Rate My Professor Heather Sharp

Professor Heather Sharp is a Professor in the School of Education within the Faculty of Education and Arts at the University of Newcastle, Australia, appointed to the professorship on 1 January 2026. She holds a PhD from the University of Southern Queensland (thesis: "Constructing history: Selective representations of Indigenous Australians and British heritages in Queensland History curriculum"), Master of Education from Deakin University, Bachelor of Education from Queensland University of Technology, Bachelor of Arts from Queensland University of Technology, and Graduate Certificate in the Practice of Tertiary Teaching from the University of Newcastle. Her career history encompasses roles as Secondary Teacher in the Queensland Department of Education (2002-2006), Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland Faculty of Education (2006-2007), Lecturer in Curriculum Design and Development at the University of Newcastle Centre for Teaching and Learning (2007-2010), and Lecturer to Professor at the University of Newcastle School of Education (2010-present). She currently serves as Director, Global Engagement in the School of Education, supporting international teaching and learning programs, partnerships, funding, research, and placements in Maldives and Vietnam. Professor Sharp teaches and coordinates courses in transformative pedagogies, philosophies of education, history curriculum and pedagogies, literacies, education as a professional career, assessment, and professional experience, and supervises PhD, Honours, and Masters students.

Her research specializations include the teaching of traumatic pasts and the influence of public history in education through media, museums, memorials, and popular culture; history education for school students, including difficult and controversial pasts; intersections of historical consciousness, moral consciousness, and democratic consciousness; historical representations in school curriculum and textbooks (e.g., Indigenous Australians, British heritages, Gallipoli); innovative use of educational media and ICT in history classrooms; national identity representations; and student-academic research partnerships. Key publications comprise "Historical and Moral Consciousness in Education: Learning Ethics for Democratic Citizenship Education" (2022, co-authored with N. Ammert, S. Edling, J. Löfström), "Att lära från, om och med historia: Historiemedvetande, moral och didaktik" (2023, co-authored), "Teaching Secondary History" (2021, co-authored), "Introduction to Education: Knowledge, Practice, Engagement" (2021, co-authored), and "Remembering for Peace: The Adventures of Emma and Ryan" (2018). Awards and fellowships include Women in Research Fellowship (University of Newcastle, 2018), residency Fellowship at Georg Eckert Institute, Germany (2016), and Early Career Researcher HDR Scholarship (2017-2020). She is Founding Special Issues Editor of Historical Encounters Journal, convenor of the History Network for Teachers and Researchers, and leads annual study tours to World War I sites in France and Belgium (over 125 students in past four years). Professor Sharp participates in international projects such as the Swedish Research Council project on historical and moral consciousness (2018-2021) and the EU-funded "Making Histories" project across 15+ countries.