Teaching context and philosophy

Teaching context

I am a lecturer in Public Health where I convene PHCM9626 Inequalities and Health in the Masters program. My teaching draws on over a decade of experience across multiple universities, and is closely connected to my research and industry engagement in NSW Local Health Districts.

I primarily teach postgraduate students who are often working health professionals. Many come to the program with a strong commitment to equity and social justice but find it difficult to connect this motivation to the conceptual tools needed to analyse and act on complex health issues. My teaching bridges this gap by connecting theoretical frameworks with examples and real-world practice. Through curriculum design, partnership with researchers and practitioners, and engagement with lived experience voices, I aim to prepare graduates for the complex work required in contemporary public health systems - work that requires collaboration and a strong equity lens. 

I also co-convene PHCM9010 Community Participation and Co-design, a course undergoing significant curriculum redevelopment in 2026. This work extends my interest in equity, participatory and practice-based approaches in public health education.

Teaching philosophy

My teaching is grounded in a student-centred and critically engaged view of learning - or as bell hooks (1994) would put it, in "education as the practice of freedom". I see education not just as transmitting knowledge, but as creating the conditions that enable students to actively construct meaning, and make sense of new ideas in relation to their own experiences, values and professional contexts. In this sense, education is also a practice, something that equips students not to only to understand the world, but to act within it.

In public health education, this means challenging students to move beyond overly simplified or purely biomedical understandings of health, and to engage with the structural, social, and political dimensions of health and inequities. My goal then is to help students build confidence working with complex and sometimes uncomfortable ideas, while also making these ideas accessible and relevant to their practice.

I draw on constructivist and critical pedagogy to design learning environments that are participatory and inclusive, but also intellectually challenging. Scaffolding and offering multiple entry points into the material, or different multimedia resources are key to achieving this (cf. Universal Design Learning principles): I don't expect that students will "just get it" but rather provide them with tools to unpack complexity. I also emphasise reflection and dialogue to encourage students to connect course content to their own work context, and to consider their role and responsibilities in addressing inequities and power imbalances. 

Ultimately, my teaching aims to foster critical thinking, professional responsibility and the capacity to act on inequities and create more participatory health and social care systems & practices.