Annie Gowing

Dr. Annie Gowing, a senior lecturer, leads the Student Wellbeing Specialisation in the Master of Education at The University of Melbourne. With a background in both social work and education, she has been active in the area of student wellbeing within schools and in policy development for over 25 years, beginning her career as a secondary teacher before largely working in student support and leadership roles. The ways in which student wellbeing is understood, implemented, monitored and evaluated in schools is a longstanding practice, policy and research focus and her PhD study was on school connectedness which, along with school climate, the teacher student relationship, teacher education, and the concepts of compassion and care in the school context and their inter-cultural understandings, are her key research interests. She has worked at James Cook University in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teacher Education Program, at The University of Queensland and at RMIT and has experience in mixed methods and qualitative research methodologies. For her, listening is fundamentally an act of care and justice as it centers the other person and their knowledge in a way that advances understanding, connection and respect.