: making identity labors curricular. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 28(2), 152-168.
DOI
2021 Sellar, S., Gorur, R., Rutkowski, D., & Takayama, K. (2021). A new chapter for Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 42(1), 1-4.
DOI
2020 Webb, P. T., Sellar, S., & Gulson, K. N. (2020). Anticipating education: governing habits, memories and policy-futures. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(3), 284-297.
DOI
2019 Molla, T., Harvey, A., & Sellar, S. (2019). Access to languages other than English in Australian universities: an educational pipeline of privilege. Higher Education Research and Development, 38(2), 307-323.
DOI
2019 Gulson, K. N., & Sellar, S. (2019). Emerging data infrastructures and the new topologies of education policy. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 37(2), 350-366.
DOI
2019 Sellar, S., & Zipin, L. (2019). Conjuring optimism in dark times: Education, affect and human capital. Educational philosophy and theory, 51(6), 572-586.
DOI
2018 Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2018). International large-scale assessments, affective worlds and policy impacts in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 31(5), 367-381.
DOI
2018 Hogan, A., Thompson, G., Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2018). Teachers' and school leaders' perceptions of commercialisation in Australian public schools. AER, 45(2), 141-160.
DOI
2018 Thompson, G., & Sellar, S. (2018). Datafication, testing events and the outside of thought. Learning, Media & Technology, 43(2), 139-151.
DOI
2017 Sellar, S., & Cole, D. R. (2017). Accelerationism: a timely provocation for the critical sociology of education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38(1), 38-48.
DOI
2017 Sellar, S. (2017). Making network markets in education: the development of data infrastructure in Australian schooling. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 15(3), 341-351.
DOI
2016 Anagnostopoulos, D., Lingard, B., & Sellar, S. (2016). Argumentation in educational policy disputes: competing visions of quality and equity. Theory into Practice, 55(4), 342-351.
DOI
2016 Lewis, S., Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2016). PISA for schools: Topological rationality and new spaces of the OECD's global educational governance. Comparative Education Review, 60(1), 27-57.
DOI
2016 Sellar, S. (2016). Leaving the future behind. Research in Education, 96(1), 12-18.
DOI
2016 Hogan, A., Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2016). Commercialising comparison: Pearson puts the TLC in soft capitalism. Journal of Education Policy, 31(3), 243-258.
DOI
2016 Sellar, S., & Thompson, G. (2016). The becoming-statistic: information ontologies and computerized adaptive testing in education. Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies, 16(5), 491-501.
DOI
2015 Peacock, D., Lingard, R., & Sellar, S. (2015). Texturing space-times in the Australian curriculum: cross-curriculum priorities. Curriculum Inquiry, 45(4), 367-388.
DOI
2015 Sellar, S. (2015). 'Unleashing aspiration': the concept of potential in education policy. Australian Educational Researcher, 42(2), 201-215.
DOI
2015 Sellar, S. (2015). Transparency and opacity: Levinasian reflections on accountability in Australian schooling. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47(2), 118-132.
DOI
2015 Lingard, B., Sellar, S., & Baroutsis, A. (2015). Researching the habitus of global policy actors in education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 45(1), 25-42.
DOI
2015 Sellar, S. (2015). A feel for numbers: affect, data and education policy. Critical Studies in Education, 56(1), 131-146.
DOI
2015 Zipin, L., Sellar, S., Brennan, M., & Gale, T. (2015). Educating for futures in marginalized regions: a sociological framework for rethinking and researching aspirations. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47(3), 227-246.
DOI
2011 Sellar, S. R., Gale, T. C., & Parker, S. M. (2011). Appreciating aspirations in Australian higher education. Cambridge journal of education, 41(1), 37-52.
DOI
2009 Sellar, S. R., & Cormack, P. (2009). Redesigning pedagogies in middle-years classrooms : challenges for teachers working with disadvantaged students. Pedagogy, culture and society, 17(2), 123-139.
DOI
2009 Sellar, S. R. (2009). The responsible uncertainty of pedagogy. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 30(3), 347-360.
DOI
2009 Sellar, S. R., & Gale, T. C. (2009). Pedagogies of critique: struggling with what and how to think. Pedagogy, culture and society, 17(1), 103-114.
DOI
2005 Sellar, S. R. (2005). The SACSA Framework: Unsettled policy for unsettled times. Curriculum Perspectives.

Year Citation
2024 Al'Abri, K., Hogan, A., Lingard, B., & Sellar, S. (2024). Researching policy elites in education. In M. Stacey, & N. Mockler (Eds.), Source details - Title: Analysing Education Policy: Theory and Method (pp. 235-249). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2024 Windle, J., & Sellar, S. (2024). Boundary work as an interpretative framework for understanding time poverty: contestations over legitimacy and identity in teachers' work. In G. Thompson, & A. Hogan (Eds.), Source details - Title: Teaching and Time Poverty: Understanding Workload and Work Intensification in Schools (pp. 146-159). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2023 Thorpe, M., & Sellar, S. (2023). Datafication. In R. J. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Ercikan (Eds.), Source details - Title: International Encyclopedia of Education (4th ed. ed., pp. 673-681). US: Elsevier.
DOI
2023 Komljenovic, J., Sellar, S., Birch, K., & Hansen, M. (2023). Assetisation of higher education's digital disruption. In B. Williamson, J. Konljenovic, & K. Gulson (Eds.), Source details - Title: World Yearbook of Education 2024 : Digitalisation of Education in the Era of Algorithms, Automation and Artificial Intelligence (pp. 122-139). UK: Taylor and Francis.
DOI
2021 Thompson, G., Hogan, A., Shield, P., Lingard, B., & Sellar, S. (2021). Teacher concerns regarding commercialisation. In A. Hogan, & G. Thompson (Eds.), Source details - Title: Privatisation and Commercialisation in Public Education: How the Public Nature of Schooling is Changing (pp. 152-167). US: Routledge.
DOI
2021 Hogan, A., & Sellar, S. (2021). Pearson's digital transformation and the disruption of public education. In C. Wylatt-Smith, B. Lingard, & E. Heck (Eds.), Source details - Title: Digital Disruption in Teaching and Testing: Assessments, Big Data, and the Transformation of Schooling (pp. 107-123). US: Routledge.
DOI
2019 Lingard, B., & Sellar, S. (2019). Schooling reform in Australia: legitimation through 'projections' onto Shanghai and East Asian schooling systems. In F. Waldow, & G. Steiner-Khamsi (Eds.), Source details - Title: Understanding PISA’s Attractiveness: Critical Analyses in Comparative Policy Studies (pp. 49-64). US: Bloomsbury Academic.
DOI
2019 Sellar, S., Lingard, B., Rutkowski, D., & Takayama, K. (2019). Student preparation for large-scale assessments: a comparative analysis. In B. Maddox (Ed.), Source details - Title: International Large-Scale Assessments in Education: Insider Research Perspectives (pp. 137-156). US: Bloomsbury Academic.
DOI
2019 Sellar, S. (2019). Acceleration, automation and pedagogy: how the prospect of technological unemployment creates new conditions for educational thought. In M. A. Peters, P. Jandric, & A. J. Means (Eds.), Source details - Title: Education and Technological Unemployment (pp. 131-144). Singapore: Springer.
DOI
2018 Sellar, S. (2018). Why do countries participate in PISA? Understanding the role of international large-scale assessments in global education policy. In A. Verger, M. Novelli, & H. K. Altinyelken (Eds.), Source details - Title: Global Education Policy and International Development: New Agendas, Issues and Policies (2 ed., pp. 97-118). US: Bloomsbury Academic.
DOI
2018 Sellar, S., & Gulson, K. N. (2018). Dispositions and situations of governance: the example of data infrastructure in Australian schooling. In A. Wilkins, & A. Olmedo (Eds.), Source details - Title: Education Governance and Social Theory: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research (pp. 63-80). US: Bloomsbury Academic.
DOI
2018 Thompson, G., Rutkowski, D., & Sellar, S. (2018). Flipping large-scale assessments: bringing teacher expertise to the table. In D. M. Netolicky, J. Andrews, & C. Paterson (Eds.), Source details - Title: Flip the System Australia: What Matters in Education (pp. 55-63). US: Routledge.
DOI
2016 Sellar, S., & Gale, T. (2016). Framing student equity in higher education: national and global policy contexts of a fair chance for all. In A. Harvey, C. Burnheim, & M. Brett (Eds.), Source details - Title: Student Equity in Australian Higher Education: Twenty-Five Years of a Fair Chance for All (pp. 39-52). Singapore: Springer.
DOI
2016 Hogan, A., Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2016). Corporate social responsibility and neo-social accountability in education: the case of pearson plc. In A. Verger, C. Lubienski, & G. Steiner-Khamsi (Eds.), Source details - Title: World Yearbook of Education 2016; The Global Education Industry (pp. 107-124). US: Routledge.
DOI
2016 Lingard, B., & Sellar, S. (2016). The changing organizational and global significance of the OECD's education work. In K. Mundy (Ed.), Source details - Title: The Handbook of Global Education Policy (pp. 357-373). UK: John Wiley and Sons.
DOI
2015 Brennan, M., Zipin, L., & Sellar, S. (2015). Negotiating with the neighbours: balancing different accountabilities across a cluster of regional schools. In B. Lingard, G. Thompson, & S. Sellar (Eds.), Source details - Title: National Testing in Schools: An Australian Assessment (pp. 199-211). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2015 Hogan, A., Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2015). Network restructuring of global edu-business: the case of Pearson's efficacy framework. In W. HU, & J. Ferrare (Eds.), Source details - Title: Mapping Corporate Education Reform: Power and Policy Networks in the Neoliberal State (pp. 43-64). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2015 Sellar, S. (2015). Repeating Deleuze and Guattari: towards a politics of method in education policy studies. In K. N. Gulson, M. Clarke, & E. B. Petersen (Eds.), Source details - Title: Education Policy and Contemporary Theory: Implications for Research (pp. 40-50). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2015 Thompson, G., Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2015). The life of data: evolving national testing. In B. Lingard, G. Thompson, & S. Sellar (Eds.), Source details - Title: National Testing in Schools: An Australian Assessment (pp. 212-230). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2015 Lingard, B., Thompson, G., & Sellar, S. (2015). National testing from an Australian perspective. In B. Lingard, G. Thompson, & S. Sellar (Eds.), Source details - Title: National Testing in Schools: An Australian Assessment (pp. 1-17). UK: Routledge.
DOI

Year Citation
2009 Sellar, S. R., & Gale, T. C. (2009). Aspirations for higher education: exploring strategies for widening participation. In AARE international education research conference (pp. 1-16). Deakin, Australian Capital Territory: Australian association for Research in Education (AARE).
2009 Sellar, S. R., Gale, T. C., & Tranter, D. R. (2009). NCSEHE and university interventions in schooling to widen participation. In Equal Opportunity Practitioners in Higher Education Australia (EOPHEA) Conference 2009. Sydney, Australia: Equal Opportunity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia (EOPHEA).
2007 Sellar, S. R., & Cormack, P. (2007). (Re)conceptualising middle years pedagogy. In J. Jeffery, & P. L. P.L. (Eds.), AARE 2006 Annual International Education Research Conference. Adelaide, Australia: AARE.
2007 Sellar, S. R., & Prosser, B. (2007). Reinvigorating the middle years : a review of middle schooling. In J. Jeffery, & P. L. (Eds.), AARE Annual International Education Research Conference : Engaging Pedagogies. Adelaide, South Australia: Australian Association for Research in Education.
2007 Zipin, L., Brennan, M., & Sellar, S. R. (2007). Making social justice problematic : exploring and educational aporia. In J. Jeffery, & P. L. (Eds.), AARE Annual International Education Research Conference : Engaging Pedagogies. Adelaide, Australia: Australian Association for Research in Education.
2007 Hattam, V., Lucas, W. T., Prosser, B., & Sellar, S. R. (2007). Researching the 'funds of knowledge' approach in the Middle Years. In The world of Educational Quality, 2007 AERA Annual Meeting and Presentation. Chicago, USA: AERA.
2006 Sellar, S. R., & Zipin, L. (2006). 'Post'ibilities for critical pedagogy. In J. Jeffery, & P. L. (Eds.), AARE Annual International Education Research Conference : Creative Dissent : Constructive Solutions. Sydney, New South Wales: Australian Association for Research in Education.
2006 Sellar, S. R. (2006). Generating change in and through pedagogy: teaching from an ethico-aesthetic paradigm. In J. Jeffery, & P. L. (Eds.), AARE Annual International Education Research Conference : Creative Dissent - Constructive Solutions. Parramatta, New South Wales: Australian Association for Research in Education.
2005 Sellar, S. R. (2005). The SACSA framework : unsettled policy for unsettled times. In J. Jeffery, & P. L. (Eds.), AARE Annual International Education Research Conference : Doing the public good : positioning education research (pp. 1-8). Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Association for Research in Education.

  • Artificial intelligence in education: Democratising policyect, ARC - Discovery Projects, 30/05/2024 - 29/05/2026

  • Illuminating Principal Practice, South Australian Secondary Principals Association Inc (SASPA), 24/04/2023 - 15/02/2024

  • Illuminating principal practice, South Australia Area School Leaders Association, 24/04/2023 - 24/12/2023

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2025 Co-Supervisor - Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Melissa Jayne Watson
2024 Principal Supervisor - Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Irene Patricia Scriven
2022 Principal Supervisor - Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Yianni Fragos

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