Rate My Professor Sally Patfield

Patfield's academic interests center on the sociology of education, equity and social justice, quality teaching, teacher professional development, and higher education, with 50% focus on sociology of education, 25% on higher education, and 25% on teacher education. Her research analyzes structural inequalities shaping disadvantaged students' schooling experiences, transitions, and university participation, advocating for targeted supports for first-in-family students—a category she helped establish in Australian policy. She co-leads the national First-in-Family Network with Professor Sarah O’Shea. Key publications include "Community Matters" (book, 2023, Gore et al.); "The untold story of middle-class Indigenous Australian school students who aspire to university" (chapter, 2024); "Disrupting the Discourse of Under-representation: The Place of Rural Students in Australian Higher Education Equity Policy" (chapter, 2022); "How early entry schemes can help to widen access to higher education" (Higher Education Research & Development, 2026); "Problematising the ‘job-ready graduate’ ideal in Australian higher education" (Australian Educational Researcher, 2025); and “We’ve got a bit of a family mantra that you don’t give up”: A cross-national study of first-in-family students’ persistence" (Higher Education, 2026). Patfield's contributions extend to collaborative projects on teacher retention and quality teaching frameworks at the University of Newcastle.