Welcome to the Social Change Agency!

My name is Maria Delaney and I am passionate about supporting educators, administrators and policy workers in their learning and leadership for social change.

MARIA DELANEY CV 2023

I am currently focused on providing professional development for Respectful Relationships Education in Queensland schools. Please contact me at delaneymt@gmail.com to arrange a complimentary introductory presentation for your school or organisation staff or leadership team.

* What is ‘RRE’? Where does it fit and what does it look like in the classroom? Using your critical social lens for curriculum design and adaptation.

* Pedagogy for change – developing a critical yet compassionate, creative, trauma-informed and healing-centred approach. Working with boys and young men. Educators and students as change agents.

* The Whole School Approach: school culture and environment, leadership and commitment, professional learning strategy, teaching and learning, community partnerships, support for staff and students. A road map for getting started (or going further).

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Why work with me?

I have over thirty years’ diverse experience including leading roles in research, design, development and implementation of strategies, resources and programs for gender equity, the prevention of violence against women, and respectful relationships education in Queensland, nationally, and recently in Victoria.

I have worked across community, education and government organisations as a teacher, teacher educator, policy and project officer, researcher, academic, private consultant, community worker, activist and organiser. Through these wide-ranging experiences I have developed a comprehensive knowledge and resource base for enriching learning and outcomes through pedagogy, curriculum, policy and leadership, and I have fostered close and ongoing working relationships with key stakeholders at local, state and national levels.

Relevant experience includes:

Teaching intermittently in Queensland primary schools from 1984 until 2016;
Research on ‘Changing the story of gendered violence, new educative approaches’ with Professor Amanda Keddie
Evaluation of the implementation and outcomes of the Our Watch Respectful Relationships Education in Primary Schools pilot project 2018 – 2019;
Design and facilitation of the Qeensland pilot workshops with Dr. Jenny Nayler in collaboration with the Our Watch and DoE team;
Training and support for the DET Victoria Respectful Relationships staff, and for community workers to support RRE in schools, as the Prevention of Violence Against Women Specialist: Capability Building for the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria 2018-2020;
Design and development of training resources for practitioners and organisations to be feminist, trauma-informed and healing-centred, drawing on the work of the Healing Foundation, ANROWS and Our Watch, as Community Development and Education Officer for Women’s Health Queensland in 2020
Review and improvement of the facilitator training and resourcing for the ‘All Schools Sexuality and Relationships Education’ and design of RRE workshops for True Relationships and Sexual Health in 2017;
Reviews of the Queensland and Victorian Respectful Relationships curricula for Our Watch in 2017;
Various university research activities in the area including with leading respectful relationships education researchers, Professor Amanda Keddie and Associate Professor Debbie Ollis.
Collaborative design and delivery of national leadership training workshops and the development of Gender and Education Guidelines for schools for the Association of Women Educators Leading Social Change
Co-convening the education stream and presenting on Violence Prevention in Education: A Systems View at the Prevalent and Preventable International Conference on Violence Against Women, AWAVA and Our Watch, 2016
Management of a school cluster implementation of the national Success for Boys project (2006) including professional learning activities, a conference for the staff of 6 schools, supported local action research, and reporting on outcomes.

Connect with me

PRAISE FOR OUR WORK

Zalman Kastel

National Director, Together for Humanity

Maria Delaney is a passionate advocate for equality, justice and inclusion in education. Her assistance with our submission to ACARA about diversity in the Australian curriculum was of a very high quality. Maria has a very important contribution to make in this area.
Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli

Deakin University

This is a comprehensive, user-friendly and extremely valuable learning guide and resource treasure e-chest. I'd certainly recommend it for early career educators but also for those of use who have been working in the area for a long time. We may be feeling a little jaded, tired, or just not up-to-date with all the wonderful stuff out there. How refreshing and exciting to find all these significant projects, publications and resources readily at hand. What a wonderful resource! Thanks!
Professor Martin Mills

University of Queensland

This is a critical service located within a framework that rejects deficit understandings of children and ensures that schools undertake positive and sustainable responses. Maria has extensive experience in facilitating professional learning and in working closely with schools making her an ideal person to support teachers to foster positive identities and relationships, and to address bullying and violence.
Dr Amanda Keddie

University of Queensland

Maria provides a unique and outstanding service in this regard–she connects with the specific problems confronting your school and works with your school community to create holistic and integrated responses that are sustainable and will generate more respectful, peaceful and socially just relations in your school.
The Executive Committee

The Association of Women Educators (AWE)

Maria has a passion for enhancing critical understandings about social justice in leadership and a deep interest in developing and supporting professional learning combined with a vibrant community-of-inquiry approach across a range of research areas… challenging us to consider how things are, and how they could be improved. It is clear that it would be unusual to see such a combination replicated.
Chris Henderson

Coach and courage catalyst, Chris Henderson Coaching

Maria’s decades of critical analysis, program development and education in relation to violence prevention, gender education and the broader field of social justice and her roles as researcher, educator and consultant on numerous programs within Queensland, nationally and beyond. Her position as Senior Project Officer for the national Safe and Supportive Schools Communities project and Bullying. No way! website in particular ensured that these initiatives were at the cutting edge in Australia and internationally in terms of their understanding and nuanced articulation of the social constructions of bullying and violence and the intersection of these with existing psychological perspectives. She makes an important, much needed contribution to Australian education and social justice. Bravo!