Rate My Professor Paul Unsworth

Dr. Paul Unsworth is a Lecturer in the Education Futures Unit within the School of Education, College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences at Adelaide University. His current teaching and course coordination responsibilities encompass Primary Science and Mathematics Education and Digital Literacies in the undergraduate program, as well as Educational Leadership and Complexity Studies in the Master’s of Educational Leadership program. Paul has a strong background in Aboriginal education, having worked extensively across rural and remote communities in South Australia and the Northern Territory. He served as Chair of the NT Indigenous Education Portfolio from 2005 to 2006 and was appointed Chief Investigator and Project Manager of the $1.3 million National Excellence & Equity Indigenous Mathematics and STEM Education research project, leading its completion in 2018. He is involved in teaching and research at the Samsung SMART School, exploring the benefits of immersive technologies in educational learning design. With qualified backgrounds in science, sociology, leadership, and complexity studies, Paul has accumulated expertise in project management, applied research, policy development, education, and teacher training. He has been formally recognised by Chief Executive Officers for outstanding service in education to rural and remote communities.

Paul’s research focuses on positioning culturally responsive pedagogy within learning design frameworks that incorporate immersive technologies to enhance excellence and equity in STEM and Aboriginal education. His work examines how immersive technologies can serve as design and inquiry tools to increase learner engagement and qualitative output, extend spatial, visual, and semiotic architectures to improve cognitive function in culturally responsive practice, and disrupt deficit discourses in Aboriginal education. Entrepreneurial interests include applying STEM-XE education and immersive digital technologies to projects that enhance regional engagement, community sustainability, and productivity. Key publications include Anlimachie et al. (2026) 'Scaffolding rural children’s learning with home cultural capital: a strategy to decolonise curriculum in Africa through culturally responsive pedagogy'; Leonard et al. (2024) 'Enhancing Empathy for Justice: A Methodology for Expansive Teacher Professional Development through Creative Body-Based Learning'; Bentley, Sieben, and Unsworth (2022) 'STEM Education in Australia: Impediments and Solutions in Achieving a STEM-Ready Workforce'; and Unsworth et al. (2018) 'Excellence & Equity in Mathematics (XE) Project: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student achievement and tertiary aspirations in mathematics and STEM'. His contributions promote culturally responsive teaching and learning for greater educational outcomes.