Rate My Professor Carolyn Wade

Carolyn Wade serves as a Lecturer Level B (Teaching Focused) in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University. She is also a Research Fellow affiliated with the Griffith Institute for Educational Research (GIER) and leads the Educational Leadership Futures research group. With more than twenty years of hands-on experience in educational leadership, including serving as a school Principal and Assistant Principal, Wade transitioned into academia where she now combines practical insights with scholarly inquiry. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in the School of Education and Professional Studies, commencing in April 2023. Her research specializes in educational leadership, focusing on the lived experiences of school leaders amid challenges such as parent engagement, emotional labour, gendered dynamics in leadership, and overall wellbeing. In 2026, she holds the position of Program Director for Griffith University's Master of Education.

An accomplished educator recognized as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), Carolyn Wade has earned accolades for her contributions to research and teaching. Notably, she won the Postgraduate Student Researcher Award at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) conference in 2024 for her paper entitled “Death by a thousand cuts: Understanding the experience of school leaders navigating parent engagement,” subsequently published in the Australian Educational Researcher (2025, volume 52, issue 3, pages 2113-2136). Key publications also encompass “Engagement at a cost: rethinking gendered leadership and emotional labour in contemporary schooling” (2026, Leadership and Policy in Schools) and explorations into parent engagement's impact on school leaders' wellbeing (2025). Additionally, she acts as a guest editor for the special issue “Leadership Strategies for Integrating Teacher and Parent Engagement” in the journal Education. In teaching, Wade convenes courses such as Navigating Educational Leadership (7248EDN), Leading Learning and Change (7008EDN), Understanding Diverse Learners (7750EDN/7751EDN), Practitioner Researchers and the Teaching and Learning Cycle (7019EDN), and Pedagogies for Engaged Learning: Primary (7752EDN). Her scholarship underscores the emotional demands on principals from parental interactions, advocating for systemic supports to enhance leadership sustainability and school environments.