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  • Associate Professor Brad Gobby

    Associate Professor Brad Gobby

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Associate Professor Brad Gobby

Associate Professor

Staff Member Details
Email: b.gobby@ecu.edu.au
Campus: Mount Lawley  
Room: ML17.128  

Brad is an Associate Professor in the School of Education.

Background

Brad is a policy sociologist and widely-published author whose research examines education policies and programs, with a focus on governance, management, school autonomy and marketisation in diverse contexts.

Brad has been a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Discovery Project (DP190100190), 'School autonomy reform and social justice in Australian public education'. He is co-convenor of the Education Policy Futures forum, a non-affiliated, independent, global forum dedicated to fostering knowledge exchange and collaboration among educators and researchers interested in the geopolitics of education policy futures.

Brad has co-authored, co-edited and contributed to two textbooks, including two editions of 'Powers of Curriculum: Sociological Aspects of Education' (Oxford University Press), a research-led and highly-commended textbook for pre-service educators.

Professional Associations

  • Executive Committee Member and Website Coordinator of the Western Australian Institute for Educational Research (ECM 2006 - 2020)
  • Western Australian Representative of the Community of Associate Deans of Reseach in Education (cADRE), ACDE (2014-2015)
  • Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE)
  • Editorial Board Member: Journal of Educational Administration and History (Taylor & Francis)
  • Academic Reviewer for numerous publications and publishers, including the Journal of Sociology, Journal of Educational Management and History, Journal of Education Policy, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Critical Studies in Education, and Cambridge University Press.

Awards and recognition

  • 2018 - Shortlisted and Highly Commended: Powers of Curriculum: Sociological Perspectives on Education in the category of Tertiary (Wholly Australian) Teaching and Learning Resource - print, for the Education Publishing Awards Australia
  • 2017 - Fellow of the Western Australian Institute for Educational Research
  • 2017 - Open Universities Australia (OUA) Outstanding Student Satisfaction Rankings (100% satisfaction)
  • 2015 - Curtin Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award: Common First Year Team
  • 2014 - Faculty of Humanities Teaching and Learning Award in the First Year Program Award category: Common First Year Team
  • 2014 - Outstanding Professional Service Award (Professional Teaching Council of Western Australia Inc.)
  • 2014 - Murdoch University School of Education Prize for Best Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation in the past two years
  • 2007 - Thelma Harley Post-Graduate Award
  • 2007 - Fogarty-WAIER Post-Graduate Award

Research areas and interests

  • Education policy and reform, marketisation, school governance, leadership, school choice, and decentralisation/autonomy;
  • Policy and pedagogical responses to climate change
  • Using poststructuralist perspectives in education; critical policy analysis; Foucauldian and neo-Foucauldian scholarship; and new materialist and post-humanist theories.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Murdoch University, 2012.
  • Master of Education, Murdoch University, 2006.
  • Graduate Diploma in Education, Murdoch University, 2002.
  • Bachelor of Arts, Murdoch University, 1998.

Research Outputs

2024

Book Chapters

  • Niesche, R., Keddie, A., Macdonald, K., Eacott, S., Gobby, B., Wilkinson, J., Blackmore, J. (2024). Theorising principals’ resistance and compliance as part of school autonomy reforms in Australian public education. Resistance in educational leadership, management and administration (24-37). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003279334-3.
  • Wilkins, A., Collet-Sabé, J., Esper, T., Gobby, B., Grimaldi, E. (2024). Assembling New Public Management: actors, networks and projects. Researching Global Education Policies: Diverse Approaches to Policy Movement (253-275). Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.9692660.17.

Journal Articles

  • Wilkinson, J., Macdonald, K., Keddie, A., Gobby, B., Eacott, S., Niesche, R., Blackmore, J. (2024). School transformation in minoritized settings: a practice architectures lens. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2024(Article in press), 19 pages. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2024.2342296.
  • Karnovsky, S., Gobby, B. (2024). How Teacher Wellbeing Can Be Cruel: Refusing Discourses Of Wellbeing In An Online Reddit Forum. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 2024(Article in Press), TBD. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2024.2312805.
  • Gobby, B., Blackmore, J., Eacott, S., Keddie, A., Macdonald, K., Niesche, R., Wilkinson, J. (2024). Principals and the careless erosion of employment standards in the context of school autonomy and marketisation: a case study of school support staff. Journal of Industrial Relations, 2024(Article in press), 20 pages. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221856241299246.

2023

Journal Articles

  • Gobby, B., Merewether, J., Nykiel, A. (2023). Storying ourselves into the world of the disappearing thrombolites. Journal of Artistic and Creative Education, 16(1), 1-16.
  • Macdonald, K., Keddie, A., Blackmore, J., Mahoney, C., Wilkinson, J., Gobby, B., Niesche, R., Eacott, S. (2023). School autonomy reform and social justice: a policy overview of Australian public education (1970s to present). The Australian Educational Researcher, 50(2), 307-327. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00482-4.
  • Keddie, A., Macdonald, K., Blackmore, J., Gobby, B. (2023). Teacher professional autonomy in an atypical government school: matters of relationality and context. Oxford Review of Education, 2023(Article in press), TBD. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2023.2236941.
  • Macdonald, K., Keddie, A., Eacott, S., Wilkinson, J., Blackmore, J., Niesche, R., Gobby, B. (2023). The spatiality of economic maldistribution in public-school funding in Australia: still a poisonous debate. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 2023(Article in press), TBD. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2023.2174952.
  • Niesche, R., Eacott, S., Keddie, A., Gobby, B., Macdonald, K., Wilkinson, J., Blackmore, J. (2023). Principals’ perceptions of school autonomy and educational leadership. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 51(6), 1260-1277. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432211034174.
  • Eacott, S., Niesche, R., Keddie, A., Blackmore, J., Wilkinson, J., Gobby, B., Macdonald, K. (2023). Autonomy, Instructional Leadership and Improving Outcomes–The LSLD Reforms in NSW, Australia. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 22(3), 811-824. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2022.2081212.
  • Blackmore, J., Macdonald, K., Keddie, A., Gobby, B., Wilkinson, J., Eacott, S., Niesche, R. (2023). Election or selection? School autonomy reform, governance and the politics of school councils. Journal of Education Policy, 38(4), 547-566. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2021.2022766.

2022

Journal Articles

  • Karnovsky, S., Gobby, B., O'Brien, P. (2022). A Foucauldian ethics of positivity in initial teacher education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 54(14), 2504-2519. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.2016390.
  • Wilkins, A., Gobby, B. (2022). Objects and subjects of risk: a governmentality approach to education governance. Globalization Societies and Education, 2022(Article in press), TBD. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2022.2114073.
  • Gobby, B., Wilkinson, J., Keddie, A., Blackmore, J., Eacott, S., Macdonald, K., Niesche, R. (2022). Managerial, professional and collective school autonomies: using material semiotics to examine the multiple realities of school autonomy. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2022(Article in press), TBD. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2022.2108507.
  • Variyan, G., Gobby, B. (2022). ‘The least we could do’?: Troubling school leaders’ responses to the school strikes for climate in Australia. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 2022(Article in press), TBD. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2022.2153110.
  • Merewether, J., Gobby, B., Blaise, M. (2022). Common Worlds Justice in Post-Anthropocentric Education: Attuning to the More-Than-Human through Walking with Sound and Smell. Equity and Excellence in Education, 55(3), 203-216. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2022.2131198.

2021

Journal Articles

  • Wilkins, C., Gobby, B., Keddie, A. (2021). The Neo-Performative Teacher: School Reform, Entrepreneurialism and The Pursuit of Educational Equity. British Journal of Educational Studies, 69(1), 27-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2020.1739621.
  • Gobby, B., Merewether, J., Nykiel, A. (2021). Extinction, Education and the Curious Practice of Visiting Thrombolites. Environmental Education Research, 27(2), 217-233. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1837081.

2020

Book Chapters

  • Wilkins, A., Gobby, B. (2020). Governance and educational leadership. Understanding Educational Leadership: Critical Perspectives and Approaches (309-322). Bloomsbury.

Journal Articles

  • Keddie, A., Claire Macdonald, K., Blackmore, J., Eacott, S., Gobby, B., Mahoney, C., Niesche, R., Wilkinson, J. (2020). School autonomy, marketisation and social justice: the plight of principals and schools. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 52(4), 432-447. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2020.1818699.
  • Eacott, S., Macdonald, K., Blackmore, J., Gobby, B. (2020). COVID-19 and Inequities in Australian Education – Insights on Federalism, Autonomy, and Access. International Studies in Educational Administration, 48(3), 6-13.
  • Keddie, A., Macdonald, K., Blackmore, J., Wilkinson, J., Gobby, B., Niesche, R., Eacott, S., Mahoney, C. (2020). The constitution of school autonomy in Australian public education: areas of paradox for social justice. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2020(2020), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2020.1781934.

2019

Journal Articles

  • Gobby, B., Niesche, R. (2019). Community empowerment? School autonomy, school boards and depoliticising governance. The Australian Educational Researcher, 46(3), 565-582. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-019-00303-9.
  • Wilkins, A., Collet-Sabé, J., Gobby, B., Hangartner, J. (2019). Translations of new public management: a decentred approach to school governance in four OECD countries. Globalization Societies and Education, 17(2), 147-160. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2019.1588102.

2018

Book Chapters

  • Gobby, B. (2018). Competitive entrepreneurship and community empowerment. Challenges for Public Education Reconceptualising Educational Leadership, Policy and Social Justice as Resources for Hope (59-72). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429436765-5.

Journal Articles

  • Gobby, B., Keddie, A., Blackmore, J. (2018). Professionalism and competing responsibilities: moderating competitive performativity in school autonomy reform. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 50(3), 159-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2017.1399864.
  • Keddie, A., Gobby, B., Wilkins, C. (2018). School autonomy reform in Queensland: governance, freedom and the entrepreneurial leader. School Leadership and Management, 38(4), 378-394. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2017.1411901.

2017

Journal Articles

  • Millei, Z., Gobby, B., Gallagher, J. (2017). Doing state policy at preschool: An autoethnographic tale of universal access to ECEC in Australia. Journal of Pedagogy, 8(1), 33-55. https://doi.org/10.1515/jped-2017-0002.

2016

Book Chapters

  • Gobby, B. (2016). Problematisations, practices and subjectivation: Educational leadership in neo-liberal times. Questioning Leadership: New directions for educational organisations (86-98). Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315646008.

Journal Articles

2013

Journal Articles

  • Gobby, B. (2013). Principal self-government and subjectification: the exercise of principal autonomy in the Western Australian Independent Public Schools programme. Critical Studies in Education, 54(3), 273-285. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2013.832338.
  • Gobby, B. (2013). Enacting the Independent Public Schools program in Western Australia. Issues in Educational Research, 23(1), 19-34.

Research Student Supervision

Current Supervisions

No data available

Completed Supervisions

Co-principal Supervisor

  • Primary educators’ knowledge of grammatical concepts as mandated in the Australian Curriculum (English): Comparison of Pre and Inservice teachers
  • Learning the emotional rules of teaching: A Foucauldian analysis of ethical self-formation in pre-service teacher education
  • Addressing secondary students' academic diversity and the role technology plays
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