The Faculty of Education specialises in school, TESOL and community education.  It undertakes research and offers undergraduate, postgraduate and higher degree programs in these areas.  The Faculty comprises two university research centres:  the STEM Education Research Center (SERC) and the Centre for Asia Pacific School and Community Advancement (CAPSCA).  The Faculty is also home to the Inspire Centre — a state-of-the-art education technology and innovation facility and the Wiradjuri Early Childhood Centre.   

The Faculty’s research and academic programs are embedded in “practice” and rely heavily on partnerships with schools, community organisations and other educational organisations. Our key partners include our growing network of University of Canberra Schools, and universities across Asia.  Specifically, our TESOL program was one of the first in Australia to establish TNE courses in Vietnam while our masters in education leadership has been offered in partnership with Hangzhou Normal University for more than 15 years.

Our teacher education students undertake a significant proportion of their training in carefully selected partner schools.  Our students not only undertake the required professional placements in schools, but as our new courses are being rolled out, learn the theory and practice of teaching in schools. Over the next few years we plan to extend this model to include schools in Asia.  This expansion will coincide with the launch of our new primary and secondary MTeach programs that will allow student to undertake “sponsored” international internships and graduate with a major in international education.

Our research programs and centres work closely with partner organisations here and overseas.  The SERC has extensive research projects in Indonesia and across Australia and partners with organisations including Questacon and Samsung. The CAPSCA has undertaken several research projects with rural communities in Pakistan, PNG and in the South Pacific.  These CAPSCA projects have all been funded through competitive grants run by the ACIAR while the SERC has earned been successful in gaining ARC, government and industry grants. In total, our researchers have gained approximately $15m in competitive grants over the past four years.

As one of the founding disciplines of the University, we are pleased to be re-established in 2018 as a single discipline Faculty. The University’s strategic plan envisages Education at UC as a recognised leader in education research and innovation.  We aim to do this in partnership with schools and organisations that are equally passionate about internationalisation, innovation and “practice-based” research and learning in schools and communities.