Rate My Professor Joanne Ailwood

Associate Professor Joanne Ailwood serves as Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Education within the College of Human and Social Futures at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She earned her PhD from the University of Queensland, Bachelor of Teaching from Griffith University, and Bachelor of Educational Studies including Honours from the University of Queensland. Ailwood joined the University of Newcastle in mid-2010, following academic positions at the University of Edinburgh, Queensland University of Technology, and Charles Sturt University. She held roles as Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Early Childhood at Queensland University of Technology from 2009 to 2011 and Visiting Scholar at the Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh in 2013. Prior to academia, she taught children aged 6 months to 10 years in primary schools and early childhood settings in Queensland, Australia, and London, UK. From 2010 to 2015, she convened the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary)/Bachelor of Early Childhood Studies program at the University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus and coordinates undergraduate and masters courses. She supervises Honours, Masters, EdD, and PhD theses on early childhood education topics and serves on various university committees across institutions.

Ailwood's research specializes in early childhood education, employing social theory to examine the concept of care in teaching, power relationships in early years settings among children, staff, and parents, preschool education policy analysis, and the historical place of women and mothers in early childhood education. Her work uses poststructural theorising to challenge common knowledges such as play, emphasizing positive discourses on young children and educators. Notable projects include a 2013 FEDUA Mid-Career Researcher grant exploring educator-parent relationships, co-leadership of the National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schools project from 2014 to 2018, and annual two-week study tours to Zimbabwe for teacher education students since 2015, involving about 45 participants. Key publications encompass books like Understanding Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia: Practices and Perspectives (2020, co-edited with Wendy Boyd and Mary Theobald) and Early Childhood in Australia: Historical and Comparative Contexts (2007); chapters including Philosophy of Education in a New Key (2025) and Communities of Care: A Collective Writing Project (2022); and journal articles such as Ballet in a Box: Iso-Ballet, Lockdown, and the Reconstruction of the Domestic Space (2023). She is Secretary of the International Board of Directors for Tariro, a Zimbabwe NGO, and an executive committee member of the University of Newcastle Centre for African Research Education and Partnerships.