Dr Peter Burridge

Dr Peter Burridge is a senior lecturer at Victoria University, Melbourne Australia. For the past 20 years he has focused on enhancing the learning of adolescent students within secondary schools. He has been involved in the development and evaluation of a number of innovative programs across the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne working with disengaged students. These programs have used natural environments, experiential learning and social constructivist approaches to foster the growth and learning reengagement of students.

His research interests are centred on adolescent appropriate pedagogy and the development of schools as pedagogically flexible institutions that can respond to the needs of young people. Dr Burridge’s research has provided a framework to identify social structures within schools which actively enable or inhibit the work of teachers and learning of school students. He is currently applying this understanding to an innovative pre-service teacher education program which is working directly with schools in Melbourne’s west.

Recent publications

Refereed journal articles

Burridge , P., Carpenter, C. (2013). Expanding pedagogical horizions: A case study of teacher professional development. Australian Journal of Teacher Education 38(9), 10-24.

Burridge , P., Carpenter, C. Cherednichenko, B., & Kruger, T. (2010). Investigating praxis inquiry within teacher education using Giddens’ structuration theory. Journal of Experiential Education, 33(1), 19-37.

Refereed chapters

Carpenter, C. and Burridge, P. (2013). Natural environments for learning: Effecting changes in classrooms and community. In Engaging the Disengaged: Inclusive approaches to teaching the least advantaged. Eds. Tarquam McKenna, Marcelle Cacciattolo and Mark Vicars. Chapter 9, pp. 159 -177 Cambridge, UK. ISBN- 13: 9781107627987

Conference presentations

Carpenter, C. and Burridge, P. (2013) Secondary school students discovering life opportunities. International Outdoor Education Research Conference (IOERC), Dunedin, New Zealand 26-29 November.

Burridge P.R. (2012). Understanding teachers’ pedagogical choice: A sociological framework combining the work of Bourdieu and Giddens. AAER – APERA Conference, Sydney Australia. 2-5 December.

View a full list of Dr Burridge's publications.

Teaching responsibilities

Dr Burridge is the course advisor for the Graduate Diploma of Secondary Education and the Masters of Teaching Secondary.

Postgraduate research students and fellows

Current supervision

Co-supervision of 3 PhD students and 4 Masters students.

Professional memberships

• Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE)
• Victorian Outdoor Education Association (VOEA)
• Australian Climbing Instructors Association (ACIA)
• Australian National Schools Network (ANSN)
• Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT)