Dr Carolyn Williams

• Biography
• Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
• Grants / Current Projects
• Publications
• Contact Details
  

Biography

Carolyn was awarded a BA (political science and sociology) and MA (philosophy and women's studies) from the University of NSW, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Adult Education from the University of Technology, Sydney. In 1997 she was awarded a PhD from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Western Sydney, Nepean. Since then she has held research positions on ARC and other projects across several universities and disciplines, including social work and cultural studies. Her main area of research experience and writing, however, has been in education where she worked on two large ARC projects on postgraduate pedagogy and vocational education at the Faculty of Education, UTS, and on other smaller projects. More recently, she worked with Zoe Sofoulis from the Centre for Cultural Research, UWS, on research on cultural approaches to water demand management. From the late 1980s, Carolyn has also lectured and tutored in humanities subjects and educational research at TAFE, UTS and UWS. Carolyn is currently Senior Research Associate in the School of Education, UWS, where she is working with Steve Wilson researching and writing on student participation and engagement in secondary and middle school curriculum, and civics and citizenship education.

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Post-structural theory and feminist post-structural theory; qualitative and post-structural research theory and methodology.

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Grants / Current Projects

1. Senior Research Associate on 'Demand management through cultural innovation: user models' project, Centre for Cultural Research, UWS, 2006. Chief Investigator: Zoe Sofoulis.

2. Senior Research Associate on 'Changing work, changing workers, changing selves: a study of pedagogies in the new vocationalism' ARC Discovery project 2002-2004, Faculty of Education, UTS. Chief Investigators: Clive Chappell, Nicky Solomon, Mark Tennant and Lyn Yates.

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Publications

Journal articles:

Williams, C., 2005, "The discursive construction of the 'competent' learner-worker: from Key Competencies to 'employability skills'", Studies in Continuing Education, 27(1), pp.33-49.

Co-authored journal articles:

Williams, C., and S. Wilson, (forthcoming), 'Pedagogies for social justice: did Bernstein get it wrong?', International Journal of Inclusive Education.

Sofoulis, Z., and C. Williams, 2008, 'From pushing atoms to growing networks: Cultural innovation and co-evolution in urban water conservation', Social Alternatives.

Williams, C., and S. Linnell, 2006, 'When the doctors consulted the narrative therapist. An experiment in deconstructing dominant narratives of PhD supervision', International Journal of Critical Psychology, Issue 18, pp.56-80.

Lee, A., and C. Williams, 1999, "'Forged in Fire'; narratives of trauma in PhD supervision pedagogy", Southern Review, 32(1), pp.6-26.

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