Overview
Martina is a qualified Primary school teacher who has worked in schools, in the Catholic Education system and at the University of Melbourne as a language and literacy lecturer. Martina’s research interests include literacy assessment, neoliberalism in education, the transition between early childhood and primary education and language and literacy learning and teaching in the early years of schooling. Her doctoral research explored teachers' literacy assessment autonomy and agency in the early years of schooling. She found that teachers were implementing a range of commercially produced assessment tools to assess a narrow range of literacy skills. Her research aligned with other researchers who have identified an 'adultification' (Bousfield and Ragusa, 2014) and 'datafication' (Bradbury and Roberts-Holmes, 2018) of the early years resulting in a narrow approach to teaching and assessing literacy.
Martina's doctoral research explored teachers' literacy assessment autonomy and agency in the early years of schooling. She found that teachers were implementing a range of commercially produced assessment tools to assess a narrow range of literacy skills. Many of these tools did not require teacher judgement, and additionally, the assessment often became the curriculum. Her research also highlighted the tension early years teachers face with greater expectations being placed on them to prepare children for formal assessments such as NAPLAN. Her research aligned with other researchers who have identified an 'adultification' (Bousfield and Ragusa, 2014) and 'datafication' (Bradbury and Roberts-Holmes, 2018) of the early years resulting in a narrow approach to teaching and assessing literacy. Martina is currently involved in a research project with early years teachers in the Melbourne Archdiocese investigating building teachers' literacy knowledge, capacity, and agency in literacy teaching and assessment.