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Originally trained as a career adviser many years ago I have worked in the field of career education, guidance and social justice for over 25 years as a practitioner, researcher and academic. I have researched and published widely, delivered workshops and presented papers at national and international conferences.  

I joined CSU as an Adjunct Lecturer in education in 2011 following my move to Australia from New Zealand. Until recently I was a Sessional Lecturer in Education with James Cook University (Singapore) where I taught a core paper on the Masters in Guidance and Counselling programme. In recent years I have also tutored two undergraduate papers in education at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. In the past I have worked as a tutor/lecturer for the Open University and the University of Nottingham, and in my last post before leaving the UK I was a Senior Lecturer in Education at Canterbury Christ Church University. When I first moved to New Zealand I retained a Senior Visiting Research Fellow post for several years with Canterbury Christ Church university.  

My professional/research interests encompass career education and guidance; critical and transformative learning; social justice in education; inclusive education; parental/community participation in learning; citizenship/democratic education; adult/community education; lifelong learning; vocationalism and work-related learning.

I am currently in the process of completing my PhD (through the University of Otago) where I have been looking at how social justice is understood within career education in New Zealand secondary education. This qualitative study is located within a critical social theory framework and draws explicitly on the work of of the political philosopher Iris Marion Young. Critical discourse analysis has been employed to make sense of the data gathered from interviews with career advisors in a range of secondary school settings and to analyse the State's policy guidelines for career education and guidance in New Zealand schools. From the findings it is my intention to draw up a social justice framework for use by career advisors.

• Member of the Association for Qualitative Research (AQR)
• Member of the Australasian Human Dvelopment Association (AHDA)
• Member of the Australian Association for Pastoral Care in Education (AAPCE)
• Member of the National Guidance Research Forum (UK)
• Member of the New Zealand Asosciation for Research in Education (NZARE)
• Reviewer for Australian Journal of Career Development (AJCD)
• Reviewer for British Journal of Guidance and Counselling (BJGC)
• Reviewer for International Journal of Critical pedagogy
• Reviewer for International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance (IJEVG)

Journal Articles

• Irving, B. A. (2011). Choice, chance or compulaion: the recruitment of career advisers into New Zealand secondary schools. Revista Espanola de orientacion Y Psicopedagogia, 22(2), 109-119.
• Irving, B. A. (2011) Career education as a site of oppression and domination: an engaging myth or a critical reality? Australian Journal of Career Development, 20(3), 24-30.
• Irving, B. A. (2010). Making a difference: Developing career education as a socially just practice. Australian Journal of Career Development, 19(3), 15-23.
• Irving, B. A. (2010). Connecting career education with social justice: relating theory to practice in New Zealand secondary schools. Career Research and Development, 24, 19-22.
• irving, B. A. (2010). Shifting careers: (re)constructing career education as a socially just practice. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 10, 49-63.
• Irving, B. A. (2009). Locating social justice in career education: what can a small-scale study from New Zealand tell us? Australian Journal of Career Develoment, 18(2), 13-23.
• Books/Chapters
• L. Barham and B. A. Irving (Eds.) (2011). Constructing the Future: Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice. Stourbridge, UK: Institute of Career Guidance.
• Irving, B. A., Sanderson, L. J. & Sanderson, D. (2011). Challenging perceptions of (dis)ability in New Zealand: enhancing opportunities for disabled students with high-end needs through school-supported work experience. In L. Barham and B. A. Irving (Eds.). Constructing the Future: Diversity, Inclusion and social Justice. Stroubridge, UK: Institute of Career Guidance.

Conference Presentations

• B. A. Irving (2011). Preparing students for transition into the 'real world': what role does career education play in the promotion of social justice? Paper in Symposium, 'Transitioning through life: Choices and challenges in changing times. 17th Biennial Conference of the Australasian Human Development Association. Dunedin, New Zealand, July.
• B. A. Irving (2011). Career education as a site of oppression and domination: an engaging myth or a critical reality? Interntaional Conference of the Association of Educaitonal and Vocational Giudance. Cairns, Australia, April.  
• B. A. Irving (2011). Making a difference: Developing career education as a socially just practice. Conference of the Career Development Association of Australia. Adelaide, Australia, April.
• B. A. Irving. (2009). Developing socially just career programmes: from theory to practice. International Conference of the international Association for Educational and Vocaitonal Guidance. Wellington, New Zealand, November.
• B. A. Irving. (2009). Putting social justice into practice: a New Zealand insight into career education. International Conference of the Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance. Jyvaskyla, Finland, June.
• B. A. Irving (2009). Careering down the wrong path? (Re)positioning career education as a socially just practice. Second Career Symposium of the Career Practitioners Association of New Zealand. Dunedin, New Zealand, March.