Dr Andrew Bills
Lecturer in Educational Leadership and Management
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Andrew Bills researches in educational leadership foregrounding policy, politics and practice. He has developed three Flexible Learning Options (FLO) schools as an educational leader, diagnostic school reviewer, teacher, researcher and Education Department leadership consultant. He works [and has worked] in partnership with international, national and state educational organisations and educational stakeholders including:
- The Coaliton of Essential Schools (CES);
- The Australian Education Union (AEU);
- The University of South Australia (UniSA);
- Research Fellow on two Australian Research Council (ARC) projects in partnership with DfE and UniSA;
- Big Picture Education Australia (BPEA);
- The Department for Education (DfE);
- The Australian National Schools Network (ANSN);
- Catholic Education South Australia (CESA);
- The Australian Association for Flexible and Inclusive Education (AAFIE);
- The Independent Schools Sector;
- The Commissioner for Children and Young People;
- The Minister for Education.
In these partnerships Andrew has led and continues to lead professional development for new and experienced school leaders and has managed, designed and developed three schools using action research and appreciative inquiry as the driving school establishment and formation methodologies.
Andrew currently leads two externally funded research projects in partnership with university academics, school principals, education system bureaucrats and teacher-leaders that seek to collectively build and develop socially just schooling forms in South Australia.
Andrew works within the research traditions of phenomenology and critical policy sociology, foregrounding appreciative inquiry, transformative learning and critical action research methodologies.
Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) (1989) Charles Darwin University
Graduate Diploma Teaching (1992) Flinders University
Graduate Diploma in Educational Counselling (1996) University of South Australia
Masters in Educational Counselling (1999) University of South Australia
Workplace Assessor Training and Cerification (2003)
Graduate Certificate in Education- Inclusive Practice (2005) University of Tasmania
Doctor of Education (2011) University of Adelaide
- Reviewer commendations and Dean of Education Award for Educational Doctorate (Adelaide University) - Inclusion and engagement of disadvantaged young people for learning and wellbeing
- SA Great Award (2004) School improvement and engagement for at-risk students
Educational Leadership Academic- Policy, Politics and Practice
Coordinator Topics
- Leaders and Leadership (EDUC8602)
- Pedagogical Leadership (EDUC8618)
- Knowledge Management (EDUC9605)
- Educational Policy, Politics and Practice.
Lecture Topics
- Pedagogical Leadership (EDUC8618)
- Strategic Leadership (EDUC8601)
- Knowledge Management (EDUC9605)
- Educational Policy, Politics and Practice.
Research
- The REAL Hope action research project with CESA (2019 to 2024)
- Logics of School Design at the ASMS (2016 to 2018)
- Action research for enterprise curriculum design at Youth Inc. (2019 to 2023)
- Initiating the new STEAM agenda at Pasadena High School (now Springbank College) in partnership with Pasadena High School and Flinders University.
Community Activity
- University Advisor- CESA Vision for the North;
- Critical Leadership friend at Youth Inc., Springbank College, Mount Barker High School and the ASMS;
- Member of the ANSN- Big Picture Education Australia;
- Member of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES);
- Member of the Australian College of Education (ACE);
- Member of the Australian Association for Flexible and Inclusive Education (AAFIE);
- Reviewer for Action Research Journal and the New Zealand Journal of Teachers' Work;
- Consultancy with Specialised Assistance Schools re professional development.
Doctoral Completions
- Murray Fletcher PhD (2020): A Phenomenology of Educational Leadership
- Sabilil Muttaqin PhD (2020): A Multiple Case Study Approach Investigating Sustinable Indonesian Adaptation in Unstable Public Policy Times
- Khambane Panachay PhD (2019): Sociolgical Exploration of Government Education Policy in Laos
- Peter Scragg EdD (2016): A 'lived experience' Phenomenological Research Approach with Education Leaders focussing on their Working Lives.
The topics I teach draw from the lived experiences and professional challenges confronted by my students. These are then placed in dialectical tension with the leading literature in the field of study. Through a dialogic and dialectic interchange between theory and professional experience, my students can learn new ways of seeing the world and leading through educational challenges.
- Doctoral Supervision in Educational Leadership- Policy, Politics and Practice I work to foster in all students the critical and creative dispositions to become more radical an pragmatic educational leaders in a neoliberal world that is shutting down these particular dispositions and producung instrumental leader compliance.This requires professional work against the grain and calls upon leaders to feel free to be themselves in a world that is calling them to be anything but themselves. Here, I work to promote in all of my students the courage to teach and the courage to lead- a renewed sense of authenticity in being and becoming an educational leader.
- Research epistomologies in Critical Educational Sociology and Phenomenology
- Knowledge Management and Pedagogical Leadership
- Relational Educational Leadership
- Appreciative Inquiry and Policy Evaluation
Eductional Doctorate - DEC 2015
PhD - APR 2019
PhD - AUG 2020
PhD - MAR 2020
- Critical friend- Mt Barker High School (MtBHS), Pasadena High School (PHS), and Australian Science and Maths School (ASMS)
- Professional advice to CESA's Vision for the North project;
- Professional advice and consultancy to Youth Inc.;
- Member of the Australian College of Educators (ACE);
- Member of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE);
- Member of the Australian National Schools Network (ANSN) and Big Picture Australia (BPEA);
- Registered teacher;
- Member of the Australian Tertiary Education Union (ATEU);
- Member of the Australian Asociation for Flexible and Inclusive Education (AAFIE)
- Education - Middle School
- Education - Policy
- Education - Year 12
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