Dr Helen Edwards
Lecturer, Faculty of The Professions, School of Education
Qualifications
PhD (UNE); Grad Dip ContEd (UNE); MEd (UNE); B Occ Thy (UQ)
Contact
| Email: | helen.edwards@une.edu.au |
| Room: | Milton Building (E6) 8 |
| Phone: | 02 6773 2078 (or +61 2 6773 2078 overseas) |
Helen is a member of the Early Childhood group within the School of Education.
Affiliations
Early Childhood Australia
Australian Vocational Education and Training Association
Areas of Teaching
- EHPS 591 Research Methods 2
- EDEC 388 Social Justice in Early Childhood Education
- EDEC 488 Young Children with Exceptional Development
Currently supervising PhD and Masters (Honours) students using action research, ethnographic, mixed methods, narrative inquiry, phenomenological and yarning approaches to their study.
Research interests
My research interests include Aboriginal education; adult and life long learning; early intervention; clumsy children; learning in rural and remote environments; quality assurance in early childhood settings; youth suicide.
My MEd thesis is a comparative quantitative study of three first year of primary school physical education curricula.
My PhD thesis is a participatory action research study presented in narrative form of the implementation of the Australian quality assurance tool in an Aboriginal preschool.
Current research
Evaluation of the implementation of the revised Australian quality assurance tool in an Aboriginal preschool.
Other Achievements
Jean Denton Memorial Scholar 2002.
My experience in early childhood includes preschool, early intervention, sensory integration, physical education, family day care, and toy libraries. In tertiary education I taught for almost a decade in the NSW TAFE Child Studies program (face-to-face and externally) and more recently have worked as a university lecturer and researcher.
Publications
Sole author
Edwards H 1998 ‘Assessment procedures’, in Occupational Therapy for children with special needs, eds, E. Wilson, H. Edwards, J. Nicklin, J. Bennett & C. McDerment, Whurr, London.
Edwards, H.E. (nd) ‘Learning through partnerships: A framework for (co)participation in early childhood workplace training’. In Partnerships: People, perspectives and participation, eds D Roberts, M Somerville, K Power & H Edwards (eds) unpublished document.
Edwards, H.E. 1991 ‘The role of evaluation in program development’. Unpublished manuscript, University of New England, Armidale.
Edwards, H.E. 1990 ‘Evaluation of development during the Child's first year at school’. Proceedings of 10th International Congress, World Federation of Occupational Therapists, Melbourne.
Joint author
Edwards, H., Llewellyn, G. & Nicol, P. 1990. ‘New England early childhood services: Going forward into the nineties’, Developmental Disabilities Service, Tamworth.
Edwards, H., Somerville, M. & Carey, J. 2002 ‘Journeying with cultural knowledges at Kulai’. Unpublished AIATSIS research project report.
Fisher, L., Carey, J. & Edwards, H. 2002 ‘Workplace Learning: Explicating Local Storylines’, at Challenging Futures Conference.
Green, N.C., Edwards, H., Wolodko, B., Stewart, C., Brooks, M. & Littledyke, R. (2010). Reconceptualising higher education pedagogy in online learning, Distance Education, 31(3), 257–273.
Maple, M. & Edwards, H. (2010). Locating and understanding voices in narrative inquiry: A journey of discovery in V. Minichiello & J. Kottler (Eds.) Qualitative journeys: Student and mentor experiences with research. Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp.33-48
Maple, M.; Edwards, H.; Plummer, D. & Minichiello, V. (2010). Silenced voices: Hearing the stories of parents bereaved through the suicide death of a young adult child. Health and Social Care in the Community, 18(3) 241-248.
Maple, M.; Plummer, D.; Edwards, H. & Minichiello, V. (2007). The effects of preparedness for suicide following the death of a young adult child. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 37 (2), 127-134.
Power K, Reid J & Edwards H ‘Early literacy education in rural communities: Situating development’, submitted for publication in Australian Journal of Language and Literacy.
Sturmey, R. & Edwards, H. 1991 ‘The survival skills training package: Community services and health workforce in rural and remote areas: Needs and recommendations study’. Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health, Canberra.
Wilson, E., Edwards, H., Nicklin, J., Bennett, J. & McDerment C. (eds) 1998 Occupational Therapy for children with special needs. Whurr, London
Wilson, E., Edwards, H., Nicklin, J. & Bennett, J. 1994 A chance for children: Occupational Therapy for children with problems in learning, coordination, language and behaviour. Wilson, Binnaway.
Wolodko, B., Stewart, C., Green, N.C., Edwards, H., Brooks, M. & Littledyke, R. (Accepted, 2011). Shifting mindsets within: Self-study of professional learning. In Tynan, B & Willems, J. (Eds). Global Challenges and Perspectives of Blended and Distance Learning. Athabasca Press.
Wolodko, B., Green, N.C., Edwards, H., Stewart, C., Brooks, M. & Littledyke, R. (Accepted, 2011). Social media-enabled learning: A review of the research in higher education, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching..
Refereed conference proceedings
Armadio, K., Brooks, M., Carey, J., Edwards, H. & Roberts, D. (2009). ‘Sharing funds of knowledge: Australian Aboriginal approaches to early literacy. Paper presented at the Research in Early Childhood Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, January.
Bartik W., Maple, M. & Edwards, H. (2008). Developing new areas in postvention services through understanding the experience of suicide-bereaved young people in rural areas. Paper presented at the 13th NSW Rural Mental Health Conference, Hunter Valley, NSW, November 26-28.
Bartik, W., Maple, M. & Edwards, H. (2009a). Understanding the experience of young people who lose a close friend to suicide. Paper presented at the 2nd National Postvention Conference, Melbourne, May 21-23.
Bartik, W; Maple, M. & Edwards, H. (2009b). Understanding the experiences of rural young people who lose a close friend to suicide. Paper accepted for presentation at 1st Australian Rural and Remote Mental Health Symposium, Canberra, November, 2 – 3.
Bartik, W., Maple, M. & Edwards, H. (2009c). It is time: Understanding suicide through narrative inquiry. Paper presented at the 2nd Australasian Narrative Inquiry Conference, Armidale, July 12-13.
Brooks, M., Knaus, M. & Edwards, H. (2009). ‘Educators as observers, architects or supporters of play. Australian Aboriginal approaches to early literacy. Paper presented at the Research in Early Childhood Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, January.
Carey, J. & Edwards, H. 2003 ‘Working in collaboration to achieve quality preschool goals’, Australian Early Childhood Conference, Hobart.
Edwards, H., Carey, J. & Fisher, L. 2002 ‘Journeying with culture in a preschool setting’, presented at Early Childhood Residential School, UNE, Armidale.
Fisher, L., Carey, J. & Edwards, H. 2002 ‘Workplace Learning: Explicating Local Storylines’ presented at Challenging Futures Conference, UNE, Armidale.
Elliott, S. & Edwards, H. (2009). Tracks of Transformation: narrating a centre’s journey. 2nd Australasian Narrative Inquiry Conference. Armidale, July 12-13.
Elliott, S., McCrea, N. & Edwards, H. (2009). Children challenging researchers: the need for responsive methodologies. University of New England Postgraduate Conference. Armidale, July.
Maple, M. & Edwards, H. (2008). Silenced voices: Revealing bereaved parent’s narratives. Paper presented at First Narrative Inquiry Conference: Breathing Life into Talk, Text and the Visual, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Feb 22 – 23.
Maple, M. & Edwards, H. (2009). When others don’t know what to say – suicide bereavement narratives from parents. Paper presented at the 2nd National Postvention Conference, Melbourne, Vic, May 21-23.
Power, K., Reid, J. & Edwards, H. 2003 ‘Early school literacy for rural children with and without access to preschool education: problematising development’, Country Children’s Services Conference, Canberra.