Mary Macken-Horarik

Mary Macken-Horarik is an Honorary Professor at the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education (ILSTE) within the Faculty of Education and Arts at Australian Catholic University. Her work focuses on multimodal literacy, systemic functional linguistics, and curriculum design, particularly in the context of English education. She has contributed extensively to understanding how visual and verbal grammars interact in educational materials and pedagogy.

Her research emphasizes the integration of grammar and multimodal analysis in school curricula, advocating for explicit teaching strategies to enhance students' interpretive and compositional skills. Key areas include narrative development, teacher knowledge in language arts, and the role of digital tools in modern literacy practices.

Recent publications highlight her exploration of 'visual grammatics,' the affordances of multimodal digital explanations in science education, and the alignment of Australian curriculum expectations with contemporary literacy practices. Her work bridges theoretical frameworks like systemic functional linguistics with practical classroom applications.

Macken-Horarik collaborates with educators and researchers to address challenges in curriculum design, including disciplinary coherence and the evaluation of student progress in narrative writing. Her contributions have influenced pedagogical approaches to grammar, multimodality, and critical literacy across primary and secondary education.