Dr Amanda Gutierrez
Associate Professor, QLD Bachelor of Education Secondary (All degrees, years 2-4) Coordinator, Faculty of Education and Arts
Areas of expertise: Digital Literacies; Gaming Literacies; Critical Literacies; Future schooling School/University/System Partnerships; Bakhtinian theories; Discourse Analysis
HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4934-0546
Phone:07 3861 6286
Email: amanda.gutierrez@acu.edu.au
Location: ACU Brisbane campus
A/Prof Amanda Gutierrez is an Associate Professor of Literacies in Education. She publishes on critical literacies, critical digital games literacies, future schooling, partnership theory and professional becoming. Her recent work has utilised research grants to explore future schooling needs and conceptualisation. She also leads research projects investigating pre-service teacher professional becoming in partnership models, with significant grant funding across both local and international partnership projects. Her work as an intern editor for the Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education has led to her recent role as the Book Review co-editor.
Her background in critical literacies stems from her MEd titled "'Empowering' Indigenous students in a critical literacy classroom" while teaching secondary English in Northwest Western Australia, followed by her PhD, completed in 2014, entitled Critical literacy in Australia: affordances, tensions, and hybridizations. The PhD focused on the ways critical literacy is constructed in teacher discourses, in academic texts and in state curriculum documents. Her interest in critical digital games literacies was sparked when working as a research assistant on a digital games Australian Research Council project ‘Literacy in the digital world of the twenty first century: Learning from computer games’ (Beavis, Bradford, O’Mara & Walsh, 2009). Since then, she has conducted her own research and published on constructions of critical literacies, multiliteracies and digital games literacies through a National survey of high school English teachers.
She has been chief investigator of state, private, and faculty funded research projects in education and has strong research translation experience.
View project’s website
Select publications
- Gutierrez, A. (2024). Exploring Complexity in Multi-system Partnerships. In C. A. Green & M. J. Eady (Eds). Creating, Sustaining, and Enhancing Purposeful School-University Partnerships: Building connections across diverse educational systems (pp. 341-358). Singapore: Springer Nature.
- Gutierrez, A., Mills, K., Scholes, L., Rowe, L., & Pink, E. (2023). What do secondary teachers think about digital games for learning: Stupid fixation or the future of education? Teaching and Teacher Education, 133, 104278–. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104278
- Gutierrez, A., Lowe, K. & Guenther, J. (2023). Interrogating Indigenous Student Literacy Programs. In K. Lowe & N. Moodie (Eds) Assessing the Evidence in Indigenous Education Research (Postcolonial Studies in Education) (pp. 181-199). Switzerland: Springer Nature.
- Scholes, L., Rowe, L., Mills, K., Gutierrez, A. & Pink, E. (2022). Video gaming and digital competence among elementary school students. Learning, Media and Technology, doi 10.1080/17439884.2022.2156537
- Heck, D., Bourke, T. & Gutierrez, A. (2022, Sept). Spaces of initial teacher education. Education Australia (Issue 1), 10-11.
- Gutierrez, A. & Nailer, S. (2021). Pre-service teachers’ professional becoming in an extended professional experience partnership programme. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 49(5), 517–532. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2020.1789911
- Gutierrez, A. & Kostogriz, A. (2020). The influence of chronotopes on pre-service teachers’ professional becoming in a school-university partnership. Teachers and Teaching, Theory and Practice, 26(5-6), 475–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2021.1873761
- Alexander, C., Fox, J. & Gutierrez, A. (2019). Conceptualising Teacher Professionalism. In A. Gutierrez, C. Alexander and J. Fox (Eds.). Professionalism and Teacher Education (pp. 1-26). Melbourne: Springer.
- Gutierrez, A., Fox, J. & Alexander, C. (Eds). (2019). Professionalism and Teacher Education. Melbourne: Springer.
- Gutierrez, A., Jordan, K. & Young, K. (2019). Exploring what it means to be a professional in partnerships: reflecting on teacher educator narratives. In A. Gutierrez, C. Alexander and J. Fox (Eds.). Professionalism and Teacher Education (pp. 91-116). Melbourne: Springer.
- Gutierrez, A. (2016). Exploring the becoming of pre-service teachers in paired placement models. In R. Brandenburg, S. McDonough, J. Burke and S. White (Eds) Teacher Education: Innovation, intervention and impact (pp. 139-155) . Singapore: Springer.
- Gutierrez, A. (2016). Challenging Ideological Environments: International teachers experiences in an outside-of-country teacher training program. Critical Studies in Education, 57(3), 313-329, doi 10.1080/17508487.2015.1076492
- Gutierrez, A., Lowe, K. & Guenther, J. (available online Dec 2019). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student literacy outcomes in Australia: a systematic review of literacy programs. Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education (special edition, ‘Aboriginal Voices’ project).
- Beavis C., Walsh C., Bradford C., O'Mara J., Apperley T., Gutierrez A., (2015) 'Turning Around' to the Affordances of Digital Games: English Curriculum and Students' Lifeworlds. English in Australia, 50(2), 30 – 40.
- Gutierrez, A. (2014). Exploring critical literacy in Victoria and Queensland: affordances, tensions and hybridizations. English in Australia,49(3), 33-42.
- Gutierrez, A. & Beavis, C. (2012). Literacy, identity and online fantasy sports games. In C. Beavis, J. O'Mara & L. McNeice (Eds) Digital Games: Literacy in action. Kent Town: Wakefield Press, pp. 50-57.
- Gutierrez, A. & Beavis, C. (2010). ‘Experts on the field: redefining literacy boundaries’. In Alverman, D (Ed), Adolescents’ Online Literacies: Connecting Classrooms, Media, and Paradigms. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, pp. 145-162.
- O’Mara, J. & Gutierrez, A. (2010). ‘Affordances And Challenges Of Working With Computer Games In The Classroom: The Teacher Case Studies’. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy (special edition dedicated to articles from the ARC project ‘Literacy in the Digital World of the Twenty First Century: Learning from computer games’).
- Gutierrez, A. (2005) ‘Reflections on Cultural Crossroads: ‘Empowering’ Students in a Critical Literacy Classroom’, English in Australia, vol 143.
Projects
- 2023 Gutierrez, A., Scholes, L. & Mills, K. Pedagogical Transformation for Digital Futures, $9966. Faculty of Education Impact Engagement grant.
- 2021-23 Gutierrez, A. Spiritual and Pedagogical Accompaniment Program, $250,560. BCE funded project.
- 2022-23 Gutierrez, A. Spiritual and Pedagogical Accompaniment Program (Regional model), $35,930. Toowoomba Diocese.
- 2022 Scholes, L., Mills, K., Gutierrez, A., Friend, L. Future Education: Evidence-based innovations for Queensland schooling and workforces, QLD Department of Education and Training, $53,472.39
- 2019 Gutierrez, A. Faith Companion Mentoring: Strengthening PSTs' understanding of Catholic intellectual tradition: Pilot project 2019. BCE Small Research Grant, $10,000.
- 2017/2018 Gutierrez, A. ACU, CEM and Federation schools, Centre for Catholic Teacher Formation - Teaching Academies of Professional Practice, DET, $50,000
- 2017 Gutierrez, A. & Kostogriz, A. (ACU) and the MEDG, Developing teacher capacity and improving educational outcomes in Myanmar (Asia), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), $433,000 ($320,000 from DFAT, $133,000 in kind combination from ACU and MEDG)
- 2015/2016 ACU, CEM and Federation Schools, ACU Northwest Teaching Academies of Professional Practice (TAPP), DET funded project, start-up funding of $207, 250 ($50,000 towards research)
Accolades and awards
- 2022 Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award, $10,000
- 2021 Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
- 2021 ACU Teaching and Learning Citation Award, $5000
- 2021 Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) Teacher Educator of the Year Award, $5,000
Appointments and affiliations
- Associate Professor, National School of Education (Brisbane campus)
- Bachelor of Education Secondary (All degrees, years 2-4) Coordinator
- Member of ILSTE DigiLit Research Hub
- Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) Secretary
- Australian Association for Research in Education member
Editorial
- Book Review Co-editor Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 2023 ongoing
- Co-editor 2019 ATEA/Springer book Professionalism and Teacher Education;
- Intern Editor A ranked Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education (under two editorial boards, 2018 and 2020)
