Rachel Finneran
Biographic Data
| ID | 771505 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rachel Finneran |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rachel |
| FAMILY NAME | Finneran |
| SIGNATURE | FINNERAN R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Deakin University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9089-0726 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Sonic atmospheres in and beyond urban alternative schools: The affective politics of sound, neurodiversity, and the ‘beautiful paradox’ of music
This paper provides insights into sonic atmospheres of two inner-city alternative schools in gentrifying urban neighbourhoods of a major Australian city. Disenfranchised by mainstream schooling, neurodivergent young people travel from across this city to such schools, attracted to artistic cultures of acceptance and the provisions for creative expression. Yet these students can also experience hyper-sensitivity and pain in these schooling spaces;…
Assessing engagement with Indigenous perspectives via virtual reality and concepts of ungrading
An innovative virtual reality (VR) prototype has been developed at an Australian university, in collaboration and consultation with Indigenous Community, providing experiences of immersive engagement with Indigenous Australian peoples’ perspectives. However, appropriate methods for assessing student learning through this culturally specific VR module have yet to be explored. An innovation grant supported the establishment of appropriate assessmen…
Implementing a collaborative program-wide approach to redeveloping assessment in response to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)
The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) presents one of the most significant challenges to higher education in many years. Universities retain the responsibility to assure students graduate with the competencies associated with programs and must also ensure that students are prepared for a world where GenAI has become ubiquitous. Program-wide approaches to redeveloping assessment are encouraged to address this but thes…
Becoming a disabled teacher: Teacher placements as sites for identity formation
Teacher placements are crucial learning opportunities due to their ontological function: in placements, students not only learn but also gather experiences of being a teacher. While earlier research has portrayed placements as venues for professional identity formation, this study examines how historically marginalised students become known as (dis)abled teacher subjects in placements. This study examines the identity narratives of five disabled …
Policy as cultural artefact: Value attributed to student voice in the field of Victorian policy production
‘There was very little room for me to be me’: The lived tensions between assessment standardisation and student diversity
Higher education aims to educate diverse professionals to operate in an increasingly complex world. Yet, academic assessment practices still rely upon standardisation, namely, that all students should demonstrate their achievement in ways that are largely comparable, if not identical. In this study, we theorise assessment standardisation as a technology of normalisation upon student diversity and identities. Our study is located in one of the mos…
A 'fish in water: The (Re)production of a Student's Class Habitus Through the Practice of Student Voice
Student voice has more frequently been researched in low socio-economic secondary school contexts. In these contexts, student voice has often been adopted by practitioners who are focused on equity as a way of including students who have been traditionally marginalised in school decision-making. Less is known about the processes and rationales of student voice in primary schools located in more socio-economically advantaged contexts and of the im…
A lucky draw? Theorising how work placements develop diverse university students’ career stories
Universities can prepare students for work, and universities can educate increasingly diverse student cohorts, but can they do both concurrently?This question of whether universities can offer equitable and inclusive careers education is increasingly under scrutiny.In this study, we address the largely under-theorised area of work-based placements from the perspective of career identity formation for diverse students.We do so through the adoption…
Day-dreaming’ school climate: A slow critical feminist post-humanist c/art/ographic listening to how school feels
This paper becomes a mapping of a PhEmaterialist research project, an apparatus entangled with re/making the world that applauds difference in education. Feeling-thinking-making with critical posthumanist work, we affirm that school climate matters and encourage educators’ attention to the fluxing materiality of school climate created through everyday schooling events. Daydreaming aptly accounted for our slow PhEmaterialist-inspired theoretical w…
Feeling rules and emotional capital in a student voice wellbeing initiative
For years educators have advocated for student voice as an emancipatory project with the potential of addressing the inequalities of schooling and beyond. However, against a burgeoning education practice and policy concern for student wellbeing, student voice practice in schools may privilege an inward rather than outward gaze, curtailing the likelihood of transformative action. In this article I examine the enactment of a student voice initiativ…
Conceptualising responsibility and hostility within work-integrated learning placements for students with disabilities
The expectation for universities to support students’ employability through work-integrated learning placements demands investigation into how opportunities are inclusive to students from a diversity of backgrounds. In this paper, we explore the experiences of students with disabilities during work placements, drawing on qualitative data collected through six focus groups with students (n = 27). Analysed through the frame of stigma, the results s…
Exploring the experiences of students with disabilities in work-integrated learning
Work-integrated learning (WIL) or university placements are valuable opportunities for students to apply their knowledge in an authentic work setting and help support their transition from university to employment. However, as our study evidenced, students with disability face significant and unique barriers to securing and completing WIL placements. In this study, we surveyed students with disability at an Australian university (n = 132) to expl…
The possibilities and problematics of student voice for teacher professional learning: Lessons from an evaluation study
Student voice has the potential to prompt creative and transformative teacher professional learning and practice. However, contemporary conditions of education – including policy priorities and institutional constraints – shape how student voice is taken up. This article draws on data from an evaluation study of a student voice programme (‘Teach the Teacher’) as enacted in two Australian schools. Notwithstanding the possibilities of student voice…
A 'fish in water: The (Re)production of a Student's Class Habitus Through the Practice of Student Voice
Student voice has more frequently been researched in low socio-economic secondary school contexts. In these contexts, student voice has often been adopted by practitioners who are focused on equity as a way of including students who have been traditionally marginalised in school decision-making. Less is known about the processes and rationales of student voice in primary schools located in more socio-economically advantaged contexts and of the im…
Conceptualising responsibility and hostility within work-integrated learning placements for students with disabilities
The expectation for universities to support students’ employability through work-integrated learning placements demands investigation into how opportunities are inclusive to students from a diversity of backgrounds. In this paper, we explore the experiences of students with disabilities during work placements, drawing on qualitative data collected through six focus groups with students (n = 27). Analysed through the frame of stigma, the results s…
Exploring the experiences of students with disabilities in work-integrated learning
Work-integrated learning (WIL) or university placements are valuable opportunities for students to apply their knowledge in an authentic work setting and help support their transition from university to employment. However, as our study evidenced, students with disability face significant and unique barriers to securing and completing WIL placements. In this study, we surveyed students with disability at an Australian university (n = 132) to expl…
Feeling rules and emotional capital in a student voice wellbeing initiative
For years educators have advocated for student voice as an emancipatory project with the potential of addressing the inequalities of schooling and beyond. However, against a burgeoning education practice and policy concern for student wellbeing, student voice practice in schools may privilege an inward rather than outward gaze, curtailing the likelihood of transformative action. In this article I examine the enactment of a student voice initiativ…
Day-dreaming’ school climate: A slow critical feminist post-humanist c/art/ographic listening to how school feels
This paper becomes a mapping of a PhEmaterialist research project, an apparatus entangled with re/making the world that applauds difference in education. Feeling-thinking-making with critical posthumanist work, we affirm that school climate matters and encourage educators’ attention to the fluxing materiality of school climate created through everyday schooling events. Daydreaming aptly accounted for our slow PhEmaterialist-inspired theoretical w…
The possibilities and problematics of student voice for teacher professional learning: Lessons from an evaluation study
Student voice has the potential to prompt creative and transformative teacher professional learning and practice. However, contemporary conditions of education – including policy priorities and institutional constraints – shape how student voice is taken up. This article draws on data from an evaluation study of a student voice programme (‘Teach the Teacher’) as enacted in two Australian schools. Notwithstanding the possibilities of student voice…
Conceptualising responsibility and hostility within work-integrated learning placements for students with disabilities
The expectation for universities to support students’ employability through work-integrated learning placements demands investigation into how opportunities are inclusive to students from a diversity of backgrounds. In this paper, we explore the experiences of students with disabilities during work placements, drawing on qualitative data collected through six focus groups with students (n = 27). Analysed through the frame of stigma, the results s…
Exploring the experiences of students with disabilities in work-integrated learning
Work-integrated learning (WIL) or university placements are valuable opportunities for students to apply their knowledge in an authentic work setting and help support their transition from university to employment. However, as our study evidenced, students with disability face significant and unique barriers to securing and completing WIL placements. In this study, we surveyed students with disability at an Australian university (n = 132) to expl…
A lucky draw? Theorising how work placements develop diverse university students’ career stories
Universities can prepare students for work, and universities can educate increasingly diverse student cohorts, but can they do both concurrently?This question of whether universities can offer equitable and inclusive careers education is increasingly under scrutiny.In this study, we address the largely under-theorised area of work-based placements from the perspective of career identity formation for diverse students.We do so through the adoption…
Day-dreaming’ school climate: A slow critical feminist post-humanist c/art/ographic listening to how school feels
This paper becomes a mapping of a PhEmaterialist research project, an apparatus entangled with re/making the world that applauds difference in education. Feeling-thinking-making with critical posthumanist work, we affirm that school climate matters and encourage educators’ attention to the fluxing materiality of school climate created through everyday schooling events. Daydreaming aptly accounted for our slow PhEmaterialist-inspired theoretical w…
Feeling rules and emotional capital in a student voice wellbeing initiative
For years educators have advocated for student voice as an emancipatory project with the potential of addressing the inequalities of schooling and beyond. However, against a burgeoning education practice and policy concern for student wellbeing, student voice practice in schools may privilege an inward rather than outward gaze, curtailing the likelihood of transformative action. In this article I examine the enactment of a student voice initiativ…
‘There was very little room for me to be me’: The lived tensions between assessment standardisation and student diversity
Higher education aims to educate diverse professionals to operate in an increasingly complex world. Yet, academic assessment practices still rely upon standardisation, namely, that all students should demonstrate their achievement in ways that are largely comparable, if not identical. In this study, we theorise assessment standardisation as a technology of normalisation upon student diversity and identities. Our study is located in one of the mos…
A 'fish in water: The (Re)production of a Student's Class Habitus Through the Practice of Student Voice
Student voice has more frequently been researched in low socio-economic secondary school contexts. In these contexts, student voice has often been adopted by practitioners who are focused on equity as a way of including students who have been traditionally marginalised in school decision-making. Less is known about the processes and rationales of student voice in primary schools located in more socio-economically advantaged contexts and of the im…
Sonic atmospheres in and beyond urban alternative schools: The affective politics of sound, neurodiversity, and the ‘beautiful paradox’ of music
This paper provides insights into sonic atmospheres of two inner-city alternative schools in gentrifying urban neighbourhoods of a major Australian city. Disenfranchised by mainstream schooling, neurodivergent young people travel from across this city to such schools, attracted to artistic cultures of acceptance and the provisions for creative expression. Yet these students can also experience hyper-sensitivity and pain in these schooling spaces;…
Assessing engagement with Indigenous perspectives via virtual reality and concepts of ungrading
An innovative virtual reality (VR) prototype has been developed at an Australian university, in collaboration and consultation with Indigenous Community, providing experiences of immersive engagement with Indigenous Australian peoples’ perspectives. However, appropriate methods for assessing student learning through this culturally specific VR module have yet to be explored. An innovation grant supported the establishment of appropriate assessmen…
Implementing a collaborative program-wide approach to redeveloping assessment in response to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)
The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) presents one of the most significant challenges to higher education in many years. Universities retain the responsibility to assure students graduate with the competencies associated with programs and must also ensure that students are prepared for a world where GenAI has become ubiquitous. Program-wide approaches to redeveloping assessment are encouraged to address this but thes…
Becoming a disabled teacher: Teacher placements as sites for identity formation
Teacher placements are crucial learning opportunities due to their ontological function: in placements, students not only learn but also gather experiences of being a teacher. While earlier research has portrayed placements as venues for professional identity formation, this study examines how historically marginalised students become known as (dis)abled teacher subjects in placements. This study examines the identity narratives of five disabled …
Policy as cultural artefact: Value attributed to student voice in the field of Victorian policy production
Pedagogy (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Higher education (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (3 works) · Higher Education and Employability (3 works) · Higher Education Learning Practices (3 works)