Samantha Schulz

Dr Samantha Schulz

Senior Lecturer

School of Education

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

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


Dr Samantha Schulz (she/her) is a sociologist of education committed to educational and social justice. Sam’s research includes race critical theorising, affect studies, culturally responsive schooling, gender equity, violent extremism, and decoloniality. Sam is an experienced tertiary educator with research and teaching experience across a diversity of social contexts, including Kenya, India, China, and the South Australian Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Sam has received several awards for higher education teaching excellence and research engagement, and is presently co-chief investigator on the ARC Discovery Project Culturally Responsive Schooling (DP220100651, 2022-24). Sam is project lead for the research-consultancy, Re-imagining Catholic Education for First Nations Sovereignty, and is working with Catholic Education South Australia to develop and formalise their 10-year Aboriginal Education Strategy. She is co-convenor of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI) decoloniality reading group, Postgraduate Coordinator for the School of Education at The University of Adelaide, and member of the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender.

Sam is chief investigator on the ARC Discovery Project 'Culturally Responsive Schooling' (DP220100651, 2022-24) with co-chief investigators Professor Lester Irabinna Rigney (UniSA, project lead), Professor Robert Hattam (UniSA), Professor Michalinos Zembylas (Open University of Cyprus), Dr Stephen Kelly (The University of Adelaide) and Dr Nadeem Memon (UniSA - Centre for Islamic Thought and Education, CITE). The project explores how the affective environments of schools attend to the diverse cultural, academic and emotional needs of their communities in the process of becoming culturally responsive, bringing together methods from educational ethnography, critical policy analysis, and educational action research. Sam’s broader research includes poststructural and posthumanist examinations of race and whiteness as well as critical explorations of gender, violence, and culturally responsive schooling.

  • Journals

    Year Citation
    2023 Stahl, G., Schulz, S., Baak, M., & Adams, B. (2023). "You fight your battles and you work out how you're going to change": the implementation, embedding and limits of restorative practices in an Australian rural community school. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 1-19.
    DOI
    2023 Schulz, S., Rigney, L. -I., Zembylas, M., Hattam, R., & Memon, N. (2023). Affect and the force of counter stories: learning racial literacy through thinking and feeling. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 1-18.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS1
    2023 Memon, N., Schulz, S., Kelly, S., & Chown, D. (2023). Schools, religion, and affect: unpacking Australian educator discomfort. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 266-282.
    DOI
    2021 Agnew, D., Abery, E., Schulz, S., & Pill, S. (2021). When things go wrong: the implications for facilitators of work integrated learning placements in international destinations. Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, 11(3), 697-709.
    DOI Scopus1
    2021 Stahl, G., Baak, M., Schulz, S., Adams, B., & Peterson, A. (2021). Preventing violent extremism: Resourcing, stakeholder strategies and fostering belonging and connection in Australian schools. British Educational Research Journal, 47(5), 1177-1193.
    DOI Scopus6 WoS4
    2021 Whitehead, K., MacGill, B., & Schulz, S. (2021). Honouring Nancy Barnes, nee Brumbie (1927–2012), South Australia’s first qualified Aboriginal Kindergarten Director. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 46(3), 204-215.
    DOI Scopus2 WoS2
    2021 Baak, M., Stahl, G., Schulz, S., & Adams, B. (2021). ‘We have to be really careful’: policy intermediaries preventing violent extremism in an era of risk. Journal of Education Policy, 37(3), 461-481.
    DOI Scopus8 WoS6
    2021 Stahl, G., Baak, M., Schulz, S., & Peterson, A. (2021). A cautionary tale: CVE policy actors managing risk in Australian schools. CURRENT SOCIOLOGY, 71(5), 19 pages.
    DOI Scopus3 WoS2
    2021 Whitehead, K., Schulz, S., & MacGill, B. (2021). From assimilation towards reconciliation with Amy Levai, nee O’Donoghue (1930–2013), South Australia’s first qualified Aboriginal infant teacher. Australian Educational Researcher, 50(2), 221-235.
    DOI WoS1
    2021 Schulz, S., Baak, M., Stahl, G., & Adams, B. (2021). Restorative practices for preventing/countering violent extremism: an affective-discursive examination of extreme emotional incidents. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(8), 1227-1245.
    DOI Scopus6 WoS3
    2020 Schulz, S., & Agnew, D. (2020). Moving toward decoloniality in short-term study abroad under New Colombo: constructing global citizenship. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41(8), 1164-1179.
    DOI Scopus7 WoS6
    2020 Brabazon, T., & Schulz, S. (2020). Braving the bull: women, mentoring and leadership in higher education. Gender and Education, 32(7), 873-890.
    DOI Scopus29 WoS17
    2019 Schulz, S., & Rogers, B. (2019). The Toxic University: zombie leadership, academic rock stars and neoliberal ideology. INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION, 28(3-4), 3 pages.
    DOI
    2019 Schulz, S., Sniedze-Gregory, S., & Banfield, G. (2019). The Activist Scholar In, and Against, the Neoliberal University. Social Alternatives, 38(3), 3-6.
    2019 Schulz, S., Vass, G., Moodie, N., & Kennedy, T. (2019). Critical race and whiteness studies: Dark Times. Critical Race and Whiteness Studies.
    2017 Fane, J., & Schulz, S. (2017). Working against “pedagogic work”: Challenges to engaging pre-service teachers in critical health education. Health Education, 117(5), 511-528.
    DOI Scopus7 WoS5
    2017 Schulz, S. (2017). Desire for the desert: racialising white teachers’ motives for working in remote schools in the Australian desert. Race Ethnicity and Education, 20(2), 209-224.
    DOI Scopus16 WoS10
    2016 Fane, J., & Schulz, S. (2016). Re'-Learning health: Challenges in teaching health literacy and implications for the new national Australian HPE curriculum. Education and Health, 34(1), 10-14.
    2015 Schulz, S., & Fane, J. (2015). A healthy dose of race? White students' and teachers' unintentional brushes with whiteness. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(11), 137-154.
    DOI Scopus14 WoS7
    2014 Miller, A., & Schulz, S. (2014). University literacy: A multi-literacies model. English in Australia, 49(3), 78-87.
    Scopus4 WoS2
    2011 Schulz, S. (2011). White teachers and the 'good' governance of indigenous souls: White governmentality and ernabella mission (1937-1971). Race Ethnicity and Education, 14(2), 209-232.
    DOI Scopus10 WoS10
    2007 Schulz, S. (2007). Inside the contract zone: White teachers in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. International Education Journal, 8(2), 270-283.
    Scopus12 WoS7
    2005 Schulz, S. (2005). The gifted: Identity construction through the practice of gifted education. International Education Journal, 5(5), 117-128.
    Scopus12
  • Books

    Year Citation
    2019 Michael, L., & Schulz, S. (Eds.) (2019). Unsettling Whiteness. UK: BRILL.
    DOI
    2002 Clarkson, R. (2002). Forked Tongues A Delicious Anthology of Poetry and Prose. Wakefield Press.
    - Vass, G., Maxwell, J., Rudolph, S., & Gulson, K. N. (Eds.) (n.d.). The Relationality of Race in Education Research. Routledge.
    DOI
    - Riddle, S., & Apple, M. W. (Eds.) (n.d.). Re-imagining Education for Democracy. Routledge.
    DOI
  • Book Chapters

    Year Citation
    2021 Schulz, S., Blanch, F. R., & Elliott, S. (2021). Across field and classroom: The activism of Adam Goodes and the role of Australian teachers in tackling racism. In R. McGrath (Ed.), Athlete Activism: Contemporary Perspectives (1st ed., pp. 155-166). United Kingdom: Routledge.
    DOI
    2020 Schulz, S. (2020). “You’ve Got the Skin”: Entrepreneurial Universities, Study Abroad, and the Construction of Global Citizenship. In The Palgrave Handbook of Citizenship and Education (pp. 863-876). Springer International Publishing.
    DOI
    2019 Schulz, S. (2019). “You’ve Got the Skin”: Entrepreneurial Universities, Study Abroad, and the Construction of Global Citizenship. In A. Peterson, G. Stahl, & H. Soong (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Citizenship and Education (pp. 1-15). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
    DOI
    2019 Michael, L., & Schulz, S. (2019). Unsettling Whiteness: Disruptions and (Re)Locations. In Unknown Book (pp. ix-xx).
    Scopus1
    2019 Michael, L., & Schulz, S. (2019). Unsettling Whiteness: Disruptions and (Re)Locations. In Unknown Book (pp. ix-xx).
    Scopus1
    2019 Schulz, S. (2019). Images of a Good White Teacher. In L. Michael, & S. Schulz (Eds.), Unsettling Whiteness (pp. 175-190). UK: Brill.
    DOI
    2019 Schulz, S. (2019). Images of a Good White Teacher. In L. Michael, & S. Schulz (Eds.), Unsettling Whiteness (pp. 175-190). UK: Brill.
    DOI
    2019 Schulz, S. (2019). 'Beating their unclad chests': Voluntourism, international service and the place of critical pedagogy inside the neoliberal university. In S. Riddle, & M. W. Apple (Eds.), Re-Imagining Education for Democracy (1 ed., pp. 224-238). Online: Routledge.
    Scopus1
    2018 Schulz, S. (2018). White governmentality, life history, and the cultural politics of race in remote settings: Situating the teacher/voluntourist. In G. Vass, J. Maxwell, S. Rudolph, & K. Gulson (Eds.), The Relationality of Race in Education Research (1st ed., pp. 47-58). United Kingdom: Routledge.
    DOI Scopus5
    2016 Schulz, S. (2016). The new Australian ‘whitening machine’? Contesting whiteness in a nation growing whiter. In A. Dada, & S. Kushal (Eds.), Whiteness Interrogated (pp. 13-24). Oxford, United Kingdom: Inter-Disciplinary Press.
    2016 Schulz, S., & Hay, I. (2016). Taking up Caletrio's challenge: Silence and the construction of wealth eliteness in Jamie Johnson's documentary film Born Rich. In I. Hay, & J. V. Beaverstock (Eds.), Handbook on Wealth and the Super-Rich (pp. 155-177). Cheltenham, United Kindgom: Edward Elgar Publishing.
    DOI Scopus3
    2003 Schulz, S. (2003). Christmas in October. In H. Johnson, M. Kinsman, S. Laszcuk, & A. Solding (Eds.), Cracker! A Christmas Collection (pp. 110-116). Adelaide: Wakefield Press.
    2003 Schulz, S. (2003). Slipshod. In B. Dibble (Ed.), Anthology of Australasian Stories (pp. 84-88). Kathmandu, Nepal: Spiny Babbler.
    2002 Schulz, S. (2002). Number Seven. In R. Clarkson, K. Harrison, G. Hudson, L. Jedynak, E. Sallis, & S. Schulz (Eds.), Forked Tongues: A delicious anthology of poetry and prose (pp. 35-42). Adelaide: Wakefield Press.
    2002 Schulz, S. (2002). Number Seven. In R. Clarkson, K. Harrison, G. Hudson, L. Jedynak, E. Sallis, & S. Schulz (Eds.), Forked Tongues: A delicious anthology of poetry and prose (pp. 35-42). Adelaide: Wakefield Press.
    2002 Schulz, S. (2002). D&M. In R. Clarkson, K. Harrison, G. Hudson, L. Jedynak, E. Sallis, & S. Schulz (Eds.), Forked Tongues: A delicious anthology of poetry and prose (pp. 88-98). Adelaide: Wakefield Press.
    2002 Schulz, S. (2002). D&M. In R. Clarkson, K. Harrison, G. Hudson, L. Jedynak, E. Sallis, & S. Schulz (Eds.), Forked Tongues: A delicious anthology of poetry and prose (pp. 88-98). Adelaide: Wakefield Press.
  • Report for External Bodies

  • Internet Publications

    Year Citation
    2017 Schulz, S., Kennedy, T., Moodie, N., & Vass, G. (2017). Leaning 'back in' to the critical: Reclaiming quality and excellence in contemporary global knowledge production on race and whiteness. Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Journal.

2022-2024: ARC Discovery Project 'Culturally Responsive Schooling' (DP220100651)

2022-2023: Re-Imagining Catholic Education for First Nations Sovereignty (University of Adelaide HREC Approval H-2022-085)

Sam's principal teaching is in the sociology of education within the Master of Teaching and Bachelor of Education degrees. Within Sam's courses, pre-service teachers (PSTs) are positioned as co-learners and knowledge producers who are supported to engage in socio-cultural explorations of contemporary educational issues they will encounter in their careers. Sam's courses draw from a critical knowledge base that includes history, politics, and sociology of education, as well as lenses for analysis such as race, gender and class. These tools enable PSTs to explore schooling in social contexts while developing informed standpoints on questions of social justice and the fundamental purposes of education. PSTs demonstrate understanding of these issues and implications for their teaching through individual and collaborative assessment pieces that bridge the research-teaching nexus.

  • Consulting/Advisories

    Date Institution Department Organisation Type Country
    2022 - 2022 Catholic Education of South Australia Catholic Education of South Australia Religious Australia
  • Position: Senior Lecturer
  • Phone: 83139309
  • Email: samantha.schulz@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Nexus 10, floor 8
  • Org Unit: School of Education

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