Adjunct Associate Professor
Jennifer Alford

Profile image of Adjunct Associate Professor Jennifer Alford

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Teacher Education & Leadership


Personal details

Positions

Adjunct Associate Professor
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Teacher Education & Leadership

Keywords

Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, Literacy, Critical Literacy, Digital Literacy, Media Literacy, EAL/D, ESL, ELL, TESOL, Bilingualism, Language, Language Teaching, Language Learning, Second Language Teaching, Linguistics, Applied linguistics, Case Study, Critical Case Study, Language and Content Integration, Critical Thinking, Policy, Curriculum, Syllabus, Intercultural understanding

Research field

Curriculum and Pedagogy, Cultural Studies, Language Studies

Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008

Qualifications

  • PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
  • Master of Education TESOL (Queensland University of Technology)
  • Grad Dip Education (University of Queensland)
  • Bachelor of Arts (University of Queensland)

Professional memberships and associations

Editorships and reviewing: Jennifer is Co-Editor of Literacy Research: Theory, Method & Practice journal (2020-2023) and regularly reviews articles for various journals including English in Australia; Australian Journal of Language and Literacy; English Teaching: Practice and Critique; Critical Inquiry in Language Studies; Asia Pacific Journal of Education; Journal of Literacy Research.

Professional memberships:


  • International Literacy Association (ILA)
  • Australian Council of TESOL Associations (ACTA) including QATESOL
  • Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA)
  • Australian Association of Teachers of English (AATE) incuding ETAQ
  • American Educational Research Association (AERA)
  • Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE)

Teaching

Jennifer's teaching includes:

  • Core B.Ed units on working with EAL/D learners in mainstream classrooms.
  • Secondary English curriculum units in B.Ed and Master of Teaching programs.
  • Various undergraduate electives in the ESL/languages area and in Sociology of Education.
  • Professional short courses for overseas trained teachers - Hong Kong University; Jiangsu Education Dept and China Scholarship Council.
  • CDA for Education researchers - Doctoral students' intensives.

Her sustained teaching excellence is evident in the following achievements: In 2018, Jennifer was part of a team that won a QUT Faculty of Education Real World Team teaching Award. In 2017, Jennifer led a teaching team that won a 2017 Faculty of Education Real World Team Teaching award in recognition for their work in making strong links to the QUT 2020 Teaching and Learning vision, and for preparing classroom-ready pre-service teachers. In 2012, Jennifer was nominated by a cohort of international students for a Vice Chancellor's award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2010, Jennifer was part of the Languages Education Team which was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award by the Faculty of Education at QUT. This award acknowledges sustained outstanding student evaluations of teaching, and team collaboration to produce effective, innovative pedagogy for diverse learners. In 2009, Jennifer was awarded a QUT Faculty Teaching and Learning Scholarship of Teaching Award for her involvement in the production of a DVD to support international students on field experience in schools (practicum) and the publication of associated research papers (see Publications). Off shore teaching includes: Chicago, Illinois, US -  AERA Annual Meeting full day Professional Development Course - Critical Discourse Analysis Theory and Method. April 16, 2015; Chaoyang, Beijing, PRC - Chaoyang District Teacher Training Institute. Topic: 'Student Centred Learning'.  Aug 23 - Sept 6 , 2014.

What do students say about Jennifer's teaching?  
Semester 2, 2017:
Jen's teaching was excellent. She was extremely knowledgeable, organised,

positive, warm and encouraging. She was able to cater to students from a range of

backgrounds, and uniquely able to teach us how to do the same. I feel so much

more confident as a beginning practitioner having been in her class. She was

wonderful.

I learned so much from Jen - an outstanding teacher that I can only hope to one day emulate.

A great learning experience that was very applicable to 'real world' situations. Thank you :)

The way Dr Alford integrated teaching methods that we can use in the high school

classroom into her weekly seminars was excellent - teaching by example.

Thoroughly enjoyable and educational.

Jen had a fantastic way of modelling what was being taught. She was a very

conscientious teacher who clearly cared about her students' learning.

This is the second time I have had Jen as a lecturer and she is an incredible teacher

who really helped me in a subject that I felt incompetent in. She scaffolds her

lessons appropriately, endeavours to ensure there is a clear understanding and

provides activities and learning experiences which are highly valuable to my

learning. She is highly encouraging, supportive and helped me to achieve more than I thought I would in the subjects I used to struggle in.

I wish I could have another unit with her. An amazing and inspiring teacher.

Experience

Publications

QUT ePrints

For more publications by Jennifer, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).

View more publications

Filter publications:

A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/jh.alford

Awards

Selected research projects

Projects listed above are funded by Australian Competitive Grants. Projects funded from other sources are not listed due to confidentiality agreements.