Aidan is a scholar of higher education. His research work sits between educational sociology and study of political philosophy. He is undertaking a PhD with Flinders, in which he focusses on students’ identity and being in higher education. Aidan’s PhD is titled ‘Student Activism in Higher Education: the possibility and politics of students’ role in hegemonic university change’. This political work focusses on, through empirical ethnographic work, student activism, student identity, hegemony, power, protest and partnership at Flinders University. It draws on historical and contemporary context to provide a rich analysis of power and politics.

Aidan is experienced in researching primary, secondary and tertiary education. He has worked in roles that include: use of research data for policy development, application and visualisation; applying qualitative research methods to emergent education practices; application of sociological research methods and diverse qualitative methodological frameworks and tools. He has also worked in the evaluation of school and university teaching practice as a data analyst. In addition, Aidan has scoped and delivered learning and teaching platforms (open source software design), research data collection and analysis platforms, and analytic tools for student engagement in eLearning.

He has worked in a range of research projects that: involve teacher education students in STEM industry placements; design school-based teaching and learning in the context of industry; students’ self regulation of learning in STEM classrooms; the sociology of higher education in contemporary change; the role of student partnership and students as partners; and military veteran students in higher education. These projects span externally funded research from a range of bodies, including the Department of State Development, the Australian Research Council (both Discovery and Linkage) and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Please see a full research profile on ResearchNow.