Sue March
E-mail: Sue.March@Education.monash.edu.au, suemarch@netspace.net.au
The title of speech for school:
The potential for practice with fairy tales in early childhood settings in Australia – a cultural historical perspective
My name is Sue March (Female). I study at the Monash University, Faculty of Education, Victoria, Australia (PhD Supervisor: Professor Marilyn Fleer). My dissertation is a self-funded project.
Current State of PhD Research and Writing:
Preparing for confirmation in November 2010 (progressing literature review, fine-tuning research questions and developing research methodology).
The topic of my PhD Dissertation is: The potential for working with fairy tales in early childhood settings in Australia – a cultural-historical perspective.
During the Summer School I want to learn in greater depth about cultural-historical and activity theory, to network and exchange ideas with scholars researching in my areas of interest and to discuss possible future international research possibilities.
As an academic I attended the International Vygotsky Summer School 2009 – “Total Immersion in the Golden Key School Methodology” June 19 – 27, 2009, Belaya Kalitva, Russia. (My former 15-year career in international trade and policy involved several international visits, congresses and postings, including to Russia, France, Finland, Poland, India and China. I am originally from the UK, but am now an Australian citizen). My areas of interest include: the zone of proximal development, play, imagination and creativity, psychology of art (the notion of co-affects), periods in childhood development and fairy tale “semantics”. I am interested in understanding the original Russian terminology in the context of the society in which it was developed (I speak some Russian).
Fleer, M., & March, S. (2009). Engagement in science, engineering and technology: a cultural-historical reading. Review of Science, Mathematics and ICT Education, 3(1), 23 – 47.
I receive support from Monash University in the form of a travel grant and a research allowance.