Dr Deborah Netolicky is an Australian School Principal committed to building positive school cultures of trust, inclusivity, and excellence, through collective action that is strategically aligned and based in context, research, and innovation.

Deborah is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the University of Adelaide and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Professional Capital and Community. She researches and writes around professional learning, professional identity, school leadership, coaching, and leading change in education contexts. She is author of the book Transformational professional learning: Making a difference in schools, co-Editor of Flip the System Australia: What matters in education, and Editor of Future Alternatives for Educational Leadership: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Democracy.

Her awards include The Educator’s 2022 Most Influential Educator list and the education Hot List, 2021 AERA Educational Change SIG Emerging Scholar Award, 2021 Michael Fullan Emerging Scholar Award, 2021 ACEL WA Certificate of Excellence in Educational Leadership, and 2018 ACEL WA Research in Educational Leadership and Management Award.

Deborah’s PhD, completed in April 2016, used narrative inquiry to explore the interactions between teachers’ and school leaders’ professional identities, what they consider to be transformational learning, and school culture and reform. Other publications and presentations are listed here.

You can hear more from Deborah through this blog and her podcast The Edu Salon, as well as on Twitter as @debsnet and on Instagram as @theeduflaneuse and @theedusalon.

Awards

2022, Most Influential Educator, The Educator Australia. Hot List, The Educator Australia.

2021, Certificate of Excellence in Educational Leadership, Australian Council of Educational Leaders WA.

2021, The Michael Fullan Emerging Scholar in Professional Capital and Community Award, Journal of Professional Capital and Community.

2021, Educational Change Emerging Scholar Award, American Educational Research Association.

2018, Research in Educational Leadership and Management, Australian Council of Educational Leaders WA.

2017, Emerald Publishing Award for Excellence: Emerald Literati Highly-Commended Paper Award for ‘Coaching for professional growth in one Australian school: “oil in water”‘, published in the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education.

2016, Outstanding Research Award in Cognitive Coaching, for my PhD dissertation, Thinking Collaborative.

2016, ‘New Voice’ In Educational Leadership Research Scholarship, Australian Council of Educational Leaders.