Rate My Professor Marnie Best

Dr. Marnie Best is a Lecturer in the School of Education within the College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences at Adelaide University, where she also serves as a full member of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy and a Bachelor of Education (JPP) with First Class Honours. Dr. Best received the Australian Centre for Child Protection Research Scholarship for her doctoral research, which examined alternative education provision and the social and psychological factors influencing achievement motivation among marginalised students in the middle years of schooling. Previously at the University of South Australia, she lectures at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in inclusive education, disability studies in education, educational psychology, and sociology. She is eligible to supervise Masters and PhD students and has experience as a higher degree by research supervisor.

Dr. Best's research specializations include inclusive education, disability studies in education, the nexus between inclusive policy and practice, adolescent wellbeing, alternative education provision, educational marginalisation, and sociocultural theory. She is currently leading a university-funded project investigating early career teacher retention in complex alternative education settings. An accomplished author and editor, she holds positions as Executive Editor of the Journal of Disability Studies in Education, Associate Editor of the International Journal of Inclusive Education, and Senior Editor for the Inclusive and Special Education section of Cogent Education. Her key publications encompass the co-edited book Who's In? Who's Out? What to Do about Inclusive Education (Brill Sense, 2018), the editorial The Salamanca Statement: 25 Years On (International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2019), Transforming Pre-Service Teachers' Beliefs and Understandings about Design and Technologies (Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2017), and recent articles such as The Complex and Contradictory Nature of Alternative Education Provision (Cogent Education, 2024) and Teaching within the 'Margins': Capturing the Challenges, Tensions, and Rewards of Alternative Education (Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 2024). Her scholarship advances inclusive practices for vulnerable learners and educators.