A unique gathering of research and innovation leaders
The 2026 Research-Invested Schools National Gathering brings together educators, researchers, and school leaders who are committed to building stronger cultures of evidence-informed practice and innovation in schools. Across two collaborative days, participants will explore strategy, AI, inquiry, communication, and implementation through keynotes, workshops, lightning presentations, and participant-driven sessions.
More than a conference, the gathering is designed to foster meaningful connection between research leads and practitioners across schools — creating space to share challenges, test ideas, learn from emerging practice, and strengthen a growing national network of research-invested schools.
More than a conference, the gathering is designed to foster meaningful connection between research leads and practitioners across schools — creating space to share challenges, test ideas, learn from emerging practice, and strengthen a growing national network of research-invested schools.
Key details
Day 1: Thursday 13 August, 10:30am-4:30pm, Anglican Church Grammar School: Churchie, East Brisbane
Plus Conference Dinner, from 5:00pm, Lord Stanley, East Brisbane
Day 2: Friday 14 August, 9:00am to 2:30pm, The Lakes College, North Lakes, Brisbane
Cost:
Registration via the button below. Registration closes: 5pm, Friday 31 July
Please direct any enquiries to Dr Victoria Leighton
Plus Conference Dinner, from 5:00pm, Lord Stanley, East Brisbane
Day 2: Friday 14 August, 9:00am to 2:30pm, The Lakes College, North Lakes, Brisbane
Cost:
- Both days: $150
- Day registration: $75
- Conference dinner: $75
Registration via the button below. Registration closes: 5pm, Friday 31 July
Please direct any enquiries to Dr Victoria Leighton
Proudly co-hosted by:
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Program
The program has been designed to maximise opportunities to connect and learn from one another, as well as input from leaders in schools and universities.
Day 1 | Thursday 13 August - 'Navigating the mountain to your next camp
Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie), East Brisbane
Co-hosted with St Margaret's Anglican Girls School
Day 1 is designed as an immersive journey into the strategic and cultural challenges facing research-invested schools. Beginning with a shared “base camp” keynote experience, participants will then choose from tailored pathways exploring strategy and purpose, marketing and enrolment growth, communication and influence, and AI and data leverage. The afternoon shifts into participant-informed collaborative sessions shaped by real needs and emerging questions from the network itself. More than a conference program, Day 1 is a dynamic professional learning experience focused on building capability, adaptability, and strategic clarity for the next stage of school innovation.
Time |
Event |
10:30 |
Arrival and morning tea |
11:00 |
Conference welcome Dr Alan Campbell, Principal of Churchie |
9:30 |
Keynote: Establishing the base camp Mr Stu Waddington, New Arenas |
12:00 |
Facilitated workshops Path #1 to Camp #1 – The Origin of your Strategy and Purpose Path #2 to Camp #1 – Marketing and Selling Path #3 to Camp #1 – Communication and Influence Path #4 to Camp #1 – AI and Data Leverage |
1:00 |
Lunch |
1:50 |
Session 2 Session Design, Function, Footprint and Presenter/Guide will be dictated by Participant Survey Data |
2:55 |
Afternoon tea |
3:30 |
Session 3 Session Design, Function, Footprint and Presenter/Guide will be dictated by Participant Survey Data |
4:30 |
Day 1 close and transition to The Lord Stanley for dinner |
6:00 |
Conference dinner The Lord Stanley, 994 Stanley St E, East Brisbane |
Day 2 | Friday 14 August - Ignite
The Lakes College, North Lakes
Co-hosted with the Sycamore School
Day 2 focuses on translating research insight into practical implementation within schools. Hosted at The Lakes College, the day brings together leading researchers and practitioners to explore emerging themes including student voice, school-based inquiry, dissemination of practice-based research, and the opportunities and tensions of generative AI in education. Through keynote input, lightning presentations, and collaborative roundtables, participants will reflect on their school’s research maturity and leave with concrete strategies for embedding evidence-informed practice into teaching, leadership, and whole-school improvement.
Time |
Event |
9:00 |
Arrival at Secondary School Building 1 (SSB1) and campus tours, via Wunya Cafe for coffee |
9:20 |
Welcome Mrs Nicole Gregory, Principal of The Lakes College |
9:30 |
Keynote: 'Schools, research and the digital child' Dr Kristy Corser In this keynote, Kristy draws on her journey from classroom teacher to researcher to map the evolving research landscape surrounding the digital child. She will highlight key insights and emerging gaps identified through her ARC project, while positioning schools as active contributors to this growing field. Framed as a practical and forward-looking scoping of the research, the session offers clear direction and actionable strategies for schools, with a strong emphasis on translating theory into meaningful classroom inquiry and practice. |
10:15 |
Lightning Presentations Session 1 20 minute presentations + 5 minutes questions (See 'Presentations' tab for abstracts) From Snapshots to Stories Dr Sarah Loch & Victoria Adamovich, Pymble Ladies College, NSW Bridging the Gap Between Culturally Responsive and Structured Pedagogies Nikki Corbishley & Serena Lawrence, Wellington College, NZ Turning Information into Insight: Unlocking Your School Data with Anthropic and APIs Grant Harbor, St Andrew's Anglican College, QLD Researching from Within: Reflexive Thematic Analysis as a Methodology for School-Based Inquiry Dr Anne Wood, A.B. Patterson College, QLD |
10:45 |
Morning Tea |
11:15 |
Lightning Presentations Session 2 Student Action Research - a year on Jude Arbuthnot, Westlake Boys High School, NZ Collaborative writing for external publications: An opportunity for teacher professional growth Dr Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn, Trinity Grammar School, NSW AI and Learning: Presenting a Rapid Literature Review on What We Know, What Matters Most, and What's Next Dr Matthew Hill & Dr Tim Scott, Barker College, NSW |
11:45 |
Lightning Presentations Session 3 The Ground-Up Framework: Using Student Perceptions to Build Evidence-Based Character Programmes Dr Aaron Columbus, John MsGlashan College, NZ From Community Voice to Evidence-Based Practice: Developing a Teaching and Learning Framework Through Practice-Based Research Penny Dellapina & Jane Fogg, St Paul's School A Rolling Stone: Following GenAI Adoption in Australian Independent Schools Dr Suzana Sukovic, Presbyterian Ladies' College, NSW Practitioner Inquiry in Action: Using Multiple Sources of Evidence to Inform School Decision-Making Naoko Abe & Lisset Laurel, SCECGS Redlands, NSW |
12:15 |
Lightning Presentations Session 4 Research as Relationship: Building a Research-Invested School Through Student Voice Dr Tim Scott & Dr Matthew Hill, Barker College, NSW From audit to strategic action: Using research and implementation science to initiate and guide a whole-school approach to character formation Dr Caitlin Munday, Scotch College, VIC Creating the Conditions for Professional Growth: Designing a Pedagogy of Professional Learning that Translates Research into Classroom Practice Karyn West & Chloe Ticehurst, Parramatta Marist High School, NSW Listening Well, Acting Wisely: Navigating the Ethics of Knowing in School Research Lyndal Tait, Inaburra School, NSW |
12:45 |
Lightning Presentations Session 5 Student Use of AI in Assessment: Practices, Cognition, and Affective Experience Claire Butler & Dr Matthew Hill, Barker College, NSW Action Research for Whole-School Pedagogical Change Kate Corcoran, Santa Sabina College, NSW Looking at the futures that we didn't see coming: Scenario planning as a basis for school-based research Dr Matt Finch, University of Oxford, UK |
1:15 |
Lunch |
1:45 |
Roundtable Part 1: Developing a Research Capability Framework for Research-Invested Schools - From Systematic Literature Review to Delphi Consensus Dr Sarah Glencross, The Sycamore School & Dr Nattalia Godbold, The Lakes College, QLD This interactive roundtable provides participants with dedicated time to translate conference insights into meaningful action within their own school contexts. The session will begin with an exploration of a research maturity scale, supporting schools to reflect on their current practices and identify opportunities for growth in embedding research-informed and evidence-based approaches across their communities. Working in small groups, educators will then collaborate with colleagues from other schools to discuss challenges, share successful practices, and consider how research maturity can be strengthened within diverse school settings. Through a structured roundtable process, participants will identify practical strategies, priorities, and actionable next steps to support implementation and sustainable improvement in their own contexts. |
2:15 |
Roundtable Part 2: Which Research Capabilities will you be working on? Mathew Stein, The Lakes College, QLD |
2:45 |
Closing remarks |
3:00 |
Conference concludes |
Keynote Speakers
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Stuart Waddington, Principal, New Arenas Capital
Stuart Waddington has spent over 30 years working as a business consultant and transformation leader - helping organisations get from strategy to execution and sustainability. Stuart grew up in a small-business family – earning his first $1 for Saturday work at the age of 7. Since his first degree he has lived and worked across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Europe, Asia and the USA. He is the developer and lead practitioner of the P:EAKS capability framework, which underpins the Research Invested Schools 2026 Conference Day 1 experience. Outside of work, he remains a committed - if increasingly weathered - endurance athlete and adventure seeker, with more time now that his kids are young adults (often to the chagrin of his long-suffering wife). |
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Dr Kristy Corser, Research Fellow, QUT Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, Queensland University of Technology
Dr Kristy Corser is currently co-leading a national project titled 'Children’s engagement with Artificial Intelligence: A Digital Child Parliament'. She has a background in primary education (as a Queensland teacher for 13 years) and research interests in teaching and learning with educational technology, including AI. |
Presentations
Theme: From Research to Practice – Inspiring and Leading Change in Schools
The Research Invested Schools National Gathering 2026 provides an opportunity for educators, researchers and school leaders to share practice, inquiry and innovation that strengthens research-informed practice across schools.
We are pleased to have 20 minute presentations that showcase school-based research, practitioner inquiry, collaborative partnerships, innovative methodologies and approaches that contribute to research culture and educational improvement.
The four themes are:
1. Student Voice, Agency and Partnership in research
Explores how students can move beyond being data sources to active partners in inquiry, contributing to the design, interpretation, and impact of research within schools.
From Snapshots to Stories
Dr Sarah Loch & Victoria Adamovich, Pymble Ladies College, NSW
In this session, we share how the Pymble Institute positions students as experts in their own lives and how our philosophy of student-centred research moves young people from passive data sources to active partners. We discuss projects where our students design and interpret research, including in the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative in 2025 where the social lab methodology was embedded in the Year 5 Mathematics curriculum. Students generated their own research questions on topics such as "FOMO," sleep, and the discrepancy between parental perceptions and actual device usage. A significant benefit of this approach is "insider access"—student researchers can gather authentic data from peers and parents that external researchers often cannot. We will discuss the approach we took to upskill young researchers in skills for data collection and analysis. We also discuss longitudinal research which allows Pymble Ladies' College to track sustained impact of programs. We discuss the methodologies used across several multi-year projects: the Wise Phone Initiative (Time 1, 2, and 3 over 2025), Vision Valley (tracking data over 2022, 2023, and 2024), and our Service-learning Framework (Time 1, 2, and 3 over 2026-2028). This session is a candid exploration of the benefits and challenges of long-term inquiry.
Student Action Research - a year on
Jude Arbuthnot, Westlake Boys High School, NZ
Last year I shared how we had begun our Student Action Research with year 12 students at WBHS. Now, a year on, I return to share the findings of our students' work and what I have learnt (and adapted) for this year's iteration of the programme. You will leave with some practical ideas for implementation and an overview of the outcomes of their projects which looked at collaboration, peer support, confidence, and brotherhood.
The Ground-Up Framework: Using Student Perceptions to Build Evidence-Based Character Programmes
Dr Aaron Columbus, John MsGlashan College, NZ
This workshop demonstrates how to shift character education from a top-down curriculum to one that is evidence-based and student-centred. The proposal aligns with the conference theme Student Voice, Agency and Partnership in Research by showing how to place authentic student voice and cross-institutional partnerships at the centre of school-wide framework development. Character-based education focused on positive masculinity and healthy, respectful relationships is a key priority for our school. There are a lot of unwritten rules out there about how teenage boys should act, look, and handle their emotions. Showing our boys what positive masculinity and healthy relationships look like, and helping them rise above the noise and negative messaging on social media, is key. We shouldn’t assume, though, that we know and understand the experiences of our young people. As we began developing a character education and positive masculinity curriculum framework at our school, we wanted to know what it’s really like to navigate those expectations: what works, what feels like pressure, and how we can make our school a better place for everyone. We judged their voices as the foundational key to programmes we are developing.
Participants will learn about the research framework we applied to measure how our young people perceive societal pressures, how much they personally internalise those rules, how those beliefs correlate with their behaviours, and how this is informing the development of our character programme. We’ll also learn about the collaborative partnership central to the broader work we are undertaking; a community of practice formed with a local girls’ school and two other boys’ schools in our city. It creates a safe but challenging space to explore the issues and possibilities for collaboration as we agree to research activities and initiatives, within and across our schools. Participants will leave with a practical, data-informed framework for using student voice and cross-school partnerships to build character formation from the ground up.
Research as Relationship: Building a Research-Invested School Through Student Voice
Dr Tim Scott & Dr Matthew Hill, Barker College, NSW
What if the most important research methodology in schools is not a particular method, but a particular relationship? This interactive roundtable explores how sustained engagement with students can move beyond consultation and become the foundation of a research-invested school. Drawing on the Barker Journey longitudinal study, alongside research informing refugee education and emerging work on AI and the developing mind, the session considers how long-term relationships with students have generated new questions, challenged assumptions, and shaped strategic decision-making. Rather than presenting a single model to replicate, this workshop invites participants to explore how research can emerge from the everyday life of their own schools. Through discussion and shared reflection, we will examine practical questions including: Where do meaningful research questions come from? How can student voice move beyond data collection to genuine partnership in inquiry? How can research findings inform school improvement while remaining responsive to changing educational contexts? And what structures help build a sustainable culture of practitioner research? Participants will leave with practical ideas for establishing or strengthening research practices within their own settings, recognising that research is most powerful when it is relational, embedded in practice, and undertaken alongside the communities it seeks to understand.
Student Use of AI in Assessment: Practices, Cognition, and Affective Experience
Claire Butler & Dr Matthew Hill, Barker College
Generative AI is rapidly entering school assessment contexts, particularly in research-based and take-home tasks. While students are increasingly permitted to use AI in limited ways, there remains uncertainty about how these tools shape students’ thinking, decision-making, and learning experience. This study examines how deliberately limiting AI use to “Ideas and Structure” during a Year 10 History research assessment shaped how students used AI in practice, as well as its reported effects on their cognitive processes and affective experience. Data was collected in March 2026 using student written reflections (N = 40), individual interviews (N = 7), and a categorisation task (N = 21). Findings indicate that this limited AI use helped students get started more quickly, reduce early uncertainty, and organise their work with greater confidence. Students strongly asserted ownership of their final work and framed AI as supportive rather than replacing thinking. However, this efficiency came with trade-offs. AI reduced the time students spent navigating uncertainty and making evaluative decisions. While students demonstrated awareness of responsible AI use, many struggled to explain how and why specific decisions were made. The study recommends that AI use be treated as an explicitly taught skill, supported by clearer frameworks and assessment designs that make students’ thinking visible. It also emphasises keeping meaningful challenge in tasks and developing students’ ability to evaluate and make decisions independently.
2. Research Methodologies for School-Based Investigations
Examines accessible and rigorous research approaches that enable educators to investigate their own practice, generate evidence, and contribute to school improvement.
Bridging the Gap Between Culturally Responsive and Structured Pedagogies
Nikki Corbishley & Serena Lawrence, Wellington College, NZ
It is widely observed and deeply felt across schools in Aotearoa New Zealand that a perceived tension exists between the explicit instructional methods of structured pedagogy and the relational dimensions of culturally responsive practice (CRP). At Wellington College, we have spent a decade prioritising CRP to address inequities for our learners, especially those who whakapapa Māori. As we have more recently turned our attention to structured pedagogies and explicit instruction, our goal has been to move past this false dichotomy and find the synergy between the two.
In this session, we will share our journey toward bridging the theory-to-practice gap for our staff. We will illustrate how our application of Professor Russell Bishop’s seminal research, 'Teaching to the North East', serves as our compass for balancing high relationships with high expectations. We will also pull back the curtain on our bricolage strategy; as proud "Bowerbird Kiwis," we have intentionally collected, adapted, and synthesised international research to create an authentic, localised framework where culture sits at the heart of structured pedagogy. Participants can expect to reflect on their own interpretations of CRP and its relationship with their teaching methodologies, leaving with practical insights on how to foster environments that bridge research in their own contexts.
Collaborative writing for external publications: An opportunity for teacher professional growth
Dr Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn, Trinity Grammar School, NSW
Collaborative writing for publication by teachers can provide a reflective space for professional growth, when practitioners seek to articulate and disseminate their research-informed approaches or school-based research projects with the education community more widely, beyond an individual school. In this presentation, I share a process to guide collaborative writing for publication developed at Trinity Grammar School (NSW) through our School’s established Professional Learning Team structure. Consideration will be given to how to select a target journal and pitch an article, or write to the journal’s guidelines. A workshop-based approach to writing a co-authored manuscript will be shared, which could be adopted and adapted in other school contexts. Finally, discussion will focus on the benefits and challenges of publishing from practice in external publications, expanding to conversation and sharing of practice more widely amongst session participants.
From Community Voice to Evidence-Based Practice: Developing a Teaching and Learning Framework Through Practice-Based Research
Penny Dellapina & Jane Fogg, St Paul's School, QLD
As schools seek to strengthen teaching and learning through evidence-informed practice, a common challenge is balancing research-based approaches with the unique context, values and experiences of their own community. This presentation shares the findings and process of a collaborative practice-based research project undertaken through the University of Queensland Partner Schools Program to develop a renewed Prep–12 Teaching and Learning Framework at St Paul's School. The project seeks to establish a shared vision for effective teaching and learning across all year levels while recognising the unique developmental needs of learners from the early years through to senior schooling. The project was designed to investigate the pedagogical approaches most valued by teachers and students across different stages of schooling and to explore how these align with contemporary evidence from the Science of Learning. Data were gathered through staff and student surveys, providing insight into the teaching practices perceived to have the greatest impact on student learning and engagement. Analysis of the data revealed significant areas of alignment between teacher and student perspectives, alongside several notable differences that prompted further inquiry. The second phase of the project involved mapping these identified pedagogies against established evidence-based principles from the Science of Learning literature. Rather than beginning with a predetermined framework, the process sought to honour community voice while critically examining how local practices align with current educational research. This approach enabled the School to identify areas of strength, opportunities for refinement, and a pathway towards a framework that is both evidence-informed and contextually relevant. Participants will gain practical insights into the design and implementation of school-based research projects that engage stakeholders as active contributors to educational improvement. The presentation will outline the research methodology, key findings, challenges encountered, and strategies used to translate data into meaningful school improvement initiatives. Attendees will leave with a replicable model for combining practitioner inquiry, stakeholder voice and research evidence to develop a whole-school Prep–12 Teaching and Learning Framework. The project aligns strongly with the conference theme of Disseminating Practice-Based Research by demonstrating how schools can generate, interpret and apply local evidence to inform strategic educational decision-making and sustainable improvement in teaching and learning.
From audit to strategic action: Using research and implementation science to initiate and guide a whole-school approach to character formation
Dr Caitlin Munday, Scotch College
How can schools ensure that strategic initiatives are grounded in research, shaped by stakeholder voice, and implemented in ways that lead to sustainable change? This presentation explores the Scotch College Character Audit as a case study in the intersection of research-informed practice, school-based inquiry, and implementation science. Originally conceived as a whole-school investigation into how character formation was understood and experienced across the College, the audit employed a mixed-methods approach to gather perspectives from students, staff, parents, alumni, and governance groups. Importantly, the process was strengthened through the College’s Visiting Fellow Program, which engaged leading scholars and practitioners as critical friends to provide external challenge, validation, and expert commentary throughout the research process. Rather than viewing the audit as an endpoint, the findings were used as a foundation for a broader strategic initiative: the development of a whole-school Character Education Framework. Drawing on the principles of implementation science, informed by frameworks from the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO), the project sought to move beyond identifying “what matters” to understanding how research-informed practices can be successfully embedded and sustained within a complex school environment. The session will examine how research can be used to establish readiness for change, build a shared understanding of purpose, engage stakeholders in co-design, and create the conditions for successful implementation. Participants will gain practical insights into designing school-based investigations that not only generate knowledge, but also serve as catalysts for strategic improvement, organisational learning, and enduring cultural change. This presentation will be of interest to those seeking to connect research, stakeholder engagement, and strategy in the pursuit of meaningful, whole-school change.
Action Research for Whole-School Pedagogical Change
Kate Corcoran, Santa Sabina College
This workshop examines how a wholeschool Action Research model can serve as an accessible and rigorous methodology for enabling educators to investigate their practice, generate evidence and contribute to strategic school improvement. In 2023, Santa Sabina College, Sydney, in partnership with academics from the University of Technology, introduced a Collegewide Action Research Program designed to embed this form of teacher-led inquiry into everyday professional learning. Now in its fourth year, the program has become a central driver of wholeschool change by providing teachers with a clear, structured methodology for reflection, evidencegathering and iterative adjustment of practice, while ensuring professional learning remains tightly aligned with identified strategic priorities. The workshop will begin with a brief refresher on the What, Why and How of action research, highlighting the features that make it both robust and practical for busy teachers. Participants will be introduced to workable tools for launching action research projects, structuring these research cycles and maintaining momentum and focus as teams move through the research process. The second half of the session will demonstrate how the Action Research Program is currently being used to drive the College’s wholeschool pedagogical focus on Teaching for Thinking. To launch this project, teachers used Semester 1 to work in small inquiry groups to unpack the framework’s concepts, language and pedagogical implications, experimenting with approaches that strengthen students’ critical and creative thinking. In Semester 2, teachers will form new research teams and begin a full cycle of action research centred on more complex thinkingfocused pedagogies, trialling new practices and generating evidence about how these practices deepen student learning. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how Action Research can be scaled across a school, how it can anchor professional learning to strategic goals and how it can build a culture in which teachers use research to reflect on, refine and share their practice.
3. Disseminating Practice-Based Research
Considers how educators can effectively communicate findings through multiple platforms, including school-based publications, open access practice journals, and academic outlets, to influence practice beyond their own context.
Turning Information into Insight: Unlocking Your School Data with Anthropic and APIs
Grant Harbor, St Andrew's Anglican College, QLD
Unlocking Your School Data with Anthropic and APIs: Turning Information into Insight Schools generate vast amounts of data, but much of it remains trapped within disconnected systems and difficult to use effectively. This presentation explores how St Andrew’s Anglican College has leveraged Anthropic’s Claude AI models and API connections to unlock the value of existing school data and transform it into actionable insights. Through practical examples, participants will see how AI-powered workflows have been used to automate LMS course audits, identify inconsistencies in course design, analyse engagement data, and create dynamic dashboards for areas such as expenditure and resource allocation. The session will also explore the foundations that make this possible, including data quality, API access, governance, and security considerations. Grounded in our ongoing work to integrate AI into school operations, this presentation demonstrates how generative AI can move beyond content creation to become a powerful tool for organisational intelligence and decision-making. Rather than replacing existing systems, AI acts as a layer that makes information more visible, accessible, and useful. Participants will leave with practical ideas for connecting AI to their own data sources, an understanding of the opportunities and challenges involved. The key takeaway is that when schools have clean access to their data, AI can help uncover patterns, answer complex questions, and provide insights that would otherwise remain hidden. The combination of APIs and AI has the potential to empower school leaders to make faster, more informed decisions and unlock new opportunities for innovation and improvement.
AI and Learning: Presenting a Rapid Literature Review on What We Know, What Matters Most, and What's Next
Dr Matthew Hill & Dr Tim Scott, Barker College, NSW
The week of the 2026 Research Invested Schools National Gathering sees the public launch of a Rapid Literature Review on the impact of GenAI on young minds. This Rapid Literature Review is a collaboration between the Barker Institute and the University of Sydney. In this session, we will present a synthesis of the review’s key findings, offering attendees a clear, research-informed account of what is currently known, what can be reasonably inferred, and where significant gaps in the evidence remain. The review brings together emerging international research to examine how GenAI is reshaping learning across three interconnected dimensions (learners, contexts, and cultures) and highlights the variability of outcomes depending on how AI is designed and used. Particular attention is given to the distinction between short-term performance gains and long-term learning, the risks of unstructured or “default” AI use, and the growing importance of metacognition, self-regulation, and instructional design in AI-mediated environments. Our aim is to position the literature review as a practical provision for schools navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in education. Rather than prescribing a single approach, the workshop will explore how schools can interpret and apply the findings in ways that are responsive to their own contexts, learners, and strategic priorities. Participants will receive copies of the literature review and be guided through its key insights and implications for teaching, leadership, and future research directions. The session will also situate the review within the Barker Institute’s broader, ongoing AI research program, which is committed to supporting schools in making thoughtful, evidence-informed decisions about the role of AI in learning. This workshop is designed to equip educators and leaders with both conceptual clarity and practical direction as they engage with one of the most significant educational developments of our time.
A Rolling Stone: Following GenAI Adoption in Australian Independent Schools
Dr Suzana Sukovic, Presbyterian Ladies' College, NSW
In 2024, Presbyterian Ladies' College Sydney initiated a research project to explore the adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) in Australian schools. The project aimed to establish a research-based framework for decision-making regarding this major technological change. In collaboration with seven other independent schools as research participants, the project examined schools’ responses to and thinking about GenAI. The study employed a mixed-methods approach. Data were collected through interviews with educational leaders and IT experts, focus groups with teachers, developments at PLC Sydney as a case study, and scans of academic, governmental, and media sources. The result was a rare insight into the thinking about and practice of AI integration in Australian schools in its early days, informing our understanding of this evolving landscape. The project also informed evidence-based decision-making at the College. A key finding of the original study was the necessity for evidence-informed practice to remain adaptable to constant change. In 2026, we revisited participating schools and PLC Sydney staff, asking about changes in the last couple of years, and their current perspectives on previously discussed issues. By combining these new insights with ongoing records, we developed a longitudinal picture of schools' evolving engagement with GenAI. This presentation will outline the trajectory of GenAI adoption across participating schools, highlighting both pioneering and more cautious approaches. With rich data from PLC Sydney, the presentation will offer practical insights into strategies for leading research-informed innovation, building staff capability, and sustaining evidence-based decision-making during periods of rapid change. This presentation aligns closely with the conference theme by demonstrating how school-based inquiry can guide practice, strengthen research culture, and bring school communities together around shared challenges and opportunities.
Creating the Conditions for Professional Growth: Designing a Pedagogy of Professional Learning that Translates Research into Classroom Practice
Karyn West & Chloe Ticehurst, Paramatta Marist High School, NSW
Schools have unprecedented access to high-quality educational research, yet translating that evidence into sustained classroom practice remains one of the greatest challenges of school improvement. While professional learning is often positioned as the bridge between research and practice, we argue that professional learning itself requires an intentional pedagogy if educational research is to meaningfully influence teaching and learning. Sustainable improvement depends on creating the conditions in which teachers can critically engage with research, develop a shared professional understanding, and confidently translate new knowledge into classroom practice. At Parramatta Marist High School, this belief has shaped the design of our professional learning, enacted through our Professional Learning Teams (PLTs). Rather than viewing professional learning as the delivery of strategies or the implementation of initiatives, we have intentionally developed a pedagogy of professional learning that creates both the climate and the learning experiences necessary for teachers to engage deeply with research, collaboratively construct professional understanding, and translate educational evidence into meaningful classroom practice. Through sustained collaboration within and across faculties, teachers are supported to translate research into learning experiences that are responsive to their own students, subjects and contexts while continually strengthening their professional practice. Drawing on examples including Explicit Teaching, Success Criteria, Problem-Based Learning and Generative AI, we will demonstrate how this pedagogy of professional learning has created coherence across diverse school improvement priorities while maintaining teacher agency, professional judgement and contextual decision-making. Participants will leave with practical principles for designing professional learning that intentionally bridges the gap between educational research and classroom practice. We argue that sustainable school improvement is achieved not simply by introducing research, but by intentionally creating the conditions in which teachers can collectively translate research into meaningful classroom practice.
Looking at the futures that we didn't see coming: Scenario planning as a basis for school-based research
Dr Matt Finch, Associate Fellow, University of Oxford
Scenario planning is a long-established institutional approach to dealing with uncertainty; it involves the structured, collaborative development of a set of plausible, contrasting descriptions of future environments (Spaniol and Rowland, 2019). Scenarios may inform strategy and policy, enable explorations of identity, and foster discursive and functional conversations (Heracleous, 2006) that generate rigorous and actionable research (Ramírez et al., 2015). Under conditions of turbulence, uncertainty, novelty, and ambiguity (Ramírez and Wilkinson, 2016), when tomorrow can't be certain to look like today or yesterday, scenarios can provide the basis for wise and judicious decisionmaking (Ramírez et al., 2019). Here, we build upon work in Norway on the future of schools (Finch et al., 2024) and in Queensland on the future of higher education (Finch and Godbold, forthcoming) to describe how scenarios can be used as a school-based research methodology where students, staff, and other actors in the school ecosystem can valuably explore uncertain futures. The paper will describe scenario planning, set out the key steps, and refer to prior examples of its application in the field of education. It will set out how scenario planning could be used by educators to examine their own practice and bring future-oriented thinking into their research, for the benefit of the whole school community. Participants will come away with an understanding of the basics of the Oxford Scenario Planning Approach and the potential to apply it in school-based research.
4. Generative AI in Research-Informed Practice: Opportunities and Tensions
Explores the emerging role of generative AI tools in supporting teacher inquiry, while critically examining the ethical, practical, and professional challenges they introduce for research-informed practice.
Researching from Within: Reflexive Thematic Analysis as a Methodology for School-Based Inquiry
Dr Anne Wood, A.B. Patterson College, QLD
This presentation explores how reflexive thematic analysis (RTA), as developed by Braun and Clarke (2021), was utilised as the primary analytic methodology in a doctoral study examining the teaching of poetry writing in Queensland senior secondary English. My study investigated how poetry writing is conceptualised within curriculum documents and understood by practising English teachers. Drawing on syllabus documents, policy texts, semi-structured interviews, field notes and student poetry, the research generated a substantial body of qualitative data requiring systematic yet flexible analysis. Reflexive thematic analysis provided a rigorous framework for identifying, interpreting and refining patterns of meaning across these multiple data sources. This presentation will outline how the six phases of reflexive thematic analysis were applied within a practitioner-research context, including data familiarisation, coding, theme development and theme refinement. Participants will gain practical insights into the use of reflexive thematic analysis for school-based investigations, particularly those involving curriculum, teaching practice and professional knowledge. The presentation will also address common misconceptions about thematic analysis and practical advice on how to undertake this analysis. By sharing a detailed account of my research process, this session aims to support teachers, school leaders and practitioner-researchers seeking robust qualitative methodologies for investigating questions emerging from their own educational settings. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how reflexive thematic analysis can be applied to educational research and how it can generate meaningful insights into curriculum enactment, teacher practice and school improvement. This presentation directly addresses the conference theme of Research Methodologies for School-Based Investigations by demonstrating the application of reflexive thematic analysis as a practical, rigorous and accessible methodology for practitioner-led educational research.
Practitioner Inquiry in Action: Using Multiple Sources of Evidence to Inform School Decision-Making
Naoko Abe & Lisset Laurel, SCECGS Redlands, NSW
Schools are increasingly expected to make evidence-informed instructional decisions, yet integrating multiple sources of evidence into everyday practice remains a significant challenge. This presentation reports on a school-based practitioner inquiry that explored how diverse forms of evidence can be combined to inform decisions about student grouping, differentiation, and transition. Rather than focusing on a single curriculum area, the inquiry examined a research process that is transferable across school contexts. Using an action research approach, the inquiry integrated student voice, diagnostic assessments, existing achievement data, and teacher observations to investigate how evidence can be interpreted and applied in practice. Collaboration with a university partner strengthened the research design, supported systematic data collection and analysis, and encouraged critical reflection on the quality, credibility, and use of evidence in school decision-making. The findings showed that combining multiple sources of evidence provided a more comprehensive understanding of student learning than relying on any single measure alone. They also revealed that discrepancies between data sources required careful professional judgement, highlighting the importance of interpreting evidence within its educational context rather than treating data as definitive. Conducting the inquiry further exposed practical challenges familiar to many schools, including balancing methodological rigour with the realities of time, workload, and data availability. This presentation illustrates how practitioner inquiry can provide an accessible yet rigorous research methodology for schools, enabling educators to investigate their own practice systematically while strengthening evidence-informed decision-making. By sharing both the inquiry process and its outcomes, the presentation offers practical guidance for educators seeking to design practitioner research, integrate multiple forms of evidence, and build collaborative research cultures that support continuous school improvement.
Listening Well, Acting Wisely: Navigating the Ethics of Knowing in School Research
Lyndal Tait, Inaburra School, NSW
Research in schools is never a neutral act of discovery, but an intervention. The moment we set out to understand what is happening in our schools, we take on a moral obligation to respond to what we find, even when the findings are uncomfortable. This session explores the tension at the heart of school-based inquiry when adult staff members are among the ‘researched’. How do we listen well enough to surface real, sometimes unsettling truths, while acting with integrity toward the people whose lives and reputations are implicated in what we learn? Drawing on two internal research projects - a study of middle leaders designed to help a Head of Teaching and Learning understand the enabling and constraining conditions of faculty leadership, and a faculty ‘health check’ examining how work and ways-of-working were shaping teacher wellbeing - this session unpacks what happens when research designed to inform improvement instead reveals concerns requiring careful, sometimes difficult, action. Neither project set out to investigate individuals, yet both required us to hold confidentiality, dignity and organisational responsibility in tension. Drawing on insider-research ethics and theories of trust and legitimacy, this presentation will examine how researcher positionality shapes both what we're willing to see and what we feel entitled to say. It will also touch on ideas around care and power, important to consider when embarking on in-school research as insiders. Participants will leave the session with a practical reflection tool for navigating ethically sensitive inquiry, which can serve as a decision-making tool to use before, during and after research that may risk reputational or relational harm, supporting research methodologies that are both rigorous and trustworthy.
The Research Invested Schools National Gathering 2026 provides an opportunity for educators, researchers and school leaders to share practice, inquiry and innovation that strengthens research-informed practice across schools.
We are pleased to have 20 minute presentations that showcase school-based research, practitioner inquiry, collaborative partnerships, innovative methodologies and approaches that contribute to research culture and educational improvement.
The four themes are:
1. Student Voice, Agency and Partnership in research
Explores how students can move beyond being data sources to active partners in inquiry, contributing to the design, interpretation, and impact of research within schools.
From Snapshots to Stories
Dr Sarah Loch & Victoria Adamovich, Pymble Ladies College, NSW
In this session, we share how the Pymble Institute positions students as experts in their own lives and how our philosophy of student-centred research moves young people from passive data sources to active partners. We discuss projects where our students design and interpret research, including in the Pymble Wise Phone Initiative in 2025 where the social lab methodology was embedded in the Year 5 Mathematics curriculum. Students generated their own research questions on topics such as "FOMO," sleep, and the discrepancy between parental perceptions and actual device usage. A significant benefit of this approach is "insider access"—student researchers can gather authentic data from peers and parents that external researchers often cannot. We will discuss the approach we took to upskill young researchers in skills for data collection and analysis. We also discuss longitudinal research which allows Pymble Ladies' College to track sustained impact of programs. We discuss the methodologies used across several multi-year projects: the Wise Phone Initiative (Time 1, 2, and 3 over 2025), Vision Valley (tracking data over 2022, 2023, and 2024), and our Service-learning Framework (Time 1, 2, and 3 over 2026-2028). This session is a candid exploration of the benefits and challenges of long-term inquiry.
Student Action Research - a year on
Jude Arbuthnot, Westlake Boys High School, NZ
Last year I shared how we had begun our Student Action Research with year 12 students at WBHS. Now, a year on, I return to share the findings of our students' work and what I have learnt (and adapted) for this year's iteration of the programme. You will leave with some practical ideas for implementation and an overview of the outcomes of their projects which looked at collaboration, peer support, confidence, and brotherhood.
The Ground-Up Framework: Using Student Perceptions to Build Evidence-Based Character Programmes
Dr Aaron Columbus, John MsGlashan College, NZ
This workshop demonstrates how to shift character education from a top-down curriculum to one that is evidence-based and student-centred. The proposal aligns with the conference theme Student Voice, Agency and Partnership in Research by showing how to place authentic student voice and cross-institutional partnerships at the centre of school-wide framework development. Character-based education focused on positive masculinity and healthy, respectful relationships is a key priority for our school. There are a lot of unwritten rules out there about how teenage boys should act, look, and handle their emotions. Showing our boys what positive masculinity and healthy relationships look like, and helping them rise above the noise and negative messaging on social media, is key. We shouldn’t assume, though, that we know and understand the experiences of our young people. As we began developing a character education and positive masculinity curriculum framework at our school, we wanted to know what it’s really like to navigate those expectations: what works, what feels like pressure, and how we can make our school a better place for everyone. We judged their voices as the foundational key to programmes we are developing.
Participants will learn about the research framework we applied to measure how our young people perceive societal pressures, how much they personally internalise those rules, how those beliefs correlate with their behaviours, and how this is informing the development of our character programme. We’ll also learn about the collaborative partnership central to the broader work we are undertaking; a community of practice formed with a local girls’ school and two other boys’ schools in our city. It creates a safe but challenging space to explore the issues and possibilities for collaboration as we agree to research activities and initiatives, within and across our schools. Participants will leave with a practical, data-informed framework for using student voice and cross-school partnerships to build character formation from the ground up.
Research as Relationship: Building a Research-Invested School Through Student Voice
Dr Tim Scott & Dr Matthew Hill, Barker College, NSW
What if the most important research methodology in schools is not a particular method, but a particular relationship? This interactive roundtable explores how sustained engagement with students can move beyond consultation and become the foundation of a research-invested school. Drawing on the Barker Journey longitudinal study, alongside research informing refugee education and emerging work on AI and the developing mind, the session considers how long-term relationships with students have generated new questions, challenged assumptions, and shaped strategic decision-making. Rather than presenting a single model to replicate, this workshop invites participants to explore how research can emerge from the everyday life of their own schools. Through discussion and shared reflection, we will examine practical questions including: Where do meaningful research questions come from? How can student voice move beyond data collection to genuine partnership in inquiry? How can research findings inform school improvement while remaining responsive to changing educational contexts? And what structures help build a sustainable culture of practitioner research? Participants will leave with practical ideas for establishing or strengthening research practices within their own settings, recognising that research is most powerful when it is relational, embedded in practice, and undertaken alongside the communities it seeks to understand.
Student Use of AI in Assessment: Practices, Cognition, and Affective Experience
Claire Butler & Dr Matthew Hill, Barker College
Generative AI is rapidly entering school assessment contexts, particularly in research-based and take-home tasks. While students are increasingly permitted to use AI in limited ways, there remains uncertainty about how these tools shape students’ thinking, decision-making, and learning experience. This study examines how deliberately limiting AI use to “Ideas and Structure” during a Year 10 History research assessment shaped how students used AI in practice, as well as its reported effects on their cognitive processes and affective experience. Data was collected in March 2026 using student written reflections (N = 40), individual interviews (N = 7), and a categorisation task (N = 21). Findings indicate that this limited AI use helped students get started more quickly, reduce early uncertainty, and organise their work with greater confidence. Students strongly asserted ownership of their final work and framed AI as supportive rather than replacing thinking. However, this efficiency came with trade-offs. AI reduced the time students spent navigating uncertainty and making evaluative decisions. While students demonstrated awareness of responsible AI use, many struggled to explain how and why specific decisions were made. The study recommends that AI use be treated as an explicitly taught skill, supported by clearer frameworks and assessment designs that make students’ thinking visible. It also emphasises keeping meaningful challenge in tasks and developing students’ ability to evaluate and make decisions independently.
2. Research Methodologies for School-Based Investigations
Examines accessible and rigorous research approaches that enable educators to investigate their own practice, generate evidence, and contribute to school improvement.
Bridging the Gap Between Culturally Responsive and Structured Pedagogies
Nikki Corbishley & Serena Lawrence, Wellington College, NZ
It is widely observed and deeply felt across schools in Aotearoa New Zealand that a perceived tension exists between the explicit instructional methods of structured pedagogy and the relational dimensions of culturally responsive practice (CRP). At Wellington College, we have spent a decade prioritising CRP to address inequities for our learners, especially those who whakapapa Māori. As we have more recently turned our attention to structured pedagogies and explicit instruction, our goal has been to move past this false dichotomy and find the synergy between the two.
In this session, we will share our journey toward bridging the theory-to-practice gap for our staff. We will illustrate how our application of Professor Russell Bishop’s seminal research, 'Teaching to the North East', serves as our compass for balancing high relationships with high expectations. We will also pull back the curtain on our bricolage strategy; as proud "Bowerbird Kiwis," we have intentionally collected, adapted, and synthesised international research to create an authentic, localised framework where culture sits at the heart of structured pedagogy. Participants can expect to reflect on their own interpretations of CRP and its relationship with their teaching methodologies, leaving with practical insights on how to foster environments that bridge research in their own contexts.
Collaborative writing for external publications: An opportunity for teacher professional growth
Dr Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn, Trinity Grammar School, NSW
Collaborative writing for publication by teachers can provide a reflective space for professional growth, when practitioners seek to articulate and disseminate their research-informed approaches or school-based research projects with the education community more widely, beyond an individual school. In this presentation, I share a process to guide collaborative writing for publication developed at Trinity Grammar School (NSW) through our School’s established Professional Learning Team structure. Consideration will be given to how to select a target journal and pitch an article, or write to the journal’s guidelines. A workshop-based approach to writing a co-authored manuscript will be shared, which could be adopted and adapted in other school contexts. Finally, discussion will focus on the benefits and challenges of publishing from practice in external publications, expanding to conversation and sharing of practice more widely amongst session participants.
From Community Voice to Evidence-Based Practice: Developing a Teaching and Learning Framework Through Practice-Based Research
Penny Dellapina & Jane Fogg, St Paul's School, QLD
As schools seek to strengthen teaching and learning through evidence-informed practice, a common challenge is balancing research-based approaches with the unique context, values and experiences of their own community. This presentation shares the findings and process of a collaborative practice-based research project undertaken through the University of Queensland Partner Schools Program to develop a renewed Prep–12 Teaching and Learning Framework at St Paul's School. The project seeks to establish a shared vision for effective teaching and learning across all year levels while recognising the unique developmental needs of learners from the early years through to senior schooling. The project was designed to investigate the pedagogical approaches most valued by teachers and students across different stages of schooling and to explore how these align with contemporary evidence from the Science of Learning. Data were gathered through staff and student surveys, providing insight into the teaching practices perceived to have the greatest impact on student learning and engagement. Analysis of the data revealed significant areas of alignment between teacher and student perspectives, alongside several notable differences that prompted further inquiry. The second phase of the project involved mapping these identified pedagogies against established evidence-based principles from the Science of Learning literature. Rather than beginning with a predetermined framework, the process sought to honour community voice while critically examining how local practices align with current educational research. This approach enabled the School to identify areas of strength, opportunities for refinement, and a pathway towards a framework that is both evidence-informed and contextually relevant. Participants will gain practical insights into the design and implementation of school-based research projects that engage stakeholders as active contributors to educational improvement. The presentation will outline the research methodology, key findings, challenges encountered, and strategies used to translate data into meaningful school improvement initiatives. Attendees will leave with a replicable model for combining practitioner inquiry, stakeholder voice and research evidence to develop a whole-school Prep–12 Teaching and Learning Framework. The project aligns strongly with the conference theme of Disseminating Practice-Based Research by demonstrating how schools can generate, interpret and apply local evidence to inform strategic educational decision-making and sustainable improvement in teaching and learning.
From audit to strategic action: Using research and implementation science to initiate and guide a whole-school approach to character formation
Dr Caitlin Munday, Scotch College
How can schools ensure that strategic initiatives are grounded in research, shaped by stakeholder voice, and implemented in ways that lead to sustainable change? This presentation explores the Scotch College Character Audit as a case study in the intersection of research-informed practice, school-based inquiry, and implementation science. Originally conceived as a whole-school investigation into how character formation was understood and experienced across the College, the audit employed a mixed-methods approach to gather perspectives from students, staff, parents, alumni, and governance groups. Importantly, the process was strengthened through the College’s Visiting Fellow Program, which engaged leading scholars and practitioners as critical friends to provide external challenge, validation, and expert commentary throughout the research process. Rather than viewing the audit as an endpoint, the findings were used as a foundation for a broader strategic initiative: the development of a whole-school Character Education Framework. Drawing on the principles of implementation science, informed by frameworks from the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO), the project sought to move beyond identifying “what matters” to understanding how research-informed practices can be successfully embedded and sustained within a complex school environment. The session will examine how research can be used to establish readiness for change, build a shared understanding of purpose, engage stakeholders in co-design, and create the conditions for successful implementation. Participants will gain practical insights into designing school-based investigations that not only generate knowledge, but also serve as catalysts for strategic improvement, organisational learning, and enduring cultural change. This presentation will be of interest to those seeking to connect research, stakeholder engagement, and strategy in the pursuit of meaningful, whole-school change.
Action Research for Whole-School Pedagogical Change
Kate Corcoran, Santa Sabina College
This workshop examines how a wholeschool Action Research model can serve as an accessible and rigorous methodology for enabling educators to investigate their practice, generate evidence and contribute to strategic school improvement. In 2023, Santa Sabina College, Sydney, in partnership with academics from the University of Technology, introduced a Collegewide Action Research Program designed to embed this form of teacher-led inquiry into everyday professional learning. Now in its fourth year, the program has become a central driver of wholeschool change by providing teachers with a clear, structured methodology for reflection, evidencegathering and iterative adjustment of practice, while ensuring professional learning remains tightly aligned with identified strategic priorities. The workshop will begin with a brief refresher on the What, Why and How of action research, highlighting the features that make it both robust and practical for busy teachers. Participants will be introduced to workable tools for launching action research projects, structuring these research cycles and maintaining momentum and focus as teams move through the research process. The second half of the session will demonstrate how the Action Research Program is currently being used to drive the College’s wholeschool pedagogical focus on Teaching for Thinking. To launch this project, teachers used Semester 1 to work in small inquiry groups to unpack the framework’s concepts, language and pedagogical implications, experimenting with approaches that strengthen students’ critical and creative thinking. In Semester 2, teachers will form new research teams and begin a full cycle of action research centred on more complex thinkingfocused pedagogies, trialling new practices and generating evidence about how these practices deepen student learning. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how Action Research can be scaled across a school, how it can anchor professional learning to strategic goals and how it can build a culture in which teachers use research to reflect on, refine and share their practice.
3. Disseminating Practice-Based Research
Considers how educators can effectively communicate findings through multiple platforms, including school-based publications, open access practice journals, and academic outlets, to influence practice beyond their own context.
Turning Information into Insight: Unlocking Your School Data with Anthropic and APIs
Grant Harbor, St Andrew's Anglican College, QLD
Unlocking Your School Data with Anthropic and APIs: Turning Information into Insight Schools generate vast amounts of data, but much of it remains trapped within disconnected systems and difficult to use effectively. This presentation explores how St Andrew’s Anglican College has leveraged Anthropic’s Claude AI models and API connections to unlock the value of existing school data and transform it into actionable insights. Through practical examples, participants will see how AI-powered workflows have been used to automate LMS course audits, identify inconsistencies in course design, analyse engagement data, and create dynamic dashboards for areas such as expenditure and resource allocation. The session will also explore the foundations that make this possible, including data quality, API access, governance, and security considerations. Grounded in our ongoing work to integrate AI into school operations, this presentation demonstrates how generative AI can move beyond content creation to become a powerful tool for organisational intelligence and decision-making. Rather than replacing existing systems, AI acts as a layer that makes information more visible, accessible, and useful. Participants will leave with practical ideas for connecting AI to their own data sources, an understanding of the opportunities and challenges involved. The key takeaway is that when schools have clean access to their data, AI can help uncover patterns, answer complex questions, and provide insights that would otherwise remain hidden. The combination of APIs and AI has the potential to empower school leaders to make faster, more informed decisions and unlock new opportunities for innovation and improvement.
AI and Learning: Presenting a Rapid Literature Review on What We Know, What Matters Most, and What's Next
Dr Matthew Hill & Dr Tim Scott, Barker College, NSW
The week of the 2026 Research Invested Schools National Gathering sees the public launch of a Rapid Literature Review on the impact of GenAI on young minds. This Rapid Literature Review is a collaboration between the Barker Institute and the University of Sydney. In this session, we will present a synthesis of the review’s key findings, offering attendees a clear, research-informed account of what is currently known, what can be reasonably inferred, and where significant gaps in the evidence remain. The review brings together emerging international research to examine how GenAI is reshaping learning across three interconnected dimensions (learners, contexts, and cultures) and highlights the variability of outcomes depending on how AI is designed and used. Particular attention is given to the distinction between short-term performance gains and long-term learning, the risks of unstructured or “default” AI use, and the growing importance of metacognition, self-regulation, and instructional design in AI-mediated environments. Our aim is to position the literature review as a practical provision for schools navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in education. Rather than prescribing a single approach, the workshop will explore how schools can interpret and apply the findings in ways that are responsive to their own contexts, learners, and strategic priorities. Participants will receive copies of the literature review and be guided through its key insights and implications for teaching, leadership, and future research directions. The session will also situate the review within the Barker Institute’s broader, ongoing AI research program, which is committed to supporting schools in making thoughtful, evidence-informed decisions about the role of AI in learning. This workshop is designed to equip educators and leaders with both conceptual clarity and practical direction as they engage with one of the most significant educational developments of our time.
A Rolling Stone: Following GenAI Adoption in Australian Independent Schools
Dr Suzana Sukovic, Presbyterian Ladies' College, NSW
In 2024, Presbyterian Ladies' College Sydney initiated a research project to explore the adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) in Australian schools. The project aimed to establish a research-based framework for decision-making regarding this major technological change. In collaboration with seven other independent schools as research participants, the project examined schools’ responses to and thinking about GenAI. The study employed a mixed-methods approach. Data were collected through interviews with educational leaders and IT experts, focus groups with teachers, developments at PLC Sydney as a case study, and scans of academic, governmental, and media sources. The result was a rare insight into the thinking about and practice of AI integration in Australian schools in its early days, informing our understanding of this evolving landscape. The project also informed evidence-based decision-making at the College. A key finding of the original study was the necessity for evidence-informed practice to remain adaptable to constant change. In 2026, we revisited participating schools and PLC Sydney staff, asking about changes in the last couple of years, and their current perspectives on previously discussed issues. By combining these new insights with ongoing records, we developed a longitudinal picture of schools' evolving engagement with GenAI. This presentation will outline the trajectory of GenAI adoption across participating schools, highlighting both pioneering and more cautious approaches. With rich data from PLC Sydney, the presentation will offer practical insights into strategies for leading research-informed innovation, building staff capability, and sustaining evidence-based decision-making during periods of rapid change. This presentation aligns closely with the conference theme by demonstrating how school-based inquiry can guide practice, strengthen research culture, and bring school communities together around shared challenges and opportunities.
Creating the Conditions for Professional Growth: Designing a Pedagogy of Professional Learning that Translates Research into Classroom Practice
Karyn West & Chloe Ticehurst, Paramatta Marist High School, NSW
Schools have unprecedented access to high-quality educational research, yet translating that evidence into sustained classroom practice remains one of the greatest challenges of school improvement. While professional learning is often positioned as the bridge between research and practice, we argue that professional learning itself requires an intentional pedagogy if educational research is to meaningfully influence teaching and learning. Sustainable improvement depends on creating the conditions in which teachers can critically engage with research, develop a shared professional understanding, and confidently translate new knowledge into classroom practice. At Parramatta Marist High School, this belief has shaped the design of our professional learning, enacted through our Professional Learning Teams (PLTs). Rather than viewing professional learning as the delivery of strategies or the implementation of initiatives, we have intentionally developed a pedagogy of professional learning that creates both the climate and the learning experiences necessary for teachers to engage deeply with research, collaboratively construct professional understanding, and translate educational evidence into meaningful classroom practice. Through sustained collaboration within and across faculties, teachers are supported to translate research into learning experiences that are responsive to their own students, subjects and contexts while continually strengthening their professional practice. Drawing on examples including Explicit Teaching, Success Criteria, Problem-Based Learning and Generative AI, we will demonstrate how this pedagogy of professional learning has created coherence across diverse school improvement priorities while maintaining teacher agency, professional judgement and contextual decision-making. Participants will leave with practical principles for designing professional learning that intentionally bridges the gap between educational research and classroom practice. We argue that sustainable school improvement is achieved not simply by introducing research, but by intentionally creating the conditions in which teachers can collectively translate research into meaningful classroom practice.
Looking at the futures that we didn't see coming: Scenario planning as a basis for school-based research
Dr Matt Finch, Associate Fellow, University of Oxford
Scenario planning is a long-established institutional approach to dealing with uncertainty; it involves the structured, collaborative development of a set of plausible, contrasting descriptions of future environments (Spaniol and Rowland, 2019). Scenarios may inform strategy and policy, enable explorations of identity, and foster discursive and functional conversations (Heracleous, 2006) that generate rigorous and actionable research (Ramírez et al., 2015). Under conditions of turbulence, uncertainty, novelty, and ambiguity (Ramírez and Wilkinson, 2016), when tomorrow can't be certain to look like today or yesterday, scenarios can provide the basis for wise and judicious decisionmaking (Ramírez et al., 2019). Here, we build upon work in Norway on the future of schools (Finch et al., 2024) and in Queensland on the future of higher education (Finch and Godbold, forthcoming) to describe how scenarios can be used as a school-based research methodology where students, staff, and other actors in the school ecosystem can valuably explore uncertain futures. The paper will describe scenario planning, set out the key steps, and refer to prior examples of its application in the field of education. It will set out how scenario planning could be used by educators to examine their own practice and bring future-oriented thinking into their research, for the benefit of the whole school community. Participants will come away with an understanding of the basics of the Oxford Scenario Planning Approach and the potential to apply it in school-based research.
4. Generative AI in Research-Informed Practice: Opportunities and Tensions
Explores the emerging role of generative AI tools in supporting teacher inquiry, while critically examining the ethical, practical, and professional challenges they introduce for research-informed practice.
Researching from Within: Reflexive Thematic Analysis as a Methodology for School-Based Inquiry
Dr Anne Wood, A.B. Patterson College, QLD
This presentation explores how reflexive thematic analysis (RTA), as developed by Braun and Clarke (2021), was utilised as the primary analytic methodology in a doctoral study examining the teaching of poetry writing in Queensland senior secondary English. My study investigated how poetry writing is conceptualised within curriculum documents and understood by practising English teachers. Drawing on syllabus documents, policy texts, semi-structured interviews, field notes and student poetry, the research generated a substantial body of qualitative data requiring systematic yet flexible analysis. Reflexive thematic analysis provided a rigorous framework for identifying, interpreting and refining patterns of meaning across these multiple data sources. This presentation will outline how the six phases of reflexive thematic analysis were applied within a practitioner-research context, including data familiarisation, coding, theme development and theme refinement. Participants will gain practical insights into the use of reflexive thematic analysis for school-based investigations, particularly those involving curriculum, teaching practice and professional knowledge. The presentation will also address common misconceptions about thematic analysis and practical advice on how to undertake this analysis. By sharing a detailed account of my research process, this session aims to support teachers, school leaders and practitioner-researchers seeking robust qualitative methodologies for investigating questions emerging from their own educational settings. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how reflexive thematic analysis can be applied to educational research and how it can generate meaningful insights into curriculum enactment, teacher practice and school improvement. This presentation directly addresses the conference theme of Research Methodologies for School-Based Investigations by demonstrating the application of reflexive thematic analysis as a practical, rigorous and accessible methodology for practitioner-led educational research.
Practitioner Inquiry in Action: Using Multiple Sources of Evidence to Inform School Decision-Making
Naoko Abe & Lisset Laurel, SCECGS Redlands, NSW
Schools are increasingly expected to make evidence-informed instructional decisions, yet integrating multiple sources of evidence into everyday practice remains a significant challenge. This presentation reports on a school-based practitioner inquiry that explored how diverse forms of evidence can be combined to inform decisions about student grouping, differentiation, and transition. Rather than focusing on a single curriculum area, the inquiry examined a research process that is transferable across school contexts. Using an action research approach, the inquiry integrated student voice, diagnostic assessments, existing achievement data, and teacher observations to investigate how evidence can be interpreted and applied in practice. Collaboration with a university partner strengthened the research design, supported systematic data collection and analysis, and encouraged critical reflection on the quality, credibility, and use of evidence in school decision-making. The findings showed that combining multiple sources of evidence provided a more comprehensive understanding of student learning than relying on any single measure alone. They also revealed that discrepancies between data sources required careful professional judgement, highlighting the importance of interpreting evidence within its educational context rather than treating data as definitive. Conducting the inquiry further exposed practical challenges familiar to many schools, including balancing methodological rigour with the realities of time, workload, and data availability. This presentation illustrates how practitioner inquiry can provide an accessible yet rigorous research methodology for schools, enabling educators to investigate their own practice systematically while strengthening evidence-informed decision-making. By sharing both the inquiry process and its outcomes, the presentation offers practical guidance for educators seeking to design practitioner research, integrate multiple forms of evidence, and build collaborative research cultures that support continuous school improvement.
Listening Well, Acting Wisely: Navigating the Ethics of Knowing in School Research
Lyndal Tait, Inaburra School, NSW
Research in schools is never a neutral act of discovery, but an intervention. The moment we set out to understand what is happening in our schools, we take on a moral obligation to respond to what we find, even when the findings are uncomfortable. This session explores the tension at the heart of school-based inquiry when adult staff members are among the ‘researched’. How do we listen well enough to surface real, sometimes unsettling truths, while acting with integrity toward the people whose lives and reputations are implicated in what we learn? Drawing on two internal research projects - a study of middle leaders designed to help a Head of Teaching and Learning understand the enabling and constraining conditions of faculty leadership, and a faculty ‘health check’ examining how work and ways-of-working were shaping teacher wellbeing - this session unpacks what happens when research designed to inform improvement instead reveals concerns requiring careful, sometimes difficult, action. Neither project set out to investigate individuals, yet both required us to hold confidentiality, dignity and organisational responsibility in tension. Drawing on insider-research ethics and theories of trust and legitimacy, this presentation will examine how researcher positionality shapes both what we're willing to see and what we feel entitled to say. It will also touch on ideas around care and power, important to consider when embarking on in-school research as insiders. Participants will leave the session with a practical reflection tool for navigating ethically sensitive inquiry, which can serve as a decision-making tool to use before, during and after research that may risk reputational or relational harm, supporting research methodologies that are both rigorous and trustworthy.
Getting to the Gathering
The RIS National Gathering will be held across 2 schools to give delegates a good chance to see different Research-Invested Schools in-person.
Thursday 13 August
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Oaklands Parade, East Brisbane QLD 4169
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Friday 14 August
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2 College St, North Lakes QLD 4509
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Why attend?
Connect
Connect with other research leaders from schools around Australia to build relationships that lead to new ideas, collaborative projects, and growth in your role.
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Learn
Learn from colleagues about what's working well in their school, and from leaders in the secondary and tertiary sectors about the big trends shaping research in Australia and worldwide.
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Lead
Lead the future of research in Australia by shaping the Research-Invested Schools Network's agenda into the years ahead.
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What participants have said
"Amazing insights across the two days"
"One of my favourite events so far, as is so niche and helpful"
"Such a positive, collegial and professional space"
"One of my favourite events so far, as is so niche and helpful"
"Such a positive, collegial and professional space"