Peter Jones

Dr Peter Jones is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Human Services at James Cook University with over 25 years experience in social work education, research and practice. Amongst other roles he was the long-term First Year Experience Coordinator in social work. He has chaired a number of Learning and Teaching related committees within the university, acted as Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching, and was appointed as the Faculty Curriculum Scholar in the Faculty of Arts Education and Social Sciences. Peter is a multi-award winning educator, with two National Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. He has a particular interest in the application of transformative learning theory in social work education and is currently a Fellow of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA).

Peter is a founder and current co-convenor of 'Social Workers for Climate Action' (SW4CA), an alliance of social work educators, practitioners and students committed to raising awareness of the impacts of climate change and encouraging climate action from within the profession and more broadly. In 2020 Peter was appointed to the Australian Association of Social Workers' (AASW) National Advisory Panel on Climate Change, and has been active in political lobbying as part of the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA). Peter is also actively involved in a number of other community-based organisations and social movements directed at environmental and climate justice.

In addition to his environmental advocacy, he is also deeply interested and engaged in international social work education and was recently part of a large-scale research project funded by the Australian Office of Learning and Teaching looking at international student exchange in social work education in Australia. This project involved collecting data from Australian social work academics and students as well as from international ‘host’ institutions in a number of countries in the Asia Pacific. Over the past 10 years Peter has also facilitated a number of international student exchanges to both Thailand and India, and with colleagues has developed resources for supporting students in the critical preparation required for engaging in international exchanges.

Peter’s research and practice interests include social work education, eco-social work, sustainable community development, international social work, and international student exchange. He has published scholarly work in all of these areas.

One of my primary research interests relates to social work education, and the use of transformative learning approaches to guide and understand students' learning experiences. I also have an interest in international social work education and exploring how students develop a consciousness as 'global citizens' and the role that international study experiences might play in this process.

I am also deeply interested in all aspects of eco-social work, and how we develop and encourage an ecological consciousness in social work students.