Jocene Vallack

This year (2021) Dr Vallack published her first book with Routledge (London). As a culmination of decades devoted to the philosophy of education, it presents an original research methodology called ‘Soliloquy’. It offers a new approach to research, based on Husserl's pure phenomenology, and informed by psychoanalysis and Gebser's philosophy of consciousness. Soliloquy guides a reflective, first-person process, which ultimately reveals archetypal phenomena relevant to humankind.

Prior to her current appointment, Dr Vallack was an experienced Senior Lecturer in research methods, having written and taught related subjects at Monash and LaTrobe Universities, and also as a volunteer in Tanzania. She lectured in Film Direction at RMIT and Community Arts Performance at Ballarat University. Dr Vallack was also employed as an Academic Developer at Swinburne and LaTrobe Universities, working to aid lecturers in the Business and Humanities faculties, respectively.

In 2017 Dr Vallack was honoured to receive an international award as a runner-up in the European Conference of Research Methodology's Competition for Innovation in Teaching Research Methods, selected from a field of 30 international candidates. This competition involved the presentation of a written paper, a competitive, live pitch to the judges at the conference in Dublin, and resulted in a published book chapter. Following this success, in 2018, she was invited to edit a special edition of the peer reviewed, Electronic Journal for Business Research Methodologies, which she titled, 'The Intuitive Researcher'.

Early in her career she was invited to present a Keynote address at the conference for the (ERA rated A journal) Association for Qualitative Research. This addess was to launch the selected conference theme of Arts-Based Research Methods. Two of her written plays about research methodologies have been performed by university students to live audiences at these prestigious conferences. The plays were well received as an alternative means of delivering what might otherwise be seen as fairly dry information.

Prior to her work in Africa, Dr Vallack worked as Research Fellow for the (online) Personal Learning Environments at Central Queensland University (PLEs@CQUni) project. This inquiry focused on the implications of Web 2.0 social media for educational course design. Funded by an ARC grant in 2007, this work was cutting edge at that time. Her contributions to this project included journal publications, a book chapter, and international conference presentations in Malta and Spain. She has since been invited to chair Mini Tracks for the European Conferences of Research Methods in London, Madrid and Dublin, and is now an invited member of the committee for this conference.

Dr Vallack’s diverse career has included both practical and theoretical work. Formerly an actor, writer, director and Drama teacher, she worked in TV Education (Channel 7, Melbourne) and then for four years in theatre-in-education with Polyglot Puppet Theatre touring throughout Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. She held many positions of responsibility within the Victorian Education Department, including a Cluster Educator position at Assistant Principal 3 level, overseeing research involving 13 schools in the Gippsland region. She is pleased to be able to draw on aspects of these past experiences to inform her current position as Arts Educator at James Cook University.