Deana is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia. Her research draws on interdisciplinary perspectives to critically study health education – from policy formations to their translations into everyday pedagogies. Whilst her work has a strong school focus, she has recently begun to explore the possibilities of other pedagogical spaces and approaches that seek to teach us something about health including museums/ exhibits, festivals, kitchen gardens, and various digital technology platforms. Deana has just completed working on two ARC Discovery Projects that sought to critically examine health pedagogies in different settings including schools and families.
She is currently leading two funded research teams.
1. Transforming food systems: Transforming food education in the Pacific (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research)
2. Kids co-designing healthy places (VicHealth)
Deana currently serves on the editorial boards of Health Education Journal and Health Education and is co-convenor of the CHESS (Critical Health Education Studies). She is co-editor of the Routledge Book Series Critical Studies of Health and Education. Additionally she is a co-convenor of the European Education Research Association’s Research Network 8 – Research in Health Education group. More recently Deana has been invited to be a member of the International Scientific Committee of the new UNESCO Chair for Global Health and Education.
Research interests
Deana is an interdisciplinary researcher whose interests include:
- critical studies of health education
- critical food studies
- critical intersections and interventions in health promotion and health education
- co design and other participatory research methods
- transforming health pedagogies
- education policy, curriculum and pedagogies
