Skip to main
This is Dr. Sharon McDonough expert profile image

Dr. Sharon McDonough

Associate Professor, Teacher Education

Contact

Campus

Mt Helen Campus

Biography

Associate Professor Sharon McDonough is an internationally recognised researcher in teacher education and development, with a particular focus on teacher wellbeing and resilience.

Before joining Federation, Sharon worked as a teacher in secondary schools and she brings her industry experience to her university teaching. Sharon has a commitment to school-based practice, and alongside working in higher education, she also holds a teaching position in a school context as an instructional coach.

Sharon’s research examines the pedagogy and practice of teacher and higher education, practitioner inquiry as meaningful and authentic professional learning, and how best to prepare teachers for the profession. 

Sharon draws on qualitative and creative research methods to explore teacher education, how to develop resilient and mindful educators and educational communities, and how to support and advance a focus on wellbeing across the lifespan in community contexts. Her current research examines ways to create caring and supportive online learning communities in higher education and the impact of practitioner inquiry for teacher professional learning.  

Fields of research

  • Teacher and student wellbeing
  • Teacher education and professional development of educators
  • Continuing and community education

Available for

Professional Comment

HDR Examiner

Is this your profile? Submit an update

More about Sharon

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Australian Catholic University
  • Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary), Australian Catholic University
  • Graduate Certificate of Education (Tertiary Teaching), University of Ballarat
  • Master of Education, University of Ballarat
  • Master of Arts (Literary Studies), Deakin University
  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Ballarat

Areas of interest

  • Initial teacher education and ongoing teacher professional learning  
  • Teacher wellbeing and resilience 
  • Pedagogy, practice and wellbeing in higher education (with a specific focus on teacher education) 
  • Continuing and community education

Awards

  • 2022: Research Recognition Award, Australian Teacher Education Association 
  • 2015: Dean’s Award, Faculty of Education and Arts, Federation University Australia 
  • 2013: Office of Learning and Teaching National Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (OLT) 
  • 2011: Vice-Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, University of Ballarat 

Current

  • PhD student, Federation University, ‘Pedagogy and practice in Victorian prisons’.

Past

  • PhD student, Federation University, ‘Aspirations in the peri-urban fringe’. 
  • PhD student, Federation University, ‘Young mothers: discursive constructions of their lives and identities'.  
  • Master’s student, Federation University, ‘Never give up... : Perceptions of perseverance and its impact on the life and academic success of nine university students’.

  • Secondary education 
  • Practitioner inquiry 
  • Youth identity, diversity and wellbeing 

Professional association memberships

  • Victorian Institute of Teaching 
  • Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) 
  • Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) 

Centre for Regional Education Research and Development (CRERD)

Sharon is part of the Centre for Regional Education Research and Development (CRERD), a Victorian‑first research centre working to improve education outcomes for regional and rural communities. 

Health Innovation and Transformation Centre

Sharon is part of the Health Innovation and Transformation Centre, which aims to answer complex global healthcare questions that impact the health and wellbeing of our regional, national and international communities.
  • Publications

Inside the game of teacher education: seeing and sharing the troublesome and delightful dimensions of the field

Visualizing data to explore the affective and human dimensions of education research

The Making Academic: Perspectives on Expressive Practice and Wellbeing in Higher Education

Making as Wellbeing: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Academic Maker Identities in Higher Education

Creating Wellbeing: The Role of Making Practices in Academic Contexts

A Call for Change: Creative and Making Practices as Essential Practices to Support Wellbeing and the Transformative Potential of Education Nar

Creatively conventional: visualising data to represent the individual and collective voices of teacher educators