About
Christine's research interests revolve around the perceptual worlds of information and information technology users. She is particularly interested in qualitative approaches such as action research, phenomenography and phenomenology. Christine's main area of expertise is information literacy theory and practice. This incorporates education of information users in educational, community and corporate sectors. She also has a focus on the information use processes of research students.
Christine's wider interests are in teaching and learning in higher education, with emphasis on the varying ways in which students experience learning, teaching for conceptual change and fostering holistic, rather than atomistic, learning strategies.
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Current Research
Current projects led by Christine include:
- Information use of researchers and research students. Christine has worked with research students' use of information in several projects including their experience of reviewing the literature, and most recently in relation to the Collective Consciousness of IT Research [Christine Bruce, Binh Pham, Ian Stoodley]. The collective consciousness project has investigated the different ways in which researchers, research students and industry partners are aware of the territory of IT research. Several publications have been produced from the project.
- Information literacy in the higher education environment. Christine has a number of higher degree students researching aspects of information literacy in the higher education environment. Recent and current areas of investigation include: learning to search the internet, the relationship between information literacy and learning, international students use of online information.
- Information literacy in the community. Christine has higher degree students researching aspects of information literacy in the higher education environment. Recent and current areas of investigation include the psychological aspects of the digital divide, and virtual communities for the disabled.
- Information technology use, IT concepts and the profession. Christine has higher degree students researching aspects of IT use, learning about IT concepts and the IT profession. Current projects include, how students learn critical concepts in networking; ethical decision making amongst IT professionals; the relationship between organisational culture and Enterprise Systems Success.
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Professional Milestones
Christine's higher education research has won three international awards:
- American Library Association ( ALA ), College and Research Libraries Instruction Section Publication of the Year 2001, for Seven Faces of Information Literacy (1997), Auslib Press.
- ALA, Library Instruction Round Table Listing in Top 20 Journal Articles for 1999, for Workplace Experiences of Information Literacy (1999) International Journal of Information Management.
- Communication of Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association Annual Award for the Best Education Research Article in an Open Access Journal, 2004, for Ways of experiencing the act of learning to program: a phenomenographic study of introductory programming students at university, Journal of IT Education 3 (2004).
She has also received a nomination (October 2000) for the ALA College and Research Libraries Instruction Section Publication of the Year 2001. For Information Literacy Around the World: Advances in Programs and Research. Charles Sturt University Press.
Christine has wide experience with the use of phenomenography and other qualitative techniques in research, research supervision and examination, and in 2004 won the QUT Distinguished Supervision Award, for excellence in research supervision. She has been Doctoral Consortium Organiser for PACIS '97 (Pacific Asia Conference for Information Systems), and Chair of the Doctoral Students Program for the EARLI (European Association for Research into Learning and Instruction) SIG 10 Conference, Canberra 2003. Christine is regularly invited to consult to higher education institutions. She has conducted seminars and workshops at Australian Catholic University , University of Wollongong , University of Newcastle , University of Melbourne , Central Queensland University , Griffith University and QUT. Since 1998, she has been invited to deliver keynote and plenary addresses in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Sweden, and the United States.
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Publications
Many of Christine's publications are available from the QUT ePrints database.
Professional Portfolio
You can find more information about Christine on her website (www.perceptualworlds.fit.qut.edu.au).
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