Who is on our international research team?
Introducing our international research team
The group is led by Dr. Peggy Kern, Assoc. Prof. Psychology, Melbourne Graduate School of Education a recognised expert working in schools across Australia, and Dr. Annick Janson.This included reviewing and updating our manualised research protocol document, ethics approvals and data analysis methodologies. Their evaluation was consistent with the 2018 evaluation. They also provided recommendations, such as updating our ethics approvals and shortening the number of survey items so as to optimise participants’ response time and concentration, which have been implemented.
- Peggy (Margaret) Kern, University of Melbourne
- Anoo Bhopti, Monash University
- Tim Moore, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
- Janine Morrah, prev. from Massey University
- Katharine Lancaster, La Trobe University
- Sylvana Mahmic, UNSW Sydney
- Rachel Taylor, Swinburne University
- Annick Janson University of Victoria in Wellington
- Yanchen Zhang, Iowa University, USA
- Uri Sternberg, Open University, IL
- Nelly Todorova, Canterbury University, New Zealand
Click to browse our Publication list
Since our launch in 2015, we have collected data before, during and after interventions to measure the impact of our peer-led programs for parents of children raising children with disability.
Our evaluation process is well established and has been reviewed in-depth by 3 different teams:
1. The 2018 Murdoch Children Research Institute external evaluation of our program reported that our processes, outcomes and measures consistently demonstrate increases in goal achievement, engagement, empowerment, hope and wellbeing for participants (https://tinyurl.com/MCRI-eval).
2. In 2019 a research grant from the Melbourne Disability Institute funded a collaboration with researchers from 5 Australian, a New Zealand (University of Victoria in Wellington) and a USA (Iowa University) academic institutions.
The research and evaluation teams were impressed with the consistency observed across our cohorts - observing the ongoing trend displayed by all groups - small and large - in the high number of goals achieved, and of improvement in empowerment, wellbeing and hope.
3. The Centre for Disability Studies, University of Sydney trained our parent-facilitators to collect data as participant-observers. Parent facilitators are also trained all year long via a peer-worker coordinator through ongoing performance evaluations. Remaining data is collected via automated protocols (sending a survey following a specific session), or via coordinators (investigating red flags, such as low wellbeing scores). Data are collated in real-time through a bespoke online platform which collects documents, photos and materials so:
- Facilitators receive ongoing feedback on participants engagement
- Program Coordinators monitor participants’ progress for quality control
- Researchers receive data as it is collected
This webinar features some of our research team members introducing the Now & Next program.
