Doune Macdonald

Doune Macdonald is a professor and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning)

Doune completed her undergraduate degree in Human Movement Studies at The University of Queensland before teaching health and physical education in primary and secondary schools. Professor Macdonald returned to UQ for her honours degree, obtained her PhD through Deakin University and rejoined the School in 1990. In 1998 she won an Australian Award for University Teaching.

Doune holds a number of leadership roles in international professional and research organisations, research journal editorial boards, national and state advisory panels, and more locally, university and school directorships. She is the Chair of the Teaching and Learning Committee at UQ, an International Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology, USA, a Fellow, a Board Member of the Association Internationale des Ecoles Superieures d'Education Physique (AIESEP) and the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and serves as a Trustee of the Brisbane Grammar School. Doune also chairs the State Ministerial Advisory Committee on Women and Girls in Sport and Recreation and sits on the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research Advisory Group. She is a UQ Executive Ally member. Previous directorships include UQ Sport Ltd and St Margaret’s Anglican Girls’ School.

Research interests

The past decade has brought a number of changes to the field of health and physical education in the school and tertiary sector. Professor Macdonald's research interests have attempted to understand these shifts through the lens of professional socialisation, discourse analysis and identity construction using predominantly qualitative methods. In particular, much of her work has addressed the challenges of curriculum reform and its impact upon teachers and teaching.

More recently Professor Macdonald's interests have moved outside the formal education sphere to broader questions of physical activity and young people with two funded projects looking at at-risk young people and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Currently the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, Queensland Health and the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs fund some of her research projects.