Shifting world views through education

AUSTRALIAN Catholic University Associate Professor Mellita Jones believes education has a liberating effect.

“I have always loved learning. I used to say that if I could get a job being a professional student that’s what I’d do,” she said.

“Lo and behold, that’s pretty much what academia is.

“I’m a great believer in the emancipatory effect of education.”

Dr Jones has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours for her service to the field.

She is the ACU’s international community engagement coordinator and has led trips to the Solomon Islands and Kiribati as part of the teacher education immersion program.

For the Solomon Islands program, Dr Jones won the Uniservitate Award Asia and Oceania for Service-Learning Experiences in Catholic Higher Education in 2022.

She has conducted 17 annual trips to the region where pre-service teachers work in local schools and gain an understanding of culture.

“I facilitate a cultural immersion so that they’re focusing on the beautiful culture of the Solomon Islands and those people rather than just seeing it as a developing country with those deficit views,” Dr Jones said.

“A lot of my work is getting them to look at that beautiful, rich culture that the Solomon Islands has, the closeness and connection that they have and what we can learn from that.”

Dr Jones said her main aim of the trips are to transform the students’ lives and in turn create a more equitable world.

“I see complete changes in their whole world view which is what inspires me so much to keep doing that work,” she said.

“They talk about changes in how they view relationships, in how they view consumerism because we are such a consumer driven society.

“I think is we are ever going to achieve a more globally equitable world it’s people like us that need to change, not the people in developing countries.”

ACU is underpinned by a mission statement focused on the themes of truth, love, dignity of the human person and common good.

Dr Jones said this is what attracted her to working at the university.

“ACU has a mission that is oriented towards this sort of work, the mission is the reason I came to ACU, it’s the reason I stay at ACU,” she said.

“It’s an incredibly wonderful and honourable thing.”