Principles
The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)’s approach to engagement and partnerships is guided by best practice across the Australian Public Service and leading research engagement strategies. These principles also reflect AERO’s unique context as a publicly funded national body, governed by an independent board and jointly owned by all nine education ministers across the Commonwealth, states and territories.
When undertaking our work through engagement and partnerships, we strive to be:
- Transparent – Engagement is open, clear and accessible.
- Open – Engagement reflects diverse voices, including First Nations peoples, educators, students and families.
- Respectful – Engagement builds relationships through responsiveness, reliability and trust.
- Impact-driven – Engagement leads to tangible improvements in education outcomes.
- Proportionate – Engagement matches the scale, risk and impact of the work.
- Independent – Engagement draws on expert voices to strengthen credibility.
It is through these principles that AERO builds the credibility and trust required to deliver evidence that matters to educators, systems and communities.
Framework for engagement and partnership
AERO uses a framework to guide how and why we engage with stakeholders. It helps ensure activities are consistent, proportionate and aligned to purpose. The terms engagement and partnership are often used interchangeably, but here they are distinguished: engagement refers to time-bound activities where AERO seeks input or shares information, while partnerships are more formal, enduring arrangements with shared responsibility and accountability. This distinction provides clarity on the different ways AERO works with stakeholders and the level of impact expected.
The framework (Figure 1) sets out six approaches, ranging from Inform through to Empower, to show the different ways AERO engages and partners with stakeholders.
The framework illustrates a sliding scale of engagement and partnership. It begins with activities designed to share information and build trust and extends to arrangements where external groups have a direct role in steering AERO’s work. The scale helps clarify the purpose of each approach, the level of influence afforded to stakeholders and the type of accountability AERO carries in return. By distinguishing between engagement and partnership, AERO can match its approach to the scale, risk and impact of the work, while ensuring transparency about how decisions are made.
Figure 1: Framework for engagement and partnership
| Engagement | Partnerships | ||||
| Inform | Consult | Collaborate | Partner | Expert Assurance | Empower |
| Purpose | |||||
| Maintain transparency, trust and build awareness | Improve the quality and relevance of AERO's work through structured feedback | Provide timely support and complementary expertise to generate stronger outcomes | Deliver sustainable impact through shared responsibility and accountability | Strengthen credibility and quality by drawing on independent expertise | Ensure work reflects community priorities by enabling external groups to guide direction |
| Definition | |||||
| Provide clear, timely information and updates | Seek structured feedback to improve AERO's work | Work jointly to co-design or refine solutions | Formal, enduring relationships with shared accountability | Independent, specialist input to strengthen quality and credibility | External groups decide on their priorities and steer AERO work |
| Core activities | |||||
| Media, newsletters, speeches, social media | Advisory groups, surveys, feedback, loops, bilateral | Co-design, workshops, joint projects | Research partners, memorandums of understanding and standing partnerships with members | Draw on expert reference groups (ERGs) and individual experts | First Nations-led steering committees for First Nations work |
| Examples at AERO | |||||
| Social media posts, all conference speeches and running the booths, AERO Annual Report | Project advisory groups (PAGs)/advisory groups, Panel of Educators, Teachers and Leaders, stakeholder draft document reviews | Trusted advisor, coauthored resources, system workshops and consultation advice, critical friend roles, structured outreach activities | Ministers/Board, jurisdictional partnerships, Learning Partner ECEC services and schools research partnerships for randomised controlled trials, First Nations and Commonwealth partnership | First Nations ERG, academic experts (e.g., early childhood, initial teacher education or disability) | Using the peak ERG members to form a steering committee to make decisions on First Nations AERO work and projects |
Engagement and partnerships in practice
AERO applies its principles and framework consistently across all engagement and partnership activities. We use structured processes to ensure engagement is transparent, proportionate and aligned to purpose, and we adopt tailored approaches that reflect the scale, risk and impact of each piece of work.
Our engagement and partnership activities are designed to deliver credible evidence, build trust with stakeholders, and ensure evidence is usable in real-world contexts. These activities include setting research priorities, consulting on projects, working with and through our Board, embedding First Nations perspectives and establishing partnerships at system, sector and service levels.
Our research priorities
As a ministerially owned, publicly funded national organisation governed by an independent board, AERO’s research priorities must achieve two goals:
- Respond to current and emerging priorities in the national education landscape, so our work is calibrated to support systems, educators and early childhood services
- Address well-recognised gaps in the evidence base, answering pressing questions in an Australian context.
To set these priorities, AERO undertakes a robust process that includes:
- one-to-one engagement with our Executive, the Education Ministers’ Meeting (EMM) and the Australian Education Senior Officials Committee (AESOC)
- review of research and policy landscapes to identify gaps
- testing of overlap between member priorities and identified gaps
- validation through formal governance structures, including the Early Childhood Policy Group (ECPG), Schools Policy Group (SPG), AESOC and EMM.
Once priorities are approved, individual projects move into structured consultation to ensure iterative input from members and stakeholders. All projects are also subject to expert review and quality assurance processes to maintain rigour and credibility.
Project consultation
AERO’s projects use consultation to ensure the expertise and perspectives of a wide range of groups inform our work. Processes are transparent, time-bound and tailored to the needs of each project. Activities may include reviewing drafts, defining scope, providing jurisdictional context or contributing specialist knowledge.
Consultation ensures AERO’s projects are both credible and relevant. It serves two purposes:
- It calibrates projects to the diverse contexts of Australian education.
- It incorporates perspectives beyond government, including practitioners and the broader community.
To achieve this, AERO uses processes such as:
- advisory groups, including system and sector representatives, and broader stakeholder groups (peaks, unions, practitioners and others)
- bilateral meetings, surveys and targeted user testing of practitioner resources.
All consultation is guided by AERO’s engagement principles. Stakeholders receive clear communication about process and timelines, AERO takes responsibility for commitments made and feedback is consistently reported back so participants understand how their input has shaped the outcome.
Our partnerships
AERO builds partnerships to generate evidence, support adoption and strengthen alignment across the education system. These partnerships vary in form and duration but share a focus on improving education outcomes and ensuring evidence is practical and relevant. Our partnerships include:
- research partnerships – formal, project-based arrangements to generate high-quality evidence. These may involve research institutes and providers, education departments or early childhood education and care (ECEC) services and schools serving as research sites.
- system and sector partnerships – ongoing, non-time-bound relationships with education systems and sectors. These partnerships are responsive to emerging needs, service-oriented in providing ‘just-in-time’ advice, and focused on translating research findings into policy, programs and practice that work in context.
- intergovernmental partnerships – partnerships with AERO’s members: the eight states and territories and the Commonwealth Department of Education. These operate bilaterally through direct jurisdictional engagement and collectively through structures such as the ECPG, SPG, AESOC and the EMM.
- service and school partnerships – engagements with ECEC services and schools outside of research trials. These include Learning Partner schools and services (long-term sites to observe evidence use and implementation in practice), case study sites (to illustrate examples of practice), and filming/resource sites (where AERO captures media to support resource development).
First Nations
AERO is resolute in its commitment to the representation and inclusion of First Nations Peoples, communities and organisations through the work it performs and the operations enabling that work, as is outlined in the AERO First Nations Charter.
The AERO First Nations team is headed by the Principal Advisor, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy and Engagement. This role oversees the First Nations team, provides high-level strategic advice to the AERO Executive and coordinates strategic engagement with First Nations educators, organisations and communities. This includes the running of AERO’s First Nations Expert Reference Group (ERG).
Established in 2024, the ERG reflects AERO’s commitment to embedding First Nations perspectives in education research and initiatives. With over 240 members across 12 key specialty areas – including First Nations education research, teaching, early childhood, curriculum development and the not-for-profit sector – the ERG ensures representation of voices from remote, regional and urban communities. All projects and key activities at AERO draw on the ERG to provide expert advice and guidance.
Further, the Deputy Chair of AERO’s Board, Emeritus Professor Colleen Hayward AM, a senior Noongar woman, provides significant input into AERO’s strategic direction and engagement in the First Nations space. AERO also works with Commonwealth agencies and national First Nations organisations to ensure its approach is consistent, respectful and aligned with national priorities.
AERO maintains structured, enduring relationships with key national First Nations bodies and research institutions to ensure its work is respectful, rigorous and culturally grounded. This includes a standing relationship with the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation (NATSIEC) to align with national First Nations education priorities, and collaboration with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) to uphold ethical research and knowledge-sharing protocols. AERO also engages regularly with Indigenous Education Consultative Members (IECM) and First Nations teams within national agencies, including the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and others, to ensure alignment, avoid duplication and embed First Nations perspectives throughout the national education architecture.
Our Board’s engagement
AERO’s independent Board plays a central role in guiding the organisation’s strategic direction and amplifying its work. Board members contribute as ambassadors, connectors and trusted voices in the education sector, while maintaining clarity when they are speaking on behalf of AERO.
Board members support AERO’s work by:
- Amplification – promoting the importance of evidence-informed practice, system collaboration and AERO’s research findings
- Networking – introducing AERO to their professional and sectoral networks to strengthen awareness and relationships
- Credibility – lending their expertise and reputation to enhance confidence in AERO’s work.
The Chair of the Board is the designated spokesperson authorised to speak publicly on behalf of AERO. Other Directors may represent the organisation at conferences, in media or on panels where the Board agrees there is strategic value. When speaking in another professional capacity, Directors are clear about their role by using language such as ‘in my capacity as a Board member of AERO’.
Our commitment
AERO’s partnership and engagement strategy is not static. As national priorities evolve and education challenges shift, so too will our approach. We will continue to learn from feedback, reflect on our effectiveness and refine how we work with others to ensure our evidence is trusted, timely and impactful.