Natalie Thompson

Natalie Thompson is a Lecturer in Education at Charles Sturt University's School of Education, specializing in literacy studies, English education, inclusive education, and post-structural philosophies. She serves as the literacy and English curriculum discipline lead within the School of Education and teaches across multiple education programs including Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary), Bachelor of Education (K-12), Bachelor of Education (Primary), Bachelor/Master of Teaching, and Master of Education.

Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Education (Special Education) with First Class Honors. Dr. Thompson completed her doctoral research in 2023 titled "Talking to Children about Literacies In and Out of School in the 21st Century," which was awarded the 2024 ALEA Doctoral Thesis Award. The thesis was post-qualitative in nature and drew on sociomaterial and affective understandings of literacy to explore 8-9-year-old children's changing literate lives, revealing contrasts between school-based tasks and self-directed digital literacies outside school.

Dr. Thompson's research focuses on critical theories of education, particularly in relation to literacies, disability, inclusion, and teacher education. She is interested in promoting dialogue around education as a public good, the purpose of education, and the relationship between pedagogy, democracy, and politics. Her work often explores sociomaterial and affective understandings of literacy and their implications for educational practice, with particular attention to critical posthumanist perspectives.

Her publication record shows consistent research output from 2017 to 2025, with recent work examining digital literacies, writing instruction, inclusive education practices, and sociomaterial perspectives on children's literacy experiences. Her research demonstrates a strong commitment to understanding the complex ways children engage with literacies across different environments.

• 2024 ALEA Doctoral Thesis Award

Dr. Thompson is currently co-editor of the professional teacher journal, Practical Literacy: The Early and Primary Years, and is an active member of the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA), Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA), and The Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE). She is currently working on post-doctoral research projects in teacher education and conditional accreditation, critical posthumanism in literacies and disability studies, and institutional ethnographies of literacy education. In 2024-2025, she designed disability-affirming and disability-informed short-courses for inclusive education professionals.