DrCeridwen Owen

• Professional identity formation in teacher education and higher education
• Professional experience, practicum, and work-integrated learning
• Ethics of care in teaching and teacher education
• Early career teachers' work and development
• Academic work and digital pedagogies in higher education
• Figured Worlds theory and sociocultural approaches to professional learning

Ceridwen's research is driven by a single question: what conditions allow people to become, develop, and do meaningful work as professionals? Working across initial teacher education, and higher education, she draws on Figured Worlds theory and the ethics of care to examine how institutional conditions, relationships, and policy contexts shape the people working within them. Her work has a particular focus on the moments of transition and formation that matter most: the early career years when teachers are finding their footing, the practicum placements where professional identity first takes shape, and the shifting conditions in which academics take up new ways of teaching and working. This research connects to practice through partnerships with schools, the Victorian Department of Education, and education researchers, in Australia and internationally, and informs how Deakin designs and supports the professional experience of its preservice teachers.