Blake Cutler is a Researcher and PhD Candidate in the School of Education, Culture and Society within the Faculty of Education at Monash University. They are committed to making schools more just and engaging places, with an interest in the complex role of research use in these efforts.
Too often, research use in education is oversimplified, obscuring its nature as a sophisticated professional practice sustained by many and varied evidence bases. Blake’s work challenges simplistic binaries about research-informed practice and confronts its politicisation, empowering teachers to draw on research in critical, creative, and context-sensitive ways.
Central to Blake’s agenda is the development of research use literacy, supporting teachers to discern appropriate research, articulate research-informed decisions with professional clarity, and make judgements about when, why, and how research is used. Blake’s work draws on a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods from autoethnography to structural equation modelling to advance this work.
Blake currently works with the Monash Q Lab, partnering closely with schools and schools systems to drive improved educational outcomes through the quality use of research. Most notably, Blake is co-leading a funded partnership with Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) to co-design and build capacity for a BCE-specific process for research-informed improvement efforts. The Q Lab builds on the work of the Monash Q Project, a five-year partnership (2019-2023) with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.
Previously, Blake was an inaugural member of the Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice (CYPEP), where they explored sociocultural and pedagogical challenges, particularly those faced by young people of diverse genders, sexes, and sexualities. At CYPEP, Blake worked closely with government, industry, academia, and youth service organsations, including The Y, to generate evidence-informed policy guidance and shape public debate. Blake also founded the CYPEP Youth Reference Group, embedding youth voice in CYPEP’s governance and suporting youth-led participatory action research and advocacy.
Before joining Monash, Blake was an experienced music teacher across primary, secondary, and instrumental settings.
Blake works and lives on unceded Wurundjeri land.
Blake Cutler 