Georgia is a recent doctoral graduate in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at Waipapa Taumata Rau. Her thesis, titled Measuring Academic Resilience in Quantitative Research: Exploring Researchers’ Methodological Decisions, was included on the Dean’s List 2023, which recognises theses that are of exceptional quality in every respect including scholarship, research content, quality of expression and accuracy of presentation.

Georgia’s thesis work did a deep dive into the methodological implications of researchers’ decisions with respect to the operationalisation and measurement of academic resilience. This involved documenting the different ways that academic resilience is measured in research and understanding the implications of these different measures for research outputs and the production of knowledge. A key component of her thesis was critically examining the utility of academic resilience in promoting education equity, emphasising the role of the researcher in choosing and implementing appropriate study designs.

Georgia is interested in promoting the wellbeing and development of young people, particularly within educational contexts, as well as the methodological components of conducting research. She is excited to work on the Our Voices project because it brings these two interests together to explore the lived experiences of young people. “This is a unique opportunity to hear directly from young people about what matters to them. I am looking forward to helping make sense of the data in ways that amplify the voices of young people”, she says.