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Waranara
Health professions education research network
We're an inclusive community of educators and researchers committed to undertaking quality health professions education research and scholarship that contributes to an evidence-based approach to improving our learning environments.
About us
Waranara is aimed at advancing the skills of our healthcare educators and researchers by fostering interdisciplinary discussions and understanding of the cultures in which we learn, teach and practise.
Drawing on social science disciplinary knowledge and through ongoing engagement and collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members and University colleagues, the purpose of Waranara is to develop a high-class global community for health professions education research, learning, and support.
Our objective
To undertake quality health professions education research that contributes to an evidence-based approach to improving our learning environments.
Our values
Striving to foster a strong sense of belonging and cultural safety for all to flourish; valuing all perspectives in the knowledge that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; endeavouring to undertake work that is not just done to our community of stakeholders, or done on them, but achieved with them via co-design.
Opening up possibilities to promote cross-pollination of ideas and concepts for research and education innovation; striving to empower our community of stakeholders to share educational and research experiences and ideas; being courageous to take a risk, learning from our endeavours whatever the outcomes.
Open to the contribution that all members of our community make, which will facilitate our collective success; respecting personal values across our community of stakeholders; facilitating leadership and learning opportunities, providing opportunities for growth across our community.
Ensuring our work is known as excellent in its integrity and ethical principles; a culture of honesty and trust provides the basis of our ethical working practices; fostering our ethical approach reflexively through role modelling best practice, respectfully raising concerns where necessary.
Events
Health Professionals Education Research Series
Introduction to Ethics and Quality in Health Professions Education Research
Tuesday 7 May, 12 – 1pm online | Register >
Our second workshop delves into ethical and quality concerns within health professions education research. Ethical considerations form the foundation of research integrity, guiding us in the pursuit of high-quality outcomes. Throughout the research process—from design and funding applications to data collection, analysis, dissemination, quality appraisals, and peer review—ethical and quality considerations play a crucial role. Our focus extends to the dynamic interrelationships among researchers, supervisors, participants, practitioners, patients, funders, and research users. Breathing life into these ethical and quality issues through engaging discussions on our own ethical dilemmas, this interactional workshop plays a foundational role in the early development of your research endeavours.
Scientific & Realist Approaches in Health Professions Education Research
Tuesday 4 June, 12 – 1pm online | Register >
In this online workshop we compare and contrast scientific and realist approaches to health professions education research. Scientific methods seek to explain natural phenomena by examining relationships between variables and making cause-and-effect predictions. They employ features like hypothesis testing, randomization, control, replicability, impartiality, and predictive validity. Realist approaches, however, go deeper. They aim to unravel how programs (interventions) function or don't, for whom, under what circumstances, and why. For many educational researchers, realist approaches can provide an alternative to experimental methods, acknowledging the complexity and social nature of educational interventions, recognising that they operate differently for diverse individuals, in various settings, and at different times. By understanding the different assumptions behind each approach, and through thoughtful discussions grounded in case studies, by the end of this workshop you will come to appreciate the limitations and strengths of both approaches.
Registrations opening soon for more in the Health Professionals Education Research Series!
Previous Events & Resources
Listen to our Podcast. New episodes are released monthly. Make sure you are a member of the network to receive a link to the podcast each month, and an invitation to join our monthly PodClub.
Read the full report here (doc, 3.6MB). You can view the recordings of the day on our Waranara Youtube Channel.
On Friday March 17th, developed, chaired and facilitated by Marcelle Townsend-Cross, Julia McCartan, Josephine Gwynn, and Lynn Monrouxe, the Waranara Network held its adventurous 2023 flagship event. Bringing together around 70 healthcare professions educators and researchers from across the country and the globe, the Symposium included in-person invited guests from remote and rural settings alongside top international research networks across Australia and Taiwan, and online guests from across Canada: Broken Hill UDRH, School of Rural Health (Dubbo/Orange), UCRH, MCSHE , Prideaux, CG-MERC and CHES. We shared our ancestral history and, discovering the cultural melting pot from which we all originate, we acknowledged the lands on which we were all coming from.
We explored new ways of understanding and shared experiences and knowledge around Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborations. We held truly critical conversations around our place in creating and maintaining oppression and exploring ways in which we can bring our new-found awareness to enhance remote, rural, and urban service learning. Breaking from traditional presentation formats, our program was designed to facilitate thoughtful, critical conversations for both our in-person and online attendees. We held brief talks, small blended-group activities, discussions and a World Café.
View the series on our Waranara Youtube Channel. In this series of events, we invite Waranara members who have recently completed their PhD to share their work with the network.
View the series on our Waranara Youtube Channel. A series of online events, presented collaboratively by Waranara, MCSHE (Monash Centre for Scholarship inHealth Education), and Prideaux (Health Professions Education, Flinders University).
View the series on our Waranara Youtube Channel. A series of online events, presented collaboratively by Waranara and MCSHE (Monash Centre for Scholarship inHealth Education).
View the series on our Waranara Youtube Channel. A series of online events, presented collaboratively by Waranara and MCSHE (Monash Centre for Scholarship inHealth Education).
PhD opportunities
Connect with one of our research supervisors:
- Professor Lynn Monrouxe
- Associate Professor Stuart Lane
Our people
- Professor Lynn Monrouxe
- A/Professor Tim Schlub
- A/Professor Annette Burgess
- Ms Annie Chan
- Dr Astrid Frotjold
- Dr Carl Schneider
- Dr Kate Thomson
- Associate Professor Stuart Lane
Image credit: Ngara - Education and Research
‘Yanhambabirra Burambabirra Yalbailinya (Come, Share and Learn)' 2020 by Luke Penrith for the One Sydney Many People Strategy.