Ms Linda Cranley

Biography

Linda Cranley is the coordinator of the Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree. Linda has over 30 years teaching experience and has taught at several schools within the Catholic Education system where she held the positions of classroom teacher of all year levels, gifted and talented coordinator, support teacher, and Assistant Principal (Administration).

Linda holds a Master of Philosophy (UNDA) with research conducted into the impact of standardised testing (the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy). Linda is currently completing a PhD at UWA, the title of her thesis is: Active and informed citizenship in the Foundation to Year 2 classroom: Teachers’ perspectives and practices on how active and informed citizenship can be supported.

Linda is engaged in several research projects. She is on the steering committee of an international project G.R.A.C.E (Global Research Advancing Catholic Education) which brings together the University of Notre Name, Mary Immaculate College in Limerick and Boston College, USA to create a community of practice around issues in Catholic Education. Linda is a member of the award-winning Notre Dame RELATE team which aims to enrich learning, teaching, and the student experience in the Early Childhood Education and Care programs. She is also lead researcher on a project which explores social justice through service learning.

Linda has been the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Vice Chancellor's Award for Initiatives that Enhance Student Learning and The Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) 2019 Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.

Teaching areas

Linda has taught in variety of learning areas (including Mathematics, Literacy, Religious Education, HASS) and general pedagogy courses. Currently her expertise lies in the HASS (Humanities and Social Science) Learning area where she teaches and coordinates all courses in the undergraduate and Master of Teaching Programs in both the Early Childhood and Primary Programs. Linda also has expertise in the area of Assessment in the Primary and Secondary school. She coordinates courses which provide preservice teachers (both in the undergraduate and Master of Teaching Programs) with the skills and knowledge to implement assessments strategies into their classrooms.

Undergraduate courses taught

EDUC 1611 Functional Literacy
EDUC 1001 Creating Learning Environments
EDUC 2001 Planning and Evaluation
EDUC 2618 Principles of Primary Religious Education
EDUC 2135 Introduction to Teaching Skills
EDUC 2627 Humanities 1
EDUC 4004 Humanities 2
EDUC 3651 English 3 Writing and Spelling
EDUC 2652 Mathematics 2
EDUC 4130 Advanced Teaching Skills
EDUC 4133 Professional and Legal Responsibilities of the Teacher
EDUC 4324 Intro Research and Scholarship: Humanities

Postgraduate courses taught

EDCU 5627 Humanities and Social Science
EDUC 5005 Advanced Teaching Skills

Research expertise and supervision

Linda is a PhD candidate at UWA and is conducting research regarding active citizenship in the Foundation – Year 2 classrooms. Her thesis title is: Active and informed citizenship in the Foundation to Year 2 classroom: Teachers’ perspectives and practices on how active and informed citizenship can be supported. Linda is exploring the absence of a formalised civics and citizenship curriculum in the F-2 classroom. Specifically, the study will explore the perspectives of Foundation – Year 2 teachers on how they: (i) view young children as active and informed citizens; and (ii) implement practices for children in F-2 to become active and informed citizens. To gather these perspectives from F-2 teachers, the research will be naturalistic and qualitative using a constructivist epistemology through an interpretivist lens. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews and will be analysed using thematic coding. Eighteen F-2 teachers will be purposively selected across three sectors of the Western Australian education system

The aim of this study is that it will add to the emerging discourse on the importance of young children’s agency in becoming active and informed citizens as articulated in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Declaration (2019). It is anticipated that Linda’s research will impact future curriculum policy decisions in the civics and citizenship subject within the HASS (Humanities and Social Science) learning area. It is intended that this study will generate a number journal articles and conference presentations.

Linda completed research on The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy, Assessment (NAPLAN). In her Master of Philosophy thesis, she investigated the effect NAPLAN has had on the teaching and learning of Mathematics.

Linda is currently conducting research into the Service-Learning Program in a secondary catholic school and the role civic and citizenship can play in the implementation of Service Learning. She is also a member of the RELATE team who are presently researching the role of play in early childhood.

Current higher degree by research students
Chris Simpson (MPhil). Exploring the experiences of early career secondary heads of learning area: Mathematics.

Books

Linda is lead author of a text which will be implemented into the tertiary sector in 2021. The title of the text is: Assessment, Feedback and Reporting: A Guide to Increasing Student Achievement.

Journal articles and proceedings

O’Connor, D., Robinson, C., Cranley, L., Johnson, G. & Robinson-Cook, A. (2019). Love in education: West Australian early childhood pre-service teachers’ perspectives on children’s right to be loved and its actualisation within their future practice. Early Child Development and Care. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2019.1574778
Cranley, L., Johnson, G., Robinson, C., & O'Connor, D. (2018). Belonging, being and becoming active citizens. Asia Pacific Journal of Advanced Business and Social Studies, 4 (1), 176-182.
O'Connor, D., McGunnigle, C., Davie, S., Waggoner, J., Treasure, T. & Cranley, L. (2016). Who am I in the eyes of the World? A comparative study of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of early childhood educators’ professional status in their community. Australian and American perspectives. ICERI: Seville.
McGunnigle, C., O'Connor, D., Waggoner, J., Treasure, T., Cranley, L. & Davie, S. (2015). It’s okay, I’m a…teacher. Is professional status important to teachers? EduLearn 15: Barcelona. ISBN: 978-84-606-8243-1. ISSN: 2340-1117.

Conference papers

Cranley, L., Hine, G.S.C., & Robinson, C. (2019). Parental perceptions of NAPLAN results: Who is telling the truth? Paper presented at the Mathematics Association of Victoria Conference, Melbourne.
O'Connor, D., Robinson, C., Cranley, L. (2017). Love in the classroom. Pre-Service Teachers perspective on their role within children’s right and need to be loved. AULLA, The University of Victoria, Melbourne
Cranley, L., & Hine, G.S.C. (2016). Are there any winners in high-stakes testing? A qualitative case study exploring student, parent and teacher attitudes towards NAPLAN numeracy tests in Years 3 and 5. Paper presented at the Mathematics Association of Victoria Conference, Melbourne.

Professional affiliations

History Association of Western Australia (HTWA)

Community engagement

Consultancies

Padbury Catholic Primary School: Incorporating play in indoor and outdoor centres
Mary McKillop Primary School: Assisting EAs to plan for ECE centres
Mary McKillop Primary School: Changing the classroom environment
St Jerome’s Catholic Primary School: HASS curriculum
St Denis Catholic Primary School: Parent information night: The importance of play

Live Performances

Linda has presented at the following conferences:

STEM education and our Planet: Making Connections Across Contexts at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Linda presented her research on standardised testing in Mathematics.
CEWA conference: Linda presented a workshop on implementing Geography into the primary classroom
University of Notre Dame Conference: Linda coordinated the HASS element of this conference and presented a workshop on HASS in the classroom.
Maths Association of Victoria: Linda presented her paper ‘Are there any winners in high-stakes testing?’
Parents in Education Week (PIE) South Australian Education department: How to live positively in a digital wold.
Empowering children to engage with the Australian History curriculum: What is old is new again [Conference session]. ACSA: Achieving Educational Excellence Through Student Empowerment, Engagement and Enrichment, Melbourne, Vic.
Maths Association of Victoria: Linda presented her paper: Parental Perceptions of NAPLAN: Who is telling the truth?

Awards

2008 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
2016 VC Award for Initiatives that Enhance Student Learning
2019 The Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) 2019 Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.

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