Associate Professor Deborah Heck | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Associate Professor Deborah Heck is Dean of School of Education and Tertiary Access at UniSC. She is passionate about working with teachers, including those who are seeking entry to the profession and those exploring how to take the next step and develop their own research.

Debbie is the program coordinator for a suite of postgraduate programs aimed at those already working as educators, including the Master of Education, Graduate Certificate in Education and Graduate Certificate in Education Research.

Her strengths in teacher education include primary humanities and social science, junior and senior geography curriculum, applied senior secondary syllabuses and general syllabuses, eg geography, senior earth and environmental science, marine science. Debbie’s research is internationally recognised as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

In research, Debbie is committed to understanding the problems that are emerging in teacher education, teaching and higher education practice. She seeks to examine education theory, policy, curriculum, assessment and practice through dialogue and sustainable partnerships to explore issues and problems. Her work contributes towards understandings of teacher and teacher educator professionalism, academic agency, teacher identity, agency and self-efficacy, higher education assessment, dialogic teaching and cogenerative inquiry.

Debbie also makes an ongoing contribution to the teacher education profession through leadership roles within the Australian Teacher Education Association, including positions such as conference convenor 2019 and president-elect.