Rate My Professor Kelly Shoecraft

Dr. Kelly Shoecraft is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Collaborative Educational Excellence at Griffith University and Program Director of the Griffith Certificate in University Learning and Teaching (GCULT). She is a lifelong educator and applied linguist whose career began teaching Japanese as a Languages Other Than English (LOTE) teacher in Queensland high schools. Shoecraft earned her PhD at Griffith University, investigating children’s translanguaging practices in a French immersion preschool. Her international teaching experience includes serving as an instructor at Vantage College, a pathways program at the University of British Columbia in Canada. As an award-winning educator, she holds Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), has received a Griffith University Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award, and was honored with the 2024 CAULLT award for the reimagined GCULT program integrating Indigenous ways of learning.

Shoecraft’s research specializations encompass applied linguistics, transformative learning in language acquisition, multilingualism, translanguaging, childhood bilingualism, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and TESOL pedagogy. Key publications include “EAP Learners as Discourse Analysts: Empowering Emergent Multilingual Students” (2022, co-authored with Jodie L. Martin and Greta Perris, BC TEAL Journal), “Applying Padlet, VoiceThread and Microsoft Teams in Online Language Courses During COVID-19” (2023), “Using an Action Research Approach to Support English as an Additional Language or Dialect Students in Anatomy and Physiology” (2024, co-authored), “A Transformative Learning Approach to Empower Effective Language Learners” (2024, co-authored with Susana A. Eisenchlas, Student Success), and “Figurative Language and Narrative Writing: Insights from High-Achieving Primary School Students” (2025, co-authored with D.P. Thomas et al., Australian Educational Researcher). She supervises the student-led Langwich podcast on languages and cultures, contributes to the Griffith Institute for Educational Research, and co-chairs the Academic Development Special Interest Group of HERDSA. Her work promotes inclusive, innovative teaching practices and empowers multilingual learners in higher education.