Rate My Professor Sarah Mcdonald

Dr Sarah McDonald is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences, at Adelaide University. She earned her PhD from the University of South Australia between 2018 and 2021, Master of Education from Flinders University between 2015 and 2018, Bachelor of Education from Flinders University between 2006 and 2007, and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Adelaide between 2000 and 2005. As a member of the Centre for Research in Education and Social Inclusion, her research centers on gendered subjectivities, girlhood, social mobility, social barriers, and educational inequalities. She also conducts research in literacies, focusing on gender, literacies, digital literacies, and reading. Her broader academic interests include gender aspects in education, culture, gender, sexuality, studies of men and masculinities, women's studies including girls' studies, English and literacy curriculum and pedagogy, sociology, sociology of education, gender, sexuality and education, and higher education.

Dr McDonald has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on topics including first-in-family university experiences, gender and social class in education, student belonging, literacies in science and mathematics homework, and gendered constructions in literacy. Key publications include Schulz, S., McDonald, S., and Zembylas, M. (2025) 'Tell this fuckin' bitch to pull her head in': affective infrastructures of gender injustice and manosphere classroom encounters, Gender and Education; Stahl, G., and McDonald, S. (2025) Investigating the role of gender, social class and curriculum in the first-in-family higher education experience, Educational Review; McDonald, S. (2024) 'I don't feel like I belong': First-in-family girls' constructions of belonging and space during the transition into university, Gender and Education; Scholes, L., McDonald, S., Stahl, G., and Comber, B. (2024) Many truths, many knowledges, many forms of reason: understanding middle-school student approaches to sources of information on the internet, British Educational Research Journal; and McDonald, S. (2023) Constructing the (il)literate boy: crisis talk, literacy promotion websites and the simplification of boyhood literacies, International Journal of Educational Research. She is eligible to supervise Masters and PhD students as co-supervisor.