DoctorLouise Zarmati

Louise has had a varied career as a teacher, archaeologist and museum educator and now works in the School of Education as a teacher educator specialising in the learning area of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her areas of expertise are Australian history and archaeology, museum education, history pedagogy and curriculum design. Over the years Louise has written many textbooks and articles on teaching history and archaeology to primary and secondary students. In 2009 she was a writer of the first iteration of the Australian Curriculum: History, Foundation to Year 10 and Senior Ancient History courses. In 2012 Louise was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study innovative archaeology education programs overseas. Since joining UTAS in 2015, Louise has received a Vice Chancellor’s Award of Community Engagement (2018) and a College Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (2019).

Biography

Louise spent the first five years of her career as a history and English teacher in a number of secondary schools in Sydney before leaving Australia to pursue her passion for history and archaeology. She worked on excavations in Israel, Greece and Cyprus and studied archaeology and museum management at the University of Cambridge. After returning to Australia in 1991, Louise set up the Nicholson Museum's schools education program at the University of Sydney (1992) and the Dawes Point archaeology program at The Rocks in Sydney (1995).

In 1996, Louise resumed her school teaching career and during that time produced two textbooks on archaeology with Dr Aedeen Cremin. In 2005, she was awarded a NSW Premier's History Scholarship to study the work of Italian archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri. From 2008 to 2010 Louise worked as a teacher educator at Macquarie University, and at Deakin University she completed her PhD entitled 'Teaching history in Australian Museums: Pedagogy and Praxis' in 2012. From 2013, Louise worked as a teacher educator in the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Sydney. She also runs a successful education consulting practice which produced learning programs for Sydney Learning Adventures, Melbourne Museum, State Library of NSW and Parramatta Park Trust. Since 2006, Louise has been education consultant for The Big Dig Archaeology Education Centre at The Rocks in Sydney which was awarded a National Trust (NSW) Heritage award for Best Education Program in 2011.

Career summary

Qualifications
Doctor of Philosophy (2012) 'Teaching history in Australian Museums: Pedagogy and Praxis' Deakin University, Australia
Master of Philosophy (1992) 'A positive view of 'The heritage industry'; A study of seven private heritage centres in Britain' University of Cambridge, UK
Diploma of Education (1980) University of Sydney, Australia
Bachelor of Education (1979) University of Sydney, Australia

Memberships

Professional practice
Louise was an Executive Member of the NSW History Teachers' Association from 2006 to 2013. From 2011-12 Louise ran the education group of the NSW chapter of Museums Australia, and is a member of the Australian Archaeological Association.

Administrative expertise
Louise has expertise in designing and managing education projects for government and corporate cultural institutions, and as a unit coordinator in schools and universities.