Rate My Professor John Fischetti

Professor John Fischetti is an Emeritus Professor of Leadership and School Transformation in the School of Education within the College of Human and Social Futures at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He holds a Doctor of Education (1986) from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst focusing on professional development, school reform, and educational leadership for change; a Master’s in Secondary Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and American Government from the University of Virginia; and a teaching certificate in secondary social studies. Over 40 years in education, he started as a high school teacher and advanced to key roles such as Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Human and Social Futures (2021–2024) and the Faculty of Education and Arts (2018–2020), Head of the School of Education at Newcastle, Dean and Professor of Educational Leadership at Southeastern Louisiana University (2012–2013), Inaugural Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (2001–2007), and Professor of Secondary Education at the University of Louisville (1988–2001), where he helped develop the Professional Development School model of teacher education.

His scholarly work centers on transformational school reform, rethinking schooling and teacher education, educational leadership, equity-driven pedagogy, personalized learning, and student agency. Notable publications include the book The Future of Schooling in a GenAI World (2025, co-authored with Imig, Shaw, and Vo); Creating Spaces of Wellbeing and Belonging for Refugee and Asylum-Seeker Students: Skills and Strategies for Classroom Teachers (2023); and peer-reviewed articles such as Micro-teaching 2.0: Technology as the classroom (2020, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 214 citations), Practice before Practicum: Simulation in Initial Teacher Education (2022, The Teacher Educator), and What if compulsory schooling was a 21st century invention? Weak signals from a systematic review of the literature (2019, International Journal of Educational Research). Fischetti has received awards including the Australian College of Educators Excellence Award (2016), Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award (2009, University of North Carolina Wilmington), and University of Louisville Distinguished Teaching Award (1997). He served as Immediate Past President of the New South Wales Council of Deans of Education and leads initiatives like the Global Learning Equity Network.