Senior Lecturer Amanda McKay (formerly Heffernan) graciously agreed to share with us her background, research interests, and current projects. Originally from Brisbane, Amanda seems to have inherited her passion for teaching. She comes from a family of educators and naturally followed in their footsteps to pursue a career as a secondary English and History teacher.

Amanda began teaching in North Queensland. Although determined to teach secondary students, she ended up in a multilevel primary school in a rural area, where she served as both a teacher and principal. Over time, she realized that avoiding younger students wasn’t the right choice for her, as she grew to love teaching them! Amanda also describes this role as both strange and hilarious. It was strange because she spent four days teaching and one day acting as the principal. It was hilarious because everyone in the community knew her and everything about her—even down to when she did her laundry! “You are very visible within the community; it’s like living in a goldfish bowl,” she said.

Amanda also mentioned that she got to do “really cool stuff” with her students. As the only educator teaching seven kids, the children felt more like a family to her. When they went on school camp, she drove her own car with all the students. She described these experiences as lovely because they made her feel deeply embedded within the community. However, being so closely connected to the different families made it difficult to leave when it was time to move on.

While working at the school, she completed her Master’s. While studying and working, she noticed a disconnect between the school classroom and the university classroom. An opportunity arose for her to begin working as a Level A academic, and she loved the experience of working with education students. Amanda describes this experience as follows:

I loved teaching in schools. I love being a principal, but there was just something about working with future teachers that was really exciting for me and I felt like I was really good at. So, I resigned from teaching and then stayed in academia.

Transitioning into academia was also a significant experience. Amanda was accustomed to everyone always knowing where she was, given her role as the principal of a very small school. So, when she first started at the university, she would even inform her supervisor whenever she went for lunch. The flexibility in academia was a completely new experience for her! However, this flexibility has two sides. While academics have the freedom to manage their time and tasks as they see fit, the boundaries between professional and personal life can become blurred.

These experiences led Amanda into her PhD project.

I began my PhD looking at the school improvement agenda in Queensland and how that influences principals’ work plus the changing role of what it meant to be a principal. That’s kind of the space that I’m still in now is looking at basically why people want to be a teacher or leader.

Amanda completed her PhD here in Brisbane before moving to Melbourne to work at Monash University and later taking a lengthy detour through England, where she worked at Manchester University before eventually returning home. After years of constantly relocating, she decided it was time to settle down. Although she considers Brisbane home, she is still open to suggestions on things to do in this familiar yet new place.

Dr. McKay enjoys her work, but what she values most is hearing the positive and meaningful stories of school leaders who share their experiences through her research. In addition, principals and leaders have expressed their gratitude for the space she provides—a place where they can be themselves, share their thoughts, and discuss the challenges of the important work they do.

“I can’t talk about this stuff. So, we need you to do it for us” is a familiar phrase Amanda hears from principals, and one which really fulfills her with joy. Amanda is grateful for having the opportunity to work with teachers, leaders and policy makers so they can all work in improving the educational system together.

The big thing for me is when I just got an email from my teacher that says, you know, I heard you on the radio. I read this thing that you wrote and it really, I felt like you were speaking to me. I felt like I could really hear my experiences in what you were saying- shared Amanda.

Amanda’s latest publication is called Resistance in Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration (2024). She edited this book with Pat Thomson and Jill Blackmore. The idea was developed during COVID, and was created as a response to the policy changes introduced during the pandemic. It focuses on answering two key questions:

How did teachers survive this time?

How are people responding to the policy changes?

The book offers a valuable contribution to discussions on educational leadership theory and the influence of discourses on schooling and educational politics. It gathers a diverse group of international scholars to explore theories of resistance in ELMA and to set a resistance-focused agenda for critical ELMA research that fosters change and embraces diverse perspectives on leadership.