| 2025 |
Heffernan T, Smithers K, 'Working at the level above: university promotion policies as a tool for wage theft and underpayment', HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT [C1]
Higher education has a strong relationship with wage theft, which has been examined throughout years of research, reports, and government enquiries. This paper examines... [more]
Higher education has a strong relationship with wage theft, which has been examined throughout years of research, reports, and government enquiries. This paper examines the practices of wage theft that often surround academic promotions, and specifically, the common requirement that someone must already be working at the level for which they are hoping to be promoted. The work uses Australia's higher education sector as an example, as Australia's employment and promotion conditions are similar in many aspects to other higher education sectors. The paper provides an analysis of the promotion expectations to which academics are subjected to understand what tasks academics are expected to complete, and for how long, without being paid, before they can apply for promotion. The paper demonstrates to academics, policymakers, and unions, yet another exploitative practice that must be monitored and removed from the modern university as the sector looks to engage more equitable practices.
|
|
|
| 2025 |
Smithers K, Gurr S, Spina N, Harris J, Heffernan T, 'Just because you are staying does not mean you are ‘stuck’: conceptualisations of academic mobility for precarious academics', Discourse (2025) [C1]
Discourses of the 'wandering scholar' privilege the notion of academic mobility, with career benefits for those who are mobile. Universities employ ever-incre... [more]
Discourses of the 'wandering scholar' privilege the notion of academic mobility, with career benefits for those who are mobile. Universities employ ever-increasing numbers of people on short term contracts, and it is important to consider how precarity influences an individual's im/mobility. Drawing on interviews with precariously employed academics, we highlight how the concept of mobility privileges those without the 'stickiness' of affective ties. These ties might include family, medical care needs, preferences for location, and institutional connections. We argue that precarious academics experience a range of ties that may 'stick' them to a place, through choice or circumstance. For some, there may be an active decision to stay rather than a passive experience of becoming stuck in place by forces beyond their control. To appreciate the difference in experiences of agency in academic mobility, we provide a conceptualisation of 'immobility' that recognises that not everyone who stays is necessarily 'stuck'.
|
|
|
| 2025 |
Hillyar K, Smithers K, Deehan J, Macdonald A, 'What is known about simulation technologies and their application to Initial Teacher Education: A scoping review', AUSTRALIAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHER [C1]
Simulation technologies are emerging as a possible solution to prepare Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students for the classroom and reduce undue pressure on supervisi... [more]
Simulation technologies are emerging as a possible solution to prepare Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students for the classroom and reduce undue pressure on supervising teachers. This paper presents a scoping review that reports on what is currently known regarding simulated technologies and their application to ITE programs. The review scoped the literature published between January 2013 and March 2023, with 16 studies identified for inclusion. Using descriptive statistics and a narrative synthesis method, this review maps the response to different types of simulation technologies and the impact of simulation on ITE students' teaching skills and pedagogies. Unanimously, the studies agree that simulation is beneficial to ITE students as an authentic preparation tool to strengthen teaching skills and pedagogies. Conversely, ITE student responses to simulation are mixed. The research identifies the need for continued research and development in this emerging field. Longitudinal impacts of simulation in ITE programs are yet to be reported. This review recommends that future research builds upon the initial evidence, including larger participant numbers, clarifying the ideal duration of simulation for ITE students, and taking up a universal definition of simulation.
|
|
|
| 2025 |
Gamage D, Ledger S, Smithers K, Karstadt L, 'The role of service-learning in the International Baccalaureate: a scoping review, 2014–2024', Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 12, 102088-102088 (2025)
|
|
|
| 2025 |
Heffernan T, Smithers K, 'The rise of the pro-sessional: precarious employees taking on complex and faculty-critical roles', Discourse (2025) [C1]
|
|
|
| 2025 |
Monteleone C, Cliff K, Andrews R, Babic M, Smithers K, Winslade M, Hay I, 'Perspective of Supervising Teachers and Tertiary Supervisors on Professional Learning for Professional Experience', Education Sciences, 15, 1413-1413
|
|
|
| 2025 |
Smithers K, Harris J, Heffernan T, Gurr S, 'Decasualisation and the universities accord: an examination of university approaches', Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 47, 282-298 (2025) [C1]
Casual and fixed-term employment is rife across Australian universities, with current estimates suggesting that around 60% of the workforce are precariously employed. T... [more]
Casual and fixed-term employment is rife across Australian universities, with current estimates suggesting that around 60% of the workforce are precariously employed. This level of precarious employment poses substantial challenges for individual employees, and for the quality and sustainability of teaching and research in universities. The Australian Universities Accord identifies that casualisation is a key factor in 'undermining the workforce'. Drawing on an analysis of current publicly available university Enterprise Bargaining Agreements, this paper presents an examination of the state of play for decasualisation schemes within Australia. Through this examination, we consider possibilities for decasualisation schemes and aim to illuminate pathways for reducing the sector's reliance on a highly casualised workforce. In doing so, we provide insight into models for decasualisation and ways that university workforces might be re-shaped in coming years.
|
|
|
| 2024 |
Smithers K, Hillyar K, 'Using Founder's syndrome to explore leadership in one Zimbabwean school funded by tourism', JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND HISTORY [C1]
|
|
|
| 2024 |
Smithers K, 'School tours and philanthropy in Zimbabwe', ANNALS OF TOURISM RESEARCH EMPIRICAL INSIGHTS, 5 (2024) [C1]
In Zimbabwe, partnerships with tourism companies enable schools to raise funds for infrastructure in exchange for allowing tourists to enter their school. This paper re... [more]
In Zimbabwe, partnerships with tourism companies enable schools to raise funds for infrastructure in exchange for allowing tourists to enter their school. This paper reports on one school using semi-structured interviews with teachers, school staff and tourism personnel. To shed light on the school tour, it explores three configurations of tours and funding. This paper argues that little is known about this type of tourism and by exploring three configurations of the school tour, it highlights the issues concerned with these types of partnerships and contributes a deeper understanding of these partnerships to the research literature.
|
|
|
| 2024 |
Smithers K, 'Heterotopia and the 'image of Africa': school tours and philanthropy in a Zimbabwean school', CRITICAL STUDIES IN EDUCATION, 65, 386-402 (2024) [C1]
|
|
|
| 2024 |
Smithers K, Gibbs L, 'Challenges and opportunities for early career researchers: using the theory of practice architectures to unpack enabling and constraining conditions', PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATION [C1]
|
|
|
| 2024 |
Harper M, Smithers K, 'Fieldwork from A-Z? Exploring shifting identities in doctoral research in Australia and Zimbabwe', AUSTRALIAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHER, 51, 1469-1485 (2024) [C1]
|
|
|
| 2023 |
Smithers K, ''What is your name, where do you come from, what is your grade?' Using art-based interviews to highlight the experience of children hosting school tours in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe', TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH, 48, 912-924 (2023) [C1]
|
|
|
| 2023 |
Smithers K, Spina N, Harris J, Gurr S, 'Working every weekend: The paradox of time for insecurely employed academics', TIME & SOCIETY, 32, 101-122 (2023) [C1]
|
|
Open Research Newcastle |
| 2023 |
Harris J, Smithers K, Spina N, Heffernan T, 'Disrupting dominant discourses of the Other: examining experiences of contract researchers in the academy', STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION, 48, 37-48 (2023) [C1]
|
|
Open Research Newcastle |
| 2022 |
Spina N, Smithers K, Harris J, Mewburn I, 'Back to zero? Precarious employment in academia amongst 'older' early career researchers, a life-course approach', BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION, 43, 534-549 (2022) [C1]
|
|
Open Research Newcastle |
| 2022 |
Smithers K, Harris J, Goff M, Spina N, Bailey S, 'Ethical responsibilities of tenured academics supervising non-tenured researchers in times of neoliberalism and precarity', JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND HISTORY, 54, 37-53 (2022) [C1]
Neoliberal reform of the university sector has resulted in increasing numbers of academics employed on casual or fixed-term contracts. While there is an emergent body o... [more]
Neoliberal reform of the university sector has resulted in increasing numbers of academics employed on casual or fixed-term contracts. While there is an emergent body of literature on issues of precarity in the academy, relatively little attention has been paid to the roles and responsibilities of those tenured academics who employ and manage non-tenured researchers. The work involved in hiring and managing a contract researcher is rarely acknowledged or supported, and managers receive little to no training. In this paper, we draw on Dorothy Smith's feminist sociological approach to analyse interviews with 22 non-tenured researchers to examine how managerial relationships shape the employment experiences of those working precariously. We argue that tenured academics have ethical responsibilities to provide a working environment that is fair, supports the ongoing development and wellbeing of non-tenured staff, and challenges dominant discourses of precarious academics as 'other'.
|
|
Open Research Newcastle |
