BMus Otago University, MTeach Victoria University, PhD Deakin University Ashleigh Southam is a Lecturer in Creative Arts and Teacher Education at Charles Sturt University. He has worked across primary, secondary, and tertiary education, teaching instrumental music, arts education, and early childhood education in both school and university contexts. His professional background includes curriculum design, online and blended delivery, and teacher education. His research centres on collaborative creativity, peer feedback, and the role of meaning in learning. He investigates how creative processes function as pedagogical tools to support knowledge development, particularly in music and arts education. His work has been published in leading international journals and contributes to contemporary debates on creativity, instruction, and learning. At CSU, Ashleigh contributes to subject design, online tutorial development, and research-informed teaching practice within teacher education programs. Ashleigh teaches across creative arts and teacher education programs, with experience in music education, arts integration, inclusive education, language and literacy, STEM in early childhood, and assessment. He has designed and delivered subjects in both face-to-face and fully online formats, with a strong focus on structured, research-informed pedagogy. His teaching emphasises the integration of creative practice with explicit knowledge development. He is particularly interested in how task design, modelling, and feedback can support both creative engagement and measurable learning outcomes. Ashleigh values clear instructional sequencing, authentic assessment, and collaborative learning environments. Ashleigh’s research examines collaborative creativity, aesthetic judgement, and knowledge organisation in educational settings. His work draws on sociocultural theory and contemporary models of creativity to explore how students generate, negotiate, and refine ideas in group contexts. Current projects include large-scale experimental studies comparing creative and replicative learning tasks, investigations into mind maps as representations of knowledge structure, and research on how peer feedback influences creative development. He is also developing frameworks that position creativity not as a product to be assessed, but as a pedagogical tool that supports domain-specific learning.
Teaching and Research Staff4546443
Ashleigh Southam
Lecturer and Researcher Creative Arts Education
Wagga Wagga
Building 27, room 219