Associate Professor Angela Fitzgerald

Ange Fitzgerald is an Associate Professor and a Director (Initial Teacher Education) in the School of Education. 

Ange is nationally and internationally recognised for her academic activities that promote and enhance the professional practice of both pre-service and in-service teachers. She describes her research as both conceptual and pragmatic as she navigates the world of the pracademic. Ange seeks to understand what defines effective teaching practices and environments as well as provide evidence-based practical implications and insights for educators. She is widely published (over 50+ books, edited books, book chapters and journal articles) and has significant success in attracting funding (approx. $2.5M across 24 research projects and scholarship opportunities and nine national and international tenders and consultancies). Ange has supervised a number of HDR students through to successful completion and has been invited to give key note addresses across Australia and abroad. 

Driven by her strongly-held values of generosity and kindness, Ange gives back to her academic community through mentorship of early career academics, participation in national accreditation panels, involvement with her professional association and numerous editorial activities. She was the Secretary/Treasurer for the Australasian Science Education Research Association (ASERA) for six years and the co-Editor-in-Chief of the highly regarded science education journal, Research in Science Education (RISE). Ange has current international collaborations with government organisations in Andorra, Jordan, Papua New Guinea and the United States. She was a Queensland-Smithsonian Fellow in 2020 and has been recognised for excellence in teaching, research and community engagement. 

Ange is also an enthusiastic cake maker, bush walker, world traveller, farm hand, novel reader, gardener and dog tamer.

• Teacher education specialist
• National accreditation oversight
• Program quality assurance and enhancement
• Primary science/STEM educator
• Qualitative researcher with an interest in documenting and sharing evidence-based education stories

Ange has a 20 year career in education spanning a range of contexts and settings.

• Secondary school contexts (4 years): General science and psychology teaching; middle school initiatives; school leadership; rural settings
  
• Tertiary education institutions (14 years): Course and program leadership; student welfare and wellbeing; professional experience leadership (locally, nationally and internationally); School and Faculty executive leadership; in three Australian states; different institutional contexts: G8, regional and technology-focused
• Non-governmental organisation (2 years): education and youth engagement advisor; international development and capacity building; Middle East location

Ange also has significant expertise in developing and delivering professional learning opportunities for teachers and experience in successfully undertaking a range of consultancy projects.