Various research groups and associations operate within the School to provide support to students with common research interests. The interest areas of the groups vary from year to year and depend on the interests of both staff and students.


Developmental Disabilities Research Group
The Developmental Disability Research Group focuses on a range of educational issues associated with impairment, disability and handicap across the lifespan. It acts as an informal forum for researchers, postgraduate students and others who wish to participate.
Contact: Dr Anne Jobling of Education

Middle Years of Schooling Research Group
The middle years of schooling is a field of study which is still in formation, with contesting and contested definitions and ideas. This research group will critically review work in the field, searching for alternative and other disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses to look at middle schooling and middle schooling teacher education.
Contact: Associate Professor Donna Pendergast


Transcript Analysis Group
The Transcript Analysis Group is a data research group that meets regularly every semester. The group now encompasses and welcomes staff and students from QUT and Griffith Universities as well as the University of Queensland. All staff and students researching with transcript data are very welcome to attend.
Participants of the group are involved in varied methodologies and data analysis techniques, including conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, membership categorisation analysis, and narrative analysis. New students who wish to get some introduction to transcript analysis, or these methodologies are also very welcome. The format of the sessions is usually that of a data presentation from one of the group members followed by discussion and analysis.
TAG has operated for the past 10 years and we are happy that the group involves personnel working across the three universities. If you would like to join us as either a participant or a presenter, we would be pleased to hear from you in the near future.
Contact:
Dr Jayne Keogh: j.keogh@uq.edu.au
A/Prof Greer Johnson: g.johnson@griffith.edu.au
A/Prof Susan Danby: s.danby@qut.edu.au

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) Group
This research group was originally formed as an outcome of a Norman Fairclough Masterclass held at UQ in July 2002, however the group is open to all staff and students who are applying (or interested in using) CDA as a research methodology. The group consists of staff and students from both QUT and UQ, and is thus able to provide access to a broad range of perspectives. Members of the group are applying CDA to a wide range of data including interview transcripts, transcripts of television and film, written texts such as policy documents and syllabus documents and transcripts of classroom practice and interaction. A major function of the group is to assist members with their research through critical discussion of their works in progress, so group discussions often revolve around samples of research data. However discussions also highlight issues of methodology, validity and reliability, applied linguistics, and context and the relationship between theory and methodology. The group works toward supporting critical, political and socially motivated research, addressing questions around the issues of power and class, gender and culture.
Contact: Margaret Kettle m.kettle@uq.edu.au