Dr. Airdre Grant BA (VUW) Dip Ed (STC) MEd (UTS) PhD (SCU) Airdre is an academic in the Teaching and Learning Centre at Southern Cross University (SCU), Australia. Her current work as a lecturer in teaching and learning is as an academic developer, working with issues related to quality teaching and learning in higher education. She works with the Schools of Education and Health and Human Science at SCU, with a focus on the incorporation of new technologies into teaching practice, improvement in the areas of course reviews, assessment strategies and related pedagogical issues. The focus of her doctoral study was an investigation into the role of spirituality as a key component of education in holistic medicine and in particular whether education practice reflected professional philosophical underpinnings. Her research interests are focussed on authenticity in education, and the intersection between theoretical underpinnings and academic practice. This is driven by an interest in the anchoring of educational innovation with authentic pedagogy and relevance. At present her work explores the integration of educational technology, connectivism and communities of practice. She has built on her thesis research and this is reflected in her work as a contributing editor to the US textbook, Foundations of Natural Medicine (Bastyr University), where she has written about education in natural medicine, the need for congruence between professional philosophy and educational practices. Currently Airdre serves on the board of the Australian Register of Naturopaths and Herbalists (ARONAH), which is establishing independent uniform national standards in training and practice for naturopaths and western herbal medicine practitioners in Australia.
Journal articles
Spirituality, health and the complementary medicine practitioner, Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society (2007)
This paper examines the conceptual relationship between spirituality and health and the philosophical foundations of...
Evidence-based medicine and naturopathy (with Tom Jagtenberg, Sue Evans, Ian Howden, Monique Lewis, and Judy Singer), Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (2006)
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been advocated as a new paradigm in orthodox medicine and as...
Complementary medicine and evidence-based practice: power and control in healthcare - Questions about an arranged marriage (with Assunta Hunter), Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine (2005)
Healthcare is changing as evidence-based medicine (EBM) is incorporated into education and practice. This article...
Education in natural medicine: what's love got to do with it?, Integrative Medicine: A Clinician's Journal (2005)
This paper raises the question of how complementary medicine curriculum designers can balance pressure to...
Book chapters
Theses
Looking for the water from a deeper well: an investigation into spirituality and natural medicine education, PhD thesis, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW (2010)
This investigation addresses the importance attached to spirituality within the culture and curriculum of a...