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Bachelor of Arts in Education (Primary), 1990

From the white sandy beaches of Perth to the cobbled streets of Oxford, Dr Sara Ratner, a leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) Researcher at the University of Oxford, recounts where her “insatiable thirst for knowledge” came from and where it has led her - shaped first by her mum, and then by the widely celebrated teacher training she received at our very own School of Education.

“For as long as I can remember, my mum instilled in me the belief that education is the way through and out of any situation you're in. Education was always the primary driver in our house. My husband always jokes, “I think you've got more initials after your name than in your name. You collect degrees!”

This collection of degrees wasn’t part of a grand ‘masterplan’, but a series of ‘yeses’ that led Sara on a quest for answers, from school in Perth, to ECU, to the University of Sydney and then to Oxford, the oldest English-speaking university in the world:

“My pathway kind of evolved before me. It wasn't a plan that I had. Certainly, I never planned to end up at Oxford [university]. I just had the courage to say yes as opportunities came before me, and a series of yeses leads you in a direction.” 

Sara discusses how her training at ECU paved the way to her now phenomenal, world-leading career.

“I learned the tools of my trade here [at ECU]. It shaped me as a teacher. I had wonderful lecturers, and I made amazing friends. Being in this educational environment just set me up for the path [I’m on]. I studied primary education, and we were a small cohort at Mount Lawley, so everyone knew everybody. We used to hang out on the lawn with all the WAAPA students… It was an incredibly formative period of time in my life, meeting lots of different people from all over WA that had come to study there.”

In a ‘full-circle moment’, Sara recently returned to her alma mater, but the landscape has changed dramatically from when she first stepped onto the Mount Lawley lawns. Visiting the new ECU City Campus Sara adds:

“Arriving at the new campus this morning, I was like, ‘what is this building?’ It’s amazing… Perth is looking very different. I grew up here. I did my education here from the age of one. All of my schooling was here, and most of my university education.”

It’s thanks to the Fogarty Foundation and Forrest Research Foundation that Sara has returned to lead discussions on AI in education in Australia, meeting with academics, pre-service teachers, parents, educators, sector leaders and government - in a pivotal moment that will define how a generation of WA teachers may choose to work with and teach children using AI.

“My big driving question is, ‘how do we make sure that every child is set up for success in the future? Whether that's supporting educational outcomes, health and wellbeing, through schooling systems or the care systems we put around them - it's my main driver. Everything else, whether it's pedagogy or policy or technology, everything else for me is in support of that goal.”

For Sara, the answer is clear:

“There's a difference in using AI as a student and using it in a classroom as an instructional tool. That’s the leap we need to make. [Teachers] are responsible for the students in their care, for their data, learning and knowledge acquisition. We know what good pedagogy, good learning, and what academic success looks like, but we don't know what impact AI may have on all of that going into the classroom. It's really important that pre-service teachers go in as researchers, making sure they're looking at what is the evidence around this.” 

Read more about the future of AI, and its impact on education according to world-leading researcher, Dr Sara Ratner.