Chris Davison

Professor Chris Davison, a specialist in language education and school-based assessment, is Professor of Language and Literacy Education in the School of Education, University of New South Wales (UNSW), and a former Head of the School for more than 10 years (2008-2019). She has worked in teacher education for over 35 years, including at the University of Hong Kong (1999-2008) where she was Associate Dean (Research), the University of Melbourne (1988-1999), and La Trobe University (1985-89). Before that, Chris had extensive experience as an English and ESL teacher and consultant in primary and secondary schools, English language centres and the adult and community education sector in Australia and overseas.
Chris has researched and published extensively on the interface between English as a mother tongue and ESL development, integrating language and content curriculum, and English language assessment, with over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including in leading international journals such as TESOL Quarterly, Applied Linguistics, Language Assessment Quarterly, Language Testing and Linguistics and Education. Her books include a two volume handbook of teaching English internationally (Springer, with Jim Cummins) and a co-authored book on English language teaching innovation in China (HKU Press, with Xinmin Zheng). She is founding co-editor (with Andy Gao) of the Springer book series on English Language Education.
With colleagues at the University of Hong Kong, Chris completed the research and development of a range of oral school-based assessment initiatives for the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, and also worked over a number of years with the Ministries of Education in Singapore and in Brunei on integrating assessment for learning into their new curricula. She has recently completed a multimillion dollar project researching and developing an online assessment resource centre for assessing and teaching EAL learners in Victorian schools, funded by the Department of Education and Training (DET), Catholic Education and Independent Schools Victoria. She has conducted many in-service programs and consultancies with educational systems in the Asian region, including Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and China.
Chris has been actively involved in an extensive range professional associations and community organizations throughout her career, including undertaking stints as President of the Australian Council of TESOL Association, Chair of the Australian Literacy Federation, Chair of the TESOL International Research Committee and most recently, Chair of the NSW Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards Initial Teacher Education Committee and President of the NSW Council of Deans of Education. She was most recently a member of the Executive of the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, and is a former Editor in Chief of their journal, the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics.
Chris is recipient of a number of awards, most recently for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education and to TESOL, awarded by the Australian Council of Deans of Education in 2016, the Ralph Rawlinson Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Education of Students with Disadvantage at the International Level in 2017, and the UNSW Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Dean's Research Leadership Award and the UNSW Postgraduate Council Outstanding Supervisor Award in 2018.