Dr Samantha Schulz

Dr Samantha Schulz
 Position Senior Lecturer
 Org Unit School of Education
 Email samantha.schulz@adelaide.edu.au
 Telephone +61 8 8313 9309
 Location Floor/Room 8 ,  Nexus 10 ,   North Terrace

  • Biography/ Background

    Dr Samantha Schulz (she/her) is a senior sociologist of education with expertise in race critical theorising, First Nations Education, culturally responsive schooling, gender equity, and decoloniality. Sam is Program Director for the Master of Teaching in the School of Education, and her principal teaching focuses on Critical and Culturally Responsive Pedagogies.

    Key Research Projects

    • Co-chief investigator ARC Discovery Project Culturally Responsive Schooling (DP220100651, 2022-24).
    • Lead investigator for major research-consultancy work with Catholic Education South Australia, entitled Re-Imagining Catholic Education for First Nations Sovereignty. This project culminated in development of CESAs 10-year Aboriginal Education Strategy (2024-2034).
    • Co-CI for a nationwide exploration of Aboriginal student experiences of schooling for the organisation, Australians Together.
    • Lead investigator, Teaching in an era of digital influence (and influencers): Exploring impacts on South Australian teachers (H-2024-017).
    • Lead investigator, Innovating and culturally diversifying curriculum and pedagogy (H-2023-141).

    Sam is a skilful tertiary educator with research and teaching experience across a diversity of social contexts, including Kenya, India, China, and the South Australian Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Sam is the recipient of several awards for higher education teaching excellence and research engagement and is open to supervising PhD Candidates in the areas noted above (focusing particularly on qualitative research approaches, including affect studies, poststructural, decolonial, and feminist posthumanist orientations to research).

  • Qualifications

    Doctor of Philosophy (Indigenous Education): Governing the Good Teacher: A white governmentality lens on the ‘white’ teacher in South Australia's APY Lands, Flinders University of South Australia, School of Education, Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law. [Conferred April 2014]

    Bachelor of Education: (Middle Schooling) (First Class Honours), Flinders University of South Australia, School of Education, Faculty of Education, Humanities, Law and Theology. [Conferred March 2005].

    Master of Arts in Creative Writing: University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. [Conferred March 2003].

    Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Majoring in Sociology): Flinders University of South Australia, School of Humanities, Faculty of Education, Humanities, Law and Theology. [Conferred April 1997].

  • Awards & Achievements

    2022: Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics Excellence Award for Research Engagement

    2020: Flinders University of South Australia College Award for Excellence in Tertiary Teaching (Critical Indigenous Pedagogies)

    2019: Flinders University of South Australia College Award for Excellence in Tertiary Teaching (Sociology of Education)

    2013: Three Minute Thesis, Faculty Winner, Faculty of Education, Humanities & Law, Flinders University of South Australia

    2012: Best Doctoral Paper, Faculty of Education, Humanities & Law, Flinders University of South Australia

    2006: Australian Postgraduate Award

    2006: University Medal, Flinders University of South Australia

    2004: Chancellor’s Letter of Commendation and ANZ Bank Prize in Teacher Education, Flinders University of South Australia

    2003: Chancellor’s Letter of Commendation, Flinders University of South Australia

    2002: Colin Thiele Award for Literature

    2001: Australian Government Award for Voluntary Service in a Developing Nation

  • Publications

    Selected Publications

    Edited Books

    Michaels, L. & Schulz, S. (2014). Unsettling whiteness. Oxford: ID Press.

    Book Chapters

    Schulz, S., Rosas Blanch, F. & Elliott, S. (2021). Across field and classroom: The activism of Adam Goodes and the role of Australian teachers in tackling racism. In R. McGrath (Ed), Contemporary perspectives on athlete activism (pp. 155-166). London: Routledge. DOI:

    Schulz, S. (2019). ‘You’ve got the skin’: Entrepreneurial universities, study abroad, and the construction of global citizenship. In A. Peterson, G. Stahl & H. Soong (Eds), The Palgrave handbook of citizenship and education (pp. 1-15). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Schulz, S. (2019). ‘Beating their unclad chests’: Voluntourism, international service and the place of critical pedagogy inside the neoliberal university. In S. Riddle & M. Apple (Eds), Re-Imagining Education for Democracy (pp. 224-238). London and New York: Routledge.

    Schulz, S. (2018). White governmentality, life history, and the cultural politics of race in remote settings: Situating the teacher/voluntourist. In G. Vass, K. Gulson, J. Maxwell & S. Rudolph (Eds), The relationality of race research in education (pp. 47-58). London and New York: Routledge.

    Schulz, S. & Hay, I.M. (2016). Taking up Caletrio’s challenge: Silence and the construction of wealth eliteness in Jamie Johnson’s documentary film Born Rich. In I. Hay & J.V. Beaverstock (Eds), Handbook on wealth and the super-rich (pp. 155-177). United Kingdom: Edward Elgar.

    Schulz, S. (2016). The new Australian ‘whitening machine’? Contesting whiteness in a nation growing whiter. In S. Kushal & A. Dada (Eds), Whiteness Interrogated (pp. 13-24). Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press.

    Schulz, S. (2014). Images of a Good White Teacher. In L. Michael & S. Schulz (Eds), Unsettling Whiteness (pp. 175-190). Oxford, United Kingdom: Inter-Disciplinary Press.

    Michaels, L. & Schulz, S. (2014). Unsettling Whiteness: Disruptions and (Re)Locations. In In L. Michael & S. Schulz (Eds), Unsettling Whiteness (pp. vii-xx). Oxford, United Kingdom: Inter-Disciplinary Press.

    Journal Articles

    Memon, N., Schulz, S., Kelly, S. & Chown, D. (2023). Schools, religion, and affect: Unpacking Australian educator discomfort. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 266-282.

    Schulz, S., Rigney, L-I., Zembylas, M., Hattam, R. & Memon, N. (2023). Affect and the force of counter stories: Learning racial literacy through thinking and feeling. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2023.2173276.

    Schulz, S.. Baak, M., Stahl, G. & Adams, B. (2021). Restorative practices for preventing/countering violent extremism: An affective-discursive examination of extreme emotional incidents. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(8), 1227-1245.

    Stahl, G., Baak, M., Schulz, S., Peterson, A. & Adams, B. (2021). Preventing Violent Extremism: Resourcing, stakeholder strategies and fostering belonging and connection in Australian Schools. British Educational Research Journal.

    Stahl, G., Baak, M. & Schulz, S. (2021). A cautionary tale: CVE policy actors managing risk in Australian schools. Current Sociology.

    Whitehead, K., Schulz, S. & MacGill, B. (2021). From assimilation towards reconciliation with Amy Levai, nee O'Donoghue (1930-2013), South Australia's first qualified Aboriginal infant teacher. Australian Educational Researcher.

    Whitehead, K., MacGill, B. & Schulz, S. (2021). Honouring Nancy Barnes, nee Brumbie (1927-2021), South Australia's first qualified Aboriginal kindegarten director. Australiasian Journal of Early Childhood.

    Baak, M., Stahl, G. & Schulz, S. (2020). ‘We have to be really careful’: Policy intermediaries preventing violent extremism in an era of risk. Journal of Education Policy.

    Brabazon, T. & Schulz, S. (2020). Braving the bull: Women, mentoring and leadership in higher education. Gender and Education, 32(7), 873-890.

    Schulz, S. & Agnew, D. (2020). Moving toward decoloniality in short-term study abroad under New Colombo: Constructing global citizenship. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41(8), 1164-1179.

    Schulz, S. (2017). Desire for the desert: Racialising white teachers’ motives for working in remote schools in the Australian desert. Race, Ethnicity & Education Special Issue: Rurality, 20(2), 209-224.

    Schulz, S. & Fane, J. (2015). A healthy dose of race? White students’ and teachers’ unintentional brushes with whiteness. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(11) pp. 137-154.

    Schulz, S. (2011). White teachers and the ‘good’ governance of Indigenous souls: White governmentality and Ernabella Mission (1937-1871). Race, Ethnicity & Education, 14(2), 209-232.

    Schulz, S. (2007). Inside the Contract Zone: White teachers in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. International Education Journal, 8(2), 270-283.

    Schulz, S. (2005). The Gifted: Identity construction through the practice of gifted education. International Education Journal, 5(5), 117-128.

    Commissioned Reports and Reviews

    Schulz, S., Morrison, A., Blanch, F. R., Buckskin, J., & Corrie, S. (2023). Improving schooling and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners in South Australian Catholic schools and centres: A narrative review of the literature. Adelaide: APO: Analysis and Policy Observatory, . 

    Schulz, S., Blanch, F. R., Buckskin, J., & Corrie, S. (2023). Re-imagining Catholic education for First Nations sovereignty: Report to Catholic Education South Australia. Adelaide: APO: Analysis and Policy Observatory, .

    Creative Outputs

    Schulz, S., Sniedze-Gregory, S. & Banfield, G. (2019). Guest Editorial: The Activist Scholar In, and Against, the Neoliberal University. Social Alternatives – Special Issue, 38(3), 3-6.

    Schulz, S., Vass, G., Moodie, N. & Kennedy, T. (2019). Critical race and whiteness studies: What has been, what might be. Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Journal. Available https://acrawsa.org.au/current-issues/.

    Schulz, S. & Rogers, B. (2019). The Toxic University: Zombie leadership, academic rock stars and neoliberal ideology. International Studies in Sociology of Education.

  • Professional Associations

    Co-Convenor, Sociology of Education SIG, Australian Association for Research in Education ()

    Member, Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion () Group

    Member, The Australian Sociological Association ()

    Convenor, Decoloniality Reading Group ()

    Chief Editor, Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Journal (2017-2020)()

The information in this directory is provided to support the academic, administrative and business activities of the University of Adelaide. To facilitate these activities, entries in the University Phone Directory are not limited to University employees. The use of information provided here for any other purpose, including the sending of unsolicited commercial material via email or any other electronic format, is strictly prohibited. The University reserves the right to recover all costs incurred in the event of breach of this policy.

Entry last updated: Tuesday, 30 Apr 2024

To link to this page, please use the following URL:  /directory/samantha.schulz