Associate Professor Jamie Huff Sisson

Dr Jamie Sisson is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI) in Education Futures at the University of South Australia. She has research expertise in the professional identity and agency of early childhood teachers, inclusive early childhood curriculum and pedagogy; and collaborative learning communities – investigating how children and adults come together with multiple perspectives to collaborate and co-construct knowledge. Dr Sisson’s recent research has explored how early childhood education in South Australia is re-imagined in terms of the rights extended to children within the early years, and on developing culturally responsive approaches to curriculum and pedagogy in diverse early childhood settings.

Since 2014, Dr Sisson has successfully attracted considerable external research funding. She was a Chief Investigator for the Children Learning to Live Together in Diverse Community project, funded by the Department of Education SA. She was also a Chief Investigator for the pilot project Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education in South Australia: Engaging Multiple Perspectives, funded by the Department for Education and Child Development and Catholic Education South Australia.

Dr Sisson received the highly coveted 2017 Early Career Researcher of the Year award from the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences at UniSA in recognition of her lead roles on multiple research projects. She has previously received nominations for the Early Career Researcher Award and Dissertation of the year award from the American Education Research Association’s Early Education and Child Development Special Interest Group.

In 2017 Dr Sisson co-authored the book Pedagogical documentation: A South Australian perspective. She has published a number of high impact journal articles including Communing to Re-imagine Figured Worlds, published in Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood and Teaching culture through culture: A case study of culturally responsive pedagogies in an Australian early childhood/primary context, published in the Journal of Research in Childhood Education. Her research publications have contributed to a growing international presence with invited presentations in China and the United States. Dr Sisson has been invited to present on topics concerning children’s learning through play, educator action research, early childhood policy and practice in Australia, and culturally responsive pedagogies in the early years.

In addition to her significant research contributions, Dr Sisson has supervised several higher degree by research students and has also developed materials for and taught a range of courses in teacher education programs within the United States and Australia. She has over ten years of experience working in a variety of early childhood care and education contexts with children from birth to age ten. Dr Sisson has served on the South Australian Early Childhood Australia Executive Board (2012-2015) and was elected the Vice President of Cleveland branch of the Association for the Education of Young Children (2006-2007).

• American Educational Research Association,
• AERA,Early Childhood Australia,
• ECA,
• Australian Association for Research in Education,
• AARE

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy Kent State University

• Masters of Educational Studies The University of Queensland

• Bachelor of Science in Human and Consumer Sciences The Ohio University