Christina Gray
Biographic Data
| ID | 3701233 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christina Gray |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christina |
| FAMILY NAME | Gray |
| SIGNATURE | GRAY C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Edith Cowan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8464-1961 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Where’s my tweed jacket with leather elbow patches? The challenges of aging gracefully in higher education
This paper presents an examination of one veteran academics’ experience in higher education. Via an autoethnographic reflection of a two-decade career, the work-related situations that impact on job enjoyment and challenge motivation to bring enthusiasm year-after-year are discussed. Veteran academics have seen higher education transform dramatically during their tenure and the pressure points that impact on wellbeing are discussed and aligned to…
“When Brian Acted His Way Out of a Wet Paper Bag”
This study utilised Mezirow’s Transformative Learning framework to explore drama teachers’ and pre-service drama teachers’ perceptions of transformation in the drama space. The research specifically examined three core questions: 1. Who are transformed? 2. What is transformed? 3. How does transformation happen? Adopting a phenomenological qualitative approach, we analysed interview data from eight drama teachers and 22 pre-service drama teachers …
Embracing vulnerability and evolving through trauma
Beyond the city limits
Australia’s regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas face persistent teacher shortages, presenting ongoing challenges for schools and education systems. Pre-service and newly graduated teachers represent a potential resource for addressing these shortages, yet many complete their initial teacher training without exposure to RRR schools. Framed by Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s Bioecological Theory of Human Development, this qualitative study explores …
Work hard, play hard, drink hard’
Teacher attrition is a significant issue that has been the subject of much recent critical research and public debate. What is less often explored in the literature is the gendered nature of teaching and the unique struggles female teachers face in the workforce, particularly in remote, regional and rural (RRR) schools. As a historically female-dominated profession, women, particularly teacher-mothers face a distinctive set of barriers to career …
Survival mode
This paper shares data from a longitudinal study into secondary performing arts teachers’ perceptions of their first five years of teaching. Utilising Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of rhizomatic becomings and Braidotti’s posthuman knowing subject, our research explores the embodied, relational, and fluid identities of early career teachers. This is important when exploring nascent teacher becomings because it takes into consideration the configu…
Comfort in the Role
Teacher career trajectory studies have identified a small group of positive veteran teachers who have maintained an ongoing enthusiasm for and commitment to teaching. Research into teacher career trajectory frameworks suggests that comfort in the role remains a core tenet in supporting their sense of professional identity. While studies have identified this, there is little research into the subtleties of this tenet and how this helps these posit…
The search for marigolds
There is limited research into older teachers (veterans), especially those who remain enthusiastic and committed to teaching. Still less is known about the role of social support from colleagues inside school in helping positive veteran teachers maintain their commitment to teaching. Drawing broadly from a typology which identifies four types of social support (emotional, instrumental, informational and appraisal), this article reports on a serie…
Teaching the Arts in testing times
Expert secondary Arts teachers are highly trained specialists well versed in face-to-face individual and group teaching pedagogies. Given the highly personalised nature of Arts teaching practice, the shift to online teaching resulting from COVID-19 lockdowns presented many with challenges for which they had little or no formal training. Many teachers felt stressed, isolated and unsure about where to turn for help. As there are demonstrated links …
Being grateful for the crumbs”
Teacher attrition is a salient issue across the Western world. Whilst this has been widely discussed in the literature, what is missing in the discourse, is a gendered focus. This narrative inquiry into the experiences of Australian women who resumed teaching after becoming parents offers insight into how parenthood can complement and enhance teachers’ pedagogy and relationships with students. Narrative portraits also reveal how the intersection …
Turning stage fright into stage might
The gap between theory and practice during initial teacher training has been an enduring topic of research due to its impact on teacher-readiness. Given the COVID-19 pandemic campus closures threatening to widen the gap, this research was a timely intervention aimed at connecting pre-service teachers to their professional network. Specifically, the project brought together pre-service drama teachers and in-service drama teachers (identified as po…
Hyper-performativity and early career teachers
This paper explores the hyper-performative expectations of early career teachers (ECTs) in the context of neoliberal education assemblages. The need to support and retain beginning teachers is a salient issue in the context of troubling rates of teacher attrition. The study explores how ECTs perceive teacher identities in response to national standards. Our research revealed that ECTs held concerning conceptions of ‘quality teaching’ that are lar…
‘Just like breathing’
Through a phenomenological lens of portraiture methodology, this article explores the career experiences of a veteran acting teacher who, at the age of 85 years, remains highly passionate and dedicated to his work with younger aspiring actors. The article reveals how for this veteran teacher, his strong teacher identity characterised by a quest for challenge and a commitment to career-long professional development are significant to maintaining r…
Examined Lives
An unexamined life is not worth living Socrates (470-399 BC) In this article I reveal transformative experiences stemming from non-verbal communication in the context of active interviewing in narrative research. Drawing upon my recent experience interviewing positive veteran teachers about the relationships they believe vital in maintaining their passion and enthusiasm for teaching, I explore the unique nature of narrative research in fostering …
An Elixir for Veteran Teachers
This article is based upon the premise that there are many veteran teachers who maintain positive attitudes towards teaching throughout their careers. According to The Grant Study (Waldinger, 2015), positive attitudes towards life and work stem from close relationships and adaptive behaviours that people engage in throughout adult life. This article describes a study undertaken in Australia which revealed that, in line with Grant Study findings, …
Enhancing Treatment Access Through “Safe Stations”
Teacher mental health, school climate, inclusive education and student learning
Teachers are in a profession with high demands as they work to meet the diverse learning needs of their students. Consequently, many teachers experience high levels of stress contributing to burnout, and unfortunately, many leave the profession. Teacher mental health may contribute to the resilience
There's a lot to learn about being a drama teacher
Double- and Triple-minorities in the International Relations Classroom
When a female minority professor struggles to establish authority in the classroom, the first question that comes to her mind is, “Is it me?” By surveying more than a dozen female minority professors, we reach the conclusion that those professors face a unique position and particularly demanding tasks in universities as they face challenges of systemic institutional and social underpinning of universities
Hyper-performativity and early career teachers
This paper explores the hyper-performative expectations of early career teachers (ECTs) in the context of neoliberal education assemblages. The need to support and retain beginning teachers is a salient issue in the context of troubling rates of teacher attrition. The study explores how ECTs perceive teacher identities in response to national standards. Our research revealed that ECTs held concerning conceptions of ‘quality teaching’ that are lar…
Double- and Triple-minorities in the International Relations Classroom
When a female minority professor struggles to establish authority in the classroom, the first question that comes to her mind is, “Is it me?” By surveying more than a dozen female minority professors, we reach the conclusion that those professors face a unique position and particularly demanding tasks in universities as they face challenges of systemic institutional and social underpinning of universities
Survival mode
This paper shares data from a longitudinal study into secondary performing arts teachers’ perceptions of their first five years of teaching. Utilising Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of rhizomatic becomings and Braidotti’s posthuman knowing subject, our research explores the embodied, relational, and fluid identities of early career teachers. This is important when exploring nascent teacher becomings because it takes into consideration the configu…
Being grateful for the crumbs”
Teacher attrition is a salient issue across the Western world. Whilst this has been widely discussed in the literature, what is missing in the discourse, is a gendered focus. This narrative inquiry into the experiences of Australian women who resumed teaching after becoming parents offers insight into how parenthood can complement and enhance teachers’ pedagogy and relationships with students. Narrative portraits also reveal how the intersection …
Double- and Triple-minorities in the International Relations Classroom
When a female minority professor struggles to establish authority in the classroom, the first question that comes to her mind is, “Is it me?” By surveying more than a dozen female minority professors, we reach the conclusion that those professors face a unique position and particularly demanding tasks in universities as they face challenges of systemic institutional and social underpinning of universities
Teacher mental health, school climate, inclusive education and student learning
Teachers are in a profession with high demands as they work to meet the diverse learning needs of their students. Consequently, many teachers experience high levels of stress contributing to burnout, and unfortunately, many leave the profession. Teacher mental health may contribute to the resilience
There's a lot to learn about being a drama teacher
Enhancing Treatment Access Through “Safe Stations”
An Elixir for Veteran Teachers
This article is based upon the premise that there are many veteran teachers who maintain positive attitudes towards teaching throughout their careers. According to The Grant Study (Waldinger, 2015), positive attitudes towards life and work stem from close relationships and adaptive behaviours that people engage in throughout adult life. This article describes a study undertaken in Australia which revealed that, in line with Grant Study findings, …
Examined Lives
An unexamined life is not worth living Socrates (470-399 BC) In this article I reveal transformative experiences stemming from non-verbal communication in the context of active interviewing in narrative research. Drawing upon my recent experience interviewing positive veteran teachers about the relationships they believe vital in maintaining their passion and enthusiasm for teaching, I explore the unique nature of narrative research in fostering …
‘Just like breathing’
Through a phenomenological lens of portraiture methodology, this article explores the career experiences of a veteran acting teacher who, at the age of 85 years, remains highly passionate and dedicated to his work with younger aspiring actors. The article reveals how for this veteran teacher, his strong teacher identity characterised by a quest for challenge and a commitment to career-long professional development are significant to maintaining r…
Turning stage fright into stage might
The gap between theory and practice during initial teacher training has been an enduring topic of research due to its impact on teacher-readiness. Given the COVID-19 pandemic campus closures threatening to widen the gap, this research was a timely intervention aimed at connecting pre-service teachers to their professional network. Specifically, the project brought together pre-service drama teachers and in-service drama teachers (identified as po…
Hyper-performativity and early career teachers
This paper explores the hyper-performative expectations of early career teachers (ECTs) in the context of neoliberal education assemblages. The need to support and retain beginning teachers is a salient issue in the context of troubling rates of teacher attrition. The study explores how ECTs perceive teacher identities in response to national standards. Our research revealed that ECTs held concerning conceptions of ‘quality teaching’ that are lar…
The search for marigolds
There is limited research into older teachers (veterans), especially those who remain enthusiastic and committed to teaching. Still less is known about the role of social support from colleagues inside school in helping positive veteran teachers maintain their commitment to teaching. Drawing broadly from a typology which identifies four types of social support (emotional, instrumental, informational and appraisal), this article reports on a serie…
Teaching the Arts in testing times
Expert secondary Arts teachers are highly trained specialists well versed in face-to-face individual and group teaching pedagogies. Given the highly personalised nature of Arts teaching practice, the shift to online teaching resulting from COVID-19 lockdowns presented many with challenges for which they had little or no formal training. Many teachers felt stressed, isolated and unsure about where to turn for help. As there are demonstrated links …
Being grateful for the crumbs”
Teacher attrition is a salient issue across the Western world. Whilst this has been widely discussed in the literature, what is missing in the discourse, is a gendered focus. This narrative inquiry into the experiences of Australian women who resumed teaching after becoming parents offers insight into how parenthood can complement and enhance teachers’ pedagogy and relationships with students. Narrative portraits also reveal how the intersection …
Comfort in the Role
Teacher career trajectory studies have identified a small group of positive veteran teachers who have maintained an ongoing enthusiasm for and commitment to teaching. Research into teacher career trajectory frameworks suggests that comfort in the role remains a core tenet in supporting their sense of professional identity. While studies have identified this, there is little research into the subtleties of this tenet and how this helps these posit…
Beyond the city limits
Australia’s regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas face persistent teacher shortages, presenting ongoing challenges for schools and education systems. Pre-service and newly graduated teachers represent a potential resource for addressing these shortages, yet many complete their initial teacher training without exposure to RRR schools. Framed by Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s Bioecological Theory of Human Development, this qualitative study explores …
Work hard, play hard, drink hard’
Teacher attrition is a significant issue that has been the subject of much recent critical research and public debate. What is less often explored in the literature is the gendered nature of teaching and the unique struggles female teachers face in the workforce, particularly in remote, regional and rural (RRR) schools. As a historically female-dominated profession, women, particularly teacher-mothers face a distinctive set of barriers to career …
Survival mode
This paper shares data from a longitudinal study into secondary performing arts teachers’ perceptions of their first five years of teaching. Utilising Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of rhizomatic becomings and Braidotti’s posthuman knowing subject, our research explores the embodied, relational, and fluid identities of early career teachers. This is important when exploring nascent teacher becomings because it takes into consideration the configu…
Where’s my tweed jacket with leather elbow patches? The challenges of aging gracefully in higher education
This paper presents an examination of one veteran academics’ experience in higher education. Via an autoethnographic reflection of a two-decade career, the work-related situations that impact on job enjoyment and challenge motivation to bring enthusiasm year-after-year are discussed. Veteran academics have seen higher education transform dramatically during their tenure and the pressure points that impact on wellbeing are discussed and aligned to…
“When Brian Acted His Way Out of a Wet Paper Bag”
This study utilised Mezirow’s Transformative Learning framework to explore drama teachers’ and pre-service drama teachers’ perceptions of transformation in the drama space. The research specifically examined three core questions: 1. Who are transformed? 2. What is transformed? 3. How does transformation happen? Adopting a phenomenological qualitative approach, we analysed interview data from eight drama teachers and 22 pre-service drama teachers …
Embracing vulnerability and evolving through trauma
Psychology (14 works) · Pedagogy (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (7 works) · Medical education (6 works) · Diverse Music Education Insights (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works)