Dr Margaret Gill OAM

Mrs Margaret Gill OAM has had a lifelong commitment to the teaching profession.

She began her career teaching English in government and non-government schools and worked with both gifted students and those with learning difficulties.

In the early ‘70s, Mrs Gill OAM was invited to accept a lectureship in teacher education at Rusden State College and worked with groups of undergraduate, future English teachers.

Her work was recognized with the award of a senior research fellowship from the Commonwealth Relations Trust.

This enabled her to travel to England and work with the British Schools Council, researching senior English curricula while studying for a higher degree at Leeds University.

She returned to Australia to accept a senior lectureship at Monash University.

Throughout these years Mrs Gill OAM retained a close connection with schools and was actively involved in professional teacher development programs at both state and federal levels.

She worked closely with teachers and schools in developing state-of-the-art English curricula courses.

She was for many years the president of the national body, the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, and also the International Federation for the Teaching of English, an organisation she was influential in revitalizing.

She travelled widely, encouraging English teachers around the world to establish connections with fellow teachers across English- speaking countries.

At home she continued to serve as a consultant to a range of federal and state curriculum bodies and was influential in Victoria in shaping the development of the revised Year 12 English courses of the 1990s.

In 1994 she was appointed an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and an Order of Australia medal for Services to Education. She became head of the School of Graduate Studies in 1996 and later Associate Dean Teaching.

Throughout her career she was a powerful advocate for the teaching profession and remained dedicated to her role as a teacher as well as senior administrator in the Monash Faculty of Education.After her retirement she continued as a faculty associate in order to direct and complete a major national research project on the development of teaching standards for the English teaching profession. (STELLA), a project that is still influential in English teaching today.

Mrs Gill OAM enjoyed the unwavering support of her husband Peter Gill and her children throughout her career.