Alexandra McCormick

Associate Professor Alexandra McCormick serves as the Associate Dean of Postgraduate Coursework Programs in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. She is a member of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre and the Sydney School of Education & Social Work, where she has led and taught in Masters of Education programs since 2008, including the International Stream and undergraduate education courses.

Dr. McCormick holds a PhD from Sydney, an MA (Hons) in International Studies, a BA (Hons) in English and Comparative Literature from University of East Anglia, and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education. Her academic journey includes teaching English in Japan and China, working with refugee relocation NGOs in the UK and Australia, and conducting education policy research as an independent consultant for international government agencies.

Her research critically examines processes of policy formation and enactment in education and international development, with a focus on global social policies in decolonizing and postcolonial contexts across Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. She investigates Sustainable Development Goals, Education for All, and Millennium Development Goals through critical discourse analysis and ethnographic research, with particular attention to civil society organizations working in education, including current projects on migrant and refugee education on the Thai-Myanmar borders.

Professor McCormick's scholarly work reveals consistent themes of decolonial approaches to education policy, critical analysis of global development frameworks, and attention to equity and social justice in educational contexts across the Pacific region and Southeast Asia. Her publications demonstrate increasing focus on decolonizing methodologies and positionality in educational research, particularly in doctoral supervision relationships.

• 2021 University of Sydney 'Good Mentor Award', SEMCAN
• 2019 Teaching Innovation Award, Comparative & International Education Society
• 2019 Vice Chancellor's Sponsorship Program
• 2016 Teaching Excellence Award, Sydney School of Education and Social Work
• 2016 Dean's Education Innovation Grant Recipient
• 2014 British Association of International and Comparative Education conference grant
• 2013 Thomas and Mary Ethel Ewing Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2013 Finalist Rita and John Cornforth PhD University Medal
• 2010 and 2007 Australia New Zealand Comparative International Education Society (ANZCIES) Travel Scholarships
• 2009-2010 University of Sydney Thomas T. Roberts Fellowship
• 2007-2010 Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry)

Professor McCormick actively supervises PhD students including Oky ADRIAN researching teacher professional development in Indonesia, Zarak RANA examining historical education in East and Southern Africa, and Juthika SARKER studying gender inequality in Bangladeshi higher education. She has secured significant research funding including the 2024 Sydney Southeast Asia Centre Collaborative Research Grant on Equity and Learning on the Thai/Myanmar borders, a 2019 DFAT New Colombo Plan Grant for International Professional Experiences, and multiple smaller grants for educational research projects across the Pacific region.

She is deeply engaged with professional communities as Associate Editor of Comparative Education Review, Co-President of the Oceania Comparative and International Education Society, and co-founder of the Comparative and International Education Group (CoInEd) at the University of Sydney, fostering collaborative research networks across Oceania and Southeast Asia.