QTU Education Researchers
The QTU believes that the status and dignity of the teaching profession are enhanced when the voice of teachers is heard in the field of education research. The QTU welcomes the contribution of our members and academic peers who engage in the field of higher degree research in education and related fields.
The Queensland Teachers’ Union of Employees (QTU) has a proud history of partnering with education researchers where such research establishes demonstrable links to the QTU’s values and priorities. Therefore, the QTU welcomes research that makes advances in social equity, school funding, curriculum and pedagogy, teacher professionalism, education leadership, industrial matters, and a suite of other areas. The QTU supports research that adopts methodological approaches, including quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and critical research that can collect data from large scale populations or single-n studies.
Dr Evelyn Scott Memorial Lecture
We know that there is an urgent need for teachers, activists, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and non-Indigenous people to come together to promote reconciliation on these lands, and particularly to attend to the business of reconciliation in education. The QTU’s annual Dr Evelyn Scott Memorial Lecture is intended to be part of that process.
The lecture is named after Dr Evelyn Scott, an activist and campaigner for First Nations rights and social justice.
Dr Scott was born in Ingham in 1935 on the traditional lands of the Nywaigi People. By the 1960s, she was working with the Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advancement League, and went on to become one of the leading campaigners for a “yes” vote in the 1967 referendum.
Dr Scott later served as Vice-President and then General Secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). She was a strong voice with the Cairns and District Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Women and the National Aboriginal and Islander Women’s Council, and from 1997 to 2000 was chair of the National Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.
Throughout her life, Dr Scott’s fierce yet dignified leadership challenged things that weren’t right. She was adamant that women must have a voice in politics and First Nations peoples should determine the agenda on the issues that matter to them.
On reconciliation, Dr Scott offers us these thoughts:
“In true reconciliation, through the remembering the grieving and the healing, we can come to terms with our conscience and become as one in the dreaming of this land. Will you take our hand? Will you dare to share our dream?”
The inaugural Dr Evelyn Scott Memorial Lecture was delivered by Professor Tracey Bunda in 2021, supported by the IYMP Brisbane Dance Group. Since then, the QTU has welcomed keynote speakers Cassandra Diamond (2022) and Thomas Mayo (2023). This year’s lecture was delivered by Dr Janine Gertz, and was supported by Hon Lance McCallum MP (Minister for Training and Skills).
The QTU is grateful that Dr Scott’s descendants have given permission to name this event in Dr Scott’s honour.