Rate My Professor Lisl Fenwick

Dr Lisl Fenwick serves as Senior Lecturer in Professional Experience in the School of Education within the College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences at Adelaide University. Her academic qualifications include a PhD (1997) and Bachelor of Arts (Honours, 1992) from the University of Adelaide, a Graduate Diploma in Education (1998) from the University of Adelaide, a Masters in Special Education (2007) from Flinders University, a Graduate Certificate in Neuroscience (Learning) from Flinders University, and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from Australian Catholic University. Previously, she was a Senior Lecturer at Australian Catholic University from 2010 to 2019 and held teaching and curriculum leadership positions in the South Australian Department for Education from 1998 to 2009.

Fenwick's research specializes in genre and dialogic pedagogies to foster language and conceptual learning in disciplinary literacy contexts, supporting preservice teachers in applying functional language models to disciplinary teaching, and examining how curriculum design, assessment methods, and differentiation practices affect opportunities to learn for disadvantaged students. She is a member of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion at the University of South Australia. Key publications include "Teaching practices for initiating and sustaining classroom dialogue about text and language within senior high-school science" (2025, L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature), "Multimodal literacy in school science: transdisciplinary perspectives on theory, research and pedagogy" (2022, Routledge; co-edited with L. Unsworth et al.), "Teacher use of genre pedagogy: engaging students in dialogue about content area language during text deconstruction" (2022, Language and Education; with M. Herrington), "Developing deep understanding about language in undergraduate pre-service teacher programs through the application of knowledge" (2014, Australian Journal of Teacher Education; with S. Humphrey et al.), and "Curriculum reform and reproducing inequality in upper-secondary education" (2011, Journal of Curriculum Studies). Her contributions have earned awards such as the 2012 Australian Educational Researcher Springer Best Paper Award from the Australian Association for Research in Education, the 2018 Teaching Award Commendation, and the 2017 Dean's Commendation for Teaching Excellence from Australian Catholic University. Fenwick also serves on the Network of Associate Deans of Professional Experience in South Australia since 2019 and supervises higher degree by research students.