Tina Daniel

Dr. Tina Daniel is an experienced educator who has taught in a range of complex primary, secondary and tertiary environments in Australia and in the United States. Her current research investigates the practice of teaching reading in secondary contexts, how teachers in different disciplines think about their autonomy and agency to assist students who struggle to read, and student wellbeing related to reading, including reading self-concept, reading motivation and reading engagement. 

Tina completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne in 1985 and an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Art History and Criticism at the University of Oxford in 1988. She moved to the United States in 2006, where she completed a Multi-Subject California Teaching Credential, followed by a Master of Science in Education (Curriculum and Instruction) at Dominican University of California in 2012. After many years as an educator working in a range of complex primary and secondary environments in the United States and Australia, Tina completed her doctoral studies at Deakin University in 2021, investigating teacher perspectives of their practice of early reading instruction.  

In 2017, after several years teaching Latino and regionally remote children as both a classroom teacher and a second language specialist, she was the recipient of a four-year Australian Research Council Scholarship to complete her doctoral research within a larger project on Low-SES Student Learning and Wellbeing from 2017-2021. Since completing her doctoral studies, Tina has worked with La Trobe University’s SOLAR Lab and in 2022, she was recruited as the first member of the Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy at the Australian Catholic University. Tina is now national Unit Leader for one of the largest national literacy units in the country, where she and her colleagues develop curricula to teach and improve pre-service teachers’ professional agency and practice.