Dr Matt Lumb
Associate Director
Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Ed
- Email:matt.lumb@newcastle.edu.au
- Phone:(02) 4921 7912
Career Summary
Biography
My commitment to the field of access to education developed through experiences as a community development professional working on projects in Australia and in parts of Asia and Africa, and as a classroom teacher in Australian high schools.
A formative time in my professional life was working for UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) where I undertook a dual role in Australia as Education for Development Coordinator and as International Projects Officer (Monitoring and Evaluation). As Education for Development Coordinator, my role was to manage school and community-focused fundraising and advocacy initiatives; e.g. pioneering and managing relationships with NSW DET and NSW Teachers Federation around a new statewide initiative called UNICEF Day for Change.
As International Projects Officer (Monitoring and Evaluation) I worked in Australia and overseas to liaise between local stakeholders of development practice, representatives of UNICEF and other UN agencies in overseas development contexts, and the Australian Government - to monitor program processes, identify future funding needs, and produce nuanced reporting and evaluation products. This role involved numerous visits to development contexts including Zambia (HIV/AIDS orphans & prevention of transmission between mother and child), Laos (Child Protection against UXO or Unexploded Ordinance), Indonesia (Polio Vaccination), Vietnam (Iodine Deficiency) and Fiji (Health Technologies).
As a teacher in NSW public schools in the central west of the state, I gained renewed appreciation of the role education plays in relational processes underlying the possibility of community development. It was in this context I acquired a deeper understanding of the ways that pedagogy, curricular and assessment structures impact on subjectivity, identity and life trajectory.
Working for Australian Red Cross as firstly Refugee Support Coordinator and then as manager of a community service called Tenant Connect, I experienced the tensions, joys and contradictions of community work and not-for-profit organisations. I was privileged to work with a diversity of experienced practitioners and to learn about the ways processes of evaluation can themselves be programs of practice.
Since 2011, I have worked at the University of Newcastle, initially as an 'outreach' practitioner. Through the development of the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education, I completed a PhD investigating some of the unintended consequences of university outreach connections. I have an interest in the ways sophisticated participatory methodologies can make evaluative processes more generative, and deliver nuanced understandings of the underlying dynamics that produce program 'impact'.
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Newcastle
Keywords
- community development
- critical pedagogy
- educational access
- educational participation
- equity
- evaluation
- international development
- social inequalities
- social justice
- sociology of education
- widening participation
Fields of Research
| Code | Description | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 390303 | Higher education | 25 |
| 390203 | Sociology of education | 50 |
| 441001 | Applied sociology, program evaluation and social impact assessment | 25 |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Chapter (5 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||||||||
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| 2023 |
Gordon RB, Lumb M, Bunn M, Burke PJ, 'Evaluation for equity: reclaiming evaluation by striving towards counter-hegemonic democratic practices', Education, Policy and Democracy, Routledge 37-50 (2023)
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| 2022 |
Burke PJ, Bunn M, Lumb M, 'Tensions in access and accountability', International Encyclopedia of Education: Fourth Edition 367-373 (2022) Access to higher education can be understood in a diversity of ways, as can the accountabilities that are attached to this notion. In this piece we make a distinction between diff... [more] Access to higher education can be understood in a diversity of ways, as can the accountabilities that are attached to this notion. In this piece we make a distinction between different conceptualizations of access, and we articulate how these relate to accountability in the contemporary conditions of higher education, with a focus on university systems, institutions, and practices. Recent decades have seen a ¿massification¿ of student participation in higher education systems across many nation states. In this globalized context of numerical student growth, access to higher education is often taken as the opportunity to gain formal entry to a higher education study pathway. Commonly, this involves a focus on counting bodies of people from social groups that policymakers recognize as historically excluded from participation at tertiary level of their formal education system. Beyond this though, and if we explicitly move to consider how inequality becomes structured into institutions and practices, the notion of access can also help to explain whose and which knowledge matters in higher education. Drawing on sociological accounts of the character and limits of knowing and knowledge, the term ¿epistemic access¿ has been used to explore this dimension of accessibility. In the entry below, we first discuss efforts toward ¿widening¿ access to higher education before moving to of the issue of epistemic access. In considering these issues we explore the relationship of access to accountability, including the tensions between these terms.
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| 2021 |
Lumb M, Bunn M, 'Dominant higher education imaginaries: Forced perspectives, ontological limits and recognising the imaginer's frame', Reimagining the Higher Education Student: Constructing and Contesting Identities, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon 114-131 (2021) [B1]
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| 2019 |
Lumb M, 'Unintended imaginings: the difficult dimensions of possible selves', Possible Selves and Higher Education: New Interdisciplinary Insights, Routledge, London, UK 93-110 (2019) [B1]
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| 2018 |
Burke PJ, Lumb M, 'Researching and evaluating equity and widening participation: praxis-based frameworks', Evaluating Equity and Widening Participation in Higher Education, Trentham, London (2018) [B1]
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| Show 2 more chapters | |||||||||||
Journal article (13 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 |
Lumb M, Bunn M, Ronan C, 'Advanced neoliberal governance and Australian rural higher education', Access: Critical explorations of equity in higher education, 10 58-71 (2022) [C1]
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| 2022 |
Gordon RB, Lumb M, Bunn M, Burke PJ, 'Evaluation for equity: reclaiming evaluation by striving towards counter-hegemonic democratic practices', Journal of Educational Administration and History, 54 277-290 (2022) [C1] Formal evaluation of policies, programmes and people has become ubiquitous in contemporary western contexts. This is the case for equity and widening participation (WP) agendas in... [more] Formal evaluation of policies, programmes and people has become ubiquitous in contemporary western contexts. This is the case for equity and widening participation (WP) agendas in higher education, for which evaluation is often required to measure ¿what works¿. Although evaluation has a ¿fundamentally social, political, and value-oriented character¿ (Guba and Lincoln. 1989. Fourth Generation Evaluation. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 7), an experimental approach, situated within hegemonic positivist epistemologies, has tended to prevail. In this paper, we argue that it is misguided to pursue evaluation with an apolitical pretext of independence and objectivity. Drawing on Butler¿s concept of performativity, we explore how hegemonic anti-democratic evaluation practices can potentially re-inscribe and reproduce the very inequalities that WP seeks to address. By critiquing the technologies of evaluation, we lay out one way of understanding how democratic evaluation practices can reclaim evaluation to make possible more diverse and socially just worlds.
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| 2021 |
English HJ, Lumb M, Davidson JW, 'What are the affordances of the digital music space in alternative education? A reflection on an exploratory music outreach project in rural Australia', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MUSIC EDUCATION, 39 275-288 (2021) [C1]
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| 2021 | Lumb M, Ndagijimana L, 'Writing the value(s) of colonised equity practices in higher education', ACCESS: Critical explorations of equity in higher education, 9 41-56 (2021) [C1] | Nova | |||||||||
| 2021 |
Phelan L, Lumb M, 'Higher education for times of climate crisis critical awareness, purpose and community', International Studies in Sociology of Education, 30 173-190 (2021) [C1] Climate change impacts cascade across scales and sectors, and present specific threats to education institutions and systems, including reduced educational access, participation a... [more] Climate change impacts cascade across scales and sectors, and present specific threats to education institutions and systems, including reduced educational access, participation and attainment by students. In this paper, we set out the pursuit of climate change mitigation and adaptation responses, grounded in commitments to equity and justice, as a renewed fundamental purpose for higher education. To this end, we suggest the understanding of public and private benefits of education that is typically applied to individuals may be usefully applied at institution and system scale. However, in the context of an accelerating climate crisis, adopting a renewed fundamental purpose will require institutions and systems to display critical awareness beyond the public-private benefits divide, towards an understanding of themselves as embedded in¿rather than separate to¿their broader communities and societies, and an acknowledgement of the particular interests that are foregrounded and privileged in the construction of their purpose.
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| 2020 |
Lumb M, Burke PJ, Bennett A, 'Obscenity and fabrication in equity and widening participation methodologies', British Educational Research Journal, (2020) [C1]
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| 2019 |
Lumb M, Burke PJ, 'Re/cognising the discursive fr/Ames of equity and widening participation in higher education', INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION, 28 215-236 (2019) [C1]
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| 2019 |
Bennett A, Lumb M, 'Policy misrecognitions and paradoxes: developing more contextually attuned access and equity policies in Australian higher education', Policy Futures in Education, 17 966-982 (2019) [C1]
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| 2019 |
Bunn M, Lumb M, 'Education as Agency: Challenging educational individualisation through alternative accounts of the agentic', The International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 18 7-19 (2019) [C1]
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| 2018 |
English H, Lumb M, Page J, Wilton J, 'Spaces of solace and world-building: A praxis-based approach to Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) outreach for equity and widening participation in higher education', International Studies in Widening Participation, 5 10-25 (2018) [C1]
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| 2017 | Lumb M, Roberts S, 'The inedito viavel (untested feasibility) of practitioner imaginations: Reflections on the challenges and possibilities of dialogic praxis for equity and widening participation', International Studies in Widening Participation, 4 18-33 (2017) [C1] | Nova | |||||||||
| Show 10 more journal articles | |||||||||||
Conference (11 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 |
Bunn M, Lumb M, 'Negotiating the nexus of research and practice for equity in Australian Higher Education.', Wollongong (2019)
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| 2019 |
Bunn M, Lumb M, 'Forced perspectives, ontological limits, and the means of realisation: Re/cognising the frame when reimagining the higher education student.', Newcastle, Australia (2019)
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| 2018 |
Burke PJ, Lumb M, McCleod J, 'Panel: Theorising new questions on gender, subjectivity and emotions', Melbourne, Australia (2018)
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| Show 8 more conferences | |||||
Creative Work (1 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Lumb M, Hope, Newcastle (2013) |
Report (1 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 |
Bourke S, Burke PJ, Darney S, Gordon R, Lumb M, Smith S, 'Children s University Newcastle Evaluation Report', University of Newcastle (2021)
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Grants and Funding
Summary
| Number of grants | 6 |
|---|---|
| Total funding | $294,364 |
Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.
20222 grants / $65,598
Reclaiming My Place: the nexus between research and practice$60,598
Funding body: Anonymous
| Funding body | Anonymous |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Penny Jane Burke, Mrs Felicity Cocuzzoli, Doctor Rhyall Gordon, Doctor Matt Lumb |
| Scheme | Research and Scholarship Support |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2022 |
| Funding Finish | 2024 |
| GNo | G2200754 |
| Type Of Funding | C3300 – Aust Philanthropy |
| Category | 3300 |
| UON | Y |
Country University Centres regional marginalisation student's participation in higher education$5,000
Funding body: College of Human and Social Futures | University of Newcastle
| Funding body | College of Human and Social Futures | University of Newcastle |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Dr Matthew Bunn (lead), Dr Matt Lumb, Julia Shaw |
| Scheme | CHSF - Matched Funding |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2022 |
| Funding Finish | 2022 |
| GNo | |
| Type Of Funding | Internal |
| Category | INTE |
| UON | N |
20191 grants / $114,627
International Review of equity in higher education$114,627
Funding body: Department of Education and Training
| Funding body | Department of Education and Training |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Penny Jane Burke, Professor Peter Howley, Professor Andrew Brown, Doctor Matthew Bunn, Doctor Matt Lumb, Ms Belinda Munn, Dr William Locke |
| Scheme | Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Programme (HEPPP) |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2019 |
| Funding Finish | 2020 |
| GNo | G1900518 |
| Type Of Funding | C2200 - Aust Commonwealth – Other |
| Category | 2200 |
| UON | Y |
20173 grants / $114,139
Evaluation for Equity$101,320
Funding body: Anonymous
| Funding body | Anonymous |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Penny Jane Burke, Doctor Matt Lumb, Doctor Rhyall Gordon, Mrs Selina Darney, Mr David Pearson |
| Scheme | Research and Scholarship Support |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2017 |
| Funding Finish | 2020 |
| GNo | G1701461 |
| Type Of Funding | C3300 – Aust Philanthropy |
| Category | 3300 |
| UON | Y |
P-Tech Think Tank$9,091
Funding body: IBM Australia and New Zealand
| Funding body | IBM Australia and New Zealand |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Doctor Matthew Bunn, Doctor Matt Lumb, Professor Penny Jane Burke |
| Scheme | Research Grant |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2017 |
| Funding Finish | 2017 |
| GNo | G1701621 |
| Type Of Funding | C3300 – Aust Philanthropy |
| Category | 3300 |
| UON | Y |
Educational futures: exploring emerging educational models in regional NSW and their impact upon student engagement and access to higher education$3,728
Funding body: University of Newcastle
| Funding body | University of Newcastle |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Professor Penny Jane Burke, Professor John Fischetti, Doctor Matthew Bunn, Doctor Matt Lumb |
| Scheme | Linkage Pilot Research Grant |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2017 |
| Funding Finish | 2018 |
| GNo | G1701351 |
| Type Of Funding | Internal |
| Category | INTE |
| UON | Y |
News
News • 15 Apr 2019
Research team to develop an International Literature Review on Equity in Higher Education
A research team from University of Newcastle and University of Melbourne have been awarded a grant from the Australian Department of Education and Training, under the HEPPP National Priority Pool scheme, to develop an International Literature Review on Equity in Higher Education. This work will be a significant asset for the Australian field of Equity in Higher Education.
News • 16 May 2014
European Access Network
Staff from the University of Newcastle will attend the 23rd annual European Access Network being held at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland from June 2-4, 2014.
Dr Matt Lumb
Position
Associate Director
Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education
Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Ed
College of Human and Social Futures
Contact Details
| matt.lumb@newcastle.edu.au | |
| Phone | (02) 4921 7912 |
| Fax | (02) 4921 5613 |
| Links |
Twitter Personal webpage |
Office
| Room | IDC211 |
|---|---|
| Building | IDC |
| Location | Callaghan University Drive Callaghan, NSW 2308 Australia |
Connect with me
NEWS • Apr 15.2019
Research team to develop an International Literature Review on Equity in Higher Education
A research team from University of Newcastle and University of Melbourne have been awarded a grant from the Australian Department of Education and Training, under the HEPPP National Priority Pool scheme.
NEWS • May 16.2014
European Access Network
Staff from the University of Newcastle will attend the 23rd annual European Access Network being held at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.