Skip to main content
Toggle navigation

Dr Alice Brown

Dr Alice Brown
Name Alice Brown
Position Senior Lecturer (Early Childhood Education)
Section School of Education
Office A210
Location Springfield Campus
Phone +61 7 3470 4120
Extension 4120
Email
Qualifications BEd UCSQ , MEd QUT , PhD USQ

Dr Alice Brown is a Senior Lecturer specialising in early childhood education, health, active play and wellbeing (ECE), with 35 years’ experience working in diverse educational contexts, including 16 years as a full-time academic in the School of Education at USQ. She is a leader in innovative practice and solution-focused approaches across the three cornerstones of teaching, research and service. Her efforts contribute to USQ’s vision and culture for excellence by: driving change and excelling in leading inclusive physical and digital higher education learning experiences and undertaking world-class research that has a positive social impact. Dr Brown’s leadership in scholarship research relates to innovative projects and approaches to support student learning and engagement with the impact of this research evidenced in …..Her research is translated into excellence in teaching resulting in a consistent track record of excellence in teaching and learning; exceptional student satisfaction outcomes/SETS data averaging 4.4/5 for Q33 for student satisfaction (Table 1); recipient of numerous Dean Commendations – e.g. S2, 2015 & S2, 2019; and most recently ‘successful application for awards related innovation in L&T’ resulting as the co-recipient of two USQ Learning and Teaching Awards for 2020 Dr Brown evidences a strong track record for attracting research funding - internal and external income totalling - $281,769 (individual/team). Her high-quality research outputs are positioned above the nationale averate, with her H index of 11. This includes 31 refereed publications, with one of her co-authored papers receiving 101 citations since 2018. Dr Brown has a lead and sustained collaborative research partnerships that contribute to a positive research culture and outputs in the fields education systems, curriculum and pedagogy and specialist studies in education (FOR codes – 390301,390302 and 390303), including coordinating and leading international research symposia (European Educators Research Association Conference, Ireland, Copenhagen, Hamburg), as well as co-writing, publishing and researching with multi-disciplinary research teams. Dr Alice Brown is a world leader in innovative methodological approaches focussed on reframing research with young families that reflect ethical and respectful application to participants involvement and agency in inquiry. This work has recently been captured in a sole authored book, ‘Respectful research with and about young families’ (2019, Palgrave, MacMillan).


Fields of Research (FoR)

  • Higher Education ( 130103 )
  • Early Childhood Education (excl. Maori) ( 130102 )
  • Early Childhood Education ( 390302 )
  • Higher Education ( 390303 )

Research interests
Hello, I'm Dr Alice Brown. My work and the work I engage in with families, community, key stakeholders harnesses existing social capital to help to build assets, empower individuals, and contribute to strong and vibrant child-friendly communities. As an academic, researcher, and as an early childhood health, wellbeing & social ecology specialist I bring a skill set of methodological approaches and research experience to this space. My research focus is on gaining insights into the lifeworld’s of others, and the theory/practice nexus of respectful & ethical inquiry. I adapt ecological models to better understand the impact of context and environment on behaviours, values & practices.
My research interests include:
- Innovative, respectful, and ethical methodological approaches for researching with young families;
- Young children and families - health, well-being, active play;
- Exploring context and illuminating people’s stories using qualitative research methods: interpretivist paradigms, naturalistic perspectives, narrative, case study research; building trust in semi-structured interviews;
- Social-ecological frameworks for understanding socio-environmental and personal determinants of health behaviours in parents and children;
- Early childhood environments, pedagogy, leadership;
- Professional development, intervention; program evaluation in health, physical activity and early childhood;
- Contextual considerations for effective health interventions for families and communities;
- Paediatric education, care and wellbeing;
- Engagement, E-learning/Teaching - Learning and teaching in higher education and enhancement of the student and staff experience
- Supporting online engagement using learning analytics and nudging

Professional memberships
Queensland College of Teachers
Early Childhood Australia
Association for Learning and Technology
Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth
Be You Mental Health Education
Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia

Industry affiliations
Queensland Health Partner

USQ Research affiliations

  • Institute for Resilient Regions (IRR)
  • Institute for Advanced Engineering and Space Sciences (IAESS)

Currently teaching courses/programs
EDM5014 Planning for Learning: Curriculum, Play and Pedagogy
ECH1200 – Early Years Health and Active Play
ECP2200 – Childhood Resilience and Wellbeing
EDE3103 – Perspectives of Early Years Curriculum, Play and Pedagogy

Teaching experience(Tertiary)
18 Years

Teaching experience(Other)
15 Years

Administrative responsibilities
Specialising in Early Child Health, Wellbeing, Social Ecology and online student engagement

Research most recent
Brown, A., Lawrence, J., Basson, M., & Redmond, P. (2020). A conceptual framework to enhance student online learning and engagement in higher education. Higher Education Research and Development, 1-16.
Brown, A., Sharpe, S., Andrews, D. (2020). Supporting ‘successful knowledge transfer’ for early childhood professionals – An emerging conceptual framework in an Australian context. Early Years. Link
Sole-authored book Brown, A. (2019). Respectful research with and about young families – Forging frontiers and methodological considerations. London, UK: Palgrave Pivot.
https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030027155#otherversion=9783030027162


Research most notable
Sole-authored book Brown, A. (2019). Respectful research with and about young families – Forging frontiers and methodological considerations. London, UK: Palgrave Pivot.
https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030027155#otherversion=9783030027162
Redmond, P., Heffernan, A., Abawi, L., Brown, A. & Henderson, R. (2018) An online engagement framework for higher education. Online Learning, 22(1), 183-204. doi: 10.24059/olj.v22i1.1175.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1179626.pdf
Brown, A., & Danaher, P. A. (2017). CHE Principles: Facilitating authentic and dialogical semi-structured interviews in educational research. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 1-15. doi:10.1080/1743727X.2017.1379
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1743727X.2017.1379987


Publications in ePrints

Brown, Alice and Danaher, Patrick A.ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2289-7774 (2019) CHE principles: facilitating authentic and dialogical semi-structured interviews in educational research. International Journal of Research and Method in Education, 42 (1). pp. 76-90. ISSN 1743-727X

Lawrence, Jill and Brown, Alice and Redmond, PetreaORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9674-1206 and Basson, MaritaORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9731-1128 (2019) Engaging the disengaged: exploring the use of course specific learning analytics and nudging to enhance online student engagement. Student Success, 10 (2 (SI)). pp. 47-58.

Brown, Alice (2019) Respectful research with and about young families: forging frontiers and methodological considerations. Palgrave Studies in Education Research Methods. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., Cham, Switzerland. ISBN 978-3-030-02715-5

Redmond, Petrea ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9674-1206 and Abawi, Lindy and Brown, Alice and Henderson, Robyn and Heffernan, Amanda (2018) An online engagement framework for higher education. Online Learning Journal, 22 (1). pp. 183-204. ISSN 2472-5730

Brown, Alice and Smolenaers, Emma (2018) Parents’ Interpretations of Screen Time Recommendations for Children Younger Than 2 Years. Journal of Family Issues, 39 (2). pp. 406-429. ISSN 0192-513X

View full listing in ePrints

Approved research supervisor in the area of:

  • Higher Education ( 130103 )
  • Early Childhood Education (excl. Maori) ( 130102 )
  • Early Childhood Education ( 390302 )
  • Higher Education ( 390303 )


Research topics