Rate My Professor Terry Sullivan

Dr. Terry Sullivan serves as Senior Lecturer in Pacific Education and Development within the School of Education at the University of New England. He is actively involved in the Department of STEM Education and coordinates key units including Education for Sustainability in the Pacific (EDUC304), Pacific Education: Society, Culture and Schooling (EDCX306), and Evidence Based Learning and Teaching 2 (EDLT225). Dr. Sullivan provides essential support to colleagues on-campus at the University of New England and to colleagues and students located on-island in Nauru as part of the Nauru Teacher Education Project (NTEP). His research interests focus on the personal and professional development of leaders and teachers in remote areas through the implementation of blended learning technologies. With extensive professional experience developing teachers and principals across the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, he contributes significantly to culturally responsive teacher education initiatives.

The Nauru Teacher Education Project, in which Dr. Sullivan collaborates with Associate Professor Penelope Serow, Professor Neil Taylor, Greg Burnett, Dianne Smardon, Jodana Tarrant, and others, partners with the Nauruan Government Department of Education and Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This initiative develops and tests models for advancing teacher education in rural and remote Pacific locations, including Nauru and Tuvalu. It features blended delivery of programs such as the Associate Degree in Teaching (Pacific Focus) and Bachelor of Education (Pacific Focus), incorporating online materials, on-island mentoring, IT infrastructure, literacy and numeracy enabling units, and reflective practices. Empirical evidence gathered since 2011 through interviews, observations, surveys, student results, and professional experience videos supports program refinement. Milestones include the 2016 graduation of 14 Nauruan students. Dr. Sullivan co-authored the 2014 publication 'One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Teacher Education in Developing Pacific Island Countries' in the Journal of the International Society for Teacher Education, addressing teacher shortages and program challenges. In 2019, he co-presented 'Rows of desks have gone In Nauruan Infants Classrooms: Has the world gone mad?' at the HASSE Research Week, examining transitions to play-based learning in early childhood settings.