Shanti Wong
User Profile
Australia
In addition to career long experience leading adult and community education organisations, Shanti is an experienced adult educator and researcher. She has been a LLEN Executive Officer, Community Liaison Officer (Melton) for Victoria University, and worked for 15 years in adult education as Executive Officer in Colac and Business Development Manager in Geelong.
Shanti completed her PhD on The Practice and Progress of Geelong as a Learning City in 2004 and has extensive experience in action research. She applied this expertise to her work with the Geelong Region Local Learning and Employment Network (GRLLEN) assisting the 17 secondary schools involved in the Expanded Pathways, Improved Transitions (EPIT) Project in developing their action research skills in order to improve the outcomes for their students. The effectiveness of this was recognised by the award of Geelong’s ‘Researcher of the Year’ in 2008 and again in 2011 to the Project.
As an independent educational consultant, Shanti has developed plans and conducted evaluations for a range of community and educational organisations. She was a principal researcher for Deakin University’s Evaluation of the Workplace Learning Coordinators Program (2010-2011) and principal consultant for Improving Communications in the Workplace – A national strategy for increasing participation in workplace literacy training for production workers in manufacturing for MESAB (2009). In 2008 she completed a report on the lessons learned from the Victorian Learning Towns Program for the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development and reviewed the Adult and Community Education funding model for the Department of Education NSW. She has completed a year-long evaluation of The BizE Centre and Work’s 4 Me, two work placement programs for disengaged young people conducted by YouthNow, a Workplace Learning Coordinators Program in Melbourne’s West.
Shanti was a Research Fellow and sessional Lecturer in Deakin University’s Faculty of Arts and Education. In that role, she was a principal researcher for the Formative Evaluation of the Workplace Learning Coordinators’ Program 2010-11, for DEECD. She has undertaken research for the School Centre for Teaching Excellence Project at Northern Bay College, Geelong and for the University’s First in Family Project.
Interests/Expertise:
Learning Communities, Adult Education, Lifelong Learning, Action Research, Community Engagement, Community Partnership Brokerage, Project Management, Pathways Development and Applied Learning for Young People, Data Analysis for Schools and Community Providers, Governance Training for Community Organisations and Networks. Experienced educational and community networker, evaluator, facilitator, writer, trainer, researcher, presenter.
Recent research/consultancy:
- Co-author Brimbank Community and Civic Centre - Partnership Model for Tertiary and Pathways Provision (City of Brimbank 2015)
- Co-author Collective Impact Assessment Tool (City of Melton 2015)
- Decent Training for Decent Work (Grampians Region ACFE 2014)
- Learning Locally (Barwon South-West ACFE Region 2014)
- Co-author Measuring the Impact of Learning Communities (ACELG, 2015)
- Co-facilitator, workshops for Geelong’s Expansive Learning Network, G21 and the ALCN on the Learning Community Framework (2014)
- Project Manager, analysis of student destination data for GRLLEN (2007-13)
- Co-author, Evaluation of Transition Brokers Program (Hume Whittlesea LLEN (2013)
- Researcher, Evaluation of Supporting Parents – Developing Children in Hume, (Royal Children’s Hospital Education Institute & Foundation for Young Australians, 2012, Researching Futures)
- Researcher, Strategies for improving participation in tertiary education by regional & rural students: Partnerships, LLEN, Universities, Schools & Home (La Trobe University, 2010-2011, Researching Futures)
- Consultant, Improving Communications in the Workplace – A national strategy for increasing participation in workplace literacy training for production workers in manufacturing (MESAB, 2009)
Recognitions, positions, memberships:
Recipient of Geelong's 'Researcher of the Year' Teaching and Learning Award in 2008 and 2011, for the Geelong Region Local Learning and Employment Network's Expanded Pathways, Improved Transitions (EPIT) Project, operating in 17 secondary schools in Geelong.
Member, Australian Learning Communities Network.
Member, PASCAL International Observatory
Community delegate of Victoria University to the European Access Networtk Conference, Thessaloniki (2006).
Former member of the Boards of a range of community organisations including local government, Local Learning and Employment Networks, Adult Education Providers, Council of Adult Education. Former Chair of the City of Melton Community Learning Board.
Selected publications:
Selected refereed articles and working papers
- Evaluating the community outcomes of Australian learning community initiatives: innovative approaches to assessing complex outcomes, Jim Cavaye, Leone Wheeler, Shanti Wong, Jan Simmons, Paula Herlihy & Jim Saleeba, 2013 Community Development, DOI:10.1080/15575330.2013.853681
- Learning as a Driver for Change, Wheeler, L., Wong, S., Farrell, J., Wong, I., 2013, Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, University of Technology, Sydney.
- Learning as a Driver for Change: Learning Community Framework, Wheeler L. & Wong, S. 2013, Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, University of Technology, Sydney.
- Staying engaged: the role of teachers and schools in keeping young people with health conditions engaged in education Liza Hopkins , Julie Green , John Henry,Brian Edwards, Shanti Wong, The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc. 2013
- Wheeler, L, and Wong, S (2006), Learning communities in Victoria: where to now? in Making knowledge work – Sustaining learning communities and regions. Edited by Chris Duke, Lesley Doyle and Bruce Wilson, NIACE, UK
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