Inaugural Lecture of Professor Rebecca Jesson

The Faculty of Arts and Education invites you to join us in celebrating Professor Rebecca Jesson’s achievements by attending her inaugural lecture.

Venue: University of Auckland B201 | 10 Symonds Street, Auckland

Lecture hall: Lecture Theatre 201-440

Time: Lecture 5 - 6pm | Drinks Reception 6-7pm

Celebratory refreshments will be held after the inaugural lecture.

About the lecture

Beneath 'what works' lies 'why': Insights from research-practice partnerships

Research practice partnerships are long-term, relational and reciprocal studies led jointly by schools and researchers, to fuse practice knowledge with research knowledge and therefore understand how multiple and overlapping theoretical propositions interact in real-world schooling environments. Applied, contextualised approaches are employed to understand, and then tackle, educational quandaries, using Design-Based Research and co-design processes that develop, test and refine teaching innovation. In this lecture, Rebecca will draw from evidence across multiple partnerships in Aotearoa and in Pacific nations to show how insights developed from situated practice in local contexts allow deeper understanding about the processes by which 'what works' plays out differently depending on context. She will show that it is important not only to explore "what works", for whom, where, and when, but also WHY it works, why it works variably, and why it sometimes doesn't work.

About the speaker:

Rebecca Jesson studies literacy education in the Faculty of Arts & Education. Rebecca’s focus is on partnership between research and practice. She has collaborated with practitioners over multiple studies in long term Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs) with school networks. These enduring RPPs have resulted in high quality research that has direct impact for schools, teachers and students, contributes to innovations in teaching and influences policy. Her studies use evidence to support school groups to develop strategic direction for professional learning and school change.

Rebecca’s approach is to seek out what is effective for groups of students within specific contexts. The approach requires analysing differences in educational outcomes and learning opportunities to build new understandings about literacy teaching and learning in particular contexts. In this way, the research solves ‘on the ground problems’ and contributes to theoretical and empirical understandings about literacy learning. Her research practice partnerships have included work with the Motutapu Protocol (Tonga), Reading Recovery & Early Literacy Support (NZ), Manaiakalani Network (NZ), and Leadership and Education Authorities Project (LEAP, Solomon Islands).

University of Auckland: https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/r-jesson

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.co.nz/citations?user=BXJHjwgAAAAJ&hl=en

Think GREEN! - registration is for catering purposes only, no need to print out your ticket

Getting to the venue: The Faculty of Arts and Educations' buildings are conveniently located at the heart of the University's City Campus and are easily accessible via many forms of public transport. For further information on public transport schedules, visit the Auckland Transport website. For those driving in, further information on parking options can be found here.