Our Team

This research is being conducted by a team of highly skilled researchers in the area of gender and sexuality in education from the School of Education at Western Sydney University. The team has a combined experience of teaching and researching in this field spanning over three decades, with a proven track record in undertaking nationally-competitive and complex research projects. The study is being funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), Project ID: DP180101676.

Associate Professor Tania Ferfolja researches and teaches in the School of Education at Western Sydney University. Her work centres on equity in education with a focus on gender and sexuality diversities (GSD) in curricula, policy, pedagogy, education and employment practices in Australia and internationally. Tania is the lead researcher on this Australian Research Council Discovery project examining parental perspectives of GSD-inclusions in the school curriculum and the experiences of parents of GSD children. She is widely published in a broad range of peer-reviewed publications. She has published 5 books with the most recent, co-authored with A/Prof Jacqueline Ullman entitled, “Sexuality and Gender Diversity in a Culture of Limitation: Student and Teacher Experiences in Schools” (Ferfolja & Ullman, 2020, Routledge). The next book, also to be authored with A/Prof Jacqueline Ullman, is entitled, “Understanding Parents’ Perceptions of Gender and Sexuality Diversity in the Classroom. Allied. Opposed. Unsure.” It is currently under contract with Routledge (UK).

Jacqueline Ullman is an Associate Professor of Adolescent Development, Behaviour and Wellbeing in the School of Education at Western Sydney University, where she teaches research methods and approaches to gender and sexuality diversity in the classroom for preservice teachers.  Jacqueline is a CI on two Australian Research Council grants: the Gender and Sexuality Diversity in Schools (GSDS) project as well as a project investigating “everyday sexism” at Australian universities.  She is a prolific author in the field of gender and sexuality diversity in schooling, including articles in the Journal of School Psychology, Journal of Youth Studies, and Sex Education, and her co-authored book (with A/Prof Tania Ferfolja) Gender and Sexuality Diversity in a Culture of Limitation was released by Routledge in 2020.

Tara Goldstein is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT). Her current teaching and research program focuses on gender, sexuality and schooling, and verbatim theatre research. In 2005, Tara won the Activist Scholarship Award from the American Education Research Association (AERA) Queer Special Interest Group.  The findings from her latest research project “The Experiences of LGBTQ Families in Ontario Schools” funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council from 2016-2020 are shared in her books Teaching Gender and Sexuality at School: Letters to Teachers (Routledge/Taylor and Francis, 2019) and Our Children are Your Students:  LGBTQ Students Speak Out (Myers Education Press, 2021).

Dr. Lucy Hobby received her PhD in Educational Psychology from the Australian Catholic University in 2016. Lucy is also a Registered Psychologist, having graduated from the Master of Psychology (Clinical) with Distinction from the University of Wollongong in 2020. Lucy also holds both a Bachelor and Honours degree in Psychology, obtaining an Honours Class 1 result. In 2008, Lucy was the recipient of the Western Sydney University Medal and was also awarded the Western Sydney University Dean’s Medal for academic excellence in 2007. Lucy holds considerable research and teaching experience in the areas of educational psychology, child wellbeing, and research methods. In her current role at Western Sydney University, Lucy is a Research Associate for the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project exploring Australian parents' perceptions of gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive education in K-12 schooling.