Dr Jenna Gillett-Swan is an Associate Professor and researcher in the Faculty of CI, Education, and Social Justice at QUT. Her research focuses on wellbeing, rights, voice, inclusion, and participation. She also specialises in qualitative child-centred participatory research methodologies.

Jenna is the co-leader for the Voice and Wellbeing Research Program within the Centre for Inclusive Education (C4IE), and was the Child Rights Research Strand Leader for the Student Engagement, Learning and Behaviour Research Group (prior to its development into C4IE). She is an active member of the Research in Children’s Rights and Education Network of the European Educational Research Association and is Co-Convenor (Research and Publications) for this Network.

Jenna guest edited the Global Studies of Childhood Journal Special Issue on ‘Children’s Rights in a 21st Century Digital World’ (2016) and the Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Special Issue on ‘Exploring the diversity of pre-service and beginning teachers’ experiences through multiple lenses’ (2017). She is currently guest editing a special issue on ‘Children’s Rights from a Sustainability Perspective: The UNCRC in Dialogue with Agenda 2030′  in Social Sciences.

Jenna is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and an Associate Fellow (Indigenous) of the Higher Education Academy. She was a member of the QUT Higher Education Research Network Executive Committee, Master of Education (Inclusive Education) Study Area Coordinator (2015-2016) and school representative on the Faculty of Education Equity Committee (2016-2019) and Chair of the Faculty of Education Equity Committee (2020). She was also the Unit Coordinator for a large Professional Experience Unit in the Bachelor of Education program. Currently, she teaches into the Bachelor of Education degree programs.

Jenna was awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Performance Award in 2015, the Executive Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 2016, and the Australian Teacher Education Association [ATEA] Early Career Research Recognition Award (2016). She has also been awarded an Australian Award for University Teaching [AAUT] Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2019), and nominated for a Wharton Reimagining Education Award in 2020.

Jenna has been successful in securing a Brisbane Catholic Education Research Grant (Lead Investigator – 2016), a National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education grant (Co-Lead Investigator – 2016), and Advance Queensland Grant (2017) and two Education Horizon Competitive Grants (CI2 – 2017; Lead Investigator – 2018), and a Women in Research Grant (2020).

Jenna’s research focuses on a social justice orientation that seeks to build and enable individual capacity and wellbeing. Recent funded research projects include:

• Wellbeing matters: a collaborative approach to harnessing student voice to develop a Wellbeing Framework for Action in the middle years
• Voice Inclusive Practice: Engaging Children’s Perspectives in Wellbeing Pedagogy
• Empowering learners: Using student voice, video recorded classroom interactions and teacher feedback
• Kids Rights in Schools Project [KRISP]
• Equity considerations in pre-service teacher education
• Investigating the Impact of Youth Groups on the Community