Annette Foley

Professor Annette Foley is a distinguished faculty member at Federation University Australia within the Institute of Education, Arts and Community (IEAC), where she has been affiliated since 2005. She previously held leadership roles as Deputy Dean Education and Head of School Education (2013-2018) and maintains her office at Mount Helen Campus, H Building, Room H236. Her extensive background includes prior experience as a TAFE manager and CEO in VET/ACE and youth services organizations.

Her educational qualifications include:

• Doctor of Philosophy, University of Melbourne (2008)
• Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching, University of Ballarat (2008)
• Master of Education (Professional Education and Training), Deakin University (2000)
• Graduate Diploma of Education, Deakin University (1998)
• Bachelor of Arts, Deakin University (1994)
• Diploma of Applied Science, Box Hill Institute (1989)
• Associate Diploma of Applied Science, Box Hill Institute (1980)

Professor Foley's research critically examines Vocational Education and Training (VET), Adult Education, Gender Studies, and Informal Learning through frameworks of critical discourse analysis, narrative inquiry, and post-structural theory. Her work investigates educational policy, professional identities, gendered learning spaces, and community-based learning initiatives, with particular focus on men's sheds and therapeutic landscapes during crises. She has published extensively in leading journals including the Australian Journal of Adult Learning and Ageing & Society.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals evolving research trajectories: current work (2020-2022) emphasizes community resilience during pandemics and disasters, gendered therapeutic spaces, and international comparative studies of men's/women's sheds, while earlier publications (2011-2018) established foundational work on VET manager identities, learner voice in vocational education, and intergenerational skill transmission.

Professor Foley actively supervises doctoral candidates and has secured significant research funding including a current $100,000 Department of Education and Training project on Pre-Accredited Quality Framework Review (2021-2022) and previous ARC-funded research on re-engaging disadvantaged youth ($150,000). Her leadership extends to serving as president of Adult Learning Australia and editorial board member for the Australian Journal of Adult Education and Studies in Adult Education and Learning.

She is a core member of the Research in Adult and Vocational Education (RAVE) group and contributes to PeCALE (Pedagogy, Curriculum, Assessment and Learner Engagement) and SJIDE (Social Justice, Inclusion and Diversity in Education) research initiatives, driving community-engaged scholarship that bridges academic research with practical educational applications.