Asian Australian belonging in Australian Education

Talks on Tuesdays: Real lectures in your favourite venues. 45-min + Q&A with Aaron Teo Talks on Tuesdays is a live event series bringing big ideas, real experts, and curious minds together - at your favourite local venues. Think thought-provoking lectures, audience questions, and post-talk mingling over drinks and dinner. This isn’t a uni lecture. It’s a social, intelligent night out.Come alone or with friends, leave with something to talk about. Event Schedule: 6.30pm Arrival & Doors Open 7pm Lecture Starts 7.45pm Q&A 8pm Talk Concludes 8.30pm Event Closes. *Please arrive close to 6.30pm A La Carte menu and full bar available throughout the night - pay as you go. Your Topic: What does it mean to belong in the Australian classroom? Schools and universities are often imagined as inclusive spaces, but they are also microcosms of society where broader social attitudes about race continue to influence educational environments and experiences. Building on talk 1, Aaron will explore how Asian racialisation impacts students, educators, and communities across different Education sectors. He examines the racialisation of Asian Australians within Australian education through assumptions about academic achievement, language, culture, and identity and the ways that anti-Asian racism can operate through curriculum, policy, institutional practices, and everyday interactions. This session will unpack common myths such as the "model minority"; and & "tiger parent" stereotype and consider how education can both reproduce and challenge racial inequities. Your Speaker: Dr Aaron Teo is a Singaporean Chinese first generation migrant settler living on unceded Jagera and Turrbal lands. He is a Critical Sociologist of Education working at the University of Southern Queensland's School of Education. Aaron was part of the Australian Human Rights Commission's (AHRC) Racism@Uni study Advisory Committee, and is currently on the AHRC Anti-Racism Education Reference Group and the Australian Association for Research in Education's (AARE) Research Development Advisory Committee. He is Editor for the journal, Critical Studies in Education, Convenor for the AARE Social Justice Special Interest Group, and Queensland Convenor for the Asian Australian Alliance. Aaron has won multiple national awards for education research, and is the 2026 Bonn International Fellow, and State Library of Queensland's 2024 John Oxley Honorary Fellow.