Dr Tracy Lyn Durksen

Tracy Durksen, B.A. (Hons), B.Ed., M.A., Ph.D.

I am a Scientia Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer of Educational Psychology interested in the learning and development of students and teachers. I investigate the broad area of teacher education with the aim to transform attraction and recruitment, selection, development, retention, and promotion of teachers and school leaders by focusing on the importance of interpersonal interactions and psychological characteristics like motivation and adaptability. I am a mixed methods researcher grounded in social cognitive and self-determination theories. My previous experience in community-based research and evaluation through a randomised control trial project with cultural experts in Canada initiated my multi-method, relational, and contextual approach.

In order to influence policies that foster conditions for effective schooling, I prioritise research partnerships and community engagement. Locally, I am a longitudinal research partner with the NSW Department of Education investigating teacher recruitment and selection practices with the aim to increase equitable student access to quality teachers. I am also a research team member of the UNSW-led Ambassador Schools Research Centre - established in 2021 and funded by the NSW Department of Education. Since 2015 I have been an international research collaborator with the Teacher Selection Project team (University of York, UK) by assisting with the development and testing of online scenario-based tools. As an invited consultant for an OECD Questionnaire Expert Group, I am helping develop, test, and report on the Teaching and Learning International Survey which will be administered in over 48 countries and economies in 2024.

I was trained as a K-12 teacher and previously worked as a primary school teacher in Canada. Through my role as Program Director (2018-2021) for the School of Education’s Master of Teaching Primary program at UNSW, I helped support and develop the next generation of teachers. As a non-Indigenous Canadian with Australian citizenship, I am committed to supporting the professional development of preservice and practicing teachers as an avenue for systemic and sustainable change in Aboriginal education. In 2022 I joined the Culturally Nourishing Schooling project as a lead researcher to help support teachers and school leaders change their practice through building relationships with local Aboriginal people, listening to and learning from Aboriginal people, and letting their practice be informed – and their curriculum transformed – by this learning.