Gonski to build on Growing Up Digital research under new director
The Gonski Institute for Education at UNSW Sydney will continue its mission to deliver equitable education under the leadership of new Director Professor Kim Beswick.
Building on the work already undertaken, including the groundbreaking ‘Growing Up Digital’ research project, Beswick said she is proud and honoured to take on the role and lead the institute forward.
“The most important and most intractable problems in education concern equity,” she said.
“Unequal access to quality education and inequitable outcomes are evident in relation to rurality, socio-economic status, race, disability and gender across schools, school systems and countries.”
Founded in 2018, the Gonski Institute for Education works to provide educators, communities, policymakers and government with the knowledge and tools to transform educational outcomes. Based in UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture, the institute works across disciplines on problems at the intersections of education with health, justice, business and economics to address and advance educational equity. It brings together scholars, policymakers and practitioners to conduct research that will help improve academic and wellbeing outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged students.
Professor Beswick has been the Head of the School of Education since joining UNSW in January 2019. The new appointment adds to her distinguished career as an educator and educational researcher, having published more than 110 peer-reviewed publications and served on a range of national and international committees in mathematics education and teacher education.
Professor Beswick says she hopes to continue to enhance the quality of educational opportunities for all students, especially those in low socio-economic communities and rural and remote areas.
“We often talk about education in terms of needing to raise scores on international tests and in other performance benchmarks, but the most effective thing we could do to address this is to provide more equitable educational opportunities.
“If we solve equity, we will solve almost everything,” she said.
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