Dr Bec Neill

Dr Bec Neill is the Deputy Chair of the UniSA Human Research Ethics Committee and Program Director for Early Childhood Education in UniSA's Education Futures unit. 

She is an expert in systems thinking, problem solving, and the design and implementation of Digital Technology solutions in organisational settings. She holds a degree in Information Systems and a PhD in Communications, with extensive experience working as an ICT professional in private industry and public administration contexts. Her current work across a diverse range of educational settings as an education researcher, pre-service and in-service teacher educator, and education program director builds organisational capacity to deliver culturally responsive, digitally inclusive, and high value education and care systems.

Bec's teaching expertise encompasses digital technologies and pedagogies, integrated and personalised learning approaches, post-graduate ICT-industry and education-research project supervision, and child protection curricula and teaching practice. Her research investigates the human-technology relations of Australian families and their children. It uses visual critical systems methods to integrate population level data with families' and children's’ lived-experience, and maps the digital amplification of inequitable and violent geographical and gendered terrains of education in post-colonial Australian society.

Inquiry into child-family-community-technology relations is a cohesive theme across Bec’s diverse post-doctoral education research. As critical systems thinker and maternal feminist, her research engagement develops holistic views of:

• integrating digital technologies curriculum in classroom and community settings;
• Supporting young people's and their families' well-being in now-digital learning settings;
• Critically and culturally responsive pedagogies and literacies in early childhood, primary, secondary and higher education.

Association for Information Systems (AIS)

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia

• Bachelor of Business (Information Systems) University of South Australia

Work history

Education Industry Engagement

2021 TAFE SA Child Care Network, Salisbury Communities for Children, SchoolsMinistries Group, Industry Funded, Place andPlay Based Wellbeing in Early Childhood Contexts, Research Team

2020 Catholic Education South Australia primary schools, Industry Funded, Trialling EvaluationTools and Protocols for Evidence of Impact with School and Literacy Leaders (north-western Adelaide region), Research Fellow

2020 Department for Education primary schools (Southern Adelaide region), URIPA funded: Becoming strong in broken places, ResearchAssociate

2020 UniSA STEM, Teaching and Learning Development Grant: Supporting anddeveloping online learners' collaborative problem-solving experiencesusing 360-degree video, Research Fellow

2020 Department for Environment and Water, National Parks and WildlifeService, Tertiary Industry Placement, Fire Reduction Program: Slashing Community Information System Requirements, Feasibility and Conceptual Design, Academic Mentor

2019-20 Department for Education & SalisburyCommunities for Children, Industry Funded, The Wellbeing SchoolProgram and Impact Evaluation, Steering Committee member andResearch Fellow

2019-2020 UniSA Research for Educational and Social Inclusion Concentration, Education Futures Funded: Publications and research Pperformance data management and reporting to support Centre status application, Research Fellow

2019 Department for Education schools (northern Adelaide region), UniSA URIPA Mentor Funding Scheme: Connecting health and physical education to student life-worlds, Research Fellow

2019 - 2020 UniSA Research and InnovationServices: Human Research Ethics Compliance Officer

2017-18 TAFE SA, Helping Young People Achieve, City of Playford, City ofOnkaparinga, City of Adelaide, UniSA School of Psychology and SocialWork (Youthworx Alliance), UniSA Research Themes Investment Scheme funded: Re-engaging youth in learning and work through filmmaking, Research Associate

2017 - 2018 Department for Education children's centre (regional hub): Strategic planning and facilitation, Consultant (Hampton Mead Consulting Pty Ltd trading as Bec Neill Consulting)

2016-17 Department for Education secondary schools (eastern & northern Adelaide regions),Helping Young People Achieve, City of Playford & Northern Sound System, EASS Research Performance Fund: Psycho-social and academic benefits for adolescents engaging in alternative learning,Steering Committee Member & Research Associate

2015-16 Catholic Education South Australia, EASS Research Performance Fund, Disrupting Deficit Narratives of Refugee students: Processes of being, becoming, and belonging, Research Associate

2013 Department for Education primary schools (eastern and Western Adelaide regions) UniSA Learning and Teaching Grant: Creating digital learning resources for pre-service educators from practice-based and standardised literacy assessment data,

2006-2012 TAFE SA Childcare and Preschool Network: Strategic planning; federal curriculum and regulation transition management; staff performance and skills development, Consultant, Hampton Mead Consulting Pty Ltd