University of South Australia
The inaugural SASPA 2024 Alice Rigney Oration will be delivered by Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney AM, B.Ed, M.Ed, PhD, FAAH, MAIATSIS. Professor Rigney is an Aboriginal citizen of the Narungga Nation, Yorke Peninsula South Australia, he is esteemed Professor of Education and Co-Chair of the Pedagogies for Justice Research group in the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion at the University of South Australia. He has a long and distinguished record of researching with public schools for systemic, policy and pedagogical reform toward equality, social justice and democratic inclusion. As a researcher of school leadership and epistemology he is best known for theory of Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogies and Indigenist Epistemologies. He was inducted as Fellow of Australian Academy of Humanities in 2023.
He is a Distinguished Fellow at Deakin University and previously Distinguished Fellow at Kings College, London. In 2021 Professor Rigney was appointed member in the General Division (AM) for significant service to Indigenous Education and to social inclusion research. He is a member of the Centro Loris Malaguzzi Scientific Committee, for the Foundation Reggio Emilia Children. One of Australia’s most respected Aboriginal educationalists, he is well published and has led several research teams funded by the Australian Research Council and other competitive grants including: Indigenist Research Epistemologies; Addressing the Gap between Policy and Implementation: Strategies for Improving Educational Outcomes of Indigenous Students; and Towards an Australian culturally responsive pedagogy.