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Gill Rutherford, PhD

Gill

Gill Rutherford, PhD
Gill is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Disability Studies at the University of Otago College of Education, where she has been involved in teacher education since 1995. Her prior employment with a disability service organisation and as a high school teacher has been critical in informing the focus of her current work, which is positioned within Disability Studies (DS) & inclusive education. Following on from her PhD, which sought to understand the school experiences of disabled students and teacher aides from their own perspectives, Gill is committed to working with students (at whatever level of education) to provide opportunities for their thoughts and experiences to be recognised and valued in both educational and research contexts. She is also extremely interested in how we construct and come to ‘know’ disability. Recently, she has investigated understandings of disability within higher education, focusing on how student teachers and university staff respectively think about disability, and how this impacts their recognition, responsiveness and respect for disabled people.

Selected publications
Refereed Book Chapters

  • Rutherford, G., Collins-McKenzie, L., McLeod, A., Ross, C., & Williams, A. (2016). ‘Just use your imagination’: A teacher educator’s explorations of assessment. In D. Bland (Ed.), Imagination for inclusion: Diverse contexts of educational practice (pp. 57-70). London: Routledge.
  • Rutherford, G., Hale, L., & Powell, D. (2015). “We put a few ramps in here and there, that’s about it:” The need to ramp our minds in academia. In T. Corcoran, J. White, & B. Whitburn (Eds.), Disability Studies: Educating for Inclusion (pp. 137-153). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
  • Rutherford, G. (2014). Questions of value(s): Neoliberal education reforms from the perspectives of disabled students and teacher aides. In R. Wills, M. Morton, M. McLean, M. Stephenson, & R. Slee (Eds.), Tales from school: Learning disability and state education after administrative reform (pp. 239-254). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
  • Rutherford, G. (2012). The relational role of teacher aides in supporting students and teachers. In S. Carrington & J. MacArthur (Eds.), Teaching in inclusive school communities (pp. 313-339). John Wiley and Sons, Australia Ltd.
  • Carrington, S., Kearney, A., Kimber, M., MacArthur, J., Mercer, L., Morton, M., & Rutherford, G. (2012). Towards an inclusive education for all. In S. Carrington & J. MacArthur (Eds.), Teaching in inclusive school communities (pp. 3-38). John Wiley and Sons, Australia Ltd.

Refereed Journal Articles

  • Rutherford, G. (2016). Questioning special needs-ism: Supporting student teachers in troubling and transforming understandings of human worth. Teaching and Teacher Education, 56, 127-137. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2016.02.009
  • Rutherford, G. (2014). Measures of human worth: The place of value(s) in academia. Akoranga, 10, 6-9. Retrieved from http://issuu.com/hedc/docs/akoranga10?e=6196518/6840271 (invited contribution)
  • Hale, L., van der Meer, J., Rutherford, G., Clay, L., Janssen, J., & Powell, D. (2013). Exploring the integration of disability awareness into tertiary teaching and learning activities. Journal of Education and Learning, 2(1), 147-157. doi:10.5539/jel.v2n1p147
  • Rutherford, G. (2012). In, out or somewhere in between? Disabled students’ and teacher aides’ experiences of school. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(8), 757-774.
  • Rutherford, G. (2011). Doing right by: Teacher aides, disabled students, and relational social justice. Harvard Educational Review, 81(1), 95-118.

Other Significant Conference Involvement (refereed)

  • Rutherford, G. (2015, September). Return on investment in higher education: Questions of worth? Paper presented at Negotiating Recent Reform in Higher Education: the Question of Student Engagement Symposium, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
  • Rutherford, G. & MacArthur, J. (2015, July-August). Still special after all these years? Confronting the shadow of special needs within teacher education. Presentation at The Inclusive Education Summit, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
  • MacArthur, J., & Rutherford, G. (2014, November). Working at the nexus of disability studies and childhood studies to think differently about ‘special education’ and ‘special needs’ in teacher education. Presentation at the 1st New Zealand Childhood Studies Colloquium, Auckland, New Zealand.
  • Rutherford, G. (2014, July). Questions of value(s): Thinking about neoliberal educational reforms from the perspectives of disabled students and teacher aides. In D. Connor (Chair), Disability studies in education pushes back in an era of accountability. Symposium conducted at the 14th international meeting of the Disability Studies in Education conference, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
  • Rutherford, G., Hale, L., & Powell, D. (2014, July). “We put a few ramps in here and there, that’s about it:” The need to ramp our minds in academia. Paper presented at the Disability Studies in Education Conference, Melbourne, Australia.
  • Rutherford, G. (2013, August). Teaching and research at Otago: The place of values. Keynote speaker at the University of Otago Higher Education and Development Centre (HEDC) Spotlight on Teaching and Learning Colloquium, Dunedin, New Zealand.
  • Rutherford, G. (2013, July). Bright orange vests and other markers of difference: Student teachers’ perceptions of inclusive education. Invited paper presented at the Inclusive Education Colloquium, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
  • Rutherford, G. (2013, May). ‘I’ve never really thought about it’: First year student teachers’ beliefs about disability. Paper presented at the Nordic Network on Disability Research 
(NNDR) 12th Research Conference, Turku, Finland.
  • Rutherford, G., Melrose, S., Moore, A., O’Leary, B., Patten, L., & Undy, T. (2011, November). Understanding school from students’ perspectives. Paper presented at Disability Studies: Every Body In Conference, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
  • Rutherford, G., Melrose, S., Moore, A., O’Leary, B., Patten, L., Stephen, V., & Undy, T. (2011, August). It was a standout assignment (not just to get the tick): Student teachers’ thoughts on a disability-related project. Paper presented at HEDC Spotlight on Teaching and Learning Colloquium, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
  • Rutherford, G. (2011, May). “It depends on the teacher”: Teachers’ (mis)understandings of disabled students and the role of the teacher aide. Paper presented at the Nordic Network on Disability Research 
(NNDR) 11th Research Conference, Reykjavík, Iceland.

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