Dr Debra Manning
Lecturer, Social and Community Welfare and Behavioural Studies
Debra is the Head of Section for the Social and Community Welfare program. Prior to coming to Monash, Debra worked for many years in counselling, community development and managerial roles. Much of her work was in the public sector in fields such as probation and parole, child protection, youth justice, family counselling and community development. Working in urban, regional and rural areas her roles included a strong focus on developing and strengthening community networks to support individuals and families.
Debra has also been employed as a Community Development Officer with the Australian Defence Force. Her role was to initiate and contribute to the development and maintenance of programs that facilitate the successful integration of newly posted Defence Force families into the communities surrounding a Defence Force Base. A key element of the role was facilitating and supporting relationships between these new families and established community networks, services and agencies. As a result, established services became more aware of and able to respond to the needs of Defence Force families, new services were developed and stronger ties formed between the established and Defence Force communities.
Debra has also lived and worked in a rural village in Botswana, southern Africa, through the Australian Volunteers International program. Employed for just over two years as an Extension Officer in an appropriate technology organisation, RIIC (Rural Industries Innovation Centre) she worked in a community development capacity to increase understanding of the technologies and other work of the organisation at local, national and regional levels. Working with rural villagers she became aware that technological appropriateness was not the same as cultural appropriateness and extended her focus to include working with the western engineers at RIIC to enhance their cultural awareness. Several months were also spent visiting other development programs in other southern African countries. This experience awakened her to the cultural contexts of knowledge and different ways of knowing about the world, and has had a major impact on her approaches to social and community welfare practice, higher education learning and teaching as well as research.
Debra has completed a Bachelor of Behavioural Science; Bachelor of Social Work (Honours); Master of Social Work; Graduate Certificate in Higher Education; and Doctor of Philosophy (Education). Her doctoral thesis, entitled "Exploring lecturers' experiences of teaching in multicultural classrooms', seeks to find best teaching practice in relation to international students in higher education. Interviews with tertiary educators show that there is no best practice, and that the best place to begin is deep self-reflection of one's own practice and cultural location.
Current teaching areas:
Debra teaches the following units in undergraduate social and community welfare courses:
- Case Management: Theory and Practice
- Insights into Practice
- Field Education and Practice
Debra also teaches Management and Leadership in the Human Services in the Master of Human Services Management program. Debra's teaching and research approaches are strongly influenced by strengths based and anti-oppressive theories and practice.
Research Interests / Publications
Research interests:
Debra's research interests encompass emancipatory and anti-oppressive social and community welfare theory and practice in counselling, community development and management; innovative teaching approaches to develop independent learners in on-line and classroom environments; and creative research methodologies. Primarily interested in qualitative research, Debra explores auto/ethnographic, poetic, and narrative research and writing approaches. Debra presents her work at national and international conferences in the fields of both social and community welfare and education.
Debra is a Chief Investigator on a research project funded by the Office of the Senior Practitioner through The Senior Practitioner Research Partnerships Grants for 2009. The project, entitled "Everything affects everything else: Power, perception and hidden forms of restrictive practice in shared supported accommodation" is a partnership with the Department of Human Services, Disability Accommodation Services, Gippsland Region.
Recent publications:
Manning, D (2008) Poetic Possibilities. Creative Approaches to Research Vol 1, No. 2, pp.55-70 (refereed)
Manning D. (2008) Auto ethnography: a journey of self indulgence. Refereed Proceedings of AARE International Education Research Conference 2007, Fremantle, Western Australia: Australian Association of Researchers in Education pp1-16. (refereed)
Tracey, J. & Manning D (2007) The Student Unit Perspective. New Community Quarterly Vol 5, No 4. Summer pp 32-35.
Manning, D (2006) Constructing meaning and metaphor for cultural pedagogy.International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning. Vol 2, No. 1. University of Southern Queensland pp48-62 (refereed)
Manning, D. (2006) Walk the Talk: the journey towards deconstructing the education environment as a model for anti-oppressive social and community welfare practice. Vol 1, No 1 Practice Reflexions pp27-38 (refereed)
Contact Details
- Phone:
- +61 3 990 26577 or +61 3 512 26577
- Fax:
- +61 3 990 26359 or +61 3 512 26359
- Office:
- 1E119
- Email:
- Debra.Manning@arts.monash.edu.au
- Address:
- School of Humanities, Communications & Social Sciences
Monash University, Gippsland Campus
Northways Road,
Churchill, Victoria 3842